Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins

Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins
Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins

Based Camp is a podcast focused on how humans process the world around them and the future of our species. That means we go into everything from human sexuality, to weird sub-cultures, dating markets, philosophy, and politics. Malcolm and Simone are a husband wife team of a neuroscientist and marketer turned entrepreneurs and authors. With graduate degrees from Stanford and Cambridge under their belts as well as five bestselling books, one of which topped out the WSJs nonfiction list, they are widely known (if infamous) intellectuals / provocateurs. If you want to dig into their ideas further or check citations on points they bring up check out their book series. Note: They all sell for a dollar or so and the money made from them goes to charity. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FMWMFTG basedcamppodcast.substack.com

  1. 20 HR AGO

    Was Banishing Libs to the Bluesky Crystal a Mistake?!

    In this episode, Simone and Malcolm Collins dive deep into the heated debate surrounding Blue Sky, a social media platform touted by its creators as a progressive haven. The conversation covers the consequences of isolating ideologically extreme communities, the risks of radicalization in echo chambers, and the comparison with X (formerly Twitter). With insights into user behaviors, platform demographics, and some humorous anecdotes, this discussion is both thought-provoking and entertaining. Tune in to understand the philosophical and practical implications of Blue Sky's existence and whether it’s beneficial or detrimental to public discourse. Simone Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I'm excited to be Malcolm Collins: with you here today. Today we are going to be discussing as people with a tech writer, new right perspective. Is blue sky a good thing or a bad thing? Because part of me feels a bit like. We ban there, there was this meme for a while that the left was going to be banished in crystals. And that we were gonna trap them there under the Trump administration and was Blue Sky, it's like it came through, it's like in Superman, where the enemy is banished to a crystal and then shot into outer space where they can't interact with anyone else. And they're like, ah, no more harm. [00:01:00] Malcolm Collins: But then on the other side you're like, well. Is it really good to like isolate these communities where they can radicalize? Did we want this, Speaker 5: My safe space. People don't judge me and haters don't hate In my safe Malcolm Collins: that people forget how bad these communities used to be. And do not remember like how evil leftists actually are. And because I, we've heard, you know, you are on NPR and, and the guy was like, oh no, normal leftist would ever say that. And you're like, literally. Every day somebody says I'm a Nazi. Like I know you say, no normal leftist would ever say this, but they do. So first I wanna get into what I mean by all of this. So blue sky, if you just look at the numbers and you're not being delusional. But we will go into the rest of the numbers 'cause they're actually pretty interesting. Gets about 3.5 million active users a day and. X, on the other hand, gets 259 million active users a day, [00:02:00] which means that blue sky is getting 1.35% the users of X. Yeah. Or Twitter. Simone Collins: It's so small. It's so small. I didn't realize before going into this just how small it was. I had no idea. Malcolm Collins: Basically nobody uses it. Yeah. Except for and, and, and I will note that enough of the people who used to participate in like cancellation mods mobs use it. Yeah. We have gone viral on blue sky, like, I don't know, last weekend or something. Mm-hmm. And we have stopped going viral on Twitter entirely. We used to do this thing called media baiting, where we try to freak out progressives, you know, she dressed like a handmaid, right? And then they'd come do some prenatal list piece on us, and then we do something to freak 'em out. And then we go viral. And it was great for, you know, growing attention. Growing interest. And yet it doesn't work anymore. Like literally cancellation stopped working in part because everyone involved in them went to Blue Sky. And now they're just yelling at each other. Simone Collins: Although I, I will say [00:03:00] that it's not just like we went viral on it last weekend or last week. I. There are posts about us from all sorts of time ranges, and there's also this concerted desire in the community to not talk about us along the lines of that one article saying, stop talking about Simone and Malcolm Collins. One person on Blue Sky, Lizzie O'Leary posted. I think you call it Skitting 'cause you're skying slash tweeting. She skied, I am issuing an executive order banning writing about Malcolm and Simone Collins anymore on February 4th, 2025, which was quite a while ago. Actually, it didn't work because we've gone viral on blue sky since then. It really didn't. Yeah, and like people, people just like to go on there and make fun of us for. No particular reason. On April 14th, max posted, whenever I see that one eugenics couple, I think they look like a pair of protractors that were brought to life by a magic wishing star. It's life. [00:04:00] By a magic wishing star. Yeah. Then what? I guess, I guess I could look like a ProTrac. I guess he means I'm skinny. He must be in a world where like, I think like a, a protractor. I think they're just thinking like, can I think of a nerdy object and then humanize it with magic? I, I don't know though. I mean, progressive, Malcolm Collins: you're doing the Yankee thing, so we've been thinking like, what can I dress as if she's gonna dress as like a pilgrim, like full Japanese Yankee as like the hair back, the whole greaser out. I'm so Simone Collins: for it. I'm ready. Malcolm Collins: I'm, I'm still a little too timid to do the full podo look, but we'll see. We'll see. No, Simone Collins: no. Give it time. You have the hair for it. You can get the volume. I do. So, you know, our podcast even got a shout out on Blue Sky. Someone, someone radical. Agile GA slash College Hill wrote Simone and Malcolm Collins. The Tech Eugenics couple just dropped a strong contender for worst podcast of 2025, where they compare gender transition to lobotomies, which is. Just [00:05:00] fabulous. It's exactly like lobotomies and it'll be viewed in the future that way we now know. Well, she argues clearly the cult here because we talk about cults in the, in the podcast is all the trans people and not an insular group of weird venture capitalists who want to create the Uber mench. They have this such clear people view of us. That's very. We're in the process. We're in the process. Okay. Oh, mean you're not denying are you? No. Don't deny it. Malcolm Collins: If we remember what niche was, it's just a self-actualize individual. Like, yeah, Simone Collins: no, and we want human flourishing. That is 100% what we're going Malcolm Collins: for. It's not genetic perfection just meant being self-actualize and making your own choices about what's right and wrong. That's what it meant to be an Uber b***h. Yeah. Not basing your morality off of a preexisting moral set. And I'm like. Are we trying to create the Uber wrench? Is that what all of our education stuff are? We want Oh, Simone Collins: we want a universe full of Uber. Uber. What, what are they mentions? Munchin [00:06:00] Mint High Mincha. But I, I, I I Malcolm Collins: love that they're watching our podcast. Simone Collins: Yeah. I mean, you know, fans of the pod. Shout out to all of you on Blue Sky. Thanks. Yes. Malcolm Collins: Oh, oh. Do you have any other blue skies that you clipped? These are fun to listen to. Simone Collins: I mean, a, a lot of them just make fun of our appearance, like the, the protractors one. Another guy took a screenshot of our podcast with, with Curtis Jarvin, Jim Stewards and anti-fascist, he has to let us know skeets Curtis Jarvin and his pals Simone and Malcolm are all Peter Thiel ISTs, who believe their DNA is so amazing that they have a responsibility to share their magnificence with the world before we go extinct. They apparently own no mirrors. Own no mirrors. Yeah. There's this really common. Thing amongst progressives who apparently aren't eugenicists that like where they love to imply ugly. We really shouldn't be inter, we shouldn't be reproducing because we're ugly. [00:07:00] What? They're literally eugenicists like No. Literally know. I know, I know. Great. It's wonderful. I mean, one, one they imply that we think that we're genetically better, which we don't. And we wouldn't be using things like genetic testing if we thought we were superior somehow. And two. They're like, but ugly people shouldn't reproduce. Right? Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Like obviously ugly people shouldn't reproduce. Yeah. Like, what are you guys doing? And I still like, whatever, like, we'll replace you, whatever. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. We'll replace you. You won't exist anymore. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Like we, we don't mind, like, this isn't like a, an actual fight with us because we know that they're self extinguishing. Right. You know, so Simone Collins: Yeah. It's very. It's not stressful at all. Malcolm Collins: But I, I I, you know, that they're, that they're yelling around in their safe space and I'll put the safe space song here. Speaker 5: People that support me Mixed in with More people that support me And say nice things My Speaker 6: you cannot stop me from getting inside! I am cold and I am hard, and my name is Reality! Speaker 5: Oh no, not Reality! [00:08:00] Somebody stop him! Malcolm Collins: But I want to, before I get into the numbers, because I actually think the numbers are less art interesting than the philosophical argument here. Mm. Okay. Which is to look at all of the positives of Blue Sky existing, of trapping the, the progressives in their crystal. Yeah. And that is what blue sky is. It's, it's the crystal. The Simone Collins: crystal happened. Oh my gosh. That is mind blowing. It literally happened. We trapped them in a crystal of the road. We, we did it guys. Malcolm Collins: We did it. Crystal achieved. Oh my goodness. Elon. Elon did it, by the way. Come on. Give, give, give credit where credit to. Yes. I'm sorry. Simone Collins: We really, of course. Yes. Malcolm Collins: But anyway. I want to, because the positives Okay. Cancellations can't really happen anymore. Simone Collins: Hmm. Malcolm Collins: Their, their toxic culture cannot leak into the public discourse as much anymore. It Simone Collins: really doesn't. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. It really doesn't, like you just don't see or hear about it as much outside of the mainstream news organizations, which have become more radicalized, like drug Report guardian and stuff like that since the Trump. Election and win. Mm-hmm. If you're [00:09:00] l

