Equity Meme, Dominance Disputes, Voter Preferences
Links and recommendations
You can now watch my recent remarks, followed by a discussion with Ian Rowe, at the 2025 Old Parkland Conference.
Full video here. Start time is 3:42:02.
The conference brought together scholars, economists, authors, and CEOs to explore how family structure, education, and community shape social mobility and black advancement. I shared my thoughts based on personal experiences, but I always feel hesitant to draw similarities between whatever I experienced with the hardships faced by others—especially those whose struggles are more socially recognized or politically legible. One way I know that I've spent a lot of time around upper-middle-class white liberals is that now whenever a black writer like Ed Latimore or Coleman Hughes tells me my life was tougher than theirs, my initial gut reaction is something like "Yours was probably harder, mine couldn't have been as bad." Then I think, "Who am I to tell these guys how tough they have or haven't had it, or to explain to them how to assess their own experiences." This way of thinking, of dictating to others how to interpret their own lives based on identity, is one of many things I unconsciously absorbed upon my passage through higher education.
From the archives:
Dominance Disputes. Equal social status increases the likelihood of conflict
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:
Marijuana and the Mentally Ill by Stephen Eide
How to Marry a Billionaire by Rosemary L. Hopcroft
Don’t Underestimate Your Psychological Immune System by Madeleine A. Fugère
Why philosophers hate that ‘equity’ meme by
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. When an alpha male chimpanzee becomes too dominant and aggressive, lower-ranking males will sometimes form coalitions to overthrow him—occasionally going so far as to kill him by tearing his body apart, and in some cases, cannibalizing him. (source: Outraged by Kurt Gray).
2. Over the past century, men have undergone nearly twice as much physical growth as women, contributing to increased sexual dimorphism. This trend may be partly driven by women’s sexual preferences for taller, more muscular men. (source).
3. White voters didn't shift at all in their voting preferences from 2016 to 2024, while nonwhite voters all shifted to the Republican side (source):
