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On Politics and Power — On the ways people organise themselves

• [article] Folie à deux: the madness of two — 4 Jun 2026
  <em>Folie à deux</em>, or the ‘madness of two’, is the kind of psychological phenomenon that occasionally captures the imagination of the media. Two people, otherwise normal, suddenly go insane. It’s a premise that we can ghoulishly enjoy from afar because it seems like it could never happen to us. But I’m not so sure. From intra-family murder to Theranos to our own odder moments, I think shared madness is something that is much more common than you’d think. ideology: | <em>Folie</em> à deux is a striking phenomenon, but poorly understood. It seems to me that it might be just one misleading face of social isolation.
• [audio] Sages and Wisdom — 16 May 2026
  The doctor and the guru run on the same authority structure. We just pick which one to trust by its costume. Choose by what sits under the coat or you lose to charlatans.
• [audio] It's Not Social Media, Life Is Just Worse — 18 Apr 2026
  Social media isn’t the disease. It’s the symptom you can see. The sad kids on TikTok are there because they’re sad, not sad because they’re there.
• [article] Useful Men — 4 Apr 2026
  It’s true that the ‘pathways’ to manhood are closing. I don’t think it’s a crisis of masculinity though. It’s a crisis of no more excuses for incompetence. We’re trying to find the meaning of manhood when what we actually need are new skills. Men just need to be useful.
• [audio] Hydraulic Despotism — 21 Feb 2026
  You’re not coerced by malice. You’re coerced by convenience. Control the flow, control the people: the most discredited theory in political science describes social media, energy and compute perfectly. The alternatives exist. We just don’t use them.
• [article] Hydraulic Despotism — 1 Dec 2025
  Control the water, control the people. Today’s water is energy, social media, infrastructure. We’re coerced through convenience, not malice. There are many vectors for control—we don’t need to hand them over.
• [marginalium] Against McAskillian Longtermism — 10 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] Critiquing Utilitarianism — 2 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] The long history of association between God and unusual smells — 19 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Caligula as an anti-ideology — 19 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Politics and spirituality are entangled — 16 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Graduates have multiplied faster than the room at the top — 12 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Preferring skilled migration enhances xenophobia — 7 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] What Is Centrism? — 6 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] How To Do Soul-Craft With State Tools — 6 Jun 2025