Tag Archives: culture

Why I am on the Right, part 1,356,446

Posted on September 7, 2013 by David Hume

It’s time for science fiction to face up to discrimination: The author Jim C Hines sparked a conversation on Twitter after posting a picture of the all-white past, present and future chairs of WorldCon and coining the hashtag #DiversityinSFF. As … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 5 Comments

What if all music was ‘Christian’ music?

Posted on July 19, 2011 by David Hume

I think this sort of rhetorical question is a good way to understand the role of religion in much of the Islamic world: there is no distinction between pop culture and religiously inflected culture. I thought of that when noticing … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged , | 5 Comments

A true cultural topography

Posted on January 12, 2011 by David Hume

There are quite often two extreme reactions when it comes to cultural variation. – To assert that cultural differences are to a great extent incommensurable. The more extreme caricatures of this position fall into the class of cultural relativism. – … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, history | Tagged , | 7 Comments

It’s about human nature

Posted on November 2, 2010 by David Hume

I had dinner with an old friend today, and he inquired of me why I define myself as a conservative. After all, on many “hot button” issues I’m arguably a social liberal, and my attitude toward government and its current … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 7 Comments

Judge them by their actions

Posted on August 30, 2010 by David Hume

Recently on bloggingheads.tv Michael Brendan Dougherty, a professing Catholic, suggested that anti-Catholic movements in 19th century America had a point. In this Dougherty seems to be aligning with Ross Douthat’s implication, that American reaction drove American Catholicism to counter-reaction, and … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , | 19 Comments

Traditions and tribes; the genealogy of civilizations

Posted on November 16, 2009 by David Hume

A few weeks ago the socially conservative sociologist who blogs under the name “Inductivist” had an intriguing post up, Social conservatives and Muslims: Social conservatives typically align themselves with the West against the Islamic world in the “clash of civilizations,” … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data | Tagged , | 25 Comments

Greater New England

Posted on November 11, 2009 by David Hume

To the left is a map which shows the 1856 election results for president by county. In the blue are counties where John C. Fremont, the Republican, received a majority of the votes. The more intense the blue, the higher … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 10 Comments

Your genes on cuisine

Posted on December 11, 2008 by David Hume

A year ago there was a paper on the effect of diet on enzyme production, Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation. That human evolution skeptic, P. Z. Myers, has just noticed the paper, and says: This … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, science | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments