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).
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).
A long review, with further musings, of "Cynical Theories". Read more (30 min, 7600 words).
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).
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).
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).
I elaborate on and explain my satirical piece from the month before Read more (19 min, 4700 words).
An argument that secret ballots is an unacceptable exercise of power without accountability. Read more (6 min, 1400 words).
I muse on whether there is a link between being easily stressed by having to keep many things in mind and having a rights-based, individualist political intuition. Read more (12 min, 3100 words).
A quick, improvised post inspired by a question put to me on Twitter. Read more (4 min, 1000 words).
Everything Studies 