Building on two articles by Holden Karnoffsky, I argue that utopian fiction fails because it's trying to depict something impossible. Read more (5 min, 1700 words).
Why Utopia Fails
Tag: politics
The Self Compass
Four classes of forces shape our selves, which do we think of as the most important? It varies, and if we miss this we have a hard time properly understanding what others are saying. Read more (11 min, 2800 words).
The Political Is Personal
People experience the nature of their wants, needs and desires very differently, and when they generalize the specifics of their own psychology onto everyone else it has a profound effect on their political beliefs. Read more (13 min, 3200 words).
Toxic Emissions
We often say things we don't really mean, which is fine as long as what we say doesn't make its way to where it looks like we do mean it. Avoiding that is getting more and more difficult and the consequences are quite serious. Read more (8 min, 2000 words).
The Woke-up Call: A Review of Cynical Theories
A long review, with further musings, of "Cynical Theories". Read more (30 min, 7600 words).
Political Capital Flow Management and the Importance of Yutting
I discuss how you can dismiss, acknowledge, or generalize from the particular to the general, and how this matters for the way political capital is created and accumulated. Read more (11 min, 2800 words).
Cat Couplings Revisited
I folliow up on "Cat Couplings" from 2019 with a bunch of new examples and further thinking on how and why cat couplings work. Read more (13 min, 3300 words).
Rereading Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate
I reread a book that influenced me a lot when I was younger and review it. Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate by Ullica Segerstråle chronicles the intense discussion in the wake of E.O Wilson's book "Sociobiology" from 1975. Read more (20 min, 5100 words).
Further Comments on a Joke
I elaborate on and explain my satirical piece from the month before Read more (19 min, 4700 words).
Abolish Secret Ballots
An argument that secret ballots is an unacceptable exercise of power without accountability. Read more (6 min, 1400 words).
Everything Studies 