Category Archives: Social Progress

End of Year Summaries

David Brooks’ favorite essays include one about how Trump’s people have no clue about how to fix complex problems, and one about why people believe *true* things; Two pieces from The Atlantic about 77 facts from 2024, and important breakthroughs … Continue reading

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Muddling Through Somehow

Since today is Christmas Eve, yesterday must have been Christmas Adam, right? (First I’ve heard about this.) NY Times, 22 Dec 2024: Behold! ‘Christmas Adam’ Is Born., subtitled “First there was Christmas Eve … and then a new celebration was … Continue reading

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Tim Urban, Out of Left Field

About a writer I’d never heard of, Tim Urban, and his book, and their connection to Luigi Mangione; The psychological motivations of the drone alarmists. – – – NY Times, David Wallace-Wells, 18 Dec 2024: Can Anyone Make Sense of … Continue reading

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What If We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know?

Plato’s cave and what we don’t know, or don’t know that we don’t know; David Gerrold on “woke” and why I think citing “woke” (or religion) dismisses one from any serious conversation; Short items about how a third of the … Continue reading

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Institutions, Tribes, and Faith

Paul Krugman’s last NYT column, in part about what has changed in the past 25 years, including the collapse of trust in the elites; Helen Lewis echoes Fareed Zakaria yesterday: the mainstream media is part of the “elite” system that … Continue reading

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Violence as a Public Health Issue, and Media Bias

Two New Yorker pieces today. I mentioned an article a couple weeks ago about whether violence is a disease (or actually, whether MAGA is a disease like violence is taken to be). Here’s another perspective. The New Yorker, Michael Luo, … Continue reading

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Further Notes from Our Report on the Third Planet

What would alien spectators taking notes on modern American society observe? Society is unsettled, and political compromises are fragile; yet those advocating actual violence are a minority (Adam Lee) Society has developed high principles to overcome tribal conflicts, but while … Continue reading

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Today’s New Insight

What ‘woke’ means, to different people; How the ancients overcame biases in understanding the world, in order to discover and navigate the world; How moderns have tried to overcome cognitive biases through constitutions and “political correctness” and being “woke,” and … Continue reading

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Seculars, Human Nature, Abstraction

Some more abstract, intellectual topics for today. As the rise of ‘nones’ increases, what will society look like in a hundred years? How people are instinctively nice, more often than religions give them credit; An idea from S.I. Hayakawa about … Continue reading

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Stories, and Change

Miscellaneous items today, including a few from a couple weeks ago. Oklahoma, insisting the Bible be taught as an historical document, seems intent on mis-educating its children and ill-preparing them for life in the 21st century; How conservative attacks against … Continue reading

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