- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Tanner Greer
- Economist Tyler Cowen
- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
- Moira Greyland
- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Academia
The Disinterested Expert Who Says, ‘I Hope’
I often read or listen to what poses as expert objective analysis, and then the professor says, “I hope…” That construction bothers me. It’s hard enough to explain reality, and now you want to go normative on me? I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Academia
Comments Off on The Disinterested Expert Who Says, ‘I Hope’
Decoding Peace Studies
David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory holds that complex moral systems exist primarily to disguise the self-interest of a coalition by presenting its goals as universal truths. Peace Studies fits this logic well. It gives a specialized vocabulary to the diplomacy-restraint coalition, … Continue reading
Posted in Academia
Comments Off on Decoding Peace Studies
Decoding The Iran War (3-8-26)
01:00 Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History (2025), https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=17456111:20 Vali Nasr Exclusive: ‘War is being waged ‘: Vali Nasr on Israel-US campaign against Iran25:00 The First Gulf War, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=17460528:00 Understanding The Elite Frame On The Iran War, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=17462535:00 Mark Halperin: … Continue reading
Academics on the Iran War: ‘I Would Like To Think That Trump Did X, Y, Z’
When academics say something like “I would like to think that Trump did X, Y, Z…” in discussions of the Iran war, they are using a very specific rhetorical move. Through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, that phrase is a prestige-protecting … Continue reading
Decoding Security Scholar Robert A. Pape
Robert A. Pape sits at the intersection of academic credibility and policy relevance. Through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, his behavior makes sense once you identify his prestige market. Professor Pape is a high-status empirical priest for the sovereign. While Walter … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Alliance Theory
Comments Off on Decoding Security Scholar Robert A. Pape
Decoding The Middle East Studies Network
To decode the academic Middle East studies network through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, it helps to see universities as a separate prestige market from the Washington think-tank world. They interact constantly, but the incentives are different. First is the coalition … Continue reading
Decoding Iran Studies
In the last 24 hours, the “state of exception” has matured. The initial shock of Operation Epic Fury has given way to a structured competition between three primary coalitional frames: The Sovereignist/Nationalist Alliance (Trump, Fox News, FDD): This group signals … Continue reading
Decoding Jewish New Testament Scholar Amy Jill-Levine
Per Alliance Theory: Amy-Jill Levine functions as a high-status neutral arbiter who manages the inflation of moral threats between competing religious coalitions. According to the framework of David Pinsof, humans use moral language and scholarship to coordinate alliances and attack … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Amy Jill-Levine, Anti-Semitism, Bible, Christianity, Judaism
Comments Off on Decoding Jewish New Testament Scholar Amy Jill-Levine
The Inner Lives Of American Intellectuals
Here are the strongest books on the antinomic, institution-dependent, self-negating character of the modern secular American intellectual. Non-fiction The Intellectuals and the Powers – Edward Shils This is the core text on the antinomic posture. Shils argues that intellectuals are … Continue reading
Posted in Academia
Comments Off on The Inner Lives Of American Intellectuals
Decoding Reuven Kimelman
ChatGPT says: Reuven Kimelman is a high-status alliance stabilizer rather than a boundary-breaking intellectual or charismatic entrepreneur. His role is not to create a new coalition or rebel narrative. It is to legitimate and coordinate an existing elite alliance that … Continue reading
Posted in Academia
Comments Off on Decoding Reuven Kimelman