CSPI

The Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI) supports and funds research on how ideology and policy contribute to social and scientific progress

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I'm fascinated by North Korea, particularly how it has bucked the global trend of liberalization in recent decades.

On the @CSPICenterOrg podcast, I talk to expert @rpcward89 about Kim giving up on reunification, his young female heir apparent, and more. https://t.co/f9xHwwaDwo

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I talk to @Jesse_Leg about liberalism and abundance

This is sort of a conversation with myself. He argues as the part of me that wants to remain with the GOP as the lesser of two evils.

If people like him succeed I will not have to agonize like this. https://t.co/200uC1YhDZ

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

What is going on in Korean politics? Joseph Yi explains the concept of asymmetric polarization, where leftists control institutions and square off against an increasingly radicalized right prone to conspiracies and misinformation. Sounds pretty familiar. https://t.co/KcWg8ulZ6H

[CSPI @CSPICenterOrg]

Do immigrants make us poorer by competing for American jobs. @MTG_lichking explains the "lump of labor" fallacy, and why new arrivals make native-born Americans better off. https://t.co/7wPqTv2Oqx

[Eric Kaufmann @epkaufm]

How the Race Taboo Swallowed Our Political Culture

I discuss my new book The Third Awokening / Taboo with @RichardHanania @CSPICenterOrg

https://t.co/oT8aQtRA99

Book:

https://t.co/8xoHAHfZon

https://t.co/9XK4B3sWFY

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I talk to Bess Stillman about her struggles to enroll her dying husband in clinical trials, and the cruelly irrational barriers the FDA and drug companies put in the way. On a lighter note, we also discuss some of her funnier experiences as an ER doctor. https://t.co/hnGGYQ9QDY

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Why did East Asia stop having kinds?

I present a theory of East Asians that explains low fertility as a function of high conformity and a need for scripts. The theory has the benefit of also explaining many other things that make these societies unique. https://t.co/jZTL1lDSwv

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Is it ever acceptable to say "prior" over "assumption"? What about "stochastic" instead of random?

I explain that sometimes it makes sense to use fancier words. https://t.co/A6tFHeHytb

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I talk to @robkhenderson about his book Troubled, and his unlikely journey from foster care, to the US Air Force, then Yale, and finally as a professional writer and Twitterer known for his critiques of the American elite.

You can watch the whole thing on X, with time stamps below!

0:00 His difficulties finding a book store for his launch
9:37 On why there's relatively little emotion in his book, and his hatred of self-pity
13:01 Does Rob think about heredity and what his biological family was like? What to make of the fact that his biological Korean family was rich? Has he thought of trying to find them?
27:14 Rob finding out he was Mexican from 23&Me. I ask what if his Mexican dad is some kind of Andrew Tate type kingpin.
29:40 Is Rob the most successful foster kid in America?
33:37 Whether he keeps in touch with the people he grew up with, and what they think of Trump
38:38 When did Rob start becoming skeptical of leftist elites?
42:50 How much of a culture shock did Rob experience at Yale?
50:00 Rob on his time in the Air Force, including stints in Germany and Kyrgyzstan
58:50 What's next after this?

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I talk to @robkhenderson about his autobiography, including whether he ever wonders about his biological family, joining the military, when he became disillusioned with elites, and more. https://t.co/iWIQl0MOs1

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

You've probably heard about Americans fleeing blue states like CA for FL and TX.

But this isn't new.

I've dived into 40 years of GDP and population data and show it's been happening for generations.

Here's how we know economic freedom is better.🧵
https://t.co/2PpagjyStF

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

The question no one is asking about the current protest movement: Why is it so gay?

Top universities are selecting heavily on LGBT. Here's what it means for the future of elite institutions more generally.

Welcome to the era of flaccid histrionics. https://t.co/oltVSnjmZ1

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Metaculus gives a 34% chance of China invading Taiwan by 2034. How worried should you be about World War III?

I put the probability closer to 15%. Conquering Taiwan would be hard, and Xi era China is characterized by risk aversion. I explain here. 🧵https://t.co/13L6lF1OCv

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

"The economic critique central to RETVRN is simply wrong... I am sympathetic to the right-wing intuition that something has gone wrong... and would like to see economic misinformation tossed away so that people can focus more on negative cultural trends." https://t.co/B0nuEx0Xr2

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

I've written about out of control entitlement spending. It doesn't seem like there's much in the way of ideas to do something about it. I talk to Romina Boccia about how a debt commission might be what saves us at @CSPICenterOrg. https://t.co/ipkzrx19wi

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Many reactionary policy ideas are dumb, but you're not crazy to think that people used to be better.

I discuss the good and bad versions of RETVRN philosophy. Something like it is needed, but it can't be a Trojan horse for economic collectivism. https://t.co/B0nuEx0Xr2

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

****REVIEW OF IMMACULATE STARRING SYDNEY SWEENEY****

On Easter Day, few things can be more satisfying than seeing Sydney Sweeney destroy religious fundamentalists. Spoilers below.

She's a confused girl named Cecilia from the suburbs of Detroit, who runs off to a convent in Italy. It turns out to be a kind of gerontocracy, where the young and pretty girls take care of the old, sick, and senile in their final days. This is a clear allusion to the world Catholic traditionalists are trying to create, through opposition to euthanasia at a time when medical advances are keeping people around for too long and the young suffer under the crushing costs of pensions and end-of-life care.

The "culture of life" philosophy also believes that women's bodies are a forum for political struggle. So it turns out that the convent has gotten some of Jesus' blood, and they use science to impregnate the virgin Sydney Sweeney with his DNA. They try to pass it off as a miracle, but she finds out the truth. She is not a human being with her own wishes, dreams, and desires, but a vessel to bring about the world many in the church would like to see. I bet a lot of women feel that way after Dobbs.

This movie is not for the faint of heart. A lot of blood and gore, much of it centered around the inherent violence that nature inflicts on women in the form of pregnancy. But the violence has a purpose. Although we as men can never know what it is like to live in a world where our most intimate decisions pertaining to bodily autonomy are regulated by the state, the film forces us to at the very least get a glimpse of what rape, torture, mutilation, and childbearing look like, and just how vulnerable women's bodies are. They are heroic whenever they undertake the journey of motherhood, and the least us men can do is to keep the state as far away from the process as possible.

The film makes sparse but skillful use of Sydney Sweeney's boobs. We see them swollen in the second trimester as she is soaking her body, and again when they force her to take a shower. They're always there, but rarely seen or enjoyed. This is actually one way in which the film is sympathetic to religion, because that makes us appreciate them all the more.

Interestingly, Sweeney's nemesis in the film is the swarthiest guy in the movie. Looks like a southern Italian. There aren't any black characters around, but there are olive Southern Europeans, which are Hispanics for all intents and purposes to an American audience. Nonetheless, one must note the symbolism of the swarthy representative of Catholicism trying to claim dominion over the blonde from the Midwest, technically Catholic but Protestant in looks and culture.

Ok, I've already given you a spoiler warning, but I'm giving you an extra one, because below this point I'm going to talk about the shocking end of the movie.

Sydney Sweeney and her boobs end up slaughtering the patriarchy, just as her water breaks and she gives birth to the Jesus/Sydney Sweeney baby. What does she do? I always respect a woman's right to choose, but here I was hoping with everything inside of me she would keep it. Half Sydney Sweeney and half Jesus! Imagine what that baby could have been.

Alas, it isn't to be. She smashes it with a rock. In exaggerated form, this teaches the viewer that women's bodies and reproductive decisions are none of our business. One could have imagined that the Jesus/Sydney Sweeney baby could have given her comfort on the outside. Or it could've been a nightmarish reminder of what she had been through. For the rest of us, of course we want Jesus/Sydney Sweeney baby to take over the world! But we have no right to force this interpretation of events onto Sydney Sweeney. She is a beautiful woman free to construct her own understanding of life and the ultimate meaning of existence.

The movie is yet another demonstration we have turned the corner on woke, while reminding us that wokes aren't the only ones who hate the human body and seek to control others. Sydney Sweeney ends up literally taking out the theocrats one by one, appropriately enough with fire, a rosary, and a nail from the cross of Jesus. Victory against them in real life will not be as quick. But as with her service in the war on woke, she has shown us the way, and given us hope.

[CSPI @CSPICenterOrg]

Romina Boccia joins the podcast to talk about the coming Social Security and Medicare crisis, and a debt commission as a possible way to move forward. https://t.co/1XfpMbiNd0

[CSPI @CSPICenterOrg]

Brian Chau joins Richard Hanania to discuss the dangers of AI regulation, and why it could become a hinderance to progress. https://t.co/KwLzZk1jUE

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

How should you understand race in America?

Both conservatives and liberals underestimate two key forces: our capacity for assimilation, and Black Nationalism.

Only through this lens can one make sense of our politics and culture. https://t.co/NkxTkkpT6r