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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: Elites
The Plumber Standard: Stephen Turner, Habermas, and the Limits of Expert Authority
Stephen Turner’s critique of Jürgen Habermas cuts to the heart of how we understand knowledge, expertise, and democratic life. Habermas argues that expert cultures make genuine democratic discussion impossible. He sees experts as hidden policymakers who operate behind a wall … Continue reading
Posted in Elites, Expertise, Stephen Turner
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Gurri’s Avalanche Has No Blueprint
Martin Gurri’s column arrives like the Category 5 hurricane he invokes. The post-Cold War rules-based order was never rules or order, he argues. It was a polite fiction masking American decline and elite self-preservation. Trump has torn the fiction away. … Continue reading
Posted in America, Elites, Expertise, Iran, Martin Gurri, Stephen Turner
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Unconscious Fight for Status Among American Elites in 2026
No one says they want status because it gives them power. They say they defend truth, protect the vulnerable, serve the public, or translate complexity for those who cannot navigate it alone. This is the central insight of David Pinsof’s … Continue reading
The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Fight for Power Among American Legal Elites During the Iran War
No one says they want to control the meaning of legality because it gives them power. They say they defend the Constitution, uphold the rule of law, protect national security, or interpret complexity for those who cannot navigate war powers … Continue reading
The Power Wars
82nd Airborne Division Aborigine Yirrkala Tribe Academia Careers Bias Academic Podcasts ADL AI Aish HaTorah Alexander Technique More Amazon America More American Bar Association American Education Outcomes Authority American Fiction American Medical Association American Legal Elites Fight For Status During … Continue reading
Posted in Elites, Epistemics, Expertise, Journalism, Status
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Elite Attention in the Iran War
The Iran war is not just a military conflict. It is a competition for attention among high-status actors. Journalists, think tanks, politicians, academics, and influencers are not merely analyzing events. They are competing to define what the war means, and … Continue reading
Posted in Elites, Epistemics, Expertise, Iran
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for America’s Master Institutions
America’s high-status actors do not compete for power by admitting they want it. They compete by deploying moral languages that frame their authority as necessary, virtuous, or inevitable. This is the central insight of David Pinsof‘s Alliance Theory: moral vocabularies … Continue reading
Posted in America, Elites, Epistemics
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Why do elites love the words “security” and “stability”?
The language of security and stability usually reflects the interests of people who already sit inside the existing order. Elites benefit from the current institutional arrangement. They have status, income, influence, and reputational capital tied to it. When they talk … Continue reading
Posted in Elites
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Why do elites love the word “unpack”?
The word “unpack” spread through elite discourse because it signals a kind of intellectual seriousness without requiring any. It tells the audience: this topic has hidden layers, and I am the person equipped to reveal them. The word does real … Continue reading
Posted in Elites
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Trump Says America Might Hit Kharg Island Against ‘Just For Fun’
When elites react with alarm to a statement like “we might hit Kharg Island again just for fun,” they are responding to incentives tied to their coalition roles. Alliance Theory helps clarify why the same sentence lands so differently depending … Continue reading