    39 min
  2. 1 DAY AGO

    Pulling the Thread: Lime Mines, Assassination, JFK, Elon Musk

    In this episode, we delve into the intriguing history of the Iron Mountain Underground Facility in Boyers, Pennsylvania—a former limestone mine converted for secure document storage by the US government. Discover how over 700 employees manually process 10,000 retirement applications each month in an outdated system plagued by inefficiencies and alleged misuse of funds. We also explore broader implications involving government corruption, deep state operations, and the political figures benefiting from bureaucratic grifts. This eye-opening discussion reveals the hidden layers of bureaucracy and the systemic challenges in modernizing government operations. Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] they had an opportunity to buy it and instead it was bought, not just buy a, a shady company. Like why didn't they buy the mine? Mines don't have many other uses. Yeah. Who else is gonna use Simone Collins: a retired limestone Mine. Malcolm Collins: It. It should have been scrap basically in terms of buying and should able to say, well, if you don't want this mine, we'll go to another mine. That's why the world is Simone Collins: full of abandoned mines. Malcolm Collins: Exactly, so why did another company come along and buy it and now has a leasing agreement with the United States? That makes no sense. Let's take a walk. You think Zoolander is in trouble? Think again. What you stumbled upon goes way deeper than you could ever fathom. Malcolm Collins: And then JFK apparently was going to do a major restructuring of these organizations. Oh. And cut back within these organizations. Oh no, Simone Collins: I see where you're going here. Malcolm Collins: And Trump was running on doing the same thing. And if you look at [00:01:00] how the assassination atti, the assassination of JFK happened Would you like to know more? Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. I'm excited to be with you today. Today we are going to be discussing, remember what Elon was like. It turns out they've been taking all of those government files and all that government paperwork whenever somebody retired and it needed to be stored in a lime mine limestone, Simone Collins: Pennsylvania, our own home state, Malcolm Collins: Pennsylvania. Yes. And there were at least pictures that that looked like a. Indiana Jones, when they're wheeling the big cart of things that are going down. The Holy Grail. The Simone Collins: holy Malcolm Collins: Grail. Yeah. So I heard that and I was like, oh, wow, that's wild. I wonder how that started. And then recently, like the thought hit me again and I was like, oh, wow. That's wild. I wonder why they were doing that. Like, yeah. Why and how did all of the federal documents, like if it was just some big [00:02:00] warehouse. I'd be like, okay, Simone Collins: right, maybe, but like having to take it down in an elevator and being able to retire only so many people per month because. The elevator takes a long time and you can't put that many files down all at once. That's Malcolm Collins: yeah, Simone Collins: that Malcolm Collins: was like, wait, what? Yeah. Oh, I should probably double click on this. Simone Collins: Yeah. So let's double click. Yeah. Okay. Malcolm Collins: The Iron Mountain and, and this is not me reading from an article I was going through and, and putting some, some things out was grok to try to like figure out what's, what's going on with this. Simone Collins: Oh, alright. Okay. Malcolm Collins: Gotcha. The Iron Mountain Underground Facility in Boyers, Pennsylvania. A former limestone mine converted for storage in the 1960s. The US government, particularly the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, began using it in 1970 for processing and storing retirement documents driven by the need for a secure climate controlled environment. Over 700 employees work. 220 feet underground, manually processing around 10,000 retirement applications monthly.[00:03:00] This manual system unchanged since the 1970s involves passing the files by hand leading to delays, especially when the elevator breaks down. Despite efforts to the one elevator. The one elevator. Yeah. Since the 1980s costing over a hundred million dollars modernization has failed. So they've spent over a hundred million dollars and we're gonna do a dive on that with a 2014 Washington Post report, calling it a quote unquote sinkhole of bureaucracy in 2015. Okay? Concerns about the mines ceiling degrading were raised, but no significant changes followed. That reminds me of 30 Rock where The Celia appears to be leaky. No, it's not. We've looked into it and it's not. Uh, if you have any questions, I'll write down my extension for you. Do you need a pen? Nope. I've kind of gotten used to it. You don't have pens? We're not in a recession. Boy, we've gotta crack the whip around here. Coer. You don't have [00:04:00] pens. The roof is leaking. No, it's not. I'll show you this study. Hey, we have a meeting with the appropriations committee like now. Oh no. I'm not prepared. I know I'm not drunk either, but we'll manage. Simone Collins: Oh my gosh. Malcolm Collins: So it's not, and how do you Simone Collins: even explain that? Like let's say you're a local who got a job there, someone asks you on your first date, Hey, so what do you do? And you're like, well, I work in them. We're gonna mine and they're like, oh, what? Like coal or something? You're like, ah, go. Government retirement paperwork. Like what? What? This is super Malcolm Collins: villain stuff. This is actual super villain stuff. It is. This is not something a normal person does. No. No, Simone Collins: not normal. Malcolm Collins: And so as I dug, and what we're gonna find out in a second here is it may be a way of government to funnel money to like congress people and senator. Oh. So we'll get into how it's happening. That's pork, right? Simone Collins: The term for that is pork. Malcolm Collins: No. Pork is when you put in something for local spending that's meant to help you win an election. So, [00:05:00] pork would be, but isn't that like, Simone Collins: wouldn't that be, so if someone was like, well, we'll put the mine in my. Malcolm Collins: Yes, that would be pork, putting the wine in, in a district that is the for, for votes. Yeah. That is not what I'm talking about. Mm-hmm. I'm talking about the direct funneling of money. I'm talking about actual fraud. Oh I, I, I'm talking about like them. Look, there's a way that a OC, despite having what, like a a hundred k salary outta the congresswoman has become a multi-millionaire in just a few years, which was previously a barista. She has, yeah. There's a reason Bernie Sanders, despite the, you know, a hundred K salary now has multiple houses in many multimillion dollars. Wow. The people find a way to turn this grift into billions. Or the crazy case of, what's her face? Nancy Pelosi and her stock chain, Nancy Pelosi. Yeah. And I feel like that's, Simone Collins: you know, somewhat democratized. 'cause there has to be a delo disclosure for all that. And people now have, like, I think bots that just buy whatever she buys, [00:06:00] Malcolm Collins: that if she, they're buying it after her, then they're just further inflating the stock price. Simone Collins: Yeah. I'm ju I'm just saying, I don't know, like, so that's Malcolm Collins: even Simone Collins: worse in a way. At least we know what she's doing. I wanna know where a politician's money comes from if it's not their salaries. Malcolm Collins: Well, you wouldn't understand just because you understand what she's investing in, it would be hard to determine. Now, unfortunately, that law that made all that public happened after the deal that would've made a bunch of politicians money off of this uhhuh happened. So we can't easily know what's going on there, but we can see from the data that something seems to be going on. So let's go deeper here, but. The practice of storing government documents in a mine traces back to the 1960s when the US government sought a secure climate controlled location for preserving critical records. The chosen site was a former mine in Boyer, Pennsylvania, approximately 45 miles north of Pittsburgh, operated by the Office of Personal Management. This mine was originally used. [00:07:00] For limestone extraction and was converted to a storage facility leveraging its natural underground conditions for document preservation. By 1970, OPM established its retirement operations center within the mine, marking the formal beginning of this practice for processing federal employee retirement applications. Now the decision to use this mine was practical, given its stable temperature and humidity essential for paper. Record longevity. Additionally, the underground location offered natural protection against disasters and unauthorized access enhancing security. In 1998, iron Mountain, a global management and storage service provider acquired the Mine's owner and has since leased the space to the government, solidifying its role as a tenant in this facility. Simone Collins: So the government never owned the mine. They didn't buy it Malcolm Collins: and they had an opportunity to buy it and instead it was bought, not just buy a, a [00:08:00] shady company. Like why didn't they buy the mine? Mines don't have many other uses. Yeah. Who else is gonna use Simone Collins: a retired limestone Mine. Malcolm Collins: It. It should have been scrap basically in terms of buying and should able to say, well, if you don't want this mine, we'll go to another mine. That's why the world is Simone Collins: full of abandoned mines. Malcolm Collins: Exactly, so why did another company come along and buy it and now has a leasing agreement with the United States? That makes no sense. Simone Collins: Another Malcolm Collins: thing that makes no sense is usually these types of contractors that come in and do deals like this, you can get an advantage if you're like owned by a, you know, a minority veteran owned Simone Collins:

