How Dawkins Got Pwned

by Mencius Moldbug

Discover how scientist Richard Dawkins got pwned by Universalism, the world’s most powerful parasitic memeplex. The worst you could be infected, too.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion, History

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2016

About the author

Pen name of American political theorist and software developer Curtis Yarvin.

Reviews

[Owlseyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"After all, what was the Inquisition thinking? They thought of heresy exactly the same way Professor Dawkins thinks of religion: as a sort of mental virus, whose eradication, while unavoidably painful, would bring peace and sanity."

"My belief is that Professor Dawkins is not just a Christian atheist. He is a Protestant atheist."
(in the book)

Non-theist Curtis Yarvin [Mencius Moldbug] suggests that Dawkins is owned"pwned" because he subscribes to universalism. Dawkins "sin" (my expression).

Though an atheist scientist, Dawkins is still, in the eyes of Yarvin, a "protestant atheist". [Does it make sense? No.]

But Dawkins, at least, debates religious figures. I hope Yarvin to debate soon the Archbishop of Austria. Why not? [Of course they won't; both].

The book has a lot on Politics and History, but little on Dawkins. The analysis of the monarchist Yarvin of the History of the USA (especially in the time of the 13 colonies) and the recent EU ("corp") is pertinent, though.

Calling Abraham Lincoln a "dictator" and George Washinton a "sympathizer of a military gang" is very un-American.

UPDATE
Richard Dawkins: I'm a Cultural Christian
IN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COHgE...

https://medium.com/@eejjbair/cultural...

[Rinstinkt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will give this 'book' 5 stars just because the author convinced about a few things I was cowardly undecided. Also, I now have a new erspective on how to view certain problems of our modern world that seem disjointed but whose connectedness is now clear.

I still have a few issues and I think I spotted some inconsistencies. But those might very well be explained by my bias, and what I thought the author believes from reading the propaganda against him. Will most certainly read his other collections.

[blaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read on the evolution of ideologies/worldviews as adaptive organisms. As much as Moldbug gravitates toward the Anglo analytic tradition his analysis feels very critical theory.

Liberalism and its offshoots are direct descendants of Christianity, specifically radical Protestant sects, but has an adaptive advantage over its predecessor by being able to present itself as pure rational thought, ‘just the way the world is’, by rejecting the metaphysical claim of a deity. However, it still holds just as much baggage through its quasi-religious faith in vague notions like ‘freedom’, ‘liberty’, ‘equality’, etc. It’s a terribly successful adaptation as it automatically paints any alternatives as backward, irrational, and evil in varying degrees. Stripping away all the language and associations we usually talk about liberalism and its ilk, he terms it a “mystery cult of power” and paints the US as a theocracy bound to decline (this was in 07).

Also presents his neocameralist theory of government, which I’m not sold on.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atheism is just christian derivation, universalism. Universalism is the religion that spawns democracy. The govt is moral because it's democratic. The way a democracy falls to evil is that a dictator comes. Like a poison pill. Can't fix democracy without the social training that the medicine is evil.

The problem with his "patchwork" govt. is that we know people do not act logically. There are vendettas that span 2000 years that still effect us today. People do not logically fall into profitable actions.

Cutely he claimed the republicans influenced the journalists and education. Published in 2016 I'm not sure how he gets to that conclusion... the original blog post must have been older.

[. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Какво да коментирам.. То е ясно. Хора като Доукинс, Харис и други "рационални" не осъзнават, че са в друга религия, много по-опасна от христянството, което поне се е обявило за религия, и което официално произхожда догмите си от книга и от бог. Религията на Харис и Доукинс от друга страна произхожда догмите си не от книга (която да може да се обори или интерпретира по различни начини) или от бог (който да може да се отрече), твхната религия е неотречима тъй като идва от "чистия разум". А те са хора които си мислят, че са способни на чиста рационалност и как оборваш тази религия? Христянинът ще ти каже, че ВЯРВА В БОГ, НО НЕ МОЖЕ ДА ТИ ДОКАЖЕ, ЧЕ СЪЩЕСТВУВА, ЗА ТОВА ВЯРВА. Рационалиста ще ти каже, че ТОЙ ЗНАЕ, защото ЧИСТАТА ЛОГИКА И РАЦИОНАЛИЗЪМ МУ Е ДАЛА ТАКИВА ЗНАНИЯ. :D

Молдбъг проследява зародиша на тази нова религия - универсализъм, егалитаризъм (общо взето тръгваща от невярната аоксиома, че всички хора са родени напълно равни с еднакви способности) - произлиза от прогресиени протестантски секти. Общо взето Доукинс и Харис са христяни протестанти КАТО ДОГМА с малката подробност, че не им идват тези ИСТИНИ от Бог или от Христос, ами (си мислят те) идват като заключения от чист разум. А всъщност са си точно толкова религиозни, колкото и един христянин. Даже вероятно и повече защото поне христянинът си знае, че е религипзен и си го признава. Докато те си мислят, че идеите им не идва от догми от книги, а от разум...

