Astral Codex Ten

Iowa

10 min read

Iowa

Article

Iowa is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 8 times across 8 issues between February 25, 2021 and March 25, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “Make your 50-year old working-class Iowa farmer constituent imagine whether he or his kids might ever invent a cool new kind of car”; “He sent young Jason to live with relatives in Iowa”; “Shea was sent off to Iowa”. It most often appears alongside China, Trump, California.

Metadata

  • Category: Places
  • Mention count: 8
  • Issue count: 8
  • First seen: February 25, 2021
  • Last seen: March 25, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

A Modest Proposal For Republicans: Use The Word "Class"
February 25, 2021 · Original source
It could appeal to Republicans who are in it for the capitalism (including the rich donors). You would argue that capitalism is the system that lets people succeed regardless of class; even the most uncouth and uneducated person can strike it rich if they work hard and make good deals. The Democrats hate this; they prefer a system where powerful insiders get to play favorites, where success depends on who you know and not what you know, and where good jobs are locked behind gates of correct credentials from the right colleges. Every time Democrats attack Elon Musk for being rich, you can point out that Elon Musk was an immigrant who worked hard for his money, and you're the party representing people like that - whereas the Democrats are the party of people who got hired by McKinsey straight out of college to a job that pays a higher entry-level salary than most people get in their entire lives. Make your 50-year old working-class Iowa farmer constituent imagine whether he or his kids might ever invent a cool new kind of car, vs. whether they could ever get hired as McKinsey consultants.
Biography of Jason Shea, 44th US President
April 13, 2022 · Original source
His childhood was marked by upheaval. During the Red Scare, VP Shea's enemies accused him of being a Communist. The charge was absurd - all anyone had against him was some ill-advised comments where he had praised a book about 1930s labor activism - but in the climate of the day, they threatened his political career. Angry mobs protested in front of his house; he received letters threatening his wife and children. Around this time, Jason's older sister committed suicide - we don't know the exact details - and VP Shea decided enough was enough. He sent young Jason to live with relatives in Iowa, while he continued fighting for his political life.
Shea spent his teenage years in the town of Long Grove, Iowa. He apparently hated it there - his relatives were strict disciplinarians, and he was forced to do backbreaking labor on their farm. After less than a year, he surreptitiously bought a train ticket for Washington and tried to return home, but his mother refused to let him in. He was arrested by the police as a runaway, and eventually taken back to Iowa, where he lived for seven more years.
He started with some built-in advantages. After eight years of Republican rule, the country was ready for a Democrat. The only Republican who'd had half a chance, super-popular Texas governor Bo Shelley, had been caught taking bribes from organized crime early in 2007, and was fighting to avoid prison. Shea, with his Harvard education, New York experience, Iowa roots, and story of overcoming adversity during the unfair persecution of his father, had something for everybody in the Democratic base. He got a high-profile endorsement from Bill Clinton, won the nomination, and coasted to an easy victory over Republican John McCain in 2008.
Book Review: First Sixth Of Bobos In Paradise
December 01, 2022 · Original source
Then came the change. By 1960 the average verbal SAT score for incoming freshman at Harvard was 678, and the math score was 695 - these are stratospheric scores. The average Harvard freshman in 1952 would have placed in the bottom 10% of the Harvard freshman class of 1960. Moreover, the 1960 class was drawn from a much wider socioeconomic pool. Smart kids from Queens or Iowa or California, who wouldn’t have thought of applying to Harvard a decade earlier, were applying and getting accepted . . . and this transformation was replicated in almost all elite schools. At Princeton in 1962, for example, only 10 members of the 62-man football team had attended private prep schools. Three decades earlier every member of the Princeton team was a prep school boy.
Assistant Dictator Book Club: America Against America
June 07, 2023 · Original source
Enter Wang Huning, a young political scientist at Fudan University. He wanted to become an “America expert”. Toward that goal, he got a visiting scholar position in the most dynamic corner of the US - Iowa City, Iowa. His quest: to poke around Iowa until he figured out what the heck was going on with the United States, then report back. The result: America Against America, a 200 page book on US culture and institutions.
Inline links: America Against America
Another result: a career boost for Wang Huning. He got asked to head the Party’s “political research” office, then gradually rose higher and higher through the ranks. Today he’s considered the CCP’s chief intellectual, and has been called the second most powerful man in China (alternately “the most influential man in China”). He’s used his position to push China against American values and towards a sort of anti-Western cultural conservatism. Whatever he saw during those six months in Iowa must have scared him hard. I thought I would pick up America Against America to figure out what it was.
Inline links: the second most powerful man in China, the most influential man in China
It wasn’t easy. This book doesn’t read like the screed of an anti-American zealot or the manifesto of a political mastermind. It reads like a confused but slightly charming alien bumbling through the world, recording his musings on whatever he encountered1. The combination of mediocre English, plus surprise at learning facts every child knows2, makes the text sound like it was written by a precocious ten year old. He frequently uses sentences no human being would ever say, like "Let's dissect the organizational structure of Iowa".
Inline links: 1, 2
Links For August 2023
August 09, 2023 · Original source
25: Elsewhere in bad policy: after California voted for higher standards for animal welfare in factory farms, the agricultural industry has proposed the EATS Act, banning states from setting standards for what agricultural products they will allow. This seems like a clear attack on states’ rights to me. Still, its supporters cast it as promoting states’ rights, since if eg California bans unethically-factory-farmed meat then Iowa doesn’t have the right to unethically-factory-farm its meat if it wants to sell to California. This is a stupid argument, like saying that it “promotes individual rights” to force dieters to eat high-calorie meals, because their decision not to do so impinges on the rights of chefs to make their meals high-calorie if they would like to sell to dieters. If you’re making a federal power grab, at least admit you’re making a federal power grab! I hope this will either fail or get struck down by the Supreme Court. A post on the Effective Altruist forum urges you to write your representative.
Inline links: the EATS Act, its supporters, A post on the Effective Altruist forum
Hardball Questions For The Next Debate
November 07, 2023 · Original source
MODERATOR: As I was about to say . . . In our next round, all candidates will still have to avoid their Forbidden Letter or Letters. But we’re introducing an additional complication! Candidates, please open the sealed envelope you’ll find at your podium. Each of you will also have to follow a Second Round Constraint which you and the audience will know, but the other candidates won’t. If you slip up, you’ll lose your time. But if any of the other candidates guess the constraint you’re trying to follow, they’ll get to steal the remainder of your time from you, plus 100 of your votes in the Iowa primary. Is everyone ready?
DESANTIS: Again, nobody told me about that rule, and I think the Iowa vote part might be un-Con . . . un- . . . could be contrary to that big piece of paper by the people in the building in Philadelphia.
MODERATOR: Sorry Ron, the constraint isn’t that he has to mispronounce vowels. We’ll be subtracting 100 votes away from your eventual total in the Iowa caucus for your incorrect guess.
Links for July 2024
July 24, 2024 · Original source
11: The founders of Iowa divided it into 100 equally-sized square-ish counties, giving it a pleasing and orderly geometry. Then Kossuth County annexed its northern neighbor, Bancroft County. Now there are 99 counties, and they look like this (Kossuth in red):
Inline links: Kossuth County
Iowans keep trying to split Kossuth County to make their state pleasing and orderly again, and the Kossuthians keep refusing.
Inline links: keep, refusing
Meetups Everywhere Spring 2025: Times & Places
March 25, 2025 · Original source
Contact: Grant Contact Info: grantfellows18[a t]gmail[period]com Time: Saturday, April 19th, 3:30 PM Location: Address: Beering Hall of Liberal Arts (BRNG) Room 1268, 100 N University St, West Lafayette, IN 47907. BRNG 1268 is in the southwest corner of the building, and can be found after turning left at the south entrance. Please email me if you cannot find us. I will also place an ACX Meetup sign at the entrance to the room. Coordinates: https://plus.codes/86GMC3GM+4C Group Link: https://discord.gg/WpG [remove this bit] TW4htZm Iowa AMES Contact: Sarah Contact Info: throwaway3454554[a t]yahoo[period]com Time: Sunday, April 06th, 4:00 PM Location: Cafe Diem- 229 Main St, Ames, IA 50010. I will have a sign with ACX meet up on it. Likely sitting near the window towards the front of the store Coordinates: https://plus.codes/86J829GP+3M Notes: RVSP NOT required but useful. First time doing this.
Inline links: https://plus.codes/86GMC3GM+4C, https://plus.codes/86J829GP+3M
Contact: bean Contact Info: battleshipbean[a t]gmail[period]com Time: Saturday, April 05th, 01:00 PM Location: Pavilion by the planes at the 45th infantry division museum. Coordinates: https://plus.codes/8674GG5G+8H Notes: I will be wearing a USS Iowa hat.
Inline links: https://plus.codes/8674GG5G+8H