    43 min
  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Dating For Marriage: Why Red Pill Strategies Backfire

    In this episode, we explore the two key topics: how to secure and convert high-quality partners and how to avoid hypergamy in relationships. The discussion delves into personal examples and broader societal observations, including the dynamics that made the hosts' relationship successful. We also touch on the pitfalls of traditional and urban monoculture relationship paradigms, and the importance of having an aligned objective function for a stable partnership. Insights on effective dating strategies, transparency, and ideological alignment in relationships are shared to help viewers navigate their own journey to finding a lasting and fulfilling relationship. Simone Collins: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. I'm really excited to be talking with you today. I am a woman, a wolf, I'm hypergamous, I'm evil. And I'm going to tell you exactly why I chose my husband, who of course I will discard someday for a better, I mean, maybe let's find out specifically the two concepts we're going to be discussing in this episode. is how I secured Simone as a wife. And the second is IE, why did she develop feelings for me from her own perception? Why did she decide to marry me when before this she had been very urban monoculture, very in that bubble, you know, how do you secure and convert, not just secure, but convert high quality women? And then second, how do you avoid hypergamy? We're talking about this because a lot of people following this podcast are interested in finding a wife and also many of the ambitious, intelligent, successful young women they're dating are [00:01:00] also very urban monoculture pill. They're just like me. They never want to have kids. They want to focus on their career. They're the idea of pregnancy is abhorrent to them. So maybe we can use me as a case study delve into my previous brain and at least the, the dynamics that enabled. Malcolm's in my relationship to happen to see if maybe some of this might be replicated for you if this is a goal of yours. And then how to avoid hypergamy, which I would argue is made likely by overly trad relationships. Both being too overly urban monoculture or overly trad makes you very at risk for hypergamy. That's interesting. The first thing I think of when you mentioned that is when it comes to careers, the smart thing is to switch careers every few years because you're able to get a better income. And I wonder if the same dynamic is the case when your career is being a wife, like after a few years, especially if you feel like you're appreciating in value, like if you're building an online following or you're getting hotter in any way, like if you're actually a terrible wife trading [00:02:00] up and being hypergamous is, is actually the logical thing to do. That's interesting. Sorry. Well, let's start with you and why you chose me and what guys have Gotten your eye before. Yeah, so I have a very consistent track record of people I've had crushes on since I was a teen the universal factor is Having a unique passion for something in your life, knowing who you are and being very transparent about it and unapologetic about it. In other podcasts, we've, we've alluded to this like very embarrassing crush I had on this guy who was really into Catholic doctrine. And I would go to his dorm room bringing all these cupcakes and asking him hard questions about Catholicism. Cause it was just like my excuse to like get him to talk to me more. I had crushes on people. who were, you know, ended up, he ended up, he's like, Oh, Simone, I've enjoyed these discussions with you so much. I've decided to become a priest. And she's like, [00:03:00] no, this is how good my game is. For those who don't know, Catholic priests can't marry or date. So yeah, that was, yeah. I know it worked out really well. Come on, Malcolm. I'm really all is as it should be. I want to take a few notes on what you're saying here because Simone is not unique in this fact. Not at all. Most high value women I know have this profile in terms of what that like gets them excited about a partner. And A lot of the guys I know when they are pursuing women do not pursue them using these techniques and we'll go over the techniques that they use that are really ineffective. The first, I think one thing I'll just note is even when you look at a lot of the crushes that take place in fictional universes it's often on guys who. I have no interest in women are not like, Oh, I'm here. Cause I'm like powerful and cool. It's men who are extremely passionate about whatever it is. Like be that revenge or [00:04:00] saving their kingdom or something else. It's people who know who they are and have a mission and are pursuing it. And these are the women, this, these are the men to whom women want to hitch their wagons. Yep. Lots of Luigi Mini Gionni fan fictions going around right now. I was just watching that. Oh dear. But I, I. I want to explain one, why this is the case. And two, the, the reason why guys are making mistakes is the first mistake comes downstream of the red pill movement. And you and I would actually consider ourselves like red pillars to an extent. The red pill is fundamentally correct where it taught guys that, hey, women say they want X, but they really want Y. But there was a sub caveat to everything the red pill taught men and everything the pickup artist taught men Which was, this is how you win on the sexual marketplace. And as we've always pointed out, there are two key marketplaces. There is the sexual marketplace, and there is the marriage slash long [00:05:00] term relationship marketplace. And on the sexual marketplace, women have an enormous advantage. And, you know, these same guys will laugh at women who think they can get the same type of guy to marry them as they can get to sleep with them on a one night stand, but not apply just as for that woman, different rules apply between these two marketplaces, different things are arousing, different things are desirable. The same thing is true for men. And so they apply. Tools and techniques that have been optimized to secure a woman who will sleep with you as quickly as possible. Like, as attractive as a woman as possible, sleeping with you as quickly as possible. Well, what's one of the things that those techniques are going to filter out if they are working as intended? They are going to filter out chaste women very early. You would want them to filter out chaste women. But I'm going to a bar and I am looking to come home and sleep with someone that night. A pickup line that causes [00:06:00] a woman like Simone, who before me had never slept with someone to like and walk away is actually a good line. It increases the probability that you end up going home with someone. But the problem is, is it also means that intrinsically the women who you are bringing home are gonna be well, both one less chaste and two less interesting. And so you could say, okay, so why is it that so many of this chaste cast of women is thinking like Simone is in terms of their arousal pattern? Like, why are they looking for a man who has a mission? And I think that there is. A line in Rick and Morty that is said derogatorily, but it's actually, I think, the aspiration for a lot of women. Which is, he says, hey, I mean, it's not like he's a hot girl. He can't just bail on his life and set up shop in someone else's. Simone Collins: But that, I think, is the reality of an aspiration among many women. Is they want to set themselves up in a [00:07:00] life that looks like it's going to matter and be respected. Or at least be something that they can take personal pride in being a part of. I think it also might correlate with long term signs of career stability. So it, this is the behavior that you would expect from someone who is not a free radical, from someone who is likely to have a steady income and security in their life. And I think, Women looking for long term partners are subconsciously looking for someone who is also dependable and consistent and a safe person to address it. I disagree actually. So here, listen to this and then you'll be like, Oh yeah, you're right. Okay. Okay. Of the women I know who have chosen partners based on this factor, which a lot of high quality women have. The most common relationship structure is the sword and shield structure that we have discussed multiple [00:08:00] times. Sword and shield structure relationships mean the woman chooses, or not the woman, one of the partners, chooses to be the shield. That means they are a secure source of income. And then the sword goes out and does the high risk, high reward things that can move the family. It's the passion. It's the consistent passion and transparency that indicates that they will be a sword at all. I think absolutely. Women are more likely to be the shield. I think you're totally wrong in thinking that. Women aren't looking for a consistent driving passion to be able to trust that their men will be a sword. I cannot tell you how many women i've encountered who have met and ended up with men and then ultimately left them or just been Dragged by down by them for life because those men end up just being louts at home and not doing anything Like that is a really common issue You're saying but the way that you had framed this to begin with is they look for this trait of In men, because it leads to economic stability and careers. But you have to understand a man who is [00:09:00] passionate, who knows what he's all about and who really is like. big on a thing isn't a guy who like gets a salary job and does his nine to five. Right, because this is literally antithetical to economic stability. No, I don't, I don't mean economic stability. I mean, like you can depend on them to be driving the family forward. Towards the goal. Yes, but I think that's the way you said what you said could easily be misinterpreted by a guy to be girls want a guy was a successful, like, say, bureaucratic career. And I'm su

    41 min
  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    Are Cucks More Based than Kink Shamers?

