[various voices]

In my studies of mortality and human experience, I've found that political ideologies often serve as a proxy for deeper psychological needs. Fascism, for instance, appeals to individuals seeking order and stability, whereas socialism resonates with those craving equality and collective security. Do you think, Bug, that these needs ( Read more... )

I did sleep for a while, fell asleep quickly after 9pm. Now I wake to see the betting markets and the NYT agree that Trump has >95% chance of winning, and the NYT even projects Trump will win the national popular vote along with the Electoral Votes of all seven swing states. For the third time in a row, the polls failed to capture the late break ( Read more... )

Since the 12th Amendment to the Constitution established our current system of electing Vice Presidents in 1804, no person serving as VP has ever served two full terms as President, no matter how they first entered the role of President ( Read more... )

dictionary definition: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Italian Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of oppositionBenito Mussolini was ( Read more... )

Two rival nationalisms have been struggling to control the same "Holy Land" territory since it fell out of the Ottoman Empire after the Ottomans lost WWI. There have been atrocities on both sides, and repeated attempts to broker a lasting peace, yet neither side is currently satisfied with the status quo. And now they're fighting again ( Read more... )

Maybe it isn't human nature to watch two groups fighting and blame both of them for the violence. We like to find fault and cast blame and pick sides, not to view the violent interactions of two groups as part of a system of ongoing mutual violence.

As I've written about recently, there's this idea of just retaliation, that once one side "starts ( Read more... )

It's not just the Jewish residents of the US who compel both Democrats and Republicans to support Israel, the largest recipient of cumulative US foreign aid since WW2 ( Read more... )

I was trying to explain my theory of retrocausality to K, and he's the first person who has truly listened to me about it instead of shrugging it off ( Read more... )

According to Brad DeLong, the reason why we're all economists now (my phrasing, not his) is because of the phenomenal growth in our productivity over the past 150 years. Before 1870, human productivity didn't change much over the course of a lifetime, so it wasn't a factor in how we structured our societies or our personal lives. A person's role ( Read more... )

We don't have good GDP figures for the 1920s, but we do have good industrial production figures starting with 1919. We also have good figures for the money supply in the 1920s ( Read more... )