Tag: Social Theory

On a ‘general theory’ of social behavior and government

A large portion of NRx writings, but also the rational-left and the rational-right, concerns social theory: How humans behave, what motivates their behavior and actions, the interaction between individuals and institutions, etc. By answering such questions, one can get a better understanding of human behavior, and hence build a better society upon such understanding (because… Continue reading On a ‘general theory’ of social behavior and government

Status, Universities, and the Elites

This article is going viral: The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans: Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours… Continue reading Status, Universities, and the Elites

The Culture War Is Inescapable

The high-IQ right and high-IQ left are locked in an epic ‘culture war’ waged on Pol, Instagram, The_Donald, Twitter, and Tumblr. The weapons are memes, screenshots, blockquotes, emoji, hashtags, signaling, and in certain cases, doxing. This ties in with the post-2013 rise of intellectualism culture and, related, shared narratives and rationalist discourse. High-IQ issues such… Continue reading The Culture War Is Inescapable

Classification of groups, and the meme propagation process

A ‘meme’ is conceived by the second group, which if successful is picked up by the third group, and is propagated to the first group. An example is the alt-right. The third group act as a liaison between fringe ideas and voters. First group: older and middle-aged people who on Facebook, and are very numerous… Continue reading Classification of groups, and the meme propagation process

Intellectualism culture and intersectionality

‘Intellectualism culture’ is social theory that describes the interactions of smart people between each other and society. One of its maxims is that correctness is more important than consensus. Then it dawned on me, if in-group posturing is endemic to intellectualism, how did Cultural Marxism, which involves professors (presumably high-IQ people), stay ideologically cohesive instead… Continue reading Intellectualism culture and intersectionality

Shared Experiences

From the study of ‘intellectualism culture’, which is a branch of ‘social theory’, arises the concept of ‘shared narratives’, discussed on this blog many times already. Shared narratives are beliefs, areas of inquiry, and values held by–and unique to–high-IQ people that bring such individuals together regardless of political or socioeconomic backgrounds. But then there are… Continue reading Shared Experiences

The Sweet, Boring Middle

Don’t read Marginal Revolution much anymore-find it kinda boring (too much economics minutiae and trivia)-but that reflects a deficiency of my own attention span and intelligence to appreciate it, not the inability of Tyler Cowen to be interesting. And evidently, his website is very interesting judging by the immense amount of traffic it gets, so… Continue reading The Sweet, Boring Middle

Identity, IQ, and Incoherence of the Alt-Right

‘Identity’, which not limited to just politics but also includes ‘BLM’ and the ‘big is beautiful’ movement, gives its members a stake in something, as being a part of a bigger ‘system’ or ‘process’, yet at the same time individualism and autonomy are retained. Identity is a way of signalling unity, with varying degrees obviousness.… Continue reading Identity, IQ, and Incoherence of the Alt-Right

Intellect: The Universal Solvent

In late December 2015, Scott Alexander’s How Bad Are Things article went massivly viral, with accolades from both right-wing and left-wing communities and forums, which got me (and others) thinking about how Scott is consistently able to transcend the left/right bulwark. Normally, people write articles for a specific audience or clique in mind, and spillovers… Continue reading Intellect: The Universal Solvent