    In this episode, the hosts engage in a deep discussion about the controversial downfall of Jack Murphy, a former conservative influencer, and whether kink shaming should have a place in the new right ideology. They explore sexual fetishes, societal norms around sexuality, and the implications of shaming non-normative arousal patterns. The conversation also touches on traditional values, arousal pathways, and the potential consequences of making private sexual preferences public. Join us for a candid, thought-provoking discussion on the balance between sexual morality and personal freedom in conservative spaces. [00:00:00] Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. I had an interesting thing that happened in an episode recently where Ry Nationalist was on. We were talking about Jack Murphy, who used to be a famous sort of conservative influencer who had this, this club and this podcast and everything like that. And then it turned out that he was in to being, I. Cued specifically his girlfriend sleeping with other people and into putting things in his butt and this, we're gonna go over all of that. I wasn't like, we weren't conservative influencers when that happened, right. So, like, we had nothing to say on that, when that happened, but when I heard this, my first intuition was to be like, oh, I feel kind of bad for him. Like. I didn't have like embarrassing fetishes that I had to worry about like that, you know, like this is what turned him on, you know? And you don't Simone Collins: get to choose what turns you on and what turns you on isn't a reflection of your morality either. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Tamura, I [00:01:00] miss me something. My computer's hard drive. I need you to dump it in the bathtub and fry it. All done. Please rest in peace, Satoru. Malcolm Collins: And it made me think a question, right? Like. I want to go into all of this again, and I want to go into it, you know, as the, the new right. And the tech right is sort of consolidating as a ideological perspective. Okay. And you and I are some of the, I'd say primary, regular influencers shaping that ideological perspective. What should be like as we unc, UNC ourselves from the left, as we Debra de brainwash, deprogram ourselves, what should our perspective be on kink shaming? I like is kink shaming [00:02:00] something that we should continue to do? Is it certain kinks where we should continue to do it? And here, I would note when I talk about kink shaming, and I need to be as clear as I can about this, Simone Collins: hmm. Malcolm Collins: This does not include instances in which somebody else without your consent forces you to participate in their kink. Simone Collins: Yeah. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. That Simone Collins: is, Malcolm Collins: that's very different. They talk to you about their kink. That means they dress up as their kink in a public context. That means they go to children's book readings in their kink. Here I am talking about things that people do in private, and the reason why I think it's, it's bad to pretend like. All kinks are bad is, well, our book, the Pregnant Guided Sexuality, we did a, a survey on this just to see how common kinks are, right? Like non-normative arousal patterns. And we found that the average person is aroused by 22 weird things. People have. K people have a, a . I need to cut that out. 'cause I had no more swearing on this show. [00:03:00] Mm-hmm. A basket of kinks. It was 23.1 for men and 20.8 for women. So not even like that different. And if you're like, how clustered are these? There was a study of 2,300 people in the UK showing that roughly 75% had some kink. So the vast of people. Have a kink. Mm-hmm. Our society works because we do not talk about it. Alright, kid. Here's the deal. At any given time, Around 75% of the people you interact with are perverts in some way. Most of them right here in Manhattan, and most of 'em are decent enough. They're just trying to make a living cab drivers not as many as you'd think. Humans, for the most part, don't have a clue. They don't want one or need one, either. They're happy, they think they have a good bead on things, but why? Why a big secret? People are smart. They can handle it. A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals. And you know it. 1500 years ago, everybody knew the earth was the center of the universe. [00:04:00] 500 years ago, everybody knew the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago you knew that people were Mostly just turned on by the opposite sex. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. What's the catch? The catch? The catch is just because you're aroused by something doesn't mean you have to indulge in it And That doesn't mean it's okay to talk about this stuff in public. You keep that to yourself or. you will sever every human contact. Nobody will ever know you exist anywhere, ever. I'll give you the sunrise to think it over. Hey, is it worth it? Malcolm Collins: If you're strong enough. But it's, it's a thing where it's like you can have something unusual that arouses you without communicating it to other people. 100%. Simone Collins: And without acting on it. Malcolm Collins: And without acting on it. But there, there's, there's multiple categories here. Like if it's deleterious to other people, I can see, do not act on it, right? Mm-hmm. If it is like there's, you know, if, if it's like, you know, just your masturbating to it or something like that, I think that's a [00:05:00] very different category than going out and doing it in public. Like say if you're gay, right? Well, that might be a too offensive one to choose. What's a less offensive one to choose? Because I was gonna say like, it's, it's harder to get married and have lots of kids if you don't have a lot of money if you're gay. So it's better to just if you, if you're not like a successful tech bro, just. Not act on it if your end outcome is having a lot of kids. But that doesn't mean that like there's necessarily this huge moral negative to like masturbating to it or something. And by the way, this does reduce the incident of like people like, oh, like masturbating to something makes you want it more. And it's like, no, like the actual studies are very categorical on this. Simone Collins: You know, ALIST, latest substack as of the time of this recording is her earnest argument. In, in following up on her most controversial tweet saying that if we had more ai, PDA file porn, fewer children would be harmed. So she's making the same argument. [00:06:00] Well, I, Malcolm Collins: that is what got me thinking about this, but I wasn't Oh, really? To include that as part of the argument. Because I'm just pointing what you're saying. No, I'm saying that gets too spicy. I'm just talking generally kink shaming on the right, but, but you know, if you look at like porn more generally Yeah. Like the idea that, oh, porn makes you do bad things. Mm-hmm. In countries where porn was illegal and then it was made legal, the amount of child, essay decreased by 50%. This is the check. Yeah. This, Simone Collins: it is. Clearly if you care about children, you are not going to ban porn. Malcolm Collins: Yes. But, but it's like, okay, when people don't have access, and they, and it was repeated in other countries where they did this, it's just like a really persistent thing mm-hmm. In the United States as access to the internet increases, which is basically access to porn. Rates of sexual assault also go down. Like, this is a very clear correlation. You are arguing for a aesthetic and not real, like an individual who says, I am against Child sa. And I am against pornography is [00:07:00] similar to a environmentalist who is like, I am against global warming and I am against nuclear power plants. It's like those two things might be aesthetically aligned, but if you logically actually cared about the first thing, you wouldn't be pro the second thing. Mm-hmm. Because again, the, the people who are engaging in certain, but what I, what I wanted to get to here was this idea of, of this guy. What he did, his downfall. Other conservatives, because there's other conservatives. The guy who ran the Proud Boys, apparently he did a thing that apparently a lot of people have criticized him for. Being like, oh, you know, anal stimulation in males is something that you can try without being like less masculine. Right. Okay. And apparently, I mean, just the Simone Collins: sheer number of dudes who show up in ERs with I slipped in the shower and something random up their butt shows that this is actually way more common than people wanna let on. Malcolm Collins: Well, yeah, but I mean also like biologically, like if you're just looking at like the, the, the stimulation points of males, like the interior prostate is [00:08:00] one of the stimulation points Yeah. That a person could be using if we're Simone Collins: talking just pure logistics. Yeah. If you're looking for more ways to feel things. Yeah. If you're looking Malcolm Collins: for pure logistics of how to maximize your turn on. Yeah. And, and the. Funniest thing about Simone and I is, I think one of the reasons we engage in sexuality topics so much is we find it so intellectually perplexing. Like I think if I actually had like a bunch of skeletons in my closet or something, I wouldn't be doing this because I'd be so afraid. But like actually we're more like, yeah, humans, like sex is gross. Like this, this whole thing is gross and, and you can intellectualize it or engage with it, but some people, well, it's like Simone Collins: watching. You know, pigeons court each other and being kind of disgusted and asking why do they do that? That is, yeah. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. But, but I also, you know, feel like Jack Murphy, for example, he didn't choose to have this like he was dealing with an No no. An entire category [00:09:00] of temptation that I have never had to deal with. Yeah. And that's rough. It's building up an influencer career is. Hard work. O

