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. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FMWMFTG
In the marriage negotiation from NewsRadio, who on earth wouldn’t want a vacation in Hawaii in the winter and the summer vacation of your choice. Why on earth would she turn down two nice vacations when he’s being perfectly reasonable
Algebra was invented by persians. Even "arabic numerals" are actually hindu numerals. It's easy to be in wonder of something when it's fake. They're now claiming and teaching their offspring that big ben was colonialised and taken stone by stone from palestine. The way malcolm is approaching history his offspring will have no problem believing and repeating this too in 20-30 years.
Max Weber summed up the whole motive behind this show, which is to prove that the superiority one group enjoys is somehow "deserved": When a man who is happy compares his position with that of one who is unhappy, he is not content with the fact of his happiness, but desires something more, namely the right to this happiness, the consciousness that he has earned his good fortune, in contrast to the unfortunate one who must equally have earned his misfortune. Our everyday experience proves that there exists just such a need for psychic comfort about the legitimacy or deservedness of ones happiness, whether this involves political success, superior economic status, bodily health, success in the game of love, or anything else. What the privileged classes require of religion, if anything at all, is this legitimation. All these efforts to show the "desert" of the West are just secularized versions of this fundamental religious impulse. They are the religion of today's elites.
Christians got around religious usury/interests laws with a system called the contractum trinius. First the lender invests (societas), then the borrower sells a portion of profits to the lender for the investment money (emptio-vendito), and finally the borrower pays the lender insurance in case there isn't any profit made. (assecuratio) Very Warhammer 40k. Basically the same concept used to get around the God Emperors ban on artificial intelligence, but instead of interest exchanged for insurance, it's CPUs exchanged for still born babies brains.
The problem becomes worse when you start taking cultural pride in being anti-entrepreneur and anti-intellectual, as a lot of poor places do (from personal experience growing up in one of these cultures). Also having 1000 year old ideas is part of the "appeal" of our religions, I suspect they'll collapse before we change anything.
Coming from a developing non-islamic country, I see a lot of similar values here. A lot of people here place great virtue in (involuntary) poverty and have an almost intestinal reaction to enterpreneurship and success, as if it meant abandoning your identity/values or something akin to that. This is a mentality that definitely holds people back.
Islam never ran the world. The subjugated and conquered people were the ones who produced goods. They then tortured(those who didn’t convert) or killed (so later ruler would surpass him). Take example of India. Mughal were barbaric and brought nothing new and pain and suffering. Taj Mahal workers hands were lopped off so that rulers son wouldn’t upstage him. Libraries were burned because they were not in accordance with Islam. It goes on. As time goes on, they impoverish the rich countries and destroy knowledge, because it is an inflexible religion and very dogmatic. All Abrahamic religions problematic because of the dogma issues. Jews and Christians also killed in the name of God. Among the Abrahamic Religions, Christianity is superior. Here’s the reason, God is in the heart concept, no high cousins marriage rates, incest is illegal, zoophilia is illegal, codified from sophisticated developed nation (Rome, from philosophy region Greece), etc.
Observation: When an authoritarian religious regime commands its citizens not to ask questions, not think dissident thoughts, not do representational art, & not speak your thoughts freely (on pain of death, severe punishment, or social ostracism), most people are going to obey. ps. Still loving the Ultimate bespectacled Nerd couple. 💕
@Cotictimmy No regime tells people not to ask any question Anyway, the islamic world was much more authoritarian back then, but still, flourishing happened. Can you explain that?
Sorry about the weird audio on the little cartoon about the praetorian guard - You tube did that for copy right - if you want to see the original just google it.
Please explain why Muslims did not just invent the corporation so that, upon the death of the founder, the shares could be divided among the heirs according to the dictates of Sharia law??? Sort of how the West got around its usury laws by inventing the bond market which sells bonds at varying discounts to face value, not technically usury no matter how steep the discount.
Wealth changes very quickly. Mediterranean shipping isn’t the end all and be all it used to be. The Silk Road was discontinued. Their markets for slaves have somewhat dried up. Their culture changed from their golden age to today.
An alliance between religious and political authorities was typical of both periods, the period when most spending was on commerce and when most spending was on bureaucracy. Furthermore, an alliance between the state and the dominant religious tradition has been typical of all civilizations throughout history. Only since the industrial revolution has this arrangement fallen out of favor, and my guess is that the world will eventually go back to such alliances as the energy resources necessary to fuel the industrial age wind down.
Islam prohibited images in general, not merely idolatry. However, this restriction was not equally strict in all ages. For example, I remember seeing an icon of Muhammad. I would also point out that Islam is as divided and diverse by sectarianism as Protestantism is. Furthermore, the most successful Protestant movements were started by educated men who could read the Vulgate just fine. I think the explosion of sectarianism has much less to do with the printing press and literacy rates than it does with the rejection or absence of bishops and apostolic succession.
