I mentioned this Ipsos poll on global attitudes to LGBT in a previous Open Thread, but it really deserves a separate post on account of its significance. I think it demonstrates three things: LGBT rights (as in marriage and adoption) have become universalized beyond their Western core, with the Rest sliding into line soon after

Emil Kirkegaard: The ‘Hereditarians bad people’ objection. On the recent spat between Cathy Young vs. Charles Murray, Steve Sailer, and other hereditarians. Ended with Steve being blocked by Cathy. Hungary has become an object in the culture war. Their demographic problems long predate Orban, who was actually more successful on the economy than on the former (at

It’s fascinating to think that what is now a solidly lower-middle income country with a population that is on the cusp of overtaking’s China’s has just two medals in the Olympics so far. It’s a bit less surprising when one considers that the average Indian man might only be about as strong as the average

Rosatom HQ. RIP. Sam Dickson: William H. Regnery II: A Hero’s Life. A Hero’s Death.  I intersected with him in Moscow in 2018 at the end of a transit of the Trans-Siberian with a friend. Too little to get a know a person, but my impressions were positive, FWIW. On a non-political tone, He remarked that he

These are the results of a recent poll from Rating Group. 41% agree with Putin’s position, 55% disagree. Not bad, considering there’s now been a generation’s worth of state svidomy narratives. But possibly the most startling result (and certainly one that I didn’t expect is there there’s essentially zero difference across age groups. 44% of 18-29

Chinese protectionism/censorship (they only allow 34 Hollywood movies a year) has helped incubate a domestic film industry. As Richard Hanania points out, citing a study by James McMahon, that as of now, 9 out of 10 of the highest grossing films in Chinese history are domestic, all released in the last few years. State censors require

Time for something more stereotypical. The AK. About a couple of months ago the National Bolsheviks (“Other Russia”) had me round to their “bunker” for a podcast. It’s now been released, you can listen to it here. (Obviously only in Russian). Alt Right columnist Tobias Langdon “featured me” as a Jew besmirching the noble Anglo

America’s ability to draw high quality human capital from abroad is one of the lynchpins of its economic strengths and probably goes some ways to explaining why it’s GDP per capita is significantly higher than would might be predicted from its national IQ. Alexander Kruel recently had a Twitter thread about precisely which groups of immigrants

That’s what I counselled people hoping for (or fearing) that a color revolution was imminent a few months ago: Look at the numbers. Well, since then, they have if anything plummeted further. 14% approval vs. 62% disapproval. Down from half a year ago. Furthermore, while young people are relatively more pro-Navalny (this is not surprising: to

I wrote about Woke Capital making inroads into Russia after Netherlands HQ’ed Yandex.Taxi fired a driver who refused service to a rude Black foreign student last year. However, not all such corporate attempts to signal fealty to progressive values are paying off. Vkusvill is a nice chain of grocery stores that are somewhere in between

According to the CDC the US had a homicide total of 24,692 in 2020, an increase of 5,551 compared to 2019. That's 29% more homicides, with the majority happening after a spike that coincided with the riots protesting the death of George Floyd pic.twitter.com/nrlo5zvvyN — Forest Dweller (@yukatapangolin) July 7, 2021 This translates to a

I think travel in much of Europe will remain significantly restricted as Delta makes its way from UK/Portugal to mainland Europe. Nature – Mounting evidence suggests Sputnik COVID vaccine is safe and effective. But Europeans still not rushing to approve, with France being intransigent in particular. Seething over Sanofi failure? Aeroflot short worked out (if not

Yesterday the Levada Center released a new poll on vaccines that tends to confirm my contention that Russia’s tawdry pace of vaccinations is not a result of supply constraints, but the banal fact that many Russians (including in older age groups) would simply rather catch Corona than get vaccinated. The first observation is that the percentage of

Scott Alexander – Welcome Polygenically Screened Babies. First baby polygenetically screened born to a family with a history of breast cancer which wanted to reduce to reduce those chances. SA implies the client was a reader. Eventually it could be possible to do this for intelligence and other personality traits. Putin’s Q&A with Russia. I’ll have