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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:
- Tanner Greer
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- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
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- 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: Philosophy
The Examined Soul: Christian Philosophical Custodianship and Its Aftermath in American Universities
We need a book documenting America’s gains and losses when Christians surrendered custodianship of Philosophy departments. Chapter One: Christian Philosophy as a Custodial Formation. This chapter establishes the book’s central analytical framework by specifying what distinguished Christian philosophical custodianship from … Continue reading
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Philosophical Authority
Philosophers in the academy do not compete for authority by saying they want power. They compete by invoking moral and intellectual languages that frame their claims as fidelity to rigorous inquiry, loyalty to truth-seeking, or responsibility for sustaining philosophical seriousness … Continue reading
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‘Academic Ethics In A Preposterous Environment’
The late philosopher Susan Haack often discussed the cliquishness of the philosophy profession, particularly regarding her time at Oxford. Her essay “Out of Step: Academic Ethics in a Preposterous Environment” was later included in her book Putting Philosophy to Work: … Continue reading
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Philosopher Of Virtue Mark Alfano Posts To Nathan Cofnas: ‘You’re about to learn why people generally avoid fucking with me.’
Mark Alfano’s tweet to Nathan Cofnas on January 20, 2020 reads, at first glance, like raw aggression. “You’re about to learn why people generally avoid fucking with me.” Most people encountering that line assume it reflects personal animosity or academic … Continue reading
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Decoding Philosopher Charles Taylor
ChatGPT says: Charles Taylor is best decoded, through Alliance Theory, as a coalition repair theorist whose central project is to make modern moral order livable for people who still need thick belonging. Start with Pinsof’s premise. Moral frameworks exist to … Continue reading
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Decoding Martin Heidegger
ChatGPT says: Martin Heidegger can be decoded, through Alliance Theory, as the philosopher who tried to rescue pre moral belonging from a world increasingly organized around abstract, universalist alliance rules. Start with Pinsof’s premise. Moral language coordinates alliances. It tells … Continue reading
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Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism by Aaron W. Hughes (2014)
Aaron W. Hughes’s book, Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism, presents a critique of Jewish philosophy that aligns closely with David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory. Hughes argues that “Jewish philosophy” is not a neutral quest for truth but a form … Continue reading
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Decoding Existentialism
ChatGPT says: Existentialism flourished when elites needed moral seriousness without authority, and faded once that function was no longer scarce. Here’s the decoding. First. Existentialism solved a post-authority crisis Mid-20th century Europe had experienced: collapsed states discredited churches failed ideologies … Continue reading
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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
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I Don’t Like Contempt Before Investigation
I’m not immune from this tendency. ChatGPT says: Here are common examples of contempt before investigation: AI is just hype – Dismissing AI as a passing fad or gimmick without learning how it’s already reshaping industries, relationships, and cognition itself. … Continue reading
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