You should do a follow up of this episode by interviewing Robert Spencer (author of The Truth about Islam). He has some interesting data and historical re-framing. For example, he dismisses a "myth of an Islamic Golden Age" and provides (by memory): -- algebra was invented by the Mesopotamians, and used by the Arabs to build war machines; -- Islamic wealth was typically a byproduct of conquest, and always highly concentrated; -- some Western books were preserved by some Muslims during conquest, but by-and-large the reason Western thought was lost in the dark ages was because Muslim raiders would conquer a monastery or city and burn the libraries, so most survived by being snuck-out by escaping monks; and -- Islam was (and pretty much is) always at war seeking conquest ("Muhammad was a warlord"), with brief periods of rest to re-populate and begin conquest anew. Just to name a few points. When I travel one observation -- particularly in Anatolia -- is that Islamic castles and Greek walled cities arises in tandem, and dates of the Greek cities falling one-by-one decade-by-decade are provided in the monuments and historical markers. This continues through the Balkans and to Vienna. Dittos Iberia, especially in Portugal and Spain's Castile.
Hummm... And what about the Mongol Empire? Killed 80-90% of Iran, one of the pinnacals of Islamic Civilization, and Baggdad; only Egypt and Spain were spared... destroyed cities and infraestruture, irrigation, you know. Maybe the trauma created a conservative and reactionary loop, seen in China and Russia? Also, you forgot to mention sufism and legalism - the first, much more lenient version of Islam, and was important to the expansion of the religion in majority non-islamic regions. But with time, Islam became more legalist and less and less 'mystic'... It's like in eu4 were 'mysticism' helps you with conversion, but when your population is converted you turn to legalism to receive benefits in tax and manpower with a larger burocracy (the benefits doesn't matter, but you got the message, a historical pendulum). Greetings from Brazil.
I think Muslims in America are so much wealthier than Muslims in the UK because the Muslims in America are legal immigrants that have to get student visas and whatnot and if they commit a crime they will get deported and it isn't so easy to get on welfare in America and it is less than they get in the UK, whereas in the UK they are basically just invaders for the most part and they break laws with impunity all the time, and they have no pressure to become productive members of society because they can just get tons of money by being on the dole and collecting all of the benefits that are given to "refugees" in the UK.
Because Brawndo's got electrolytes! Brawndo's got what plants crave! I once joked in my "weeb and otaku shintoism" campaign is making the Idiocracy go shinto would create similar technological development. I think I got that idea when a bunch of missionaries acted like they could just Christpill the Idiocracy into intelligence and wealth. As far as I am concerned, that take is conservative magic dirt and blank slatitism. The same bogus logic could probably convince someone that shintoism is going to make places light up like Shibuya Crossing.
To me this video really illustrates the problem of Mohammed being not only a religious leader, but also the ruler of a state. Because Mohammed essentially founded a nation, he also had to lay down endless rules on government and every aspect of life, and it's pretty unsurprising that 7th century Arabian perceptions on how to efficiently run a state couldn't really stand the test of time. The Ottomans are a perfect example of it. They were extremely powerful at first, but in the 20th century they felt like this out of place elephant transplanted through time just waiting for a nudge to have their empire implode.
@rb98769 that isn't how things went What changed throughout time? What factors increased flourishing 1000 years ago that decreased flourishing now??!! Mention some examples. It seems that when muslim followed the prophet the most, they were successful when they went further away from his teachings (now and late ottomans) they become weaker
It really comes down to the Mu'tazalites versus Ash'arites theological struggle in the 9th through the 11th centuries. As long as the Sunni sect of Islam is ruled by Ash'arite thinking, the mainstream of Islam will believe that (1) all of nature is recreated from moment to moment by the will of Allah; (2) reason is not only a deficient method of explaining the universe, but is a sin, a contravention of Allah's will; (3) there is no good or evil, except what the Qur'an says, and what the Qur'an says can be superseded at any moment by the exercise of the will of Allah; (4) there is no guarantee that things will unfold as they have unfolded in the past - if things do that, it is only because that is the habit of Allah and an acorn could just as easily turn out to be a Chevrolet as an oak tree, depending on how Allah wills it.
Particularly the Persians and Alexandrian Greeks. The Arabs themselves had very little to do with the innovations that allowed the Islamic Golden Age to come about in the first place.
@titanomachy2217 Most Muslims are not Arabs, and some Arabs aren't muslim, so that point doesn't take away from Islam. It actually gives more to it because through Islamic traditions, a world could be built where scientific developments happened irrespective of who did it.
Islam has 3 Fundamental flaws right now, in the sense of civ advancement. Xenophobia, you need a open mind for foreign influence because you adapt and evolve these new ