Doom-Pilled, Women’s Shirts, Gentlemen’s Collective
Links and recommendations
You can now catch my recent discussion with the host of Gentlemen’s Collective (starts at 13:14):
Event in NYC:
I’ll be speaking on a panel with Daniel Di Martino and Daniel Idfresne.
Jan 28 at 6:30pm. Details and ticket info here.
From the archives:
Status Over Money, Money Over Status
The Only Reading App I Use:
I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:
These screenshots come from my Readwise app.
Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.
Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.
Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.
Exclusive Offer for My Readers
Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).
I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.
Links and recommendations:
Cea Weaver’s Comments Were Shocking. They Used to be Normal. by Oliver Traldi
Why are intelligent people more liberal? by Noah Carl
REVIEW: Leap of Faith, by Michael J. Mazarr by John Psmith
“I Forgot to Take My Final Exam” by Roy Baumeister
Why Lenin Won by Gary Saul Morson
Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories
You can follow me on TikTok here
Three interesting findings:
1. Fifteen years ago, conservative and liberal women between the ages of 18 and 35 were having children at around the same rate. But the gap has widened. As of 2024, 75% of liberal women in this age range were childless, compared with 40% of conservatives. (source).
2. Why women’s shirts button from the left, while men’s button from the right: When buttons first appeared in the 17th century, they were only for the wealthy. Women were dressed by (right-handed) servants. Placing buttons on the left made it easier for them. (source: The Economic Naturalist by Robert Frank)
3. In the U.S., twenty year old men are 10 times more likely to be arrested for a violent crime than 60 year old men, presumably reflecting a stunning age bias in the justice system:
The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.
If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library.
Order your copy now:
Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)
On the "Why are Intelligent People More Liberal" piece.
"I would say there are two main reasons why intelligence and liberalism go together: one flattering, one less so. The flattering reason is that intelligent people are more pro-social — probably because they’re less instinctual, more patient and better at perspective-taking. The less flattering reason is that they’re engaged in a cognitive error. Which is more important? It’s hard to say; both matter."
But then the pro-social explanation includes this:
"The second reason intelligent people are more pro-social is that they are more patient — in terms of economic jargon, they discount the future less. This means they are more likely to get into runs of mutual cooperation with people outside their immediate family. If you place absolutely no weight on the future, then whenever you interact with a non-relative, you should just rob them blind. After all, who cares about the consequences? But if you do place weight on the future, then you should seek out opportunities for mutual gain."
Unless I am missing the point here, this is a key contradiction to the "flattering" claim.
I do find this common thread in the positions and ideas of my liberal friends. They seem to discount future consequences. I think because of their perceived status and life situation, they feel insulated from negative consequences for many of their positions and ideas. What is missing from this assessment of "intelligence" is the correlation with class status and its impact. This also explains why a reasonably high IQ, college-educated, high income, person like myself would not at all fall into this categorization as I came from a working-class background and even though personally insulated because of my current class status, my life experience is such that I cannot ignore the actual adverse consequences to the general population from certain high-status luxury beliefs that are common for my educated liberal friends.
I think this ignoring of or discounting future consequences as one of the primary unflattering tendencies of highly intelligent liberals. It explains why the states and cities they control are all in a general downward trajectory.
"3. In the U.S., twenty year old men are 10 times more likely to be arrested for a violent crime than 60 year old men, presumably reflecting a stunning age bias in the justice system:?
Seriously?