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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: A Life 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: Alliance Theory
The Alliance Theory in the Academy
The reception of Alliance Theory followed the format built into the venue and then followed the theory’s own logic, which is the fun part. Psychological Inquiry runs target articles with peer commentaries and an author reply, and “Strange Bedfellows” appeared … Continue reading
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The Boundary at Sinai: Principle 8 as Coalition Technology
Principle eight is the live wire of Orthodox theology today, and Shapiro’s chapter on it is the most explosive in his 2011 book, The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised. The Principle holds three claims at once. The … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Bible, Marc B. Shapiro
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Reappraised: The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised (2011)
Marc Shapiro’s The Limits of Orthodox Theology is a book about a coalition document that does not know it is a coalition document. Shapiro’s argument runs at the level of doctrine and historical scholarship. The thirteen propositions Maimonides put forward … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Marc B. Shapiro
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The Coalition Engineers: William F. Buckley, James Burnham, and the Architecture of American Movement Conservatism
Following David Pinsof, David Sears, and Martie Haselton’s “Strange Bedfellows,” political belief tracks coalition membership more reliably than ideology. Men hold positions because positions bind them to allies they need. The content of a position carries less weight than the … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, James Burnham, William F. Buckley
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Dehumanization is not a Malfunction of our Politics
The more diverse America gets, the less we have in common with our fellow citizens, the less likely we are to see each other as human. Even the biggest brains have limited capacity for empathy. Evolution designed us to use … Continue reading
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Why Do People Call Various Beliefs ‘Cancer’?
Alliance Theory treats moral language as coalition technology. Words like “evil,” “racist,” “fascist,” and “cancer” do not primarily describe the world. They mark sides, recruit allies, and coordinate action against enemies. The vocabulary tracks who you stand with more than … Continue reading
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Platform, Pulpit, Archive: Three Models of MO Rabbinic Self-Presentation in Los Angeles
While surfing Rabbi Pini Dunner’s website, I learned: Mavericks, Mystics and False Messiahs NOW AVAILABLE! “A thoroughly engaging introduction to some of the most colorful episodes in Jewish history. A wonderfully enjoyable read.” – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks “Rabbi Pini … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Beth Jacob, Bnai David-Judea, Los Angeles, Modern Orthodox, R. Elazar Muskin, R. Jonathan Sacks, R. Kalman Topp, R. Meir Soloveichik, R. Pini Dunner, R. Yitzchak Etshalom, R. Yosef Kanefsky
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Chris Kavanagh: Ritual, Fusion, and the Anthropology of the Guru Age
Chris Kavanagh grows up in Northern Ireland. The “Norn Irish” tag he wears online is not affectation. Ulster teaches what ritual, flags, marches, and sectarian identity do to ordinary people. Men there learn by twelve what group boundaries feel like. … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Guru
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The Pope Versus the President: An Alliance Theory Reading of the Leo XIV–Trump Feud
The clash between Pope Leo XIV and Donald Trump looks, on the surface, like a moral disagreement about war. A pope condemns a threat to destroy Iranian civilization. A nationalist president defends it as necessary deterrence. Commentators slot the conflict … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Catholics, Pope
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The Traumatized Sovereign: Jeffrey Alexander, David Pinsof, and the Ritual Reception of Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt argued that the sovereign decision never disappears. It migrates. What he could not have anticipated is that one of its most revealing migrations would occur within the institutions devoted to his reception. The academic encounter with Schmitt is … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Carl Schmitt
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