    57 min
  5. 4 DAYS AGO

    Is Religion Dying in America? The Worrying Stats

    In this episode, we dive into the alarming state of religion in the United States with shocking statistics and insights. We discuss the significant decline in church attendance and religiosity among Americans, highlighting key findings from various studies, including the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study. The conversation reveals a startling drop in religious affiliation, particularly among younger generations, and examines how different religious groups, such as Mormons and Catholics, are faring. We also explore the implications of these trends for the future of religion in America and the potential societal impacts. Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone. Today we are going to be discussing the horrifying state of religion in the United States. I'll be discussing some statistics I found, and you'll be discussing the statistics you found. Mm-hmm. The fifth one that I found that was shocking, where there was a recent study where they looked at where people were going in the United States using cell phone data. Mm-hmm. And they found out that despite 21 to 24% of Americans saying they attend church weekly, only 5% do. Which is way lower rate of religiosity than anyone expected. Simone Collins: Why would you lie about going to church on a survey? We'll get to that when we get to the interesting stuff. What is your, the gist of what I found is that religion is literally dying in the United States in every measurable way, and specifically by dying. I mean that the only people who still had God were the old ones. This isn't even about young people losing their faith. They never had it. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And, and this is something that people really get [00:01:00] wrong, is they look at the pupil where it showed religion going, not going down this year in the United States, and they think that that's an indication that the erosion of traditional religion in the United States is over. It is not. But let's go into the data Simone Collins: so with regard to the United States and what the pew, and by the way, you should definitely check out the interactive tools with this pew research to give some background, has a religious landscape study. This spans over 17 years. They first did it in 2020, 2007. Then they did it in 2014, then they were gonna do it again in 2021, you know, every seven years. But then. You know, pandemic. So they actually did it 20, 23, 24. So you get this really wide span and you're able to see really how quickly over this 17 year period, we lost God. So, basically what happened was we went from 16% of Americans being religiously unaffiliated, like, you know, not that many to over 29%. So almost, almost a third of Americans just aren't religiously affiliated. And I would say it's [00:02:00] gonna be higher than that because they considered other religions to be things like Unitarian Universalists and spiritual people of like new age and that no, like dangling crystals does not make you religious. I'm so sorry. What? People fall Malcolm Collins: into that category other. Simone Collins: It's, it's like one, 1%, so very, very little. Now 2% actually. So it was 1% around 20 2007, and then around 2% in 2014. But I still, you know, that's. That ain't religious. So everything, I think Malcolm Collins: before we get into the statistics, the reason why a lot of people from religious communities aren't seeing this is because they are from religious communities. Yeah. And definitionally, it's the people when they leave your community. I. That they are disappearing from your religion so you no longer see them, you know, when they move or whatever. Mm-hmm. This is and, and people when they deconvert from religions, don't do it for the reasons people think. The, the number one reason why people stop attending church is just because they moved and they didn't, they didn't start going. Yeah, [00:03:00] because it was, Simone Collins: it was a community thing. It was a friend group thing. It's very similar to our models of friendship where you have. Convenience friends who are basically just the people that you were friends with because they lived right next to you. And I think a lot of people grew up, and especially this is the old people who are now dying, they were only religious because it was convenience, religion, that being a part of your community kind of mandated your being religious or showing up at church. 'cause that was also culturally normative. And you get a lot of side eye. Suspicion if you didn't show up at church. So they did it, but it was convenience religion. It wasn't utility religion. People didn't practice religion because they, on the whole, because they found it really helped them perform better in life, even if it did. And so, Malcolm Collins: and, and, and so this is why when Covid came and people started doing religious services from home mm-hmm. And all of these communities stopped, many of them never really fully reopened. That 5% number that I gave you that was measured before Covid. Simone Collins: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. There is one really interesting statistic that actually runs against a lot of what you've said so far. Okay. About Mormons. That [00:04:00] gives me a lot of hope for Mormon. So when you dive into this research and you look at at age distribution among different religious groups, every religious group over time is seeing an erosion of their 18 to 29-year-old range, which is really bad because again, what this, this research is finding is that. Religion is, is going down, not because, and I know you're, you're gonna argue it's because people are like actually changing their behavior over time. What Pew argues is that, no, it's just that the religious people are dying and the younger people aren't religious at all. And yet when you look at Latter Day Saints, Mormons. 25% of Mormons are 18 to 29, which is a pretty healthy ratio. Cons, and what, what was it in the past? So it's actually better than it ever was during the survey period in 2007, 24% of thinks were in that range. And in 2014 it actually dipped. It was 21%. Now it's 25%. Malcolm Collins: That's really [00:05:00] impressive. Simone Collins: So I'm, I'm actually seeing, and it's subtle, but they also just signs of recovery because actually what we are seeing in, in sort of, inverse is we're seeing fewer proportionately Mormons in the 30 to 49 range. Yeah. And I feel like there's this millennial. Millennial slump that the LDS church had that lost a lot of people. And I feel that they've developed some cultural technologies to start recovering from that. And or the LDS community started realizing early people who left or they saw people who left and they're like, wow, it's not working out for them. I'm gonna stay in, I'm not gonna jump the ship. So you Malcolm Collins: look. The numbers that she has here. Sorry, this is important to get to because you, you're just, you're saying the graph says something, but a lot of people listen on podcasts, so we've gotta explain what the graph says. Yeah. So, if you're looking at the elderly population. Within the latest measurement, the 23 to 24 range, it was 20% in the two. Previous to 2014 and 2017, it was much lower only 15% and 16% [00:06:00] respectively. Now that's really striking when you consider that now they're dealing with a bigger, much older 65 plus range in much younger, under 29 range, 18 to 29 range. Which implies that there was sort of a baby boom within the LDS church for one generation. No, and Simone Collins: this is really important because just to give you some perspective, okay, in 23 to 24, 20 5% of Mormons were in this 18 to 29 range. They were young. Compared to that, to Catholics in the 23 to 24 range, 14% of Catholics were in the 23 to 24% range and 28%. Basically a third plus another 29%. So basically two thirds of Catholics are over 50 years old with 29% being 50 to 64 and 28% being 65 or older. Malcolm Collins: It gets worse when you look at the historic data because if you go to 2007, not that long ago, only 16% of Catholics were over 65 and now it's 28%. Yeah. [00:07:00] Catholics are dying Simone Collins: and this is, this is huge. ' cause I mean, I, I, I'm, I, so I do have hope for Catholics because I think that there are a couple very small communities. That are very high fertility that could come to represent the new version of the Catholic Church. However, I also have my doubts in this model. You know how a lot of people are like, oh, the future will be inherited by the Amish. It's hard to even find Anaba. Mm-hmm. Let alone like, I mean there's on Amish, there's Mennonites, Mennonites, there's heater Hutterites, right? Like there's literally different subgroups. But of all the Anabaptists in general. It's, it's around 1%, maybe less. And this could be a polling issue, right? Like it's probably harder Of the Malcolm Collins: US population, you mean? Simone Collins: Of the US population? Yeah. If you look in this, it Malcolm Collins: doesn't matter if they're 1%, if they're, if they're growing at the rate that they're growing now, like they'll be a huge Simone Collins: chunk very shortly. Yeah. But I don't know, I don't know if they're actually growing at that rate. I just, they're, they're so small. I, I'm really putting all my hope in Malcolm Collins: are we can look at the data. This happened in another country, specifically Israel. So Israel, right now, if you look at the Hawaii population, you know how [00:08:00] they don't. Have to participate in war and stuff like that. Another 16% of the population. Yeah. The reason why they got the war exception was because when they first went to and applied for this, there were like 10,000 of them or something. They were basically, they're like, oh, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. And now they've exploded. So yeah, this literally has happened in other countries. Simone that's, that's, that's the power of compounding interest Simone Collins: maybe. B

    41 min
  6. 18 APR

    The Aesthetics of the New Right With Raw Egg Nationalist (Birth of a New Subversive Art Movement)

