Astral Codex Ten

Music

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Music

Bands, songs, albums, and musical projects referenced in the archive.

Reference Index

Use the title to open the reference entry. Use the caret to expand a compact inline dossier with source context, issue trail, related pages, and outbound links.

Mozart2 mentions across 2 issues

Mozart is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 23, 2021 and May 15, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "certain pieces of high status music (cf. Mozart vs. Philip Glass)"; "Mozart to Morrissey". It most often appears alongside @the_megabase, A Pan-Species Welfare State, ACX Grantees.

Article page
Mozart
Mention count
2
Issue count
2
First seen
September 23, 2021
Last seen
May 15, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Whither Tartaria?
September 23, 2021 · Original source
Older art tends to have bright colors, ornate details, realistic representations, technical skill, and be instantly visually appealing to the average person. Newer art tends to be more abstract, require less obvious skill, and have less direct appeal. Although it doesn't fit in meme format, I would carry the analogy to poetry (cf. The Fairie Queene vs. William Carlos Williams) and certain pieces of high status music (cf. Mozart vs. Philip Glass). Obviously these are broad generalizations vulnerable to cherry-picking; I'm mostly relying on your common sense here.
Profile: The Far Out Initiative
May 15, 2024 · Original source
Recalibrating our hedonic set-point doesn't - or at least needn't - undermine critical discernment. All that's needed for the abolitionist project and its hedonistic extensions to succeed is that our ethic isn't committed to perpetuating the biology of involuntary suffering. Likewise, only a watered-down version of psychological hedonism is needed to lend the scenario sociological credibility. We can retain as much - or as little - of our existing preference architecture as we please. You can continue to prefer Shakespeare to Mills-and-Boon, Mozart to Morrissey, Picasso to Jackson Pollock while living perpetually in Seventh Heaven or beyond.
Pussy Riot2 mentions across 2 issues

Pussy Riot is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between August 03, 2023 and August 11, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "a deliberately provocative punk band called Pussy Riot invaded a cathedral and sung a song". It most often appears alongside Chechnya, Chuck Schumer, CIA.

Article page
Pussy Riot
Mention count
2
Issue count
2
First seen
August 03, 2023
Last seen
August 11, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Dictator Book Club: Putin
August 03, 2023 · Original source
Seen on satirical conservative website Babylon Bee. This was exactly what happened with the Volgodonsk apartment bombing. The standard position in the West is now that Putin orchestrated the apartment bombings himself - killing 300 Russians - as a justification for escalating the war on Chechnya and to make himself look good after he framed some perpetrators. The plan worked. Putin won re-election handily. By the time people started questioning the official story, his power was already secure. The questioners faced harassment - typical “warning shots” would be burglaries of their houses with all the valuables left intact, or getting beaten up by random thugs while they were out walking, or being accused of a series of crimes - tax evasion, but if they proved themselves innocent of that, then it was taking bribes, and if they proved themselves innocent of that too, then it was failing to register their businesses correctly. Soon media oligarchs faced the same treatment, and either fled the country or handed their newspapers and TV channels over to the state. Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch who had originally helped put Putin in power, kept his own TV station until 2003, when the Russian submarine Kursk sank and Putin faced criticism for bungling the rescue. Putin summoned Berezovsky, the former kingmaker and the man still in charge of Channel One, and demanded that the oligarch hand over his shares in the television company. “I said no, in the presence of [chief of stff] Voloshin,” Berezovsky told me. “So Putin changed his tone of voice then and said, ‘See you later, then, Boris Abramovich.' and got up to leave. And I said, “Volodya [nickname for Vladimir], this is goodbye.’ We ended on this note, full of pathos […] Within days, [Berezovsky] had left for France, then moved on to Great Britain, joining his former [business] rival Gusinsky in political exile. Soon enough, there was a awarrant out for his arrest in Russia and he had surrendered his shares of Channel One. Over the next few years, Putin centralized authority further. He got Parliament to agree to constitutional changes where governors served at his whim, and members of Parliament were elected by governors. “The only official in the Russian Federation directly elected by the people was the President.” Then he made it clear that governors who kept his favor would keep their jobs, and vice versa. He developed an entire colorful vocabulary for threatening people, moving beyond traditional standbys like “Nice house you’ve got there, shame if something were to happen to it” into new realms of intimidation. A Prime Minister who quit after Putin arrested one too many media tycoon was given the parting words “If you ever have a problem with the tax police, you may ask for help, but please come to me personally.” An urban legend says that leading dissident Marina Salye received a New Year’s postcard from Putin: “I wish you a Happy New Year and the health to enjoy it.” By the time the next election came around in 2004, the vote counts were clearly fake. Gessen doubts Putin even had to give a direct order to falsify them; everyone was so desperate for his goodwill that they did so all on their own. The problem was less that honest officials refused to stuff the ballot box, and more that some bureaucrats were so desperate to make sure Putin knew they were complying with his (implied) desires that they faked the vote in extremely obvious ways, without even a nod to keeping it plausible. The Organization for Security and Cooperation In Europe reported “The elections . . . failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments, calling into question Russia’s willingness to move towards European standards for democratic elections.” The New York Times reported something entirely different, publishing a condescending but approving editorial titled Russians Inch Toward Democracy. Putin had sunk far enough to earn the same dubious honor as Stalin: praise from the New York Times. IV. The Very-Briefly-Reluctant Culture Warrior One thing missing from this book: anything about religion, nationalism, gays, or the culture wars. This isn’t because Masha Gessen doesn’t care about these things: when the book was written, they self-described as “the only publicly out gay person in [Russia]”; since then (like everyone else) they have declared themselves nonbinary with they/them pronouns. In an afterword, Gessen remedies this omission. For his first decade, Putin wasn’t too interested in culture war topics; his ideology began and ended with “Russia strong”. But Gessen says that after another rigged election in 2012, people grew tired and started protesting Putin. Putin’s propaganda department made various accusations against the rioters, and one of them - they’re gay - seemed to stick. Putin had stumbled by coincidence onto a narrative that resonated with the Russian people. A few months later, a deliberately provocative punk band called Pussy Riot invaded a cathedral and sung a song whose chorus was “the Lord is shit”. Putin announced he was against this sort of thing, again his popularity soared, and again he took notice. Since then, he’s leaned into various culture-warrior roles that other people have cast upon him - protector of traditional values, leader of the conservative world, something something Eurasianism - without giving many clues how much he believes them vs. considers them useful bulwarks for his own power. Is it true that Putin only leaned into traditional values after 2012? I only looked into this question briefly, and it seems like he was on good terms with the Orthodox Church well before then. But some of this could have just been his native authoritarianism; just as he wanted to consolidate all media and business under his control, he wanted to consolidate all religion, and the Orthodox Church was the natural vehicle for, and a cooperative partner in, doing this. Both shared suspicion of invasive Western religions and Islam; both liked the idea of Russia being united in a top-down structure. God doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with it. V. Could It Happen Here? …is the question we ask at the end of every Dictator Book Club. The Man Without A Face makes it sound like Putin was able to consolidate power and become a dictator because: He led the security services
Inline links: Babylon Bee, Russians Inch Toward Democracy, he was on good terms with
Highlights From The Comments On Putin
August 11, 2023 · Original source
> a deliberately provocative punk band called Pussy Riot invaded a cathedral and sung a song whose chorus was “the Lord is shit”
For the culture wars: I think Putin uses it as a tool. Majority of Russians hardly believe in God, but find some kind of church desecration (and what Pussy Riot did would qualify in people's mind) to be disgusting. Thus, Pussy Riot action put the anti-Putin coalition in a kind of trap: on the one hand, their persecution was absolutely lawless (the corresponding penal code article is extremely broad in formulation, but is normally used to persecute people who aggresively brandish their weapons but don't attack anyone), but on the other hand, the majority of Russian citizens were not happy with the Pussy Riot actions. This allowed Putin to rebrand himself as a savior of the "traditional values" (whatever they are) and claim that the anti-Putin coalition wants to destroy them, getting over the general weariness of Russians with the ruling party (which could be noted from the 2011 parliamentary election: many of the regions where United Russia had bad performance do not have big cities in them).
Rage Against The Machine2 mentions across 2 issues

Rage Against The Machine is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between July 22, 2022 and June 23, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "Debord just missed the heyday of Rage Against The Machine"; "Like that Rage Against the Machine video , he saw Bush and Gore as one and the same". It most often appears alongside Bush, 1965, 1968 Summer Olympics.

Mention count
2
Issue count
2
First seen
July 22, 2022
Last seen
June 23, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Society Of The Spectacle
July 22, 2022 · Original source
Who controls the past, controls the future. Debord just missed the heyday of Rage Against The Machine, but he would’ve been a fan.
Inline links: would’ve been a fan.
Your Book Review: Public Citizens
June 23, 2023 · Original source
So of course when the nineties came around Nader viewed the Clintons with equal disdain, oblivious to the fact that the anti-government liberalism he pioneered was part of what brought about “Third Way” Democrats like Clinton and Gore. Like that Rage Against the Machine video, he saw Bush and Gore as one and the same—“tweedledee and tweedledum,” he called them. Having learned nothing from the Reagan years, he once again inaccurately predicted that a Bush victory would actually be better for the country, because it would fire up the progressive movement.
Inline links: that Rage Against the Machine video
“Testify,” Rage Against the Machine’s 2000 banger, showed Bush and Gore repeatedly morphing into the same person But it really seems like another piece of the puzzle is that Nader just wanted attention. Despite his unassuming nature, he loved the spotlight, and he’d been in it a lot less since the late seventies, when his career had peaked. Now here he was, on TV all the time and being treated like a major candidate. He bragged to Jim Lehrer that he was qualified to be president because “no one has sued the government more than me.”
The Beatles2 mentions across 2 issues

The Beatles is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between April 19, 2023 and April 27, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "Before the Beatles were so canonical that they were impossible to miss"; "Like The Beatles"; "People couldn't actually like ... the Beatles". It most often appears alongside Disney Corporation, Kriss, Sam Kriss.

Article page
The Beatles
Mention count
2
Issue count
2
First seen
April 19, 2023
Last seen
April 27, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Contra Kriss On Nerds And Hipsters
April 19, 2023 · Original source
Hipsters, he says, are an information sorting algorithm. They discover things, then place them on the altar of Fame so everyone else can enjoy them. Before the Beatles were so canonical that they were impossible to miss, someone had to go to some dingy bar in Liverpool, think “Hey, these guys are really good”, and report that fact somewhere everyone else could see it.
So someone has to be the sort of person who goes to dingy bars in Liverpool, listens to the music there, and has strong public opinions about it. In theory this could be you or me, just so happening to live in Liverpool, just so happening to drink in dingy bars, just so happening to notice the Beatles, and just so happening to be in the right place to report about them. In practice it’s easier for there to be some type of person who optimizes for this and builds his whole identity around how he consumes obscure art that hasn’t been discovered yet, then forms opinions on it.
Highlights From The Comments On Nerds And Hipsters
April 27, 2023 · Original source
…where Sam fills in the northwest and southeast squares, then claims a correlation, draws a line, and points to high-status/deep-engagement as a single unified concept. But the southwest square could be “writes a wacky Shakespeare fanfiction, Romeo & Juliet II, in blank verse and period-appropriate language”, and the northeast square could be “publishes a dissertation on some irrelevant aspect of word frequency changes across English plays to prove something about linguistics”. And then having conflated these two things, he goes on to conflate a third thing, Shakespeare vs. Marvel. I’m not up to date on what goes on in academic literature departments, but Freddie de Boer says they’re increasingly offering “Spiderman Studies” classes in attempts to stay culturally relevant; probably Spiderman professors engage with Spiderman on the same deep level that Shakespeare professors engage with Shakespeare. If we made this a cube - high-status vs. low-status forms of engagement along one axis, Shakespeare vs. Spiderman along another axis, and deep vs. shallow engagement along the third - would anything be left of the “nerd” cluster as Sam describes it? I’m not sure. 2. Comments With Strong Opinions On The Definition Of Nerds, Geeks, Etc There were many of these. One common theme was that in the 70s, “nerd” was almost synonymous with “person who is only into unpopular things”, for example sci-fi, comics, and RPGs, all of which were unpopular in the 70s. Then those things became very popular, but the people who were interested in them still get called “nerds”. So now people like Kriss use “nerd” almost synonymously with “person who is only into popular things”. So we have a word which denotes either interest in unpopular things or interest in popular things, depending on who’s using it and when they last updated their lexicon. In the 70s, it was more reasonable to group “interested in math and computers” and “interested in sci-fi and RPGs” together, because both were unpopular and tended to involve the same group of socially maladept young men. Now math is still hard and unpopular; computers are hard in the sense that it’s tough to learn programming languages, but universally used and beloved; sci-fi and RPGs are very popular, and the typical sci-fi fan is closer to a socially-adept albeit “quirky” young woman. If words are hidden inferences, the inference represented by “nerd” - that sci-fi fandom, interest in math, interest in computers, maleness, poor social skills, and nonconformity with mainstream interests all go together - is now thoroughly false, dooming us to conversations like this one. Attempts to repurpose the several different words used to refer to the math/sci-fi/awkward/unpopular cluster to represent different aspects of its successor clusters have mostly failed. Sample comments from this section: Coagulopath writes: To me, being a nerd requires a degree of swimming against the cultural tide. It's weird and unpopular to be into trains, so the fact that you are indicates you have a bit of character (or are socially oblivious, which is also kind of endearing). The problem (and I think Kriss alludes to this) is that nerd stuff went mainstream in the past few decades. Of the 10 highest-grossing movies of the 2010s, 6 are Star Wars or Marvel films. There's no longer any sense that nerds are the underdog. But what does it say about you when you wear a Star Wars shirt? You're pledging allegiance to the biggest, most popular club imaginable. Is that a brave stance? Those people always make me think "if you lived in the SW universe, you'd be on the side of the Empire". In general, I am creeped out by effusive public adoration for things that are near-universally loved. Like The Beatles. Or bacon. Or dogs. Or science (Neil DeGrasse Tyson's whole shtick). Regardless of how I feel about those things on the object level, there's no glory in joining a culture war when you're signing on to the winning side. Tolaughoftenandmuch writes: All this is so different from when I was a kid. I was a nerd because I was intellectually curious, bad at and disinterested in sports, socially awkward, and had a computer hobby (owning hardware C64 ->8088 ->286, writing programs in Basic, being a BBS SysOp). Cultural interests were irrelevant to my nerd status. In terms of exactly when nerd interests started becoming popular, Ghatanathoah writes: I also wouldn't say that nerd stuff only went mainstream in the last decade, it's not like the first 3 Star Wars movies were obscure arthouse pictures. I think the reason Marvel took off is just innovations in storytelling: movie producers finally figured out a way to adapt the gloriously arcane and convoluted lore of superhero comics in a way that could appeal to mainstream audiences in addition to nerds (much how George Lucas figured out how to get mainstream audiences to love the space operas nerds had been enjoying for decades before 1977). And Melvin writes: Comic book movies had always been pretty popular. Superman was the top grossing movie of 1979 despite coming out in 1978. Superman 2 was the second top grossing movie of 1981. Batman was the second top grossing movie of 1989. Batman Returns was the top grossing movie of 1992. Batman Forever was the top grossing movie of 1995. Spider-man was the third top grossing movie of 2002 (behind Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies). That's about all I can be bothered looking up right now but you get the idea, superhero movies have been popular since the 1970s. Kaitian writes: I think being a nerd requires being a bit socially clumsy about your interest, and talking or signalling about it in situations where most people don't expect it. So being a nerd about completely mainstream stuff like pop music or football is not possible, that's just fandom. Being a nerd about very well known and relatively well-respected stuff like classical music or birdwatching is rare, because most people who are classy enough to care about the thing in the first place are also classy enough to know when to shut up about it. But comics? Star trek? Power metal? They have fairly low barriers to entry *and* most people don't care about them, so there's plenty of opportunities to bring it up to people who don't want to hear about it. So that's why I think nerdery usually attaches itself to the typical targets. J.R. Leonard has as good a terminology proposal as anyone: I think what's missing is that Kriss uses "nerds" as his foil, but what he's talking about would better be described as fan culture. Deiseach teaches us the etymology of “geek”. The very distant etymology is from German gek, a relative of “cackle” → geck, a fool/madman (who was presumably cackling all the time). But this comes down to us through the early American institution of the geek show. From Wikipedia (cw: disturbing): Geek shows were an act in traveling carnivals and circuses of early America and were often part of a larger sideshow. The billed performer's act consisted of a single geek, who stood in the center ring to chase live chickens. It ended with the performer biting the chickens' heads off and swallowing them. The geek shows were often used as openers for what are commonly known as freak shows. It was a matter of pride among circus and carnival professionals not to have traveled with a troupe that included geeks. Geeks were often alcoholics or drug addicts, and paid with liquor – especially during Prohibition – or with narcotics. More obvious but I went surprisingly long without realizing it: “fan” (as in “sports fan”) is just short for fanatic. 3. Comments About Collecting The veteran collectors in the comments said that my theory (the Internet makes collecting too easy) was only a small part of the decline. The bigger part is that most coin collecting begins with the wonder of finding a rare coin in your change, and most stamp collecting begins with the wonder of finding a rare stamp on your mail, and the rise of credit cards and emails means people aren’t handling coins and stamps as much in their daily lives. Tom Metcalf writes: I'd guess many coin collectors got their start being patient enough to sort through change to see if they had e.g. a wheat cent or silver dime, but first of all, who pays with cash and gets change, and the chances of finding something collectible are orders of magnitude smaller than, say, the '90s. And stamp collectors would have started saving the stamps on mail sent to their house, but how frequently do you get stamped mail anymore? My 79-year old father goes to stamp shows, because one of his hobbies is to buy sheets of old but common unused stamps for less than face value. They are still valid postage, and then he uses them to personalize the stamps he puts on letters he sends to various people. And most of the other people at stamp shows are about his age. He does have some stamps he thinks are interesting that he's held onto, but the dealers at the stamp shows think they're common and uninteresting. So there's a decreasing number of stamps that might be "worth something" and a net loss of collectors in the hobby, and then every time a collector dies and his heirs have no interest in his collection and that many more stamps make their way to dealers who now have one less buyer. Too bad "sending paper letters with vintage but still valid stamps" never caught on with the hipsters. Art writes: The widespread adoption of email created a world where a letter is almost certainly junk mail or a bill. Nobody looks forward to hearing from a good friend from across the country now when picking up the day’s mail. If letters are not interesting why would stamps? The same for coins. Nobody uses cash, and getting a pile of coins with no significant value (inflation) is just an annoyance. These objects have passed into irrelevance. Still, it seems like some little pieces of joy and wonder have passed from our lives. Nathan Savir writes: I collect coins and I think the description of the hobby (and its putative death) isn't quite right. 1. Rare coins are in fact hard to find, even in today's internet world. They are usually sold in auctions, which might happen online, but still not that frequently. It's not unusual for examples some specific rare coin to be sold only once every few years. If the coin is also obscure, it may not be prohibitively expensive, so this kind of situation isn't the sole province of rich people. 2. One area of collecting is to get all the rare items. Another is to get all the minor varieties of a common item. These varieties may not be very rare, but it still takes a lot of effort to be able to distinguish them and to find them. Some collectors will obtain large numbers of relatively common coins and sort through and scrutinize them to try to identify interesting varieties. 3. An important part of collecting is getting good deals. This is surely a lot harder than it used to be because sellers can more easily figure out what things are worth and you won't find something grossly underpriced in a random antique store as often these days. But filtering through buckets (or online listings) of large numbers of coins can still be fun and lead to spotting good deals. So I think there is room in the hobby for nerd-like behavior (per your definition). I would argue the decline of the hobby is more due to competition from other similar hobbies (a generation ago you could collect stamps, coins, baseball cards, or rare books/comics - now you can collect beanie babies, Pokemon cards, NFTs, funko pops, action figures, etc.). I think stamps have suffered more than coins because stamp collecting has more of an aesthetic component (which has faced stronger competition) while coins have a historical element that is less well replicated by collecting newer things. This difference isn't obvious in the google trends graphs you posted but I believe is observable from looking at prices of stamps vs coins. I asked Nathan what coins he collects that are still tough to find, and he gave the example of this Yuan dynasty coin from 1350. I guess if you want to be a collector in 2023 you need to go hard. Arrk Mindmaster writes: I used to collect US coins from every denomination, year, mint, and variety (such as large and small date 1960 pennies). It was kind of like a treasure hunt, knowing you could find something in circulation that was actually more valuable than most people thought it was. I lost interest in the late 1980s sometime, when I found the volume of new coins dwarfed older coins. For example, for Lincoln pennies, they used to make a few million per year, then a few tens of millions. In the 80s, they started making about 5 BILLION each, and it started drowning out all of the old coins, which basically stayed the same value. This comment snapped some things into place for me; I collected coins as a kid in the 90s, and older coin collectors would talk as if you could spot some pretty rare things in your pocket change. But I had much worse luck, and it’s been years since I’ve even found a wheat cent in circulation (even when I was a kid this would happen occasionally). Maybe coin collecting is dying not just because we don’t use change, but because our change is less likely to have interesting coins in it. Another victim of mass money printing! The new state quarters sort of fix this, but other commenters express contempt for this. It feels like the transition between old myths (which one can enjoy) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which corporations are begging you to enjoy in a pre-approved way) - now that the Mint wants you to collect their coins, it feels kind of slavish to comply. Other people point out that the collecting of things other than stamps and coins is still going strong. Drethelin: Collecting has not in the slightest died out. People collect more things than ever, like sneakers, funko pops, vintage cars, guns, antique ceramics, anime figurines, magic cards, etc. Some people also brought up NFTs - are there lots of people who truly enjoy collecting NFTs, aren’t just in it for the investment value, and have kept up through the crypto bear market? 4. Comments Insisting That Sports Are Good Aris C writes: It's a little glib to dismiss sports as bad, isn't it? Athletes display extreme skill, sometimes transcendent. I don't think watching people push the limits of human ability is obviously bad. When I said sports were bad, I didn’t mean this as a final value judgment. I meant that, by our usual standards of entertainment, sports are bad. Imagine a sitcom which had several thousand episodes, each with the exact same plot (some people try to get a ball from one side of the court to the other). At some point, surely most people would stop watching! I appreciate the something something human spirit, and I’m happy to know that, somewhere in the world, sports are happening. It’s just the decision to actually watch them that confuses me. 5. Comments About Enjoying Things Vs. Building Identities Around Them Many people complained that some combination of me and/or Sam Kriss were denying that anyone can ever enjoy anything except as an attempt to “gain status”. I would answer first that yes, I think most behavior has some status component (although it may be a small component, mixed with genuine enjoyment). But also, it doesn’t seem mysterious that some people eg like Star Wars, or even love Star Wars. What seems mysterious to me is when this expresses itself as desire to buy thousands of dollars of figurines in the original boxes, or memorize the stats of every class of ship in the Imperial Navy, or something else which doesn’t seem very fun on its own merits. I’m not criticizing others from a place of invulnerability here. When I was ~14, I got really into Star Wars, and aside from reading all the Extended Universe books - some of which were genuinely very good - for about a year I spent all of my allowance and a good fraction of my free time obtaining Star Wars collectable cards associated with an M:TG style card game (which I never got around to playing). My parents probably still have them somewhere. I cannot at all retrace what led me to do this, but I appreciate commenters’ less cynical explanations. For example, enchantingacacia writes: I think it's honestly sort of funny how non-nerds seem to genuinely not understand that a nerd's identity becomes about [thing] because they like it so much, not the other way around. Sometimes you encounter a thing—let's say it's Minecraft, because why not—and it's just such a positive experience for you that you take every possible opportunity to keep thinking about Minecraft, even when you're not playing. You collect every scrap of information you can find about Minecraft and you compose your own original Minecraft-related songs and you decorate your room with blocky little figurines. You get into a virtuous cycle where talking and thinking about Minecraft is so rewarding that you keep enjoying all these secondary activities long after you're bored of actually playing Minecraft itself. You look out for opportunities to meet people who'd enjoy talking about Minecraft with you and make a bunch of friends with whom you mostly talk about Minecraft, and your friends and family start seeing you as "the Minecraft guy" and they get you a Minecraft hoodie for Christmas cause they know it's a safe pick. This is the obvious and intuitive explanation! There's no need to get fake-deep about "ah, they got into Minecraft so they'd have something to construct their identity around": it explains nothing, and consistently makes incorrect predictions about the internal experiences of Minecraft nerds. It's only virtue is making people feel better about being annoyed by those weirdos who won't shut up about Minecraft. It's possibly that I have unusually low social motivation (genuinely, what does it mean to "construct your identity" and why is it something people would be this comically desperate to do?) and am typical-minding, but, uh, I wonder if there's any group closely associated with "nerds" who are also known for having low social motivation? I think it's a tad more likely that people like Kriss are typical-minding, and constructing elaborate social motivations for people who just like stuff regardless of what people like him think. This is a good comment which avoids buck-passing-style “I enjoy it because it’s fun” explanations. Along the same lines, odd anon writes: It is only among nerds that enthusiasm for something corresponds to learning more and more about it. That's the core element here. Non-nerds who like something do not feel any need to read up on it, to know more and more. Of course, the producers of content notice when their audience are nerds, and they start to produce content built more for those who obsessively learn every detail. Comics can start "rewarding" readers for noticing some obscure thing. A game series can have an elaborate continuity, or a zillion details to memorize. Content that either "leans into the fandom" or simply naturally has too much for non-nerds to easily pick up, can rapidly become nerd-only, thus solidifying boundaries. And sure, there are the personality correlations, attributes most nerds also have, including being STEM-y and lacking social skills. Combined, a nerd ended up being an unpopular thing to be. Ghatanathoah is less patient: Both Kriss' essay, and Scott's response to it, remind me of the "Evil Cannot Comprehend Good" trope from TV tropes, except replace "Evil" with "Very socially motivated people" and "Good" with "Less socially motivated people" (although honestly both sets have a lot of overlap). Both essays seem obsessed with finding some deep, social reason why hipsters and nerds behave the way they do, like the supervillain who is telling the hero that they are "Not So Different." They literally can't comprehend the idea that someone could actually like something, so they try desperately to find some way that liking things isn't something people actually do. People couldn't actually like Star Wars, sportsball, the MCU, or the Beatles, they must be liking them to achieve some social goal like forming an identity or seeking status! This is one of the two giant flawed assumptions that invalidates the theses of both articles (the other one, of course, is the assumption the the MCU is bad, when it is, in fact one of the human race's greatest artistic achievements*). If you assume that it is possible to like things for non-social reasons, or even in addition to social reasons, hipsters and nerds make much more sense. The reason that nerds like both popular stuff like the MCU, and less popular stuff like postage stamps is because they don't care about if something is popular, they care about if it fascinates them. Whether that thing is popular is orthogonal to how fascinating it is. That fascination makes them invest a lot of time and effort in it, which in turn makes it part of their identity. They weren't trying to find something to form and identity first and picking Star Wars, identity formation was just a side effect. Similarly, hipsters probably just get bored with things they see frequently and want to seek out new things to be interested in. Making obscure things part of their identity comes second, if at all. Also Ghatanathoah: Scott asks if its ever okay to build your identity around liking a thing. I would ask if it's ever okay not to? What's the alternative, building it around social status games or large nonselective identity groups? It seems to me that liking something isn't just a good thing to build your identity around, it's one of the best things to build it around. After all, unlike social status games, you can like something without forcing other people to not like it. This is a good question, well-phrased. I think the traditional answer is that you should build your identity around social relationships (I’m the son of X, husband of Y, friend of Z), career, and maybe a few hobbies. I agree with this as far as it goes, but it doesn’t work for a lot of practical tasks - I can’t get common ground with someone at a party or start a conversation by introducing myself as the son of X or husband of Y - most people just won’t know X or Y. Some people linked a Freddie de Boer post, Your Personality Has To Be Load-Bearing, which is generally good but I think has a similar problem. Obviously you should have a genuine and complex personality, but I worry a lot of people who talk about this will reject every specific aspect of personality because “it’s not, in itself, a full complex personality!”, but you can’t have a personality without building it out of specific aspects. A lot of people’s default personality, if they just do exactly what comes naturally and don’t put any effort into self-presentation or cultivation, is to browse Reddit and play video games. Most people realize this on some level and try to cultivate some personality beyond this, but I think that makes it extra unfair to say “Just use your natural true self!” The natural true self is exactly the boring thing we’re trying to get away from in favor of becoming a more interesting person. I’m trying to think if I have a personal answer to this. Part of my answer is the EA and rationalist communities. This has some downsides; I’m thinner-skinned about insults to these groups than I should be; some people might think I’m a fanatic. It also has some upsides; they embody real values I like, they try to make a difference in the world, they’re not consumer properties that make me feel like a corporation is pulling my strings. But my real answer is probably “I cheat by having a popular blog; this means you all know everything about me and I don’t have to fit my personality into a ten-second elevator pitch”. Maybe this is the traditional solution, from back when everyone knew everyone else in their community. It sure doesn’t feel adequate now, back when (non-bloggers) are constantly meeting strangers and having to communicate their identity to them quickly. My internal hierarchy of things it’s virtuous to build identity around, which is probably a weird class artifact and which I absolutely don’t consciously endorse, goes something like: Top-tier: Intellectual subfields, especially obscure ones or ones involving pure abstract math. If you can say “I’m really into trans-finite 8-dimensional Hoffdorf groups” and justify this with a discussion of how innately beautiful they are, you’ve got it made.
Inline links: words are hidden inferences, writes, Tolaughoftenandmuch, writes, writes, writes, J.R. Leonard has, teaches us the etymology of “geek”, From Wikipedia, writes, writes, writes, this Yuan dynasty coin from 1350, writes, other, commenters, Drethelin, writes, enchantingacacia writes, odd anon writes, is less patient, Your Personality Has To Be Load-Bearing
ABBA1 mentions across 1 issues

ABBA is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 07, 2021 and July 07, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "ABBA was just a weird dream". It most often appears alongside Arkansas, Australia, Belgium.

Reference entry
ABBA
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 07, 2021
Last seen
July 07, 2021
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Source context
Lockdown Effectiveness: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
July 07, 2021 · Original source
And that given how early the epidemic started in Sweden, we should expect more deaths before it got under control: I’m not math-y enough to judge Lemoine’s simulations, so instead I decided to judge Sweden against other European countries where the epidemic started at the same time or earlier - that is, ones that had more deaths per capita than Sweden as of March 21 2020.
Inline links: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZSkv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc42f1067-3c54-48bd-a787-5a243abbafcf_3600x3600.png
I’m not math-y enough to judge Lemoine’s simulations, so instead I decided to judge Sweden against other European countries where the epidemic started at the same time or earlier - that is, ones that had more deaths per capita than Sweden as of March 21 2020.
All of this gets really confusing and I think everyone on all sides of this debate should agree to just never mention Sweden again. Not just with respect to coronavirus policy. At all. If anyone asks, there are only two Scandinavian countries, Ikea comes from Denmark, and ABBA was just a weird dream. In conclusion, the weaker Swedish lockdown in the early phase of the pandemic probably increased the death rate by a factor of two (using other European countries as a counterfactual/control) to five (using other Scandinavian countries as a counterfactual/control). These people investigate this question more formally and find something similar. These changes in death rate mean the policy caused an extra 1,000 to 3,000 deaths in the early phase of the pandemic. There was probably less effect in the later phases of the pandemic because Sweden’s lockdown policy was closer to everyone else’s.
Inline links: These people
As I Lay Dying1 mentions across 1 issues

As I Lay Dying is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 15, 2022 and July 15, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "Tim Lambesis of the metalcore band As I Lay Dying". It most often appears alongside 2012, Adam Smith, Astralcodexten Com.

Reference entry
As I Lay Dying
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 15, 2022
Last seen
July 15, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Book Review: The Righteous Mind
July 15, 2022 · Original source
People genuinely thought that at a base, normative level, there could be no morality without explicit instruction from God, and that an atheist could not justify refraining from mass murder. Tim Lambesis of the metalcore band As I Lay Dying, one of my Christian childhood heroes (explicitly on the Pentecostal side; the Evangelicals considered him obviously satanic all along due to the metal and were quite smug about how it turned out) actually hired a hitman to kill his wife after becoming an atheist on exactly these grounds. In this view, fundamentalist normative religion wasn’t a co-ordination system to make society function, it was the literal truth.
Ave Maria1 mentions across 1 issues

Ave Maria is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between June 03, 2022 and June 03, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "“Ave Maria” is the most well known song from the recordings". It most often appears alongside 18th century, A Eunuch's Dream, Alessandro Moreschi.

Reference entry
Ave Maria
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
June 03, 2022
Last seen
June 03, 2022
Outbound links
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Your Book Review: The Castrato
June 03, 2022 · Original source
Now for the million dollar question(s): what exactly did these infallible singing machines sound like? What unique vocal feats were they capable of? Feldman begins her analysis (which takes up nearly half the book) by considering the scant sonic evidence that does exist—a few recordings of the last known castrato, Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922), made from 1902-1904. “Ave Maria” is the most well known song from the recordings (but you can find others on youtube).
Baa Baa B1 mentions across 1 issues

Baa Baa B is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 02, 2025 and September 02, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as ""Or what about music? There are people who have gone their whole lives without realizing that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa B B"". It most often appears alongside Dwarkesh Patel, Education PhD, Europe.