Книгата я има в ютюб.

Авторът е атеист. Аз също.

Но аз (не знам за него) не се имам за рационалист, и съм доста скептичен към целия рационалистичен процес.

От това което имаю като опит повечето рацио е пострацио. Първо решаваш после измисляш припини, защо това което си решил е вярно.

А как решаваш - интуотивно - комбинсция от опит първа ръка, интелигентност, социални стимули и антистимули, емоции, вродена предразположеност, случайност.

Според мен всички хора взимаме решения така - интуитивно.

Просто някои хора си мислят, че след като са взели интуотивно решение и след него са измислили и написали причина ПОСТ ФАКТУМ започват да си мислят, чв причината да вземат решението е написаната причина, а не интуитивния експириънс който са имали свързан с решението.

И колкото по-малко експириънс и колкото по-далече от първа ръка е той, толкова повече решението зависи ор другите описани фактори - социална средна, социални стимули и ограничения, емоции, СЛУЧАЙНОСТ.

ИЗСЛЕДВАНИЯ СА ПОКАЗАЛИ, че хора с повреди в лимбичната система (часта от мозъка създаваща емоциите) вместо както очакваме да са изсключително рационални, напротив такива хора се депресират и спират да вьимат решения тъй като реалнодтта е твърде сложна и независино от IQто, човек не може да я анализира напълно за да вземе рационално решение. Тези хора стоят в нерешително объркване - нрщо като Сам Харис общо взето.

Бе цялата детска приказка от ренесанза за разумът на човек е точно това - детска приказка.

Както казва една гениална бг поговорка не питай учило, питай патило.

[Paul Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Must read for those of you, who like me, have always thought "Democracy" is a very suboptimal form of governance.

[Artur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideas can disguise themselves too! In the typically irreverent and concise manner, Moldbug describes how Universalism is a blood and flesh from Christianity with one important adaptive feature - absence of God. In a long and extended discussion of modern progressivism, he studies how and why that ideology took over the world's superpower state and thus the world itself, its malicious features that lead to this ideology being classified not as a symbiote, but rather a parasite and how it supports and strengthens not-so-shiny democracy in the neverending feedback loop of sovcorp deterioration. Some of the points may be questionable, even too daring, but the main idea and its supporting structure is clear and sound - Univesalism is really more of a parasite then symbiote and devotion to it stems not from truth, but rather from it being highly infections and emptily gladdening along with having quite a few security features that make it really hard to oppose.

[Pedro Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawkins got pwned by a cult, proof of which Moldbug provides along with plenty of wit, talent, and a damning indictment of the ills of Western democracy. There's a lot to digest in these pages. If you're new to Moldbug's work, proceed with caution and take the time to think through the implications of what he's saying as it can change your understanding/indoctrination of the last three centuries. Open your mind, use reason to engage with his arguments, and enjoy.

[Brian Fang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather misleading title, the focus is more on denouncing liberalism, viewed as an atheistic version of puritan Christianity, and democracy, than on anything specific dawkins has expressed.

Strongly agree that USAers are living in an idiocracy where 2+2=5 (covidcircus, saint george floyd, hbd as anathema) because "MUH INNATE HUMAN GOOD EVERYONE IS EQUAL"

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended reading for atheists, christians, and generally anyone interested in politics, religion, and history.

[Alexej Gerstmaier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if Dawkins read this

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The purest and tastiest redpills out there. Yarvin’s mind showing us some mercy and only dropping them on the floor this time, instead of on the beach like usual.

—————————-

Im not sure if Moldbug “almost moldbugged” this series or if he “fully moldbugged” this series and im just becoming desensitized to getting moldbugged.

“Moldbugging” is when one has a brilliant and revolutionary idea that is so exquisite it cannot be found anywhere else but it is also buried in a rats nest of irrelevant and borderline incoherent historical tangents.

Like the process of reverse osmosis walter filtration, where the overwhelming majority of water becomes waste, and a fraction of it becomes the purest most delicious water ever, except that both are put in to water bottles and shipped out in the case that goes to you, with 9 out of 10 tasting like the tap.

Except its more like Moldbug made 10000 and he gave us the 50 best he could muster, the remaining 9950 completely undrinkable—the process of coming up with ideas on this level simply an unbelievably labor and waste intensive process.

Anyway, getting out of the analogy-gym: the theory, as presented in the first two chapters, that progressivism is simply a sect of nontheistic christianity is brilliant, original, and compelling.

Further, the idea of mind parasites and their propagation a by product of natural selection and meme theory, equally brilliant and compelling, and given that moldbug wrote this 2007, likely original (however not quite as revolutionary to my experience of reading the series given that it now has reasonable traction outside of NRX).