    Join us as we delve into a riveting conversation with Raw Egg Nationalist, the mind behind the provocative 'Man's World' magazine. In this episode, we explore the unique aesthetic philosophy of the new right, its cultural significance, and the inspirations behind the artistic movement. We discuss the rebirth of men's magazines, the influence of anime and Greco-Roman aesthetics, and the importance of producing engaging and beautiful art in today's sociopolitical landscape. This video is a must-watch for those interested in understanding the burgeoning right-wing cultural scene and its impact on contemporary art and literature. Don't miss this engaging and thought-provoking discussion! Malcolm Collins: . [00:00:00] Hello everyone. I'm excited to be here. We have a raw egg nationalist with us again. I am so excited. And what we wanted to talk about is, I was looking at his, his, his magazine. I'd never seen a print copy before Man's World. And hold it, hold it up so they can see the anime girls and everything. 'cause you're, it's Simone Collins: perfection. Yes. Malcolm Collins: And I'll try to put like one on the screen here if I remember, and you can, you can turn it over to show sort of the back of it. But when I was looking at this, you know, like Shinzo, Abe, big titty, anime girl, Trump like, and missile also just Simone Collins: the formatting in general though, like, I remembered. From my, my childhood years, just really loving, for example, wired magazine because just had this incredible formatting and layout and I've missed that. And we're seeing it again here. And it's just so fun to see like this. Well, yeah, I go to one of us where Malcolm Collins: it's like racist or whatever, right. You see how they did our article in it. But the reason I find this interesting, and I wanted to focus on it, is the, the new right has developed a very unique aesthetic philosophy. Mm-hmm. [00:01:00] And I think that this covers, sort of perfectly represents it so people understand it's not just Malcolm saying like the, the, the, the alt-right cat girl phenomenon or whatever. Yeah. No proof. Simone Collins: This is not just in Malcolm's head. This is awesome and it's here. Malcolm Collins: And, and I'll also put a sargon of a cod, a tweet here. 死んだ は 初めて 俺 に 伝えて いる 絶望 の 匂い だ 面白い こと 見せよう か ほら こんな に ガチン が 多 すぎて お父さん アカン ドナルド君 は まだ 死ぬ 時 じゃ ない でしょ ア アメリカ 万歳 さよなら ここ で 絶対 負けない よ ランドトゥライド まで 出ろ だ って まだ サンキュー 言ってない でしょ 一回 も 言って ください おい[00:02:00] 仲良く して この 世界 に 傷ついて いける かな 昔 グレート だった 大きに また グレート に なる かな あの さ 有名人 なら 誰か の マンコ 掴んで さ そうそう そうそう やらせる で Malcolm Collins: Which I found amazing where they had like anime style Trump and over the top, and I thought it was the best. But I, yeah. I'd love to just hear your thoughts, how you constructed this and how you think about this sort of aesthetic move because it's really a new artistic movement that is starting and I don't think many people are cataloging or talking about. Raw Egg Nationalist: Yeah. So I mean, so I started Mans World really by accident. You know, I was, thinking of, well, I mean, I write about masculinity a lot. You know, that's one of, that's my bread and butter. That's what I've been writing about on Twitter and, and [00:03:00] writing articles about, you know, for, for five, five years now actually. But in the sort of summer of 2020, I was thinking about men's magazines and I was thinking, you know, why are, why are there no men's magazines anymore? You know? So play Playboy is totally paused now. Playboy is so, you know, I mean, they had a transgender centerfold, I think. Simone Collins: Oh gosh. Okay. Yeah. What was that Malcolm Collins: men's magazine that I used to love? Maxim. Maxim. Do you remember this? Okay. So it was little fashioned though. I felt like it was. No, no, no. So, so I gotta talk about this because this is the, a, a historic phenomenon that disappeared, but was like, I think a staple of our childhoods. When you would go to the magazine rack before you get on a plane or something like that. There was always a, like a, a category. I think Maxim was sort of the main one where we'd have like irreverent, funny articles that were targeted at men. And sort of the point of it was to be edgy and man focused. They even had a TV channel called Spike [00:04:00] TV that was edited this demographic in this format. We actually know the guy who was one of the, the showrunners for that, who now runs Dad Saves America. But anyway, they, they had shows like. So funny that it, the person who ran the the Man Show was Jimmy Kimmel. But I remember like an example of like a joke they had on the show. Can you believe that Jimmy Kimmel ran this joke? Is he would have a young kid go around and try to buy alcohol at convenience stores. And when they'd ask him for his id, he'd ask them for their green cards. . I just need to help old ladies cross the street. Old ladies. Yeah. I'm not old. Sure you are. Malcolm Collins: Anyway, continue document this. Raw Egg Nationalist: Yeah, so I was, so, I was thinking about men's magazines and, you know, why Playboy has disappeared. You know, I mean, part of it's something that I remember from my teenage years, you know, growing up things like Maxim, FHM, but also Playboy, you know, and there's this old Chestnut I read Playboy for the article. Yes. But it's, but it's, but it's true. I mean, I, I say this a lot, but it's, you [00:05:00] know, it's true. Like Playboy used to have great writers NAL, Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, all of these great, you know, great writers of the middle and, and late 20th century, you know, would regularly write for Playboy. Hunter Thompson too, right? Yeah, yeah. Hunters Thompson. Yeah, exactly. So you'd have, you'd have, you know, it was, it was like a re it was a trendsetting taste setting thing. Playboy. Yeah. You know, it was, it was for like a. Aspiring men, you know, men, men who are, who have aspirations, men who want to, you know, sort of better themselves and, and but also Simone Collins: cutting edge culture. Yeah, very. It was on the forefront of change. These were age agentic people. Raw Egg Nationalist: Exactly. Exactly. And it, it, I mean, it wasn't just about the beautiful women, the native women. I mean, that was a big part of it. That was part of the lifestyle. And obviously that was part of Hugh Hefner's lifestyle. But you know, play Playboy was a cultural phenomenon. And so I thought, well, wouldn't it be nice if we actually on the right, if we had a new kind of playboy for the, for the new massively online internet [00:06:00] era? Something that sort of combined the best writing on, you know, on the dissident, right. Whatever you want to call it with kind of lifestyle stuff and, and also this kind of, basically like the Twitter four chan kind of aesthetic where you, where you are, you know, so you'd, you'd be mixing like classic Playboy, the classic Playboy layout. You know, I mean, the magazine looks like a classic playboy in many respects, but it's. But it's just, it's, it's kind of bizarre and, and sort of a bit postmodern and, and it has all of this. Yeah. You are Simone Collins: really combining like all the new aesthetics, which I really like got this like vintage. Well, no, but Malcolm Collins: I, but I mean, I think that, that what you're showing there, can you put that closer to the camera so we can really see that Is is a, a artistic style that is unique to this sort of new right movement where you're combining nostalgia with. Irreverence and, and cultural subversion. Simone Collins: Yeah. But still like with Yeah, like irreverence, you know, like this is, you know, there, there are puns. It's playful around the world in [00:07:00] 80 Lays is what it says. Yes. Raw Egg Nationalist: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was, that was the winner of, so we had a pulp fiction contest in the magazine, and that was the winner of the Pulp Fiction contest. I wanted people to write classic pulp fiction short stories racy, exciting, you know, for men. And I mean, the, the winner, the winner is great. All of, in fact, most of the entries that we had for the competition, we had hundreds of entries. They were really good. Wow. It was really very, very high standard. But I mean, the thing about, the thing about the aesthetics thing, I suppose, is that you know, really it's, it's quite heavily influenced by Bronze Age, pervert by Bronze Age mindset. I mean, he helped mm-hmm. To put. Aesthetic considerations, I think back on the radar in a, for the writing in a way that they weren't before. You know, I mean, Bronte's mindset as a book is as much about the kind of, the kind of madcap energy of the, of the book, of the style the kind of irreverence, the style of re and Simone Collins: well, and vitalism too. [00:08:00] So yes, the, the aesthetics is permeated in every grammatical choice that he makes. Mm-hmm. As well as this, like very heavy. Vitalistic enthusiasm which is somewhat reminiscent of the Playboy days. I think, you know, there's that same sort of enthusiasm for the future in Vitalism. I think he, he tones it up. Malcolm Collins: So if we wanna talk about Bronze Age pervert, there's a few things to break out here. One is, his name is intentionally, you know, I talked about combining nostalgia, bronze Age with subversion pervert. It does that perfectly in the way that he constructed it. Yeah. If you look at his writing style, he intentionally does not use correct per periods and everything he correct does lots of run-ons. He doesn't follow the rules. We associate with high status writing. Sur

    1h 2m
  7. 17 APR

    Deciphering the Progressive Religion: Environmentalism, Trans, & Anti-Semitism

    Join us in an engaging conversation as we delve into the mysterious roots of modern leftist beliefs. We explore the perceived borderline theological nature of these beliefs and address three main areas: environmentalism, trans politics, and genetics. The discussion highlights the urban monoculture's tendency to ascribe moral value to perceived weakness, creating a 'noble obligation' that diverges from traditional self-preservation instincts. We also touch on the inherent mistrust of advancement, the industrial revolution, and the anti-human sentiment among progressives, drawing comparisons with historical and cultural contexts. This episode provides valuable insights into the cultural and ideational forces shaping present-day ideological dynamics. Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I am excited to be here with you today. Today we are going to be tackling and, and trying to work our way through something that I see as particularly an interesting mystery that I don't know if I have a formal thesis on what's causing it yet but it is when I look at you know, the urban monoculture from which, you know, modern leftist culture derives itself. Where it holds beliefs that I would say appear to an outsider to be borderline theological. And, and it is a sin to go against these particular beliefs. Most frequently these beliefs fall into a few categories. Environmentalism is a really big one. Another one is trans politics is a really big one. And then another one is genetics is a really big one. And I'm, I'm like actually like, sort of [00:01:00] surprised because not all of these things are like intrinsic to a leftist worldview. How they arrived and consolidated around these particular areas. Where they most frequently say things that just like on face value or was like the littlest bit of research are not true. Simone Collins: Mm-hmm. Malcolm Collins: You know, this can be, you know, in genetics it's like, well, everyone has exactly the same capabilities. And it's like they, they very obviously don't, like if you, if you do even the basis look at science, some of our. Proclivities and traits have a her component. Like that's a weird thing to claim. And people can be like, oh, well this is like downstream of like fears about like nazim and eugenics and stuff like that. And I'm like. Maybe, but it's weird that it's so core to the way they see the world. And Min was environmentalism. There's this form of not real environmentalism, but aesthetic environmentalism. I persistently see them retreat to mm-hmm. You know, where like they're taking [00:02:00] down like nuclear power plants in Germany. Despite their only other source of energy being like Russian oil, which is like obviously dirtier, but like as environmentalists we're anti-nuclear. Like, and, and it's not just that, it's also like when I mention something like this is like reporters frequently have like a visceral reaction when I tell them fertility collapse will affect people's lives more in the next hundred years than global warming will. And they're like, are you sure you don't wanna restate that? Like, they see this as like an absolutely insane thing to say. Like I'm saying the sky is red. When I say global, it's not the most important thing. Or they're like, well, don't you care about like a, a, a huge. Collapse in the number of species you know, like a mass extinction. And I'm like, a mass extinction is bad. Like it's not awesome. There are consequences of a mass extinction. They're not existential consequences. Like it's, it's, it's, it's [00:03:00] bad. Like it's not great. I'm not aiming for it, but it's not, you know, threatening to human survival or even the existing way that we structured our civilizations. Simone Collins: Mm-hmm. Malcolm Collins: In the way that they seem to be like implying it is. And I don't think that they really believe it is either. They're not afraid of a mass extinction because of humans. They're afraid of a mass extinction because the mass extinction matters. So as somebody who used to, I think you maybe used to genuinely hold some of these beliefs, maybe you can explain to me sort of how they work and, and where they're coming from. Simone Collins: I think maybe a lot of people steeped in the urban monoculture, super progressive modern religion have this modern version of noble abl in that they're indoctrinated in. That leads them to believe that their purpose is to protect anything that is perceived as less [00:04:00] capable of defending itself than they are that the last person for them to defend is anything close to them because they come from this position of privilege. So it's different from the old concept of noble obl, which I think had a little bit more of a self preservation instinct. This one's a more like suicidal form of noble obl, if that makes sense. That's just like, I don't matter. I am wretched. And I must protect all that, which is. Relatively more defenseless. Malcolm Collins: That's a really interesting point. So essentially they ascribe automatic moral value to whatever they perceive to be the weaker party. Simone Collins: Greater victimhood holds higher moral val value. And that is indeed, I think why oppression Olympics kind of went out of hand because I think some people have a deeper instinct to still want to be at the top of a dominance hierarchy. And they realized intuitively. That they could only be at the top of the dom hierarchy by being more of a victim. And that's why you get every, everything from people playing oppression [00:05:00] Olympics to wealthy to middle class teenage girls becoming spoons and playing, yeah. Oppression Olympics by getting sick. Well, this Malcolm Collins: explains a lot. It, is it, yeah. That, that part explains where you get this like invented trans identity and I think that the, like the, the, the, yeah. Well, it also Simone Collins: explains why. In those heat maps, for example. And sort of research of the, yeah, progressive versus conservative brain. Progressives hold more things as having moral weight that are not their family, their immediate community in themselves. That makes Malcolm Collins: sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually. But there's Simone Collins: more than just that. I think there's an inherent distrust of advancement. I. And the concept of manifest destiny or conquering the natural world. And I think this is why among progressive circles, the book Sapiens took on so much. I've never heard a conservative, I. Talk about Sapiens. Yes. And, and be like, oh, sapiens, my dad. [00:06:00] And like a big, a big aspect or thesis of Sapiens. So it's admittedly been almost 10 years since I've first read it. Is that hated, hated I made me so angry. It's just wrong. It's like just sort of talks about how. Everything kind of went downhill after agriculture and our teeth got horrible and we'd lived in stressful environments and we'd lived in diseased cities, and it was just always so bad and like, oh, somehow our hunting gathering period was so wonderful. And I think the reason why that resonated so much with educated, progressive audiences is that there is this inherent mistrust of modernity and of conquering. For example, nature. And I think this is also seen in the contrast between the way that conservatives have historically engaged with the environment and conservation. Versus how progressives have engaged with the environment. So conservatives are all like, yes, conservation. Like, let's go out hunting. Like let's go out camping. Let's enjoy conquering [00:07:00] nature and protect it so we can keep conquering it. Yeah. Again, because it's so freaking fun. Our training simulator, we can't disrupt it. Yeah, yeah. Like let's, let's keep it around 'cause it's really, really great. And then progressives are more like, no, let's tear down. Our nuclear plants, our modernity, let's tear down our cities, let's tear down our modern infrastructure. In some cases it's literally, you know, engage in degrowth and tear down our economies and civilization to let nature take back over. And of course the extreme version of this is antinatalism. Wouldn't it be great if a comet wiped out all humans? Wouldn't it be great if all humans died? Malcolm Collins: Which is surprising number of progressives believe when we did our survey in the United States, 17% of the respondents said the world would be better without any humans continue. Sorry. Simone Collins: Yeah. But that's the, I think that it's that combination of this modern noble ablation, I am wretched and everything outside me that it, that has higher victimhood status or less agency is more important. It takes precedence over my needs. And [00:08:00] remember you, it took you like. Seven years to convince me that I was not the dumbest, lowest value person of everyone. Yeah. Like this was deeply ingrained in me. And it took so much work on your part to convince me that you were deeply Malcolm Collins: unspectacular. And I was like, no, you are spectacular. You are one of the most desirable humans on Earth. Well, and one of the most talented humans on earth. And I just like, Simone Collins: like literally though, I mean, I, I would see someone, you know, who. Had a lot, like very serious problems and just assume that they were better, smarter, more age agentic than me. Like the, the, it was, it was I think some people will hear that and be like, I don't know. She's a four. She's mid, she's not what Malcolm says he's wearing husband goggles. No, I, this was actually dysmorphic. Malcolm Collins: I'm not saying I'm not, hold on. I'm not even talking about attractiveness here. I'm talking about competence, Simone Collins: intelligence, competence. Yeah. A agency, all of that. I, I thought that I was lesser and, and, and more wretched. And so like, if anyone. Or to say something like, well, that's not true, or [00:09:00] I'd just be like, okay. And that, and I, and I made her Malcolm Collins: play this game a

    41 min
  8. 16 APR

    Wild West Dating & Mail Order Brides: Tinder of the Old West

    In this episode, Simone and her guest delve into the fascinating history of mail order brides in the Old West. They explore why men and women opted into these arrangements, what each gender valued in a partner, and how societal values have changed over time. The script covers a variety of firsthand accounts and marriage ads from the 1800s to early 1900s, highlighting the practical and often business-like nature of these unions. The hosts also discuss the broader cultural implications and talk about how modern individuals might learn from these historical practices. Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone. Today we are going to go into an interesting deep dive to learn more about dating in the old West. We are going to look at the widely practiced concept of mail order brides in the old West. Talked about why people opted into it, why they did it. Review a lot of firsthand accounts of what men were looking for back then and what women were looking for to understand what they valued in a partner and how that has changed in society. Because I think that that's something to go back to, like different cultural periods to one, better understand our own ancestry because I think a lot of Americans have forgotten what their great grandparents valued, what they were looking for in partners, et cetera. And we, we, through seeing different cultures, we can be like, oh, this is a different way to relate. To marriage and sexuality. And, and a lot of people would ask, they'd be like, how really, like women would do this. They would like get in a carriage and like drive out to meet with someone in the middle of nowhere in like the old west. Like, weren't they afraid of like being turned into [00:01:00] like a sex slave and like chained up in the basement or something. And it's like, well actually there wasn't that much risk of that because that was sort of like a strictly like worse value proposition for a guy than a wife. Sex slaves are very high maintenance. Especially if you're living on the frontier, like yeah, they're Simone Collins: not doing that much work, which is, I mean, I guess you could, you could force them to work. There was like that, that tragic story recently of the. Mm. Well now man, but who had been trapped in his house for a long period of time and he was occasionally let out to clean the house. So he did do some housework, but then otherwise he was in his room. Yeah. That's Malcolm Collins: strictly less like even if they were just cleaning the house, that's strictly lesser than you can get out of a dedicated wife who like you, you dedicated part of your time to. Right. You know, like you get a lot more labor out of her just by being nice. So we'll, we'll get to like the dynamics of this, although there was an instance. Where a woman did get married to a nice guy, only to realize shortly after her wedding, and we'll go into this case in a bit, that he had robbed her stage coach on the way over, not knowing it was his future wife, [00:02:00] and he was just on the low down, also a stage coach robber. Oh, oops. Well, he was nice about it too. He didn't know it was gonna be his future wife, and he let her keep her wedding outfit and everything. And Oh, that's, she was like, oh, I'm gonna get married. And then he's like, oh, yeah. He's like, I can just imagine his face when she arrives, like, oh, sh uhoh, uhoh. What a start, huh? That's, that's before getting into all of that. I want go into some marriage in the old West. Okay. Rucks coffee, coupons and rings. In late 18 hundreds, rucks Coffee was a dominant brand across the American frontier, especially among cowboys, homesteaders, and miners. Coffee was a staple, and Arbuckle stood out by including redeemable coupons or premiums in their three pound bags. These weren't just throwaways. Think of them as loyalty points. Customers collected them to train for goods like kitchenware, razors, and notably. Finger rings, the rings often simple bands or [00:03:00] modestly adorned were marketed as keepsakes or engagement symbols. The claim of 80,000 wes a year was, was one of their, their things. So the old wesler was a common practice of you would buy. Now, the, the reason this brand of coffee became popular among the old West first is they built a a way. To seal it so it stayed fresh longer so they could ship it further. And so, then the next thing they did is they built a system where you would get like this coupon book that you could use to buy things, but one of the most popular items in the coupon book was wedding rings. And so people would save up for various wedding rings that they would buy with coupons. Simone Collins: That is that, I mean, that makes sense. It, it sounds honestly like buying. A wedding ring with your credit card points today, which a lot of people do. So I bet if I log onto our credit card rewards, I will find ways to buy a ring. Which time all day. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. We spend all our points on, hey, this year, never Malcolm Collins: [00:04:00] one to rest on his laurels. Our buckle next came up with a voucher plan. He printed a coupon bearing his signature on each package. A given number of coupons would earn the bearer one of a hundred items available in Arbuckle's catalog. The wishlist book of its day items included everything from a toothbrush to a double action revolver. A young man could even order a golden wedding ring for his lady. Love his lady love. Oh, I love that. You could be killed by a gun that somebody got was coupons in the old West. Not only was the coffee a lifesaver to those early westerners, so was the packaging coffee was shipped with sturdy main fur crates, 100 pound bags to the lot. The crates were used to make furniture coffins and cradles. The Navajo Indians even used the wood to make a hogans and trademark flying angel that embezzled each package of coffee , adorned mini, a Western Christmas tree. Simone Collins: Oh my gosh. That is very interesting. Right? That is so cool. I love that. Malcolm Collins: I, I thought you'd get excited about this. I was like, [00:05:00] that's a, that's a cool little anecdote. I'm moving that right to the beginning. Simone Collins: Yeah. Hold on. I wanna, I wanna see if Malcolm Collins: I can find pictures of these, these books. I, I, I, I could find pictures of the books, but not the rings. Simone Collins: Well, I mean, I imagine the rings looked pretty you know, nondescript. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Like just a gold band. Yeah. That's my guess. So a common cording custom in the old West was something called cording mirrors. Cording mirrors were another quirky tradition, more common in rural America, including the old West during the 18 hundreds. They were small handheld mirrors, often four to eight inches long with wooden or metal frames, sometimes carved or painted with simple designs like or flowers. Aw, a sooner gifted one to a woman. He was courting, and it wasn't just about vanity mirrors were pricey and were rare on the frontier where glass was a luxury. Mm-hmm. Giving one signaled thoughtfulness and investment, like gifting a high-end gadget. Today the mirror had symbolic weight too. It was intimate. A personal item tied to appearance and identity, suggesting trust and admiration. Some stories claim that women used them to reflect on their suitor's [00:06:00] intentions, . Although that likely was romanticized folklore, practically a mirror was useful for a woman living in a sod house or cabin with few possessions. In some cases, couples exchanged mirrors with the man keeping a smaller one as a memento reinforcing mutual commitment. That's sweet. They both would bring a mirror and the man would just keep whichever one happened to be smaller. These mirrors that weren't mass produced like our buckles rings, they were often handmade or bought from peddlers, making each one unique. By the 1880s catalog companies like Sears began offering cheap versions, but earlier a mirror might cost a day's wages serious for a farm, hand or cowboy. Their popularity waned by the 19 hundreds as manufactured goods flooded markets, but they left a mark in diaries and family heirlooms often passed down as quote the mirror he gave her in quote. That's, that's so also sweet. Simone Collins: And yes, I checked in 100%. We could buy a wedding ring with credit card points even on Etsy. You can now like convert credit card points to an Etsy gift card. [00:07:00] So. Well, I love it. And I, and I love craft the, the, Malcolm Collins: The, this, this mirror idea. It's actually really sweet that whatever your only possessions, it's a Simone Collins: keepsake thing. And practical. I love this mixture of practicality and writing. Well, it tied to your identity, symbolic. Mm-hmm. I should give you all your also like, take care of yourself. Like, girl, I forget, like a Malcolm Collins: vacuum, like you look rough. Simone Collins: Here's the evidence. It's a mirror. Malcolm Collins: But, and, and it's important to understand how little people owned back then when we were going back through my family diaries at that time. And it was like my great great grandfather talking about being raised. And the episode's called People used to Like Their Parents. That's the, it's a really good episode, I think one of the best we've ever done. Because it was going over his diaries and at one point he catalogs everything he owns and everything he owns was. Like a dirt roof shed that they slept in an outhouse and then a, a weaving loo, a loom. And, and apparently some pigs. And that was it. I mean, Simone Collins: pigs are so, looms are useful too. Malcolm Collins: That Simone Collins: all Malcolm Collins: sounds good to me. Yeah. Yeah. But I was, it's, it's interesting to [00:08:00] me that today, like, have you thought about making a catalog of everything that your family owns? It would not be like a four thing catalog. It's not like, well, we've got some pigs and I've got a, a loom and an outhouse. Simone Collins: We

    48 min

Ratings & Reviews

About

Based Camp is a podcast focused on how humans process the world around them and the future of our species. That means we go into everything from human sexuality, to weird sub-cultures, dating markets, philosophy, and politics. Malcolm and Simone are a husband wife team of a neuroscientist and marketer turned entrepreneurs and authors. With graduate degrees from Stanford and Cambridge under their belts as well as five bestselling books, one of which topped out the WSJs nonfiction list, they are widely known (if infamous) intellectuals / provocateurs. If you want to dig into their ideas further or check citations on points they bring up check out their book series. Note: They all sell for a dollar or so and the money made from them goes to charity. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FMWMFTG basedcamppodcast.substack.com

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