Reference entry
Baa Baa B
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 02, 2025
Last seen
September 02, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful Of Him?
September 02, 2025 · Original source
Dwarkesh Patel: Consider linguistics. Any human who's ever used English has had tens of thousands of chances to discover the Royal Order of Adjectives - the rule where adjectives must go opinion-size-age-color-origin-purpose, such that "a beautiful little antique blue Italian hunting cap" is fine, but "an Italian hunting blue little antique beautiful cap" is almost gibberish. But most people are surprised to hear this - they’ve never thought about it before, they would tell you that adjectives can go in any order you want. Or what about music? There are people who have gone their whole lives without realizing that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and the ABC Song are all the same tune.
Beatles1 mentions across 1 issues

Beatles is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between December 09, 2022 and December 09, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "everyone is lining up to get a glimpse of the Beatles instead of the Queen". It most often appears alongside 417th Marquess of Cornwallshireshire, ACX, ACX.

Reference entry
Beatles
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
December 09, 2022
Last seen
December 09, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Highlights From The Comments On Bobos In Paradise
December 09, 2022 · Original source
One thing that_would seem to be important is new money. For centuries, the only way to be rich was to own a lot of land, and the only way to own a lot of land was to inherit it. The Industrial Revolution started a phenomenon of non-U people suddenly becoming rich, which made life complicated for the old upper class, but at first they could absorb these new money richers slowly into their ranks (and more importantly, the new money richers aspired to emulate the old money). But eventually the rate of wealth creation got so out of hand that new millionaires were being minted faster than the upper class could co-opt them, and the wealth of the unassimilated non-U rich started to outweigh the wealth of the true Upper Class. And eventually the whole thing came tumbling down and everyone is lining up to get a glimpse of the Beatles instead of the Queen.
blues music1 mentions across 1 issues

blues music is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 03, 2024 and January 03, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "why depressed people listen to blues music". It most often appears alongside CBT, control theory, free energy concept.

Reference entry
blues music
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 03, 2024
Last seen
January 03, 2024
Outbound links
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Source context
Singing The Blues
January 03, 2024 · Original source
Or when you’re trying to figure out why depressed people listen to blues music.
Bon Jovi1 mentions across 1 issues

Bon Jovi is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 22, 2022 and July 22, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "I suppose it would be in poor taste to make a Bon Jovi reference". It most often appears alongside 2020 election, 2022 book review contest, 2122.

Reference entry
Bon Jovi
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 22, 2022
Last seen
July 22, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Book Review: The Society Of The Spectacle
July 22, 2022 · Original source
1: I suppose it would be in poor taste to make a Bon Jovi reference, so I won’t.
Boomtown Rats1 mentions across 1 issues

Boomtown Rats is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between February 27, 2023 and February 27, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats wrote a catchy tune about that shooting". It most often appears alongside 12th-century England, 21st-century America, acute and transient psychotic disorder.

Reference entry
Boomtown Rats
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
February 27, 2023
Last seen
February 27, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Highlights From The Comments On Geography Of Madness
February 27, 2023 · Original source
The first Columbine-style school shooting I am aware of was at the U. of Texas around 1966. The next was a young woman shooting up a school outside of San Diego around 1978. When asked why she did it, she said, "I don't like Mondays." Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats wrote a catchy tune about that shooting, which likely helped make school shootings more of a Thing in American culture.
Choo Choo Train1 mentions across 1 issues

Choo Choo Train is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Her favorite song is “Choo Choo Train”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Dayenu.

Reference entry
Choo Choo Train
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
But also, the twins have spontaneously decided that, in the comedy of life, Kai will be the wise guy and Lyra the straight man. As such, there’s less about her to make fun of. Lyra reacts relatively normally to buses. Her favorite song is “Choo Choo Train”, which she likes simply and earnestly, and which she listens to all the way through. She reads books in sequence: first one page, then the next. She goes to bed on time with little fuss.
Inline links: the comedy of life
Cracker1 mentions across 1 issues

Cracker is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between October 13, 2022 and October 13, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "a great track by Cracker from 2014: King of Bakersfield". It most often appears alongside 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, 21st Century Salon, ACX.

Reference entry
Cracker
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
October 13, 2022
Last seen
October 13, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Highlights From The Comments On The Central Valley
October 13, 2022 · Original source
There is a treasure trove of literature, music, and other art coming from the Valley and/or about the Valley which has been accumulating since at least the 19th century. I will pick something relatively recent to share, a great track by Cracker from 2014: King of Bakersfield.:
Dayenu1 mentions across 1 issues

Dayenu is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Dayenu is “die die die song”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
Dayenu
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Unable to pronounce the titles of most songs, our children have developed their own monikers. Mister Golden Sun is “sun song”. Wheels On The Bus is “bus song”. Here Comes The Sun is . . . also “sun song”, but don’t worry, if you choose the wrong one they’ll let you know by screaming. Dayenu is “die die die song”, which is awkward in the wrong company.
Doomed Moon1 mentions across 1 issues

Doomed Moon is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 19, 2025 and September 19, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "listen to twenty seconds or so of “Doomed Moon” from the 32-second mark". It most often appears alongside 1987, 1988, Adleman.

Reference entry
Doomed Moon
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 19, 2025
Last seen
September 19, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Review: Project Xanadu - The Internet That Might Have Been
September 19, 2025 · Original source
Taking a page out of Jon Bois’ playbook, I’m gonna recommend you stop here for a moment, put on your headphones, turn the volume down to a not-so-misophonic level, and listen to twenty seconds or so of “Doomed Moon” from the 32-second mark, while staring unblinkingly at the words Project Xanadu. Your reading experience will be much enhanced.
Inline links: Jon Bois’ playbook, Doomed Moon
Drei Klavierstucke1 mentions across 1 issues

Drei Klavierstucke is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between June 09, 2025 and June 09, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "one of these: Drei Klavierstucke". It most often appears alongside Astralcodexten Com, Deathbed Ballads, Discord.

Reference entry
Drei Klavierstucke
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
June 09, 2025
Last seen
June 09, 2025
Outbound links
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Open Thread 385
June 09, 2025 · Original source
1: Thanks to everyone who voted on Nonbook Reviews. By chance or choice, some reviews have gotten fewer votes than others; in the interest of fairness, I’m highlighting them here; if you want to look over and vote on more reviews, consider one of these: The Metaethics of Joy/Suffering/AI, Mountaintop, On Taste, Joanna Newsom: The Lyric, Time's Arrow, Phoenix Theater at Great Northern Mall, From Control Problem to RLHF, Face The Fear / Worldbuild The Future, State Of Competitive Debating Unions Address, Drei Klavierstucke, Shrinking Men, The Beginning After The End Of Humanity Circus, The Origins Of Wokeness, The Life's Work Of Banerjee/Duflo/Kremer, Deathbed Ballads, School (Review 1 by DK).
Inline links: voted on Nonbook Reviews, vote on, The Metaethics of Joy/Suffering/AI, Mountaintop, On Taste, Joanna Newsom: The Lyric, Time's Arrow, Phoenix Theater at Great Northern Mall, From Control Problem to RLHF, Face The Fear / Worldbuild The Future, State Of Competitive Debating Unions Address, Drei Klavierstucke, Shrinking Men, The Beginning After The End Of Humanity Circus, The Origins Of Wokeness, The Life's Work Of Banerjee/Duflo/Kremer, Deathbed Ballads, School (Review 1 by DK)
Ethereum1 mentions across 1 issues

Ethereum is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between December 08, 2022 and December 08, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "Some of this is that a few cryptos did very well (eg Ethereum)". It most often appears alongside ACX, Africa, Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2020.

Reference entry
Ethereum
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
December 08, 2022
Last seen
December 08, 2022
Instagram handle
@shoppingtheatre.inc
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Why I'm Less Than Infinitely Hostile To Cryptocurrency
December 08, 2022 · Original source
I’m not focusing on investment returns in order to claim that crypto is a good investment (it was a good investment ten years ago, but you already knew that). I’m focusing on this because if most crypto projects were scams and Ponzis, you would expect people who invested in them to do poorly, whereas in fact the opposite is true. Some of this is that a few cryptos did very well (eg Ethereum) and drowned out the rest doing badly. But even in 2020 when Ethereum’s gains were mostly played out, on average you would have done fine.
Conflict of interest notice / I am dumb alert: I do hold some cryptocurrency, mostly Ethereum, mostly because I received it a while ago as crypto, and want to wait until the end of the bear market before selling it.
Eyeless In Gaza1 mentions across 1 issues

Eyeless In Gaza is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between October 31, 2023 and October 31, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "Eyeless In Gaza". It most often appears alongside Abhishek Kylasa, Aella, Al-Ahli Hospital.

Reference entry
Eyeless In Gaza
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
October 31, 2023
Last seen
October 31, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
  • 23 October 31, 2023
Related pages
Source context
23
October 31, 2023 · Original source
More on this once it’s had a chance to get used. Eyeless In Gaza Prediction markets are sometimes held up as a way to get clarity on controversial news issues. But how do you resolve the prediction market? It’s fine to start a market on whether there was a lab leak at Wuhan, but ten years from now people will probably still be as confused as today.
Fanny Mendelssohn1 mentions across 1 issues

Fanny Mendelssohn is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 18, 2021 and November 18, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "Fanny Mendelssohn was an extraordinary pianist and composer but also a woman". It most often appears alongside 23andme, AB, Abraham Mendelssohn.

Reference entry
Fanny Mendelssohn
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 18, 2021
Last seen
November 18, 2021
Outbound links
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Highlights From The Comments On Great Families
November 18, 2021 · Original source
Moses' son Abraham doesn't seem to have done anything impressive except become very rich and host parties where all the cool people would hang out and Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn would play music.
Fanny Mendelssohn was an extraordinary pianist and composer but also a woman: She was discouraged from devoting her energies to music and largely published under her brother's name.
Felix Mendelssohn1 mentions across 1 issues

Felix Mendelssohn is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 18, 2021 and November 18, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "Felix Mendelssohn was a legendary pianist and composer". It most often appears alongside 23andme, AB, Abraham Mendelssohn.

Reference entry
Felix Mendelssohn
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 18, 2021
Last seen
November 18, 2021
Outbound links
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Source context
Highlights From The Comments On Great Families
November 18, 2021 · Original source
Felix Mendelssohn was a legendary pianist and composer.
Ferrari Testarossa Neon Retrowave Synth1 mentions across 1 issues

Ferrari Testarossa Neon Retrowave Synth is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “ Ferrari Testarossa Neon Retrowave Synth ”, by Arslan Safiullin". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
Human. This is “Ferrari Testarossa Neon Retrowave Synth”, by Arslan Safiullin.
Inline links: Ferrari Testarossa Neon Retrowave Synth
Friends theme song1 mentions across 1 issues

Friends theme song is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "the first verse of the theme song for Friends, which started airing in 1994: “So no one told you life was gonna be this way". It most often appears alongside 1955, 4chan, AARP.

Reference entry
Friends theme song
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
December 31, 2025
Last seen
December 31, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Highlights From The Comments On Vibecession
December 31, 2025 · Original source
I’m younger than Erica, and have less pop culture literacy: can someone tell me whether the Friends theme song was meant to express a zeitgeist that would be immediately recognizable by and sympathetic to most viewers, or whether we were supposed to interpret it as referring to a few especially unlucky people?
Genesis1 mentions across 1 issues

Genesis is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 15, 2022 and July 15, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "It was my first foray into Genesis and I loved it". It most often appears alongside 2012, Adam Smith, As I Lay Dying.

Reference entry
Genesis
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 15, 2022
Last seen
July 15, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Book Review: The Righteous Mind
July 15, 2022 · Original source
I didn’t read The Righteous Mind for a long time after I knew about it. This was partly because I don’t get through much in the way of new reading material. A friend of mine told me yesterday that he’d read something like 130 new books this year. That was on February 20th. I’ve read one, and it was The Righteous Mind. Another friend releases Spotify playlists every Friday of the greatest hits from the many new albums he’s listened to that week. I’ve listened to one new album this year. It was Selling England by the Pound, which he recommended. It was my first foray into Genesis and I loved it. I now have to keep telling him that, no, I haven’t listened to any more Genesis or Peter Gabriel since then, but I’m sure I’ll get round to it within the year.
Gladiator soundtrack1 mentions across 1 issues

Gladiator soundtrack is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 24, 2024 and September 24, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "Listening to the Gladiator sound track". It most often appears alongside A Collection Of Unmitigated Pedantry, ACOU, ACOUP.

Reference entry
Gladiator soundtrack
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 24, 2024
Last seen
September 24, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
How Often Do Men Think About Rome?
September 24, 2024 · Original source
Listening to the Gladiator sound track while stripping wallpaper.
Grateful Dead1 mentions across 1 issues

Grateful Dead is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 23, 2021 and April 23, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "Greg F., a Grateful Dead fan". It most often appears alongside Ben Kuhn, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Buddha.

Reference entry
Grateful Dead
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
April 23, 2021
Last seen
April 23, 2021
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Book Review: Why Buddhism Is True
April 23, 2021 · Original source
In “The Last Hippie," Oliver Sacks tells the story of Greg F., a Grateful Dead fan and onetime acidhead who joined a Hare Krishna temple in 1970. Greg appeared to thrive there:
Hamilton1 mentions across 1 issues

Hamilton is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between February 24, 2021 and February 24, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "the Harvard Crimson can't stop raving about Hamilton". It most often appears alongside 1950s, 1980s, 1983.

Reference entry
Hamilton
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
February 24, 2021
Last seen
February 24, 2021
Outbound links
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Source context
Book Review: Fussell On Class
February 24, 2021 · Original source
Class gives us a hint: it urges us to watch for "prole drift", the tendency of lower-class signals and behaviors to become higher-class over time. I was surprised by this - I would have expected the opposite, where lower classes gradually catch on and learn how to ape their betters, and their betters need to invent new signals to replace the compromised ones. But I can't deny that Fussell has a point too - witness rap going from an underclass phenomenon to a middle-class one to one where the Harvard Crimson can't stop raving about Hamilton.
Inline links: can't stop raving
Here Comes The Sun1 mentions across 1 issues

Here Comes The Sun is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Here Comes The Sun is . . . also “sun song”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
Here Comes The Sun
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Instagram handle
@shoppingtheatre.inc
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Unable to pronounce the titles of most songs, our children have developed their own monikers. Mister Golden Sun is “sun song”. Wheels On The Bus is “bus song”. Here Comes The Sun is . . . also “sun song”, but don’t worry, if you choose the wrong one they’ll let you know by screaming. Dayenu is “die die die song”, which is awkward in the wrong company.
hit single1 mentions across 1 issues

hit single is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 16, 2026 and January 16, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "and even a hit single". It most often appears alongside Adams, Alice, All-Seeing Eye.

Reference entry
hit single
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 16, 2026
Last seen
January 16, 2026
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The Dilbert Afterlife
January 16, 2026 · Original source
The niche that became Dilbert opened when Garfield first said “I hate Mondays”. The quote became a popular sensation, inspiring t-shirts, coffee mugs, and even a hit single. But (as I’m hardly the first to point out) why should Garfield hate Mondays? He’s a cat! He doesn’t have to work!
Inline links: t-shirts, coffee mugs, a hit single
Horslips1 mentions across 1 issues

Horslips is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 22, 2025 and April 22, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "Wikipedia on the beginning of the Horslips, one of Ireland’s most famous rock bands". It most often appears alongside 80,000 Hours, @msamalam, A Ketamine Addict’s Perspective On Musk.

Reference entry
Horslips
Mention count
1
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1
First seen
April 22, 2025
Last seen
April 22, 2025
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Links For April 2025
April 22, 2025 · Original source
16: Trump Tower is a BDSM erotic novel published in 2011. It was originally credited to Donald Trump as author (with Jeffrey Robinson as ghostwriter), but at the last moment Trump changed his mind, and Robinson was listed as the author. I appreciated Ozy Brennan's review of Saddam Hussein’s erotic novel, and nominate them to cover this one too. 17: Wikipedia on the beginning of the Horslips, one of Ireland’s most famous rock bands: Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met when they worked at Arks Advertising Agency in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try being proper rock performers. 18: I complained that Elon Musk’s idea of “truth-seeking AI” was bad for alignment, and I still think this is true in the very long run. But I can’t deny it’s an inspired / providential choice for the current moment, already paying dividends (X): 19: Lyman Stone Continues Being Dumb, The Fallacious Inferences Of Lyman Stone, and Against Lyman Stone are some of this month’s top anti-Lyman-Stone content. 20: New polling on the Middle Ages: 21: More new-ish AI policy substacks potentially worth your time: You may remember Helen Toner from the OpenAI board drama, but she’s also an experienced and thoughtful scholar on AI policy and now has a Substack, Rising Tide. I especially appreciated Nonproliferation Is The Wrong Approach To AI Misuse.
Inline links: Trump Tower, Ozy Brennan's review of Saddam Hussein’s erotic novel, the beginning of the Horslips, bad for alignment, already paying dividends (X), https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nPJW!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad66b2c0-0180-4fc1-afc1-25de0f0ce40f_533x518.png, Lyman Stone Continues Being Dumb, The Fallacious Inferences Of Lyman Stone, Against Lyman Stone, New polling on the Middle Ages, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9b_4!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3163eca-eaf4-492a-ac68-eadefa169be2_632x419.png, Rising Tide, Nonproliferation Is The Wrong Approach To AI Misuse
I Just Had Sex1 mentions across 1 issues

I Just Had Sex is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between May 14, 2021 and May 14, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "lyrics from Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex". It most often appears alongside Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, Amazon, American Gaming Association.

Reference entry
I Just Had Sex
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
May 14, 2021
Last seen
May 14, 2021
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Your Book Review: Addiction By Design
May 14, 2021 · Original source
One of these reality smashing optimizations is LDWs, or losses disguised as wins. This is when a gambler wins a small amount of money on a bet, and the machine reacts as if it’s the Fourth of July. Bells whistle, lights brighten, horns blare, coins jingle, and screens flash. This happens even if the gambler bet 50 cents and won 20. Even though the gambler experienced a net loss, the machine does its best to convince her that she won. This is the “doesn’t matter, still won” counterpart to these lyrics from Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex:
Inline links: Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex
King of Bakersfield1 mentions across 1 issues

King of Bakersfield is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between October 13, 2022 and October 13, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "a great track by Cracker from 2014: King of Bakersfield". It most often appears alongside 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, 21st Century Salon, ACX.

Reference entry
King of Bakersfield
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
October 13, 2022
Last seen
October 13, 2022
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Highlights From The Comments On The Central Valley
October 13, 2022 · Original source
There is a treasure trove of literature, music, and other art coming from the Valley and/or about the Valley which has been accumulating since at least the 19th century. I will pick something relatively recent to share, a great track by Cracker from 2014: King of Bakersfield.:
Lakers1 mentions across 1 issues

Lakers is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 15, 2021 and March 15, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "Lakers win the NBA championship". It most often appears alongside Apple, Apple silicon, Biden.

Reference entry
Lakers
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 15, 2021
Last seen
March 15, 2021
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Mantic Monday: Mantic Matt Y
March 15, 2021 · Original source
1. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win the Georgia Senate races 2. The same party wins both Senate races in Georgia 3. Joe Biden ends the year with his approval rating higher than his disapproval rating 4. Joe Biden ends the year with his approval rating above 50% 5. US GDP growth in 2021 is the fastest of any year of the 21st century 6. The year-end unemployment rate is below 5 percent 7. The year-end unemployment rate is above 4 percent 8. Lakers win the NBA championship 9. Joe Biden ends the year as president 10. Nancy Pelosi sets a definitive retirement schedule 11. A vacancy arises on the Supreme Court 12. The EU ends the year with more confirmed Covid-19 deaths than the US 13. Substack will still be around 14. People will still be writing takes asking if Substack is really sustainable 15. Apple releases new iMacs powered by Apple silicon 16. Apple does not release a new Mac Pro powered by Apple silicon 17. Monthly year-on-year core CPI growth does not go above 2 percent 18. Monthly year-on-year core CPI growth does not go above 3 percent 19. Lloyd Austin not confirmed as Defense Secretary 20. No federal tax increases are enacted 21. Biden administration unilaterally relieves some but not all student debt 22. United States rejoins JCPOA and Iran resumes compliance 23. Israel and Saudi Arabia establish official diplomatic relations 24. US and China reach agreement to lift Trump-era tariffs 25. Slow Boring will exceed 10,000 paid members
1. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win the Georgia Senate races (60%) 2. The same party wins both Senate races in Georgia (95%) 3. Joe Biden ends the year with his approval rating higher than his disapproval rating (70%) [83%] 4. Joe Biden ends the year with his approval rating above 50% (60%) [60%] 5. US GDP growth in 2021 is the fastest of any year of the 21st century (80%) [84%] 6. The year-end unemployment rate is below 5 percent (80%) 7. The year-end unemployment rate is above 4 percent (80%) 8. Lakers win the NBA championship (25%) [25%] 9. Joe Biden ends the year as president (95%) [96%] 10. Nancy Pelosi sets a definitive retirement schedule (60%) 11. A vacancy arises on the Supreme Court (70%) [50%] 12. The EU ends the year with more confirmed Covid-19 deaths than the US (60%) [80%] 13. Substack will still be around (95%) 14. People will still be writing takes asking if Substack is really sustainable (80%) 15. Apple releases new iMacs powered by Apple silicon (90%) [84%] 16. Apple does not release a new Mac Pro powered by Apple silicon (70%) [53%] 17. Monthly year-on-year core CPI growth does not go above 2 percent (70%) 18. Monthly year-on-year core CPI growth does not go above 3 percent (90%) 19. Lloyd Austin not confirmed as Defense Secretary (60%) 20. No federal tax increases are enacted (95%) 21. Biden administration unilaterally relieves some but not all student debt (80%) 22. United States rejoins JCPOA and Iran resumes compliance (80%) 23. Israel and Saudi Arabia establish official diplomatic relations (70%) [38%] 24. US and China reach agreement to lift Trump-era tariffs (70%) 25. Slow Boring will exceed 10,000 paid members (70%) [75%]
Lonely Island1 mentions across 1 issues

Lonely Island is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between May 14, 2021 and May 14, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "lyrics from Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex". It most often appears alongside Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, Amazon, American Gaming Association.

Reference entry
Lonely Island
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
May 14, 2021
Last seen
May 14, 2021
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Your Book Review: Addiction By Design
May 14, 2021 · Original source
One of these reality smashing optimizations is LDWs, or losses disguised as wins. This is when a gambler wins a small amount of money on a bet, and the machine reacts as if it’s the Fourth of July. Bells whistle, lights brighten, horns blare, coins jingle, and screens flash. This happens even if the gambler bet 50 cents and won 20. Even though the gambler experienced a net loss, the machine does its best to convince her that she won. This is the “doesn’t matter, still won” counterpart to these lyrics from Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex:
Inline links: Lonely Island’s I Just Had Sex
Michael Bolton1 mentions across 1 issues

Michael Bolton is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between February 07, 2024 and February 07, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Lonely Island, laughing in a crowd alone as they brought out Michael Bolton". It most often appears alongside California, cerebral palsy, England.

Reference entry
Michael Bolton
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
February 07, 2024
Last seen
February 07, 2024
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You Don't Hate Polyamory, You Hate People Who Write Books
February 07, 2024 · Original source
In the mornings, I sunbathed and walked to Whole Foods and FaceTimed my new boyfriend, feeling the gap between England and California close. In the afternoons, I went to the comedy festival, where I felt more me than I had in months, indulging the person I was and the things I liked. One night, I watched comedy band The Lonely Island, laughing in a crowd alone as they brought out Michael Bolton and T-Pain.
Michael Jackson1 mentions across 1 issues

Michael Jackson is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between June 03, 2022 and June 03, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "androgynous appeal embodied by musicians such as Prince or Michael Jackson". It most often appears alongside 18th century, A Eunuch's Dream, Alessandro Moreschi.

Reference entry
Michael Jackson
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
June 03, 2022
Last seen
June 03, 2022
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Your Book Review: The Castrato
June 03, 2022 · Original source
The role of castrati as sex symbols for both men and women has naturally drawn comparisons to the androgynous appeal embodied by musicians such as Prince or Michael Jackson (“Travelers report how coquettish young castrati in Rome would tie their plump bosoms in alluring brassieres and offer “to serve… equally well as a woman or as a man.”, from the castrati as better lovers article). However, sensational tales of castrati’s sexual prowess obscure a much more depressing story, one of unrequited love and romantic obstruction. With one or two exceptions, nearly all attempts to move beyond discreet dalliances to public relationships and marriage were shot down by the parents of the bride and authorities.
Mister Golden Sun1 mentions across 1 issues

Mister Golden Sun is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Raffi’s version of Mister Golden Sun"; "Mister Golden Sun is “sun song”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
Mister Golden Sun
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
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The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
I do have a pretty good idea about the screaming, though. When Kai demanded “the sun song”, I had accidentally told Alexa to play Raffi’s version of Mister Golden Sun instead of SuperSimpleSongs’ version. Kai did not consider this a sufficiently faithful rendition, and made his displeasure clear to everyone in the neighborhood at six in the morning. Then Lyra didn’t like that Kai was screaming, and started screaming too. By the time I realized the song mishap, I couldn’t rectify my mistake, because they were screaming too loud for Alexa to hear my commands (and too loud for them to notice if the song changed anyway).
Unable to pronounce the titles of most songs, our children have developed their own monikers. Mister Golden Sun is “sun song”. Wheels On The Bus is “bus song”. Here Comes The Sun is . . . also “sun song”, but don’t worry, if you choose the wrong one they’ll let you know by screaming. Dayenu is “die die die song”, which is awkward in the wrong company.
Morrissey1 mentions across 1 issues

Morrissey is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between May 15, 2024 and May 15, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "Mozart to Morrissey". It most often appears alongside @the_megabase, A Pan-Species Welfare State, ACX Grantees.

Reference entry
Morrissey
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
May 15, 2024
Last seen
May 15, 2024
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Profile: The Far Out Initiative
May 15, 2024 · Original source
Recalibrating our hedonic set-point doesn't - or at least needn't - undermine critical discernment. All that's needed for the abolitionist project and its hedonistic extensions to succeed is that our ethic isn't committed to perpetuating the biology of involuntary suffering. Likewise, only a watered-down version of psychological hedonism is needed to lend the scenario sociological credibility. We can retain as much - or as little - of our existing preference architecture as we please. You can continue to prefer Shakespeare to Mills-and-Boon, Mozart to Morrissey, Picasso to Jackson Pollock while living perpetually in Seventh Heaven or beyond.
Never Gonna Give You Up1 mentions across 1 issues

Never Gonna Give You Up is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between May 20, 2021 and May 20, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "the first few verses of Never Gonna Give You Up and make it guess what the rest of the song sounds like". It most often appears alongside 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel, AI X-Risk Research Podcast, Alignment Research Center.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
May 20, 2021
Last seen
May 20, 2021
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Links For May
May 20, 2021 · Original source
4: I’m very late here, but you might still enjoy OpenAI’s Jukebox, which is basically GPT-3 for music. Train it on Elvis, then make it write new songs on his style. Or feed it the first few verses of Never Gonna Give You Up and make it guess what the rest of the song sounds like. Or just have Celine Dion sing a song about being a music generation algorithm produced by OpenAI.
Inline links: Jukebox, new songs on his style, make it guess what the rest of the song sounds like., sing a song about being a music generation algorithm produced by OpenAI
One, two, buckle my shoe! Three, four, out the door! Five, six…1 mentions across 1 issues

One, two, buckle my shoe! Three, four, out the door! Five, six… is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 14, 2023 and July 14, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "We can start early with counting rhymes. (“One, two, buckle my shoe! Three, four, out the door! Five, six…”)". It most often appears alongside !Kung San, aboriginal people on the west coast of Canada, Adam Smith.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 14, 2023
Last seen
July 14, 2023
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Your Book Review: The Educated Mind
July 14, 2023 · Original source
From trivial to rich: the trick What could an intellectually rich elementary school curriculum look like, if we built it on kids’ cognitive strengths? He gives us one suggestion to help us do this: ask where each discipline came from in the first place. What was math before it was math, for example — or science before it was science? Q: How on Earth could that help? That’ll become clear later, when we finally uncover what Egan thinks “education” actually is, and see what job he wants us to give schools. For now, take it as a tantalizing hint… or, y’know, just ignore it. Elementary literature & language What was literature before it was literature? Before people invented writing, they had rich oral traditions: they told simple stories, recited poems, and shared proverbs. Egan suggests that these bits of oral tradition should form the backbone of the elementary literature curriculum. Q: What sorts of stories? As many as we can, and from as many diverse cultures as possible! Folktales are wonderful, as are myths. Think the Aboriginal story of “The Rainbow Serpent”, episodes from the Sumerian “Epic of Gilgamesh”, the Egyptian story of Osiris & Isis, the Greek story of Orpheus & Eurydice, the Chinese Legend of the White Snake, the Japanese Tale of Amaterasu and Susanoo, the Ashanti tales of Anansi, the Aztec myth of Quetzalcoatl, the English legend of King Arthur, the Maori myth of Maui and the Sun, the Roman story of Romulus and Remus, selections from the Indian Mahabharata, the Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf, the Inca legend of the Sun and Moon, the Iroquois Myth of the Flying Head (a real thing! look it up!), and the Ojibwe story of Turtle Island. Q: That was a lot of examples. Are you going to keep giving so many? I’ve got a [mumble mumble mumble] to get to. Sorry about that. Sometimes, though, I feel that a limitation of reading Educated Mind is that, in trying to keep his book to a manageable size, Egan skimped on examples in some places that it matters. It’s easy to read his occasional example and assume he intends that it hold some central place in the curriculum — when all he wants to do is display how rich and diverse the curriculum could be. (Also: good God, I didn’t even include an example from Norse mythology!) So from now on, just assume that every category could be filled with oodles of examples. Q: What sorts of poems? Lots of poems, first of all. We shouldn’t steer toward “fancy” poems — rather, we should find poems that appeal to kids immediately — think Shel Silverstein, Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, Edward Lear, or Ogden Nash… that sort of thing. In a biting essay, Egan suggests these poets like these appeal to kids precisely because they leverage kids’ cognitive strengths: “we should find, and encourage saying and singing and shouting aloud verse with strong narrative forms, thumping rhymes and rhythms, the most vivid images, fun with metaphors, and a rollicking story.” Q: Why proverbs? Proverbs stick in your mind almost effortlessly. (“All’s fair in love and war!” “When in Rome, do as the Romans do!” “You can’t judge a book by its cover!”) They’re also useful; they capture general truths. Kids can apply them to all sorts of situations, but also discuss them — to what extent are they wise or foolish? (I remember my surprise when I realized that they couldn’t all be true — because you can’t follow “look before you leap” and “he who hesitates is lost” at the same time! I’m embarrassed to say that I think I only realized this when I was in college.) Elementary science What was science before it was science? Egan suggests: being immersed in the natural world. We might, he writes, encourage elementary students to “adopt” some feature of the natural world — a patch of grass, a cat, a branch, a stream — and simply observe it at length. To do this, we can use the cognitive strength of reverie. Q: Oh, do you mean like kids sometimes do in science class nowadays — describe a thing to a partner, make notes, draw it, and label its parts? No, the exact opposite! That’s all about squeezing the experience into words and forms that we understand. What we want “is less an attempt to know about nature as to know it in some participatory way, to know it as something we are an intimate part of, not set off from”. Q: That sounds a little… “woo” to me. It did to me, too… until I remembered my childhood climbing tree. I didn’t much like to go outside as a child, but I had this one tree that I’d climb up and read for hours and hours. If I close my eyes I can bring to mind the precise texture of its bark, the roughness of its broken-off branches, the coolness of its leaves, the always-surprising solidness of its trunk… I’m bigger now, but I think if I were back in my parent’s yard, I could still navigate its limbs with my eyes closed. I have, at this point in my life, read a fair number of books about trees, but I’d be surprised if all of them together more than equaled the amount I learned from that tree — my tree. Elementary math What was math before it was math? Egan suggests: counting and logic. We might, then, use rhythms, metaphors, stories, and jokes to help kids become fond of these. Q: Counting is pretty… basic. Could it really be improved? Beware of “the curse of knowledge”: Steven Pinker’s phrase for forgetting that something was once difficult! Egan suggests we should spend time helping kids count wonderfully. We can start early with counting rhymes. (“One, two, buckle my shoe! Three, four, out the door! Five, six…”) But we can also help kids use their fingers as metaphors. There are some pretty cool ways of using your hands as an abacus — and did you know that you can count up to 1,023 using just your fingers on both hands, and a knowledge of binary? Q: Logic — I’m intrigued! Aristotelian, or Boolean? Neither, for the time being — Piaget was presumably onto something when he found that young children couldn’t reason abstractly, but he was looking at logic in a vacuum. When we put logic into the context of stories, we find that kids can deal with logic just fine. There’s an entire worldwide network of educators, in fact, called Philosophy for Children, who have written whole books about how to do this, and Egan loves it all. Sometimes they read stories and ask simple questions: “What is friendship?” or “What does it mean to be brave?” They also pose ethical questions: “Is it ever right to spill a secret?” And they pose paradoxes: “Can you step in the same river twice?” Q: You mentioned “jokes” a moment ago. Care to elaborate? Egan thinks that, to help kids get good at math, you should tell kids jokes. Q: That’s… new. I think so, too — but he backs it up pretty well. To be funny, jokes (or at least most kid jokes) rely on a leap in logic: Why can’t you trust an atom? They make up everything. Knock-knock. Who’s there? Boo. Boo-hoo? Don’t cry, it’s just a joke! To understand the joke, kids have to follow the logic — spotting patterns, making connections, and tracking what their audience expects a word to mean. That’s a lot of cognitive lifting. And Egan goes further, suggesting that we grit our teeth and create methods to help kids invent their own jokes, no matter how horrible they’ll be at first. (The things we do for learning…) Q: Wait wait wait! What about addition facts, and multiplication tables, and fractions? Egan emphasizes that his methods are designed to be add-ons to the standard math curriculum. In general, he’s a don’t-blow-up-the-system sort of guy, and if something seems especially weird, you should probably assume it’s an add-on to the regular curriculum rather than a replacement, even if I forget to say so. Elementary arts What was art before it was art? Egan suggests we pop our heads into Paleolithic caves for our inspiration. Whatever the specific meaning of all those charcoal elk and aurochs and mammoths (communication with the spirit world? art for art’s sake? a way to impress babes?), Egan thinks it obvious that they were also an attempt to capture an intense experience that would be difficult to express in words alone. What did it feel like to be near an aurochs, or a saber-toothed tiger? “The arts help us,” Egan writes, “to hear and see afresh, to force our perceptions and sensations to experience again the immediacy and vividness of the world”. If we follow this, then, we don’t want to help kids build “art skills” so they can draw like an adult — rather, we want to help them amass a repository of diverse aesthetic feelings that they’ll want to express. We should provide them with a riot of experiences. Q: That couldn’t be more opaque. Examples, please! Egan writes that we should have children learn to whistle, sing, and click their tongue; we should help them emulate the ways a skunk or a hawk or a stick bug might move through a space. We should expose them to scores of different temperatures and materials. In music, we should help them love Beethoven, yes, but also the Beatles; Tchaikovsky, yes, but also Tuvan throat singers, and also John Cage, whale song, and bird song. Q: That’s a lot of experiences, but what would they be doing? An interesting aspect of Egan’s view of education is that he doesn’t seem to think we should push kids right to the “doing” phase. He wants to help kids cultivate an affective relationship with the world. In any case, he writes that as students get more experienced, we should prompt them to move from merely enjoying these experiences to trying to systematically shape similar experiences. And drawing, painting, and playing music could easily be folded into other parts of the curriculum. Elementary social studies What was social studies before it was social studies? Well. Remember how, just a moment ago, I wrote that you could assume that you should probably assume that Kieran isn’t in favor of junking the curriculum as it currently stands? He suggests we very carefully pick up the elementary social studies curriculum, place it into a trash can, and set the whole mess on fire. He isn’t worried about much of importance being lost. (Remember that the “expanding horizons” model is, to him, the original sin of 20th century educational reform, and he repeatedly quotes student surveys showing that “social studies” regularly wins the title of “most boring subject”.) In its place, he suggests we put history — which, he hints, we should think of as the centerpiece of the elementary curriculum. So the real question is what was history before it was history? His answer, surprisingly, is myth. Q: Egan wants us to teach myths as if they were history? Not at all. What he suggests, though, is that we look at how myths operate as narratives — so we can design an intellectually vivid history curriculum. And myths really are special: each is built on at least one binary (like weak vs. strong, or lies vs. truth, or so on), and uses that to tell the story of the big picture of the world. They’re so powerful that people can understand it, remember it, and love it — even if that thing never happened. We should take that power, Egan says, and apply it to things that really did happen. Q: So what history does he think kids should learn in elementary school? The great struggles of humanity from across the whole. Flippin’. World. We’re still talking about young children, so these should be done as simple stories. The goal isn’t to make them history PhD’s, so we needn’t even try to put them in any sort of order. Egan suggests that, in first grade, we pick a single binary like “freedom against oppression” and tell kids a welter of stories, again from as many cultures as possible, and as many times in history as possible. Q: Can you give examples? Oh, all right — in first grade we can tell kids the stories of the war of the Greek city-states against the Persian empire, and the slave uprising of Spartacus against the Romans. We can tell them about the plight of Jews in medieval Europe, and of the unsuccessful Sepoy Rebellion in India against the British. We can tell the stories of the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, and about the Chinese Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. We can tell them the story of the escaped slave Harriet Tubman returning to the South to rescue her kinsmen, the story of six-year-old Ruby Bridges facing threats to integrate her elementary school, and the story of how the Mau-Mau uprising led to modern-day Kenya. We can tell the stories of Mexican-American union organizer Cesar Chavez and of Malala Yousafzai surviving an assassination attempt to advocate for female literacy. The world does not lack for stories of oppression and liberation that can capture the attention of a six-year-old. Q: That’s… huh. What stories might they hear in second and third grade? Egan gives examples, but I won’t list them here. He suggests we use a similar approach for each, except that we swap out the binary each year. He thinks “the struggle for security against danger” would work well for year two, and “the struggle for knowledge against ignorance” would work well for year three. (That year could have a lot of overlap with the science curriculum.) Q: Anything else, for history? Yes — they should get a sense of Big History. They should get some simple stories about the ice age, the Cenozoic, the age of dinosaurs, the Paleozoic, the origins of our solar system, and the Big Bang. (Because if the ancient Norse can tell their story of the beginning of the universe, by gum, we can tell ours, too.) To sum up Egan argues that the problem of early schooling is that it’s trivial — and it’s trivial because the dominant theories of educational psychology see children as lesser versions of adults. What else would we teach them, except dumbed-down versions of what adults learn? But children have certain cognitive strengths that schools aren’t making systematic use of. If we rebuild elementary schools on those strengths, we could turn schooling upside down. We could stop seeing the curriculum as a bag of information to impart, and start seeing it as a set of great stories to tell — and invite kids into. Kids could experience (both intellectually and emotionally) the great struggles of humanity and see that they can join in them. Students could experience the story of education as the beginning of a very real adventure. Egan’s elementary school: some skeptical questions Q: I’m not sure I’m understanding what you mean by “mental images”. Care to explain? It’s an interesting fact of human cognition that just a few words can whip up a complex mental experience. Egan doesn’t just mean what we might call “visual imagery” — the ability to hold, say, the image of a bespectacled, spat-wearing duck in your mind without seeing a photograph. He’s also including what psychologists call auditory imagery, olfactory imagery, gustatory imagery, and tactile imagery. Q: How could all of that be helpful in schools? Humanity has a built-in VR system, and we’re not using it! Egan invites us to pretend we’re teaching a class about the humble earthworm. We might list off facts — “earthworms are so many centimeters long, move through soil by means of their something-or-other muscles…” but he suggests we can evoke images, say, “of what it would be like to slither and push through the soil, hesitantly exploring in one direction then another, looking for easier passages, contracting and expanding our sequence of muscles segment by segment, and sensing moisture, scents, grubs, or whatever”. Those facts are now felt by the student; the knowledge has become part of them. And just a few words can spark a complex mental experience, one going beyond literal images to include imagined sounds, smells, tastes, and more. These experiences can feel real and stick with us. (That these mental images are so easy to evoke, and so meaningfully felt, feels something like the proverbial hundred dollar bill on the ground.) Q: How could metaphors be helpful? It really is interesting that so much of the “constructivist” turn in psychology — that is, the notion that children don’t absorb knowledge, but construct it — has continued to focus on logics-mathematical reasoning, when there’s been mounting evidence for decades that metaphors are more central. It’s not just that we use metaphors to better understand things we already know, we also use them to grasp new knowledge. What’s more, psychologists have devised tests to measure the skill at metaphor-making, and have given them to people of different ages. What they found was that eleven-year-olds make more metaphors (and higher quality metaphors) than do undergraduates — and that four-year-olds have both groups beat. Again, hundred dollar bills on the sidewalk. Q: Your talk of “binaries” has me worried — binaries like good/evil and male/female are the source of so many of our most pernicious stereotypes! Isn’t the purpose of education to get us beyond stuff like this? Yes, it is! Education is supposed to complicate our understanding — but that means we’ve gotta start somewhere, and binaries provide us a natural starting place. As an uncontroversial example, think about temperature. We all begin as babies by perceiving two temperatures — hot and cold. Later, we add on intermediate categories — warm and cool. (Note that the human body is the assumed mid-point to temperature. Binaries often work like this; “big” and “small” mean “bigger or smaller than me”, “nasty” and “kind” mean “nastier or kinder than I am, except when my brother is really asking for it”, and so on.) A good story (and an Egan-inspired elementary curriculum is, in a sense, nothing but good stories) will go further, and transform the binary. Toy Story is grounded in the binary of abandonment/belonging: at the beginning, the toy cowboy Woody belongs to his owner, and has his affection. Then a rival comes who threatens his belonging. In trying to get back to belonging, Woody is entirely lost — and to save the day, he has to come to a deeper understanding of what belonging means. Now, all lessons can’t be Pixar movies. But the good stories (especially in literature and history) will challenge and subvert the binaries they begin with. Q: I see the pattern of Egan drawing from “as many cultures as possible”. Why so many? Is this a political correctness thing? If it helps to think of it as such, then, sure! I don’t think Egan would have had a problem with that. But his ultimate reason for including so much diversity goes deeper. For Egan, including such world-wide diversity isn’t optional, and the answer to why is bound up in his definition of education. (Keep reading.) His answer also insists that we, whenever possible, also include stories from the Bible and Homeric epics (the Iliad and Odyssey). Q: Mmm, stories from the Bible aren’t going to fly in my local school! So be it! Egan doesn’t spend much time obsessing over the practicalities of… His interest is in describing what an ideal education might look like, if it were possible. Every lesson, every classroom, and every school is necessarily a compromise. Q: You make a big deal of poems. But isn’t poetry dead? An interesting contrast can be made to classical education, which also has kids read a lot of poems — they see knowing great poems as one of the marks of an educated person; again, for an academicist, it’s the information that transforms. Egan begs to disagree. Poems are important because they’re a wonderful way to train their cognitive strengths, like rhythm (poems are language fueling by thumping). We want to help kids learn to use this tool better, and a great way to do that is to help them recite poems that they’ve learned by heart. Q: “Learn by heart” — is that code for “memorize”?! It is! Egan is actually quite big on memorization — he points out that all the knowledge in the world can do nothing for a person once they’ve forgotten it. He didn’t, however, appreciate the academicist focus on memorizing without understanding (or at least enjoyment). Q: I’m still worried about the science curriculum, as you’re describing it. Can you allay my fears? Honestly, while I feel there’s something profoundly right to how Egan is describing early experiences of nature, I feel the same way. Note that there’s more science coming in the social studies curriculum. But if that’s still not enough, one could bring down aspects of the middle school science stage. Q: Anything else that Egan suggests we do in elementary school literature and language? He suggests that we help kids learn a second language! This is so obviously true (why do American schools typically wait until kids lose the ability to naturally absorb languages to start teaching languages?) he doesn’t belabor it, though. Q: You had mentioned that Egan’s vision seems more internal-focused. Should we be worried about that? While I strongly suspect that his curriculum would make kids more creative in any way you’d like to measure it, Egan wasn’t particularly interested in “creativity” — he was more about helping kids find the world interesting. I get the sense that he thinks kids will do things with minimal prompting once they’re loaded up with complex internal experiences. Q: I think I’m beginning to understand Egan — is he basically saying “make learning fun”? “Fun”, applied to education, is a dangerous word. Egan worries about the dangers of an emotionally unserious curriculum producing emotionally stunted adults. That doesn’t mean we need to tell students only “serious” stories — only that we treat the world honestly. “Disney-esque sentimentality is the exact emotional equivalent to intellectual contempt”. Q: But aren't some of these stories too dark for children who have themselves experienced oppression and disaster? Egan argues that these stories may be especially helpful to them — they can help them understand their struggles better, and give voice to them. Q: At the very start of this, you promised us “rationality”… but I’m not seeing rationality here! All this talk of “adventure” almost seems to go the opposite direction. What gives? Wait for it. But for a hint right now — Egan is fond of citing his fellow educational theorist Jerome Bruner, who claimed “any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development”. Bruner was criticized for that; his critics charged that he was ignoring learning differences and socio-economic realities. Egan thinks he was profoundly right. Part 3: A new kind of middle school What’s the matter with middle school? What was middle school like for you? In math, I recall a jumble of barely-related topics. In literature, I remember reading great literature — Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet — only in their dumbed-down summary formats. In social studies, I remember teachers proclaiming on the first day of class that unlike all of our previous history classes, this class wouldn’t be about names and dates… and then going on to memorize names and dates. And in science, I remember being forced to dissect a frog only to discover that frogs are — you guessed it — made of slimy frog parts. Your mileage may vary, but for a lot of us, middle school feels like getting booted out of the (in retrospect) Eden of elementary school, and like marking time before the serious studying of high school. It feels meaningless. In my favorite of his books, Egan calls so much middle school curricula “human deserts”, noting “we have created a system in which the importance of human emotions for meaning seems barely noticed”. Why so meaningless? If our dominant approaches to educational psychology fundamentally misinterpret younger children, Egan suggests, they basically throw up their hands when faced with pre-teens and teenagers. Mainstream schools begin to introduce vocational training to help lighten the load, and Maria Montessori famously suggests that adolescents should be sent to go run a farm. Egan is sympathetic to those responses, but points out that they don’t do much to lighten the load that the academic curriculum often becomes at this age. This feeling of meaninglessness, he argues, is utterly tragic — it comes just when a hunger for meaning blossoms in adolescents! We can see that hunger for meaning in their lives outside the classroom, where their interests ramp up into veritable obsessions. What are adolescents obsessed with? What might we see, if we become Jane Goodalls of early adolescence? First, teens are obsessed with gossip. The motivations of others — why did he do that? and what was he THINKING? — are hypothesized and talked to death. Second, that they’re pulled toward idealism. Many feel a dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and feel a romantic urge to make it a better place. They’re often lured into simplistic beliefs that promise to help them do that. Third, they love extremes: they want to find limits, and test them. Obviously, this can show up as risky behavior, but we can also see it in their love for the bizarre — note adolescents’ fascination in things like aliens, cryptids, and ghosts. (Egan loves pointing out that The Guinness Book of World Records is a perennial bestseller among kids at this age. How else would they find out who had the world’s longest fingernails?) Fourth, they gravitate toward heroes — people who push the edges of those limits. By celebrating heroes, they can vicariously share in their transcendence. Look for the posts hanging up in a teenager’s bedroom to guess what boundaries they feel most hemmed in by: athletes push against physical limits; a death metal guitarist might push against authority and conventional morality. An activist or entrepreneur might push against our dulled morality or our sense of what’s possible. Finally, we might spot teens taking up hobbies and making collections. Hobbies can be a way to identify yourself as part of a group against the rest of the world (“I’m the sort of person who goes bird-watching!”), and collections can be a way to climb the status ladder inside the community. Egan points out that a collection can also be a way to feel like you have control over what you’re discovering is a very big and complex world of detailed information (“I’ve spotted every one of the fifty most common birds of Texas — even the black-capped vireo!”) Egan’s insight is that these obsessions give teenagers a sense of meaning, and that we can use them as tools to make middle schools that overflow with meaning. From meaningless to meaning-soaked Again, Egan sketches out a new kind of curriculum subject-by-subject. Before, his trick was to ask where the subject first evolved out of; now, it’s to ask who first discovered or created the specific content we’re teaching. “All knowledge”, he writes, “is human knowledge. Everything we know is knowable through the lives of its inventors, discoverers, or users, and we can have access to that knowledge through the hopes, fears, or intentions that drove them”. Middle school math Who first discovered the concepts students learn in math? The answer, of course, is a wide diversity of curious men and women living across the world over the last few thousand years. Egan says: bring those people into how we teach math. If we used gossip and heroes to help students find it meaningful, what kind of math would result? When we teach the Pythagorean theorem, we should give a sense of who Pythagoras was — a cult-founder who worshiped numbers to find God, whose followers (according to a piece of ancient gossip) murdered one of their members who discovered irrational numbers! Q: Well, sure, that works for Pythagoras, but he’s a known nut job; surely most math doesn’t come from such interesting roots? When we teach the Cartesian coordinate system, students should meet Rene Descartes, the Calvinist French polymath who saw the possibility that math could decipher the world, if only we could unite algebra and geometry… and invented the xy-plane to do exactly that. When we teach scientific notation, we should call our students’ attention to the importance of the number zero, and tell them the story of the Pope who tried to introduce Arabic numerals to Christian Europe and may have been assassinated because of it. When we teach algebra, we should ask students why “algebra” is Arabic for “the fixing of bones”, and tell the story of what Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was up to. We could do this all day. Literally everything students learn in school was first invented or discovered by some interesting person who was struggling to accomplish something hard. To learn is to connect with those people, whether we know it or not. Egan says: help kids know it. Math has been dehumanized: re-humanize it. Q: So the math curriculum needs to become a history of math curriculum, and math teachers need to become history teachers? No, the content needn’t change. But with surprisingly little work, we can bring in the gossipy stories of heroes, and their obsessions can spread to students. Middle school science Who first discovered the things students learn about in science? If you’re thinking “scientists”, you’re only partially right. Most of the big-picture ideas that we now think of as “science” were discovered before the word “scientist” was invented, or the discipline was professionalized. Frequently, they were hatched by true amateurs, working in their free time, hungry to unlock the secrets of nature. We can use gossip and heroes to spread their obsessions to students just as we taught math, but Egan points out two twists. The first is that the content itself can take on heroic qualities: everything is impressive, when you look at it in a certain light. In an interview, Egan once said: “My book is an attempt to show that, indeed, everything in the world is wonderful, but that schools are designed almost to disguise this slightly shameful fact. We represent the world to children as mostly known and rather dull. The opposite is the case: we are surrounded by mystery, and what we know is fascinating”. What would even the most boring subjects look like, if we emphasized their heroic qualities? Well: What’s a tooth? Bone, wrapped in rock, surrounding tiny cells that your body feeds with blood. What’s a bar of chocolate? A crystal of jellyfish-shaped fat molecules stacked together; when you put it in your mouth you shake them apart into a writhing confusion. What’s the air around you? The bottom of a 10-mile-deep ocean; when you put your tongue over a soda straw and your Pepsi stops leaking out, it’s not because a “vacuum” is “sucking” it up, but because that ocean is squeezing it into your face. Again, we could do this all day! And in middle school science, we can. Everything in the world is wonderful; we can help students see this again and again. The second twist is that science is a subject rich in extremes. Here Egan introduces a concept that we’ll see crop up again: “15-minute segments”. To help us fit as much wonder as possible into a school day, he suggests we supplement the usual school subjects with a few quick lessons. To infuse science with extremes, he suggests we add on three: “human & natural records”, “extremes of animals & plants”, and “cosmology”. Middle school history Who first made the things students learn about in history? Why, the historical characters themselves! Since we’ve given kids a grounding in history in elementary school, now we can build on that, going through many of the same events as before, but in more depth, and more vividly. We’ll leverage the interest with other people’s inner lives to tell stories focusing on the perspectives of the people who made history — zooming in, when possible, on scandalous details. We’ll leverage the tool of idealism to choose historical characters who chafed against their surroundings, and understand what they were trying to accomplish. What was their vision of the world? What did they hope for, and what did they fear? Q: Isn’t the “great man” approach to history out of fashion? Egan’s approach doesn’t say that “great men” made history — it’s just leveraging gossip to help kids see history as something meaningful that can expand their own possibilities. “Early adolescence is commonly a time of intense and vivid emotional life, and also a time of deepest boredom and depression… [We] can give shape to the intermediate curriculum and offer the students a world that is rich, complex, varied, and as intense and vivid as their own emotional lives”. We also should add on another “15-minute segment” just to pump in as many biographies as possible, and from people who don’t always fit into the normal history curriculum. Call it “Brief Lives”, and throw in anyone who’s struggled to push some limit — Mary Wollstonecraft, Jesse Owen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the students’ great-aunts, whoever. As students get older, this can transition to “People and Their Ideas”. Here, we’d focus less on the details of the person’s life, and use it as a backdrop to showing how meaningful some of history’s most important ideas could be. Think Aristotle and syllogisms, Edward Said and orientalism, Confucius and propriety, Cornel West and race, Buddha on the four noble truths, Muhammad and the five pillars, Karl Marx and communism, Adam Smith and the invisible hand, Thomas Hobbes and the state of nature, John Locke and natural rights, Jeremy Bentham and utilitarianism, Thomas Aquinas on the sacraments, Martin Luther on faith, Voltaire on the freedom of speech… you get the idea. Q: Can you really get a profound understanding of utilitarianism in 15 minutes? Yes! The point of this segment isn’t to develop a systematic understanding of any one idea, it’s to introduce students to the exciting possibilities of human thought. (As a bonus, this might make them less likely to fall for the first ideology that they encounter later in life.) Diversity is important for this — as it is with culture. Throughout this, we should also be trying to expose students to as much cultural diversity as possible, because in high school, we’ll be trying to make sense of our society, and it’s impossible to do that unless we have something to compare it against. Middle school literature & language You might think that this subject would be easy — that middle school literature is already filled with “strong and clear narratives”, that it deals with “transcendent human qualities such as courage, love, and persistence”, that it focuses on “extremes of human experience”, that it examines “something strange and exotic”. You’d be right! Egan’s pretty happy with a bog-standard middle school literature curriculum, done well. In this part of the book, his spends most of his limited space suggesting three rather odd activities which could also be useful — especially for increasing students’ awareness of language, so they can use it better. The first is etymology — not, however, memorizing lists of roots, but in being told the entertaining backstories of specific words. Take the word “berserk”, for example — we now use it to mean something relatively mild (“if my mom catches me coming home late, she’ll go berserk”), but it comes from an old Norse word meaning “a raging warrior of superhuman strength”. And that’s because ber meant “bear” and serk meant “shirt”: soldiers of the bear cult would don the skin of a bear to, in their minds, transform into one — howling, foaming at the mouth, and gnawing the rims of their shields. (Most adults walk through life with little understanding that the words falling out of their mouths are entities, with their own back-stories. Communication is, at the very least, more interesting when we become aware of this.) The second is to add on another language to learn — not, this time, to become fluent in it, but just to become aware of how very different human languages can be. (For native English speakers, Sanskrit might work well, or Cantonese, or perhaps even ancient Egyptian. Again, the point isn’t for this language to be useful — it’s to explore diversity.) The final one is to study humor — not just jokes anymore, but comedy at its finest. Egan cites (at length!) Monty Python as a group of people who were particularly brilliant in their use of the English language. Examining their skits can lead us into not just an appreciation of semantics (the study of how meaning is made from smaller pieces, like etymology) but also pragmatics (the study of how meaning is made in social situations). Pretty heady stuff, for a conversation about a dead parrot. Part 4: A new kind of high school I’ll confess — I loved parts of high school… and among nerdy folks, I suspect I’m not alone. For some of us, this was a golden time. Even at my local public high school, I had access to academically thrilling classes — especially, in my last two years, advanced literature and history. I felt like I was finally understanding the ideas that mattered. In any case, Egan is quick to acknowledge that, at this level, the sort of education he advocates really is being practiced in some places. What he can add is an understanding of what makes it wonderful, how to make it even more wonderful, and how to make it wonderful for many, many more people. What’s the matter with high school? Far too often, even when high school classes are intellectual, they’re dry. For the majority of students, all this academic stuff is experienced as utterly lifeless, a mass of dead information to be squeezed inside one’s head for a test and then left to evaporate. Egan mocks the curriculum wars that seem to be a permanent feature of the teaching life; quoting the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, he says “while the academic left and right bicker over whether the curriculum is too traditional or too radical, they fail to recognize that most students absorb so little of academic culture that the bickering is largely irrelevant”. Why so dry? Egan suggests three reasons to explain this. First, because high school academic classes are too often masses of small details with no sign of the big picture. Second, because they’re typically slavishly disciplinary, and aren’t able to address the questions that span the disciplines. Third, because they’re often designed to bring students through what everyone is sure of, and hide away any controversies. In all of these, Egan suggests that what’s called “academics” in high school is too often a dim imitation of what real academics are actually practicing. There’s a fourth reason, though, and it’s probably the biggest of all — by the time they get to high school, most students haven’t actually learned that much! An academic approach is designed to connect small details into the big picture; for people who arrive in high school (and college) classes without having already collected much in their heads, academics are going to taste dry. (An implication of this for anyone trying to improve schools is that we might not want to start with high schools. If your goal is to create a new kind of academic learning, first start at elementary school — or barring that, middle school.) What motivates mad scientists? When we wanted to re-conceive the elementary and middle school curriculums, we looked at what students were already good at — kids’ cognitive strengths and adolescents’ obsessions. For this level it might be easier to look — for reasons that will become clear when we finally unveil Egan’s crazy-sounding definition of education — at the sorts of things that bring intellectuals joy. Q: Which intellectuals? Take your pick. Galileo, Einstein, Smith, Marx, Goodall, Chomsky, Curie… all the people who took to the life of the mind like fish to water. But that’s a lot to hold in my mind at once, so I’m just going to think about Doc Brown from Back to the Future: He was high on intellectualism I’ve never been there, but the brochure looks nice Let’s call these people “mad scientists”. And let’s pretend we once again took up our job of being primatologists, and snooped on these folks “in the wild” (“in the lab”? this is beginning to get recursive…)… what would we find motivating them? Asking simple questions, for one. (What is space? What is society? What is a human? What is language?) Building general schemes (big theories) that hold lots of evidence together. Finding their place in the cosmos. And (perhaps above all) seeking certainty. Once again, Egan suggests we use these as tools to remake the curriculum. From dry to daring What could a high school curriculum look like, if it were rebuilt on these tools? Once again, Egan has a trick. This time, it’s to ask what fights have driven the development of each of these fields forward — and how we can help students enter them. First, a mini-segment! Intellectuals invented the academic disciplines to better pursue the life of the mind, but the disciplines can get in the way. Some of the most important intellectual discoveries that could help students are too big to fit into any of the disciplines. We need a place to introduce them plainly. Egan proposes another mini-segment — again, just 15 minutes a day, a few times a week — called “Metaknowledge”. Q: Isn’t that already in the International Baccalaureate program? Yes, he acknowledges that he’s borrowing from that! This segment would introduce ideas that would enrich student thinking across the disciplines: game theory, cognitive biases, systems thinking, Bayesian reasoning, epistemology, ethics, logic, cultural evolution, and so on. High school literature How can we help students enter the big fights of literature? Intellectuals of a literary bent — professors, critics, poets, novelists — delight in arguing over literature like rabbis arguing over the Talmud. Take, just for one example, the debates over Shakespeare’s character of Ophelia. Does she love Hamlet, or is she a victim of his emotional abuse? Is she truly insane, or is she acting? Is she passive, or is she pulling the strings? Oceans of ink have been spilled arguing over questions like these; our students can, perhaps, spill a few ounces more. The usefulness of arguing literature, for Egan, isn’t that it’s oh-so important for educated adults to know a lot about Ophelia. (This, again, was where the academicists went wrong — in thinking that being educated was about getting the best knowledge in your head.) Rather, arguing over literature is a training arena for the all-important intellectual move of this kind of understanding: building general schemes out of evidence, and struggling with anomalies. One person, for example, might hold that Ophelia is insane, and cite all sorts of obvious evidence — her father just was murdered by her lover, she rants nonsense while (bizarrely) handing out flowers to friends… But then he’s challenged when he reads a scholar pointing out that, to people in Elizabethan England, types of flowers have symbolic meanings. How does he deal with that? He could ignore it, claiming it an over-reading of Shakespeare. (Sometimes a flower is just a flower!) Or he could address it, complicating his own scheme. This intellectual work is best done with other people, who are incentivized to challenge your understanding of something, and go back and forth, building competing models and calling attention to anomalies. This process — the “dialectic” — pops up again and again in the academic disciplines. It’s the center of how understanding works, at this stage. And the nice thing about practicing it on literature is that, more so than in history or science, the evidence is shared knowledge — it’s right in front of everyone, written out. But there are other ways literature class can be helpful to the general life of the mind. Egan also suggests that we’ll want to specially include literature that helps students understand complex ideas. Camus, Orwell, Borges, Calvino might be particularly helpful here… and I imagine that genres like science fiction and magical realism might be particularly useful, too. (Note, though, that once again none of this requires a radical remaking of the curriculum, or of the canon of texts that we traditionally assign to high schoolers.) Q: Oh yes, the canon — what does Egan have to say about the canon wars? When he wrote Educated Mind in the nineties, the long-brewing canon war was approaching its inevitable apocalyptic climax. On one side of this Plain of Megiddo were the pro-canon traditionalists, arguing that we should keep assigning the texts that had been argued over for centuries. Facing them were the anti-canon reformers, arguing the standard texts over-represented the perspective of dead white men. Onto the middle of the plain rides Egan on a white horse, who bellows above the din: “I’VE GOT A BUSLOAD OF HIGH SCHOOLERS WHO WANTS TO JOIN IN, EVERYONE OKAY WITH THAT?” To do so, he says, we need to give students the arguments from both sides. So, for example, bell hooks, Edward Said, and China Achebe should be on the syllabus, as should Allan Bloom, Mortimer Adler, and Diane Ravitch. And of course they should actually read the texts cherished by both sides, too, so they can argue better. High school history How could entering the big fights help us reinvent high school history? First, we might look for dueling histories. It’s time for students to get into historiography and understand that history isn’t just what happened, it’s something we make. We might help kids read chapters from Howard Zinn’s socialist history of America alongside the corresponding chapters from Paul Johnson’s conservative history of America. How could big questions help? We want to help students see how various people have disagreed over some of the big questions of what human history is, at its most basic. We can have them compare Steven Pinker’s theory of civilization’s progress (Better Angels of our Nature) with Yuvah Noah Harari’s theory of civilization’s woes (Sapiens). We could have them compare so-and-so’s account of human history as an ever-expanding unlatching of energy sources with Robert Wright’s account of human history as unlatching more and more positive-sum games (Nonzero). What role could the lure of certainty play? To help them grow their skills at finding anomalies, we might help them work through pseudo-histories and conspiracy theories. Q: Conspiracy theories! Oh, come now, you’re playing with fire. Well, the world is on fire. Our students will spend the rest of their lives encountering terrible-but-beguiling arguments about how the world works; if we don’t prepare them for those, what have we been doing? So we should introduce arguments that the Moon landing was a hoax, that the Illuminati founded America, that aliens built the pyramids, and so on. At no point can we demean students for falling for any of these theories — the job of a teacher at this stage, Egan writes, is to support students in their reasoning even when their beliefs are offensive and stupid, gradually offering anomalies. There’s no way out of bad theories except through them. By the time students graduate, we want them to have wrestled with terrible ideas and — for a while — lost. They need to experience what it’s like to change their minds about something they felt strongly about. They need to viscerally realize, in Feynman’s famous phrase, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” High school natural science How could entering the big fights reinvent high school science? At present, so much of the high school science curriculum — especially “honors” classes — is oriented toward helping amass details. (The same is true of 100-level university classes, which famously “survey” the field to prepare for more advanced studies. I always thought this was stupid — of the huge lecture hall of students in my Geology 100 class, how many went on to take even a second course?) The meaty debates that propel science forward are held back. Egan complains: “The more general and speculative theories in any discipline are treated like an unconventional and disreputable relation who, even though the children find her exciting and entertaining, must be kept hidden from view, her very existence denied as long as possible”. This is a stupid approach — students with an adventurous bent are convinced that science isn’t for them. Egan proposes, simply, that we flip this, and organize high school science classes around the big debates. We shouldn’t be ashamed at how, well, adolescent this might look: “the dramatic, speculative, and contentious theories will be up-front in the early years of the [high school] curriculum”. What might those be? Egan doesn’t give a list, but we can spitball some: instead of explaining what “matter” is from the top down, a physics class could problematize “matter” by following the debates over the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and by becoming familiarized with the various interpretations of quantum mechanics
Inline links: In a biting essay, In my favorite of his books, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ywm7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff9c9b1ed-a260-4117-8679-0b5a32339748_1600x574.png, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WPeH!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F62ea55f8-0458-484f-be45-7a011d050756_1600x625.png, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FPXt!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb017fc37-3151-4556-87f1-31a097cf7594_1600x574.png
Pagliacci1 mentions across 1 issues

Pagliacci is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 01, 2025 and April 01, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "hearing Enrico Caruso sing Pagliacci". It most often appears alongside Afghanistan, AI, anime.

Reference entry
Pagliacci
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
April 01, 2025
Last seen
April 01, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
The Colors Of Her Coat
April 01, 2025 · Original source
As I read Hoel’s post, I thought of ultramarine blue. But also, I thought of the first phonographic records. In 1890, hearing Enrico Caruso sing Pagliacci might be the highlight of your life, the crowning glory of a months-long trip to Italy and back. By 1910, you could hear Enrico Caruso without leaving your house. You could hear him twenty times a day if you wanted. The real thing in Naples would just be more Caruso.
Pavement1 mentions across 1 issues

Pavement is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 23, 2021 and August 23, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "It's a band shirt fyi – Pavement Ist Rad". It most often appears alongside 1002 N St. NW, Washington DC, 20001, 1022 High St, Madison, 210 Ardmore Avenue.

Reference entry
Pavement
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 23, 2021
Last seen
August 23, 2021
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Meetups Everywhere 2021: Times And Places
August 23, 2021 · Original source
GULF BREEZE, FL (RSVP) Contact: Christian, christian[dot]h[dot]williams[at]gmail[dot]com Time: 5:30 PM, Sunday, August 29 Location: The outdoor deck at The Grey Taproom. I'll be wearing a blue t-shirt with a crudely drawn wizard on it that says Pavement Ist Rad. It's a band shirt fyi. Coordinates: https://w3w.co/legroom.trustees.feather Notes: If no one emails me saying they'll be there, I won't be there.
Inline links: RSVP, https://w3w.co/legroom.trustees.feather
Philip Glass1 mentions across 1 issues

Philip Glass is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 23, 2021 and September 23, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "certain pieces of high status music (cf. Mozart vs. Philip Glass)". It most often appears alongside Art Deco skyscrapers, Britain, Cardiff Castle.

Reference entry
Philip Glass
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 23, 2021
Last seen
September 23, 2021
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Whither Tartaria?
September 23, 2021 · Original source
Older art tends to have bright colors, ornate details, realistic representations, technical skill, and be instantly visually appealing to the average person. Newer art tends to be more abstract, require less obvious skill, and have less direct appeal. Although it doesn't fit in meme format, I would carry the analogy to poetry (cf. The Fairie Queene vs. William Carlos Williams) and certain pieces of high status music (cf. Mozart vs. Philip Glass). Obviously these are broad generalizations vulnerable to cherry-picking; I'm mostly relying on your common sense here.
Prince1 mentions across 1 issues

Prince is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between June 03, 2022 and June 03, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "androgynous appeal embodied by musicians such as Prince or Michael Jackson". It most often appears alongside 18th century, A Eunuch's Dream, Alessandro Moreschi.

Reference entry
Prince
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
June 03, 2022
Last seen
June 03, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Castrato
June 03, 2022 · Original source
Now that my conscious is clear, let’s turn to the other end of the spectrum: those rock star castrati like Farinelli who brushed shoulders with the upper crust of society. Feldman spends a lot of time in the book analyzing the connection between the castrati and the aristocracy. In one sense, it’s not very surprising that the rich and powerful wanted to associate with famous musicians—it’s the same thing we see today. It went far beyond that however; in many cases castrati took on a unique symbolic role in serving as a charismatic proxy of royal power. To understand how and why this was so, we should note something that’s only been mentioned in passing: the greatest castrati rose to fame because of their performances in operas, and were thus not just singers but also actors who commonly portrayed kings, princes, and military heroes in their starring roles. Furthermore, all of this was happening at a time (the 18th century) when the monarchical order was starting to come under suspicion and a new insecurity was gripping rulers across Europe. Against this backdrop, we can see why royals gravitated towards the castrati—the fame and adulation that they garnered for their portrayals of heroic kings was something that was increasingly elusive for actual not-so-heroic kings. As they did for the Catholic church, castrati served as a kind of aesthetic-emotional technology, one that made royal power “immediate, intimate, empathetic, charming, and palpable”.
Tosi and Domenico Cecchi (Il Cortona, ca. 1650-55 to 1717-18) carried out delicate assignments for Joseph I; and De Castris (ca. 1650-1724) in the early eighteenth century played the hopeless role of intermediary between Cosimo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his estranged son until the whole thing blew up and led to his exile from Florence to Rome, where he continued to carry out diplomatic missions for the Grand Duke. These positions and actions paled by comparison with Farinelli’s, but Melani’s in the previous century were equally flamboyant, if transitory and sometimes shady (he accepted favors from different princes left and right, and in 1667 he claimed chief responsibility for the election of Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi as Pope Clement IX). [pg. 170]
The role of castrati as sex symbols for both men and women has naturally drawn comparisons to the androgynous appeal embodied by musicians such as Prince or Michael Jackson (“Travelers report how coquettish young castrati in Rome would tie their plump bosoms in alluring brassieres and offer “to serve… equally well as a woman or as a man.”, from the castrati as better lovers article). However, sensational tales of castrati’s sexual prowess obscure a much more depressing story, one of unrequited love and romantic obstruction. With one or two exceptions, nearly all attempts to move beyond discreet dalliances to public relationships and marriage were shot down by the parents of the bride and authorities.
Rockin’ Robin1 mentions across 1 issues

Rockin’ Robin is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "listening to him trying desperately, pleadingly, to make Alexa play Rockin’ Robin". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
Rockin’ Robin
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Often it’s the songs. They like songs, but rarely the same ones, and their tastes can change mid-note. I try my best to keep up, but after switching back and forth between a pair of songs three or four times, as Kai (it’s always Kai) vacillates over which one he wants, sometimes I give up and let him scream it out. He dreams of one day breaking free of his dependence on me and learning to command Alexa himself. In this he is constantly frustrated - he can’t pronounce the incantations with the required precision. Some of the hardest I’ve ever laughed was listening to him trying desperately, pleadingly, to make Alexa play Rockin’ Robin. “Asasa, play Rabu Rabu! Asasa, play Rogu Roku! Asasa, play Ruku Roobu!” Alas, his beloved refuses to so much as acknowledge his existence.
Selling England by the Pound1 mentions across 1 issues

Selling England by the Pound is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 15, 2022 and July 15, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "I’ve listened to one new album this year. It was Selling England by the Pound". It most often appears alongside 2012, Adam Smith, As I Lay Dying.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 15, 2022
Last seen
July 15, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Righteous Mind
July 15, 2022 · Original source
I didn’t read The Righteous Mind for a long time after I knew about it. This was partly because I don’t get through much in the way of new reading material. A friend of mine told me yesterday that he’d read something like 130 new books this year. That was on February 20th. I’ve read one, and it was The Righteous Mind. Another friend releases Spotify playlists every Friday of the greatest hits from the many new albums he’s listened to that week. I’ve listened to one new album this year. It was Selling England by the Pound, which he recommended. It was my first foray into Genesis and I loved it. I now have to keep telling him that, no, I haven’t listened to any more Genesis or Peter Gabriel since then, but I’m sure I’ll get round to it within the year.
Sex Pistols1 mentions across 1 issues

Sex Pistols is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 15, 2022 and July 15, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "like it was a Sex Pistols concert in the 70s". It most often appears alongside 2012, Adam Smith, As I Lay Dying.

Reference entry
Sex Pistols
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 15, 2022
Last seen
July 15, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Righteous Mind
July 15, 2022 · Original source
And that outrage is not just the classic outrage of liberals towards conservatives that Haidt would predict: the outrage on behalf of those harmed (because harm is what liberals care about above all else in his model). Outrage against Trump was often outrage against the violation of the sacred. The very human being of Trump was cast as disgusting and dirty. He revelled in it and conservatives lapped it up. Conservatives luxuriated in violations of the sacred experienced as liberation, like it was a Sex Pistols concert in the 70s.
Soulja’s Story1 mentions across 1 issues

Soulja’s Story is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 22, 2025 and August 22, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "listening to “Soulja’s Story”, a song with these lyrics". It most often appears alongside Andes, Anti, Anti-suyu.

Reference entry
Soulja’s Story
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 22, 2025
Last seen
August 22, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Review: Ollantay
August 22, 2025 · Original source
And in 1992, Ronald Ray Howard was pulled over outside of Houston while listening to “Soulja’s Story”, a song with these lyrics:
Inline links: Ronald Ray Howard
Soviet anthem1 mentions across 1 issues

Soviet anthem is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 04, 2023 and August 04, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "In 1991, the Soviet anthem had been scrapped". It most often appears alongside Alexander Alexandrov, Berlin, City of Leningrad.

Reference entry
Soviet anthem
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 04, 2023
Last seen
August 04, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
More Memorable Passages From "The Man Without A Face"
August 04, 2023 · Original source
The [new post-Soviet Russian] national anthem posed an even more implacable challenge. In 1991, the Soviet anthem had been scrapped in favor of “The Patriotic Song”, a lively tune by the 19th-century composer Mikhail Glinka. But this anthem had no lyrics; moreover, lyrics proved impossible to write: the rhythmic line dictated by the music was so short that any attempt to set words to it - and Russian words tend to be long - lent it a definite air of absurdity. A number of media outlets ran contests to choose the lyrics to go with the Glinka, but the entries, invariably, were suitable only for the entertainment of the editorial staff, and little by little chipped away at the legitimacy of the anthem.
In the fall of 2000, a group of Russian Olympic athletes met with Putin and complained that the lack of a singable anthem demoralized them in competition and made their victories feel hollow. The old Soviet anthem had been so much better this way, they said. So the once recycled Stalinist anthem was again taken out of storage. The children’s poet, now eighty-seven, wrote new lyrics to replace the old lyrics. The refrain now praised “the wisdom of centuries, born by the people.” Putin introduced a bill in parliament and the new old anthem was handily approved.
Star Spangled Banner1 mentions across 1 issues

Star Spangled Banner is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 13, 2026 and January 13, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "There’s music, but it’s the Star Spangled Banner, again and again, on repeat". It most often appears alongside Adeline, Aella Simposium, Altman.

Reference entry
Star Spangled Banner
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 13, 2026
Last seen
January 13, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
SOTA On Bay Area House Party
January 13, 2026 · Original source
If anyone asks, you think it deserves a medium score. There’s alcohol, but it’s bottles of rubbing alcohol with NOT FOR DRINKING written all over them. There’s music, but it’s the Star Spangled Banner, again and again, on repeat. You’re not sure whether the copies of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies strewn about the room are some kind of subversive decorative theme, or just came along with the house. At least there are people. Lots of people, actually. You’ve never seen so many people at one of these before. It takes only a few seconds to spot someone you know.
StarCraft1 mentions across 1 issues

StarCraft is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 16, 2024 and July 16, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "games like StarCraft". It most often appears alongside auditory cortex, Big Bang, cerebellum.

Reference entry
StarCraft
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 16, 2024
Last seen
July 16, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Consciousness As Recursive Reflections
July 16, 2024 · Original source
The best e-Athletes can enter 350 to 400 actions per minute into games like StarCraft, and that doesn’t even count perceptions that do not lead to one of those actions.
T-Pain1 mentions across 1 issues

T-Pain is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between February 07, 2024 and February 07, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Lonely Island, laughing in a crowd alone as they brought out ... T-Pain". It most often appears alongside California, cerebral palsy, England.

Reference entry
T-Pain
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
February 07, 2024
Last seen
February 07, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
You Don't Hate Polyamory, You Hate People Who Write Books
February 07, 2024 · Original source
In the mornings, I sunbathed and walked to Whole Foods and FaceTimed my new boyfriend, feeling the gap between England and California close. In the afternoons, I went to the comedy festival, where I felt more me than I had in months, indulging the person I was and the things I liked. One night, I watched comedy band The Lonely Island, laughing in a crowd alone as they brought out Michael Bolton and T-Pain.
Taylor Swift1 mentions across 1 issues

Taylor Swift is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 16, 2023 and August 16, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "My favorite things are listening to Taylor Swift (<3 Taylor 4-ever!)". It most often appears alongside Alice, Attack On Titan, Bali.

Reference entry
Taylor Swift
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 16, 2023
Last seen
August 16, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
In Defense Of Describable Dating Preferences
August 16, 2023 · Original source
Hiiiiii! I’m Cindy, 29 yo! My favorite things are listening to Taylor Swift (<3 Taylor 4-ever!) and going out with my friends, maybe I go out a little too much lol. I want a man who treats me like a princess and isn’t afraid of a girl who knows what she wants lol. Good taste in bars and clubs is a must. If you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best.
Testify1 mentions across 1 issues

Testify is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between June 23, 2023 and June 23, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "“Testify,” Rage Against the Machine’s 2000 banger, showed Bush and Gore repeatedly morphing into the same person". It most often appears alongside 1965, 1968 Summer Olympics, 2000 election.

Reference entry
Testify
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
June 23, 2023
Last seen
June 23, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: Public Citizens
June 23, 2023 · Original source
“Testify,” Rage Against the Machine’s 2000 banger, showed Bush and Gore repeatedly morphing into the same person But it really seems like another piece of the puzzle is that Nader just wanted attention. Despite his unassuming nature, he loved the spotlight, and he’d been in it a lot less since the late seventies, when his career had peaked. Now here he was, on TV all the time and being treated like a major candidate. He bragged to Jim Lehrer that he was qualified to be president because “no one has sued the government more than me.”
The Daddy Song1 mentions across 1 issues

The Daddy Song is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Daddy Song, in contrast, is some kind of rap-adjacent song by a nubile young woman". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
The Daddy Song
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
We’ve learned songs we could never previously have imagined. The Mommy Song is an unbearably saccharine song about how much everyone loves Mommy, so overdone that the real Mommy begs me to make it stop. The Daddy Song, in contrast, is some kind of rap-adjacent song by a nubile young woman for whom “daddy” is clearly a euphemism, and is equally banned in our household. The Doggy Song is by an artist called “The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over And Over” - he must be really raking in those $0.001 checks.
Inline links: “The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over And Over”
The Funeral of Yu1 mentions across 1 issues

The Funeral of Yu is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 01, 2023 and September 01, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "ordered his troops to sing 'The Funeral of Yu.'". It most often appears alongside 536 BC, ACX, Ai Jiang.

Reference entry
The Funeral of Yu
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 01, 2023
Last seen
September 01, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: Zuozhuan
September 01, 2023 · Original source
As they were about to do battle, Gongsun Xia ordered his troops to sing “The Funeral of Yu.” Chen Ni ordered all his troops to hold jade in their mouths. Giving orders to his troops, Gongsun Hui said, “A length of rope for each man: in Wu they cut their hair short.” Dongguo Shu said, “If I go to war three times, I am certain to die. With this it comes to three.” He sent someone to pay his respects to Xian Shi with a zither, saying, “I will not see you again.” Chen Shu said, “In this march, I will hear the drums alone. I will not hear the bells.”
The Lonely Island1 mentions across 1 issues

The Lonely Island is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between February 07, 2024 and February 07, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "One night, I watched comedy band The Lonely Island". It most often appears alongside California, cerebral palsy, England.

Reference entry
The Lonely Island
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
February 07, 2024
Last seen
February 07, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
You Don't Hate Polyamory, You Hate People Who Write Books
February 07, 2024 · Original source
In the mornings, I sunbathed and walked to Whole Foods and FaceTimed my new boyfriend, feeling the gap between England and California close. In the afternoons, I went to the comedy festival, where I felt more me than I had in months, indulging the person I was and the things I liked. One night, I watched comedy band The Lonely Island, laughing in a crowd alone as they brought out Michael Bolton and T-Pain.
The Mommy Song1 mentions across 1 issues

The Mommy Song is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Mommy Song is an unbearably saccharine song about how much everyone loves Mommy". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
The Mommy Song
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
We’ve learned songs we could never previously have imagined. The Mommy Song is an unbearably saccharine song about how much everyone loves Mommy, so overdone that the real Mommy begs me to make it stop. The Daddy Song, in contrast, is some kind of rap-adjacent song by a nubile young woman for whom “daddy” is clearly a euphemism, and is equally banned in our household. The Doggy Song is by an artist called “The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over And Over” - he must be really raking in those $0.001 checks.
Inline links: “The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over And Over”
The Mountain Goats1 mentions across 1 issues

The Mountain Goats is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 06, 2024 and September 06, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "listened to The Mountain Goats, and told me to read Infinite Jest". It most often appears alongside #MeToo, 21st century political dogmatism, Advanced Tax.

Reference entry
The Mountain Goats
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 06, 2024
Last seen
September 06, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Pale King
September 06, 2024 · Original source
In short, I became a huge Wallace stan. I began devouring his essays and short stories, name-dropping him constantly, even pinned a David Foster Wallace button to my backpack. I was a little discomfited by talk of the supposed obnoxiousness of his fans: “David Foster Wallace lit-bros,” who “played ultimate frisbee, rallied against multinational beverage corporations, listened to The Mountain Goats, and told me to read Infinite Jest.”
Inline links: supposed obnoxiousness of his fans
The Notorious B.I.G.1 mentions across 1 issues

The Notorious B.I.G. is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 03, 2021 and March 03, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "you can listen to The Notorious B.I.G. rap H.P. Lovecraft’s “Nemesis”". It most often appears alongside 9-11, Argentina, Austin Allred.

Reference entry
The Notorious B.I.G.
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 03, 2021
Last seen
March 03, 2021
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Links For March
March 03, 2021 · Original source
15: Speech synthesis software has reached the point where you can listen to The Notorious B.I.G. rap H.P. Lovecraft’s “Nemesis”, in case for some reason that is a thing you want to do:
Inline links: you can listen to The Notorious B.I.G. rap H.P. Lovecraft’s “Nemesis”
The Patriotic Song1 mentions across 1 issues

The Patriotic Song is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 04, 2023 and August 04, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "the Soviet anthem had been scrapped in favor of “The Patriotic Song”, a lively tune by the 19th-century composer Mikhail Glinka". It most often appears alongside Alexander Alexandrov, Berlin, City of Leningrad.

Reference entry
The Patriotic Song
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 04, 2023
Last seen
August 04, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
More Memorable Passages From "The Man Without A Face"
August 04, 2023 · Original source
The [new post-Soviet Russian] national anthem posed an even more implacable challenge. In 1991, the Soviet anthem had been scrapped in favor of “The Patriotic Song”, a lively tune by the 19th-century composer Mikhail Glinka. But this anthem had no lyrics; moreover, lyrics proved impossible to write: the rhythmic line dictated by the music was so short that any attempt to set words to it - and Russian words tend to be long - lent it a definite air of absurdity. A number of media outlets ran contests to choose the lyrics to go with the Glinka, but the entries, invariably, were suitable only for the entertainment of the editorial staff, and little by little chipped away at the legitimacy of the anthem.
The Poop Song1 mentions across 1 issues

The Poop Song is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "a cottage industry among mildly scummy musicians in creating songs ... especially “The Poop Song”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
The Poop Song
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Every time the children learn a new word, they test whether it’s a song. When they got into fish, they asked for the fish song. When they saw a butterfly, they asked about a butterfly song. We relay these requests to Alexa, who comes through magnificently - the algorithm knows we want children’s songs related to a certain concept, and can usually find one. I recently learned that there is, in fact, a cottage industry among mildly scummy musicians in creating songs with whatever title they expect young children to ask for - especially “The Poop Song” - and raking in the $0.001 that Jeff Bezos hands out per Alexa impression from mildly mischievous two-year-olds.
Inline links: especially “The Poop Song”
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star1 mentions across 1 issues

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 02, 2025 and September 02, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as ""Or what about music? There are people who have gone their whole lives without realizing that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"". It most often appears alongside Baa Baa B, Dwarkesh Patel, Education PhD.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 02, 2025
Last seen
September 02, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful Of Him?
September 02, 2025 · Original source
Dwarkesh Patel: Consider linguistics. Any human who's ever used English has had tens of thousands of chances to discover the Royal Order of Adjectives - the rule where adjectives must go opinion-size-age-color-origin-purpose, such that "a beautiful little antique blue Italian hunting cap" is fine, but "an Italian hunting blue little antique beautiful cap" is almost gibberish. But most people are surprised to hear this - they’ve never thought about it before, they would tell you that adjectives can go in any order you want. Or what about music? There are people who have gone their whole lives without realizing that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and the ABC Song are all the same tune.
Universal Love, Said The Cactus Person1 mentions across 1 issues

Universal Love, Said The Cactus Person is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 04, 2024 and April 04, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "selection from my Universal Love, Said The Cactus Person". It most often appears alongside Aaron Peskin, ACLU, AGI And The Efficient Market Hypothesis.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
April 04, 2024
Last seen
April 04, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Links For April 2024
April 04, 2024 · Original source
…and a selection from my Universal Love, Said The Cactus Person:
Inline links: Universal Love, Said The Cactus Person
Wagner1 mentions across 1 issues

Wagner is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 04, 2023 and August 04, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "discovered the music of Wagner". It most often appears alongside Academy’s School of Architecture, Adolf, Adolf Hitler.

Reference entry
Wagner
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 04, 2023
Last seen
August 04, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
August 04, 2023 · Original source
For the next few years, Hitler lived with his mother, enjoying his newfound freedom. He became an enthusiastic reader, discovered the music of Wagner, and had long arguments with his friends about everything wrong with the world. He later called these the happiest years of his life.
Whale Did Swallow Jonah1 mentions across 1 issues

Whale Did Swallow Jonah is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Alexa gave us a Christian kids’ song called Whale Did Swallow Jonah". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Alexa almost never fails. One time, after our babysitter Jonah left, the children demanded “the Jonah song”. I figured there was no way, but Alexa gave us a Christian kids’ song called Whale Did Swallow Jonah. The twins were maybe 90% fascinated, 10% concerned. "Whale swallow Jonah?" Kai asked. I tried to explain that this wasn’t Jonah the babysitter, but I don't know if it sunk in.
Wheels On The Bus1 mentions across 1 issues

Wheels On The Bus is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between January 09, 2026 and January 09, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Wheels On The Bus is “bus song”". It most often appears alongside Alexa, bro culture, Choo Choo Train.

Reference entry
Wheels On The Bus
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
January 09, 2026
Last seen
January 09, 2026
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Permanent Emergency
January 09, 2026 · Original source
Unable to pronounce the titles of most songs, our children have developed their own monikers. Mister Golden Sun is “sun song”. Wheels On The Bus is “bus song”. Here Comes The Sun is . . . also “sun song”, but don’t worry, if you choose the wrong one they’ll let you know by screaming. Dayenu is “die die die song”, which is awkward in the wrong company.
Wu-Tang Clan1 mentions across 1 issues

Wu-Tang Clan is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 19, 2022 and August 19, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "On " Reunited " from the second Wu-Tang Clan album". It most often appears alongside 1587, 1587, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline.

Reference entry
Wu-Tang Clan
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 19, 2022
Last seen
August 19, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: 1587, A Year Of No Significance
August 19, 2022 · Original source
The late rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard likewise once boasted “I don't walk! I get carried!” (On "Reunited" from the second Wu-Tang Clan album.) There is, of course, no end to the similarities between Ol' Dirty Bastard and the emperors of Japan, not least of which is their arrogation of divine status to themselves - to wit, the imperial Japanese claim of direct genealogical descent from the goddess of the sun and Ol' Dirty Bastard's alternate noms-de-rap of Osiris and Big Baby Jesus.
Inline links: Reunited
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy1 mentions across 1 issues

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy is a recurring music project in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between July 26, 2024 and July 26, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "Homer missed the Moon Landing to listen to “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.”". It most often appears alongside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 2020 election, 2024 book review contest.

Reference entry
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
July 26, 2024
Last seen
July 26, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Your Book Review: Real Raw News
July 26, 2024 · Original source
But I don’t just need to guess based on comments and donation messages. In this realm, I can appeal to personal experience. I work in the broader world of American right-of-center politics, and we encounter Real Raw News believers constantly. We get emails from people who confidently insist the public-facing news of the day is fake, and the truth about the events at Gitmo will soon be revealed. At public Q&A events, we’ve fielded questions from genuinely nervous and worried people, who complain about their friends losing hope and being blackpilled by the news, and want to know why there hasn’t been more effort to share what’s “really” going on. A friend of mine who served in the Trump administration has described attending parties where, when he mentioned looking for a post-admin job, he received knowing looks and wink-wink-nudge-nudge remarks from people signaling they knew what was “really” going on. Somehow and someway, a lot of people believe or half-believe or badly want to believe this stuff. And where a lot of people do anything, there are takeaways to be found! In my three-plus years of reading all news that is both real and raw, here is what I’ve found. Conspiracies Evolve Like Comic Book Lore In his review of the Alexander Romance, Scott remarked that figures like Alexander the Great or Hercules were, essentially, the pre-modern versions of Batman: Stories about them are a genre, with countless different variations and stylistic choices that evolve over time, with just a few set principles guiding all of them. The Real Raw Newsiverse, and other modern conspiracy theories, also function like comic book lore. Just like Batman, and just like Hercules, “Donald Trump” has become a genre. Fake news stories about him and his Deep State enemies have a few core premises (adrenochrome, pedophile cabals, there is a Plan and we should Trust It) but endless room for variation past that point. Fans of comic books, soap operas, or The Simpsons might be familiar with something TVTropes calls “comic book time.” Certain facets of a fictional reality are locked in place, and with the passage of time everything else is gradually retconned to maintain the status quo. In season 2 of the Simpsons, Homer and Marge started dating in 1974, in Season 3 Marge becomes pregnant with Bart in 1980 (after a date watching The Empire Strikes Back), and in season 4 it’s revealed that Homer missed the Moon Landing to listen to “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.” Tragically, though, The Simpsons kept going past season 10, and if Homer was 18 in 1974 that would make him eligible for a full Social Security benefit today. So in 2008, the continuity changed so that Homer was in a Nineties grunge band just before marrying Marge8. The Simpsons writers have avoided rejiggering the canon since, but if they do, they’ll have to confront the fact that 30-something Homer and Marge are now millennials, and in a decade they’ll be members of Gen Z. You may live to see a Simpsons flashback episode about Homer and Marge living as hipsters in Brooklyn during the 2010s (truly, we live in cursed times.) But the same phenomenon exists in the world of conspiracies. Instead of a consistent, elaborate canon, what we have is a few story beats with a lot of customization and the occasional retcon. When Baxter first began posting his stories, a core part of the narrative was that Donald Trump still secretly had all the powers of the presidency and was still in command of the entire U.S. military command. Early articles promised that Trump’s apparent loss of office was only a temporary ruse, necessary to expose the worst elements of the Deep State, but that Trump’s triumphal return to power would take place by July 4, 2021. The national media might have put on a song and dance suggesting otherwise, but behind the scenes, loyal military forces were the real ones in control. This control even extended to the military helpfully house-sitting the White House and not letting Biden use it. Despite his illegitimate victory, Biden met an unwelcome surprise when he arrived at the White House on January 20. Instead of getting a ceremonial greeting, he and Kamala Harris were stopped by National Guard and U.S. Marines at the barbwire fence encircling the White House. The Marines informed them that the military had assumed control of the Executive Branch and instructed them to vacate the area. When Harris belligerently said, “Move aside, we’re president now,” the Marines locked the gate. […] To avoid shame and maintain an illusion of power, Biden’s people concocted a ruse, supported by his media allies, to deceive the American public into believing he had won a fair election and had moved into the White House on schedule. Inside Actor/Producer Tyler Perry’s 300-acre Atlanta estate sits a three-story stucco replica of the commander-in-chief’s residence, which he originally built as a set piece for a television show. […] Although the replicant White House is built to 80% scale, on television and in images it’s indistinguishable from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Biden and Harris have been using the facsimile to feign leadership and impose despotic rule on the nation. Of course, July 4 came and went, with Trump’s return nowhere to be seen, so the canon simply updated: In the new narrative, the military had been conducting a year-long election fraud audit on Trump’s behalf, the results were nearly ready for public release, and Trump’s return would simply be “swift.” But no swift return has transpired, and so as the 2024 election has approached, the lore has evolved in the direction of Trump authentically running in this election and simply reclaiming power by winning it. As time has passed, more subtle changes have had to pile up. Early on, RRN reported that Joe Biden was a brain dead semi-corpse being held at Walter Reed, and any public appearances by “Biden” were one of several actors. But after four years of Let’s Go Brandon, Biden himself has become a more popular villain, and so quietly references to his brain-dead status have disappeared. In the early days of RRN, the military was firmly behind Trump and any implication that Biden held the powers of commander-in-chief was a media-fueled sham. But as time has passed, Trump being the “real” commander-in-chief over a loyal military has evolved into a reality where there are two American militaries, a “White Hat” faction loyal to Trump and “Black Hats” loyal to Biden. Early stories implied the White Hats were more numerous, but recent stories have implied the opposite, with the White Hats an elite force that often wins battles decisively while badly outnumbered. A secret purge has gradually become a secret civil war, specifically one with frequent war crimes: White Hat forces in Maui have eradicated or repelled all but a handful of the felonious FEMA agents who began terrorizing the tropical paradise in the aftermath of the inexplicable blaze that razed Lahaina and surrounding towns in early August, a source in General Eric M. Smith’s office told Real Raw News. Since mid-August, United States Marines have fought with FEMA patrols in Lahaina, Kaanapali, Wailuku, Maalaea, and Pukalani, and the skirmishes resulted in the deaths of approximately 475 federal goons and, alas, 34 valiant Marines. The Marines died upholding the Constitution of the United States; the feds died trying to defend the criminal Biden regime. […] “The Marines died valorously,” our source said. “We ain’t taking FEMA prisoners from the rank and file, only the key players. General Smith made it clear it’s weapons-free. Those bastards know damn well they’re following unlawful orders, and they’ll pay the price.” I think the ever-evolving nature of conspiracies is actually pretty important to psychologically grasping their appeal. I have a friend who is a big believer in 9/11 Trutherism. He once compelled me to watch the documentary “The New Pearl Harbor,” an exhausting 5-hour film promoting 9/11 conspiracies. If one actually watches, one quickly discovers that a lot of 9/11 conspiracy theories are mutually exclusive, or at least don’t mesh well together: One conspiracy argues that fighter jets were intentionally diverted the wrong direction to keep them from shooting down the hijacked jets approaching New York, while another conspiracy suggests that United 93 was shot down, and it was all covered up. In some versions, the planes didn’t hit the Twin Towers at all. Sometimes Bush did it, and sometimes Israel did it, and so on. Similarly, in my career I’ve worked adjacent to people who, like RRN, were very hostile to Covid-19 shots. That hostility made them sequentially endorse wildly different assertions about how the vaccines worked. Sometimes, the vaccines contain heavy metals. Sometimes, they contain hydra DNA to turn recipients into partially non-human chimeras. Sometimes, the vaccines are a depopulation agent. Sometimes, they’re a mind-control agent, or a killswitch that can be activated by self-assembling nanomachinery. One viral documentary in 2022 claimed that Covid was caused by snake venom in the water supply, and that Covid vaccines were an additional dose of snake venom to keep people sick (all this, of course, because the snake is Satan’s animal). What stands out isn’t the silliness of these particular theories, but that I saw them sequentially endorsed by the same people. Some of these people are smart enough to notice inconsistencies, at least when they’re pointed out, so why don’t they bother them? To some extent, I think it’s for the same reason people don’t care that every Batman story doesn’t perfectly line up. Consistency isn’t the point! What actually matters is enjoying individual stories and the wider genre they fit into. Covid vaccine haters don’t think too hard about any specific story. Instead, they’re driven by a core impulse of “distrust the new vaccine that people I distrust are promoting,” and every conceivably story or tale that feeds that genre of thought is, for them, worthwhile. Similarly, Real Raw News fans don’t think too hard about any specific story. Instead, I think their core impulse is, ironically, profound disappointment in how the Trump administration failed to deliver. Trump shook up the American political landscape more than anyone in living memory, and promised sweeping changes to every level of American government, yet his actual administration proved rather disorderly, changed far less than was promised, and then lost power after one term. For many, this simply prompted a revision in how they saw Trump. But for others, the preferred response is to embrace a fantasy reality where Trump is a superhero. I actually think the reverse side of this explains things like the durability of Russiagate: If you’re a normal American liberal, everything Trump says is offensive and piggish, but to justify their level of disdain for them, many needed to elevate his evil to the level of treason, even if that never really made any sense. It can't just be that Trump is an egotistical jerk or a narcissist or whatever. He's got to be a traitor who's going to end American democracy. People Crave Extreme, Over-the-Top, and Underhanded Solutions. At the height of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, the Committee of Public Safety pushed through the Law of 22 Prairial. The law simplified the procedures of the country’s Revolutionary Tribunal by: Defining a whole heap of activities as criminal treason, including “creating scarcity,” disparaging the National Convention, “inspiring discouragement,” and spreading fake news.
Inline links: review, “comic book time.”, in 1974, listen to “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.”, in a Nineties grunge band, 8, take place by July 4, 2021, house-sitting the White House, “swift.”, civil war, snake venom in the water supply, Law of 22 Prairial