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"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:
- 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
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
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: Politics
Politics = ‘complicated alliances to compete for power, status, and resources’
David Pinsof writes: I studied Political Psychology in grad school, and my dissertation posed the question, “Why do we hold the political beliefs we do?” You might think the answer is, “Because they’re true.” But you would be mistaken. Our … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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What Are Ideologies All About?
David Pinsof writes: Here are nine confusing things that American conservatives have believed in the past decade: People should not be so easily offended (but Black Lives Matter is offensive). Nobody deserves a free handout from the government (except “small … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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‘Understanding right-wing populism—and its critics—through a novel theory in political psychology’
Philosopher Dan Williams writes: right-wing populist ideology functions to demonise its alliance’s chief rivals. First, it’s partly defined by its opposition to corrupt, failing, conspiring, and disgraceful “elites” and the “establishment”. However, these malevolent elites are not defined by their … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics
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Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences (2024)
I love this book. I also love the Alliance Theory of politics. ChatGPT mapped the differences: 1. Source of Political Beliefs Predisposed: Argues that political orientations are deeply rooted in psychological, physiological, and genetic predispositions. These shape how people perceive … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Social Identity Theory vs. Alliance Theory
I asked ChatGPT to develop on an idea in this paper on Alliance Theory: The Social Identity tradition has another flaw we seek to remedy: its lack of functional plausibility. Within this tradition, scholars have long argued that the ultimate … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Strange bedfellows: the Alliance Theory of political belief systems
By David Pinsof, David O. Sears, and Martie G. Haselton from the Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles: What explains the contents of political belief systems? A widespread view is that they derive from abstract values, like equality, … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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The Boss, The Secretary & Alliance Theory
The 22=year-old secretary at the real estate firm begins her Monday wearing her new outfit, hoping for her boss’s approval, which she has never received in her seven weeks at the firm. She gives him a big smile when he … Continue reading
Politics As Resource Distribution
There seems to be a strong belief among the elite, as exemplified by the 2004 book What’s The Matter With Kansas?, that politics should primarily be about resource distribution. I moved to America in 1977 when I was 11. By … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Politics, Populism, Stephen Turner
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The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking
From this 2025 book by smoking hot Cambridge University neuoroscience and politics professor Leor Zmigrod: I believe that we can judge an ideology based on what believing in it does to human bodies and brains; on whether being a passionate … Continue reading
Posted in Biology, Brain, Politics, Stephen Turner
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My Political Philosophy – Adaptive Regime Realism
Survival must be the number one priority for a people. After that, it should be group cohesion and esprit de corps (the “feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty shared by the members of a particular group”). Psychology, sociology, and … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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