Plato Was a Dick

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The S Peter Davis newsletter [bridged from https://plato-was-a-dick.ghost.io/ on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]

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Trump's America is a Masculinity Drag Show

Here’s the most fascinating thing I’ve read in a minute: Studies show that voting for Donald Trump makes men feel more masculine.  To be clear, I don’t mean that Trump motivates men to be more mascul…

1d ago·12 min read·2241 words

🔒 Relax, It's Not Technically Genocide

By 2030, Elon Musk is projected to have killed about 14 million people, and I think that should be the primary thing that he is known for. I think this fact should be in the first paragraph of his Wik…

1d ago·4 min read·767 words

The Internet is An Ever Expanding Graveyard

Something has been bothering me for a little while now. It was exacerbated recently by a short essay by Dave Karpf about the fact that Bluesky isn’t taking off. Like, at all.  And I know a lot of you…

May 29·12 min read·2207 words

🔒 Trump's America is a Masculinity Drag Show

Here’s the most fascinating thing I’ve read in a minute: Studies show that voting for Donald Trump makes men feel more masculine.  To be clear, I don’t mean that Trump motivates men to be more mascul…

May 29·4 min read·796 words

🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: The Red Pill Factory

Pickup Artistry and its roots in quack psychotherapy, pop philosophy, and marketing.

May 25·17 min read·3223 words

How the Right's Odyssey Rage Shows They Will Never Win the Culture War

So Christopher Nolan has gone and done it. The absolute madman has committed the perfect sin. An act of treachery and defiance so brazen that only a .gif of Jack Nicholson nodding evilly can do it pro…

May 22·14 min read·2777 words

🔒 The Internet is An Ever Expanding Graveyard

Something has been bothering me for a little while now. It was exacerbated recently by a short essay by Dave Karpf about the fact that Bluesky isn’t taking off. Like, at all.  And I know a lot of you…

May 22·5 min read·817 words

🔒 How the Right's Odyssey Rage Shows They Will Never Win the Culture War

So Christopher Nolan has gone and done it. The absolute madman has committed the perfect sin. An act of treachery and defiance so brazen that only a .gif of Jack Nicholson nodding evilly can do it pro…

May 15·4 min read·617 words

We're Making Pluto a Planet Again, and Dinosaurs Didn't Have Feathers

Editor’s  note:  Due to some nonspecific but nevertheless, let’s say, rather terse communications from the office of US FCC Chairman Brendan Carr regarding my content recently, I have agreed to some …

May 8·1 min read·86 words

🔒 Richard Dawkins Was Never Truly a Skeptic

Everyone’s dunking on Professor Richard Dawkins right now for coming to the conclusion that Anthropic’s “Claude” AI is a conscious being. There are two lines of thought on this: One is that Dawkins is…

May 8·1 min read·91 words

What is Social Media to Do About Its Monsters?

One thing that Substack and Bluesky have in common as social media platforms is that every so often a local controversy will pop off on one of them that the other will bang on about as another example…

May 1·1 min read·99 words

🔒 We're Making Pluto a Planet Again, and Dinosaurs Didn't Have Feathers

Editor’s  note:  Due to some nonspecific but nevertheless, let’s say, rather terse communications from the office of US FCC Chairman Brendan Carr regarding my content recently, I have agreed to some …

May 1·1 min read·87 words

Trumpism is Winding Down, But Complacency is Not an Option

Little by little, glimpse by flickering glimpse, there are signs that we are pushing our way through to the other side of this ten-year chronic societal illness.  Last year there was the one-two punc…

Apr 24·1 min read·89 words

🔒 What is Social Media to Do About Its Monsters?

One thing that Substack and Bluesky have in common as social media platforms is that every so often a local controversy will pop off on one of them that the other will bang on about as another example…

Apr 24·1 min read·100 words

Unstoppable Farce Meets Immovable Object

I haven’t written about the Iran War before now because the whole thing just infuriates me, but now I stew in bafflement at its pointless, brutal, stupidity. The most concise way that it can be summed…

Apr 17·1 min read·93 words

🔒 Trumpism is Winding Down, But Complacency is Not an Option

Little by little, glimpse by flickering glimpse, there are signs that we are pushing our way through to the other side of this ten-year chronic societal illness.  Last year there was the one-two punc…

Apr 17·1 min read·89 words

The Terminal Telephone Game: How AI is Distorting Our Reality

 So, I’m running into an increasingly concerning research problem.  Last week, I wrote a piece that took considerably more research than usual, because it’s a topic I’m not great at: Hard science. It…

Apr 10·1 min read·98 words

🔒 Unstoppable Farce Meets Immovable Object

I haven’t written about the Iran War before now because the whole thing just infuriates me, but now I stew in bafflement at its pointless, brutal, stupidity. The most concise way that it can be summed…

Apr 10·1 min read·94 words

Confronting the Popular Delusion of Colonizing Space

The Artemis II mission to the moon that was launched a few days ago is a legitimately exciting space adventure that suffered unfortunately little press in the face of Donald Trump’s stupid and pointle…