The ideas around modern politics simply being a battle between a previous sect of christianity vs a new sect of christianity, brilliant, original, compelling.

All these are found in the first 2 chapters.

He then half moldbugs it for 3 chapters—writing a bunch of seeming starting thoughts and quoting long history tangents—attempting to draw a picture of what the last 300 years would look like from a non universalist lense.

and then ends up closing the tangenting out somewhat strong by making a reasonably compelling case for his neo-monarchy ideas (though I am unclear if this complete detour of 2 whole chapters for why neo-monarchy is what we should do instead of universalistic democracy qualifies as having un-moldbugged it).

I guess in retrospect, looking at this, i could see how it could seem coherent as an outline.

1. universalism is a sect of christianity and kinda gay
2. heres what a non universalist explanation of America might look like
3. Heres an alternative to universalist democracy that is less gay.

Its just that only point 1 has much to do with Dawkins/the original point.

But i cant really complain, i certainly would do infinitely worse. And am probably manifesting in this review the exact problem i am criticizing. Such is the mind of people who these ideas interest, I suppose.

Anyway, In conclusion: This was one of moldbugs more coherent series (much more so than A Gentle Introduction) and is as brilliant as always. The ideas i give 6 stars, the execution I give 3 stars (in contrast A Gentle Introduction also got 6 for idea but a 2 for execution) and with a little bit of intuitively driven weighting, I conclude a 4.8 star overall rating, thus the 5 star marking.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins not only coined the term meme to define a "unit of culture", but also proposed the study of memes and overall the study of information through a Darwinian lens (memetics), i.e. studying ideas as analogous to organisms subject to evolutionary adaptation, the reproductive impulse, etc. A successful ideology would, in this sense, be highly contagious and highly persistent, sometimes even benefiting from its particular morbidity (that is, its effects on its host).

However, despite inaugurating this line of inquiry, and despite all his laudable denunciations of the Christian mind virus, Dawkins is not quite immune to infection. In fact, he is but another exemplary victim of the better adapted superspreader strain that Moldbug describes as Universalism, the "non-theistic sect of Christianity which is currently the planet's dominant religion". And while its mysteries are almost obvious once mentioned (1. equality, and 2. the belief in a circularly defined Zeitgeist as proof of its own virtue), the Cathedral's hegemony does the impossible to invert the burden of proof and thus hide them in plain sight.

The exact origin of this Universalist memeplex is as easy to pinpoint as the exact origin of any other species, for that matter. Moldbug, like all verbose right-of-center hominids, just starts counting from the French Revolution onwards, and proceeds to attempt a revision of -mostly American- History until our (post)modern day.

The rest of his 7-part slush of digressions alternates between denouncing Universalism's favorite substrate and offering a formalist? accelerationist? alternative to it. In the first case, it is clear that democracy is to Universalism what a weak immune system is to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the second, it is not clear that your friendly neighborhood NRx dealer can offer anything beyond diagnostics.

[Tristen Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and fun as usual from Moldbug. The YouTube "New Atheist" stuff is made fun of now, but this was written during its glory days. Moldbug himself is an atheist, but he is correctly laying out the religion that Dawkins (along with other Progressive atheists) believe in as a descendent of American Puritanism that has been steadily evolving for the past few hundred years.

Of course this ends with a total deconstruction of our American democracy by identifying the power structures as the opinion molding organizations that are Universities or media corporations who influence the public to keep criminals and psychos in charge. Moldbug's proposed CEO-style of government is weird, but it is always refreshing to read someone who accepts that humans naturally deviate into monarchial systems and that messing with this order is bad.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Read as part of the Unqualified reservations collection book)

This book is an aggressive mix of before it's time techno politics and very much of its time topics and opinions. It's an examination of Dawkins meme theory and how he is also being subverted by memes. The latter half a more classic Moldbug "Sovcorp" talking point. A lot of the same ground covered in other places in his writings but interesting never the less. I would only recommend reading this as a big fan of Moldbug or after reading a Richard Dawkins book.

[Walter Hartwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting analysis of one of the most malicious memeplexes to ever exist. I particularly like Yarvin's use of the phrase "Mystery Cult of Power" to describe it. But I think his analysis of Christianity in it is somewhat weak, he conflates progress and providence too much without distinguishing the two for instance.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought Provoking

An attempt to explain to the fish the nature of the water they swim in.

Nobody is beyond ideology. The only distinction is that there are those who are infected and don't know they are, and those who do and wish to understand it.

[TBeholder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indeed he got pwned. Badly. The hypothesis is simple, and it checks out.
The worst part in his case is crippling damage, however.

[Shortsman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected from the title

[Philip Mlonyeni · Rating 2 out of 5]

as far as alt-right manifests go, this is sub-par. 2 stars. sad