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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3491 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm looking through Coornhert's Synod on the Freedom of Conscience. I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but thoughts of engagement, detachment and the practical impact of advocacy are on my mind. It's available open access.

The Invention of Power by Bruno de Mesquita.

I read his first book - The Dictator's Handbook* in undergrad and remember enjoying it. So I thought I'd dip my toe in the "Great Divergence" field again.

I dunno...not that far in but the tale seems pretty...standard for anyone who's vaguely familiar with the genre - competition between the Pope and secular rulers is why the West is the West. But he promises some empirical meat (he's a political scientist, not a historian) to justify tracing the divergence point to the Concordat of Worms specifically so I'm working towards that.

* Summarized by CGPGrey here

Mary Harrington's Feminism against Progress, it's pretty good if you can ignore the repeated genuflecting to Marx in the first half.

Hilarious how a certain class of person will agree with practically everything a conservative religious person would think about sex relations, but needs to couch it in marxist terms so they aren't mistaken for a Tory. Not like other girls or some shit.

Righteous Revolutionaries: Morality, Mobilization, and Violence in the Making of the Chinese State

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