Apr 3·1 min read·90 words

🔒 The Terminal Telephone Game: How AI is Distorting Our Reality

So, I’m running into an increasingly concerning research problem.  Last week, I wrote a piece that took considerably more research than usual, because it’s a topic I’m not great at: Hard science. It’…

Apr 3·1 min read·99 words

Parasocial Media: How We Became a World of Influencers

On the now quite rare occasion that I scroll through my Facebook feed, I see a hell of a lot of this one guy: That’s Jason Pargin, my old boss, who is now a prominent TikTok/Reels influencer. We have…

Mar 27·1 min read·108 words

🔒 Confronting the Popular Delusion of Colonizing Space

At the beginning of February, Elon Musk did another internal merger of his companies, putting to rest the notion that these are different companies in any meaningful sense. Earlier, he merged X with h…

Mar 27·1 min read·94 words

I Sure Hate This Annoying Pandemic of Online Age Restriction Laws

With everyone all focused on Donald Trump and Benny Netanyahu starting World War III out of a mutual desire to stay out of prison, another major war recently began that hasn’t earned the same headline…

Mar 20·1 min read·97 words

🔒 Parasocial Media: How We Became a World of Influencers

On the now quite rare occasion that I scroll through my Facebook feed, I see a hell of a lot of this one guy: That’s Jason Pargin, my old boss, who is now a prominent TikTok/Reels influencer. We have…

Mar 20·1 min read·108 words

🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: The Masculinity Medicine Show

Pickup Artistry and its roots in quack psychotherapy, pop philosophy, and marketing.

Mar 15·1 min read·22 words

Why the Right Will Never Dominate Entertainment

It’s plain to see that the carnival of horror clowns squatting in the United States government are attempting some kind of top-down cultural revolution by force, to replace the dominant western cultur…

Mar 13·1 min read·86 words

🔒 I Sure Hate This Annoying Pandemic of Online Age Restriction Laws

With everyone all focused on Donald Trump and Benny Netanyahu starting World War III out of a mutual desire to stay out of prison, another major war recently began that hasn’t earned the same headline…

Mar 13·1 min read·97 words

Substack is at the Gambling Stage of Desperation

Some men are probably coming to break Chris Best’s legs.  That’s the best explanation for why Substack is entering an exclusive partnership with Polymarket as announced in a comments-disabled post f…

Mar 6·1 min read·87 words

🔒 Why the Right Will Never Dominate Entertainment

It’s plain to see that the carnival of horror clowns squatting in the United States government are attempting some kind of top-down cultural revolution by force, to replace the dominant western cultur…

Mar 6·1 min read·87 words

The Innate Hypocrisy of the Pronatalist Movement

When it comes to issues on which people care way too much about other people’s preferences, the worst offenders have to be steak doneness, and the decision whether to have children.  Like most people…

Feb 27·1 min read·99 words

🔒 Substack is at the Gambling Stage of Desperation

SOME MEN ARE PROBABLY COMING TO BREAK CHRIS BEST’S LEGS.  That’s the best explanation for why Substack is entering an exclusive partnership with Polymarket as announced in a comments-disabled post fr…

Feb 27·1 min read·88 words

Epstein Was Never the Head of the Conspiracy. The Reality is Worse. (Part 2)

Releasing the Epstein emails in the manner that they did was considerably worse than not releasing them at all. I’m not even convinced that releasing them was a good idea in the first place and there,…

Feb 20·1 min read·107 words

🔒 The Innate Hypocrisy of the Pronatalist Movement

When it comes to issues on which people care way too much about other people’s preferences, the worst offenders have to be steak doneness, and the decision whether to have children.  Like most people…

Feb 20·1 min read·99 words

Staying Rational When the Conspiracies are Real (Part 1)

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t expect the US Justice Department to ever release the “Epstein Files.” I made a snide comment about it on Substack literally two days before they dumped a trillion of …

Feb 13·1 min read·97 words

🔒 Epstein Was Never the Head of the Conspiracy. The Reality is Worse. (Part 2)

Releasing the Epstein emails in the manner that they did was considerably worse than not releasing them at all. I’m not even convinced that releasing them was a good idea in the first place and there,…

Feb 13·1 min read·108 words

Why the Right Keeps Losing Female Influencers

One of the most fascinating things to happen in recent political discourse, for me, has to be the question of: What changed Ashley St Clair’s mind?  For those who don’t know, St Clair was one of the …

Feb 6·1 min read·94 words

🔒 Staying Rational When the Conspiracies are Real (Part 1)

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t expect the US Justice Department to ever release the “Epstein Files.” I made a snide comment about it on Substack literally two days before they dumped a trillion of …

Feb 6·1 min read·97 words

🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: The Bomb that Japan Dropped on America

The Eastern origins of anonymous Western online culture

Sep 8·9 min read·1779 words

🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: The Californian Ideology

The ideological foundations of early cyberspace, from WarGames to Wired

Jun 9·12 min read·2283 words

🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: Backward Male

Paul Elam and the origins of an internet phenomenon known as the manosphere.

May 11·12 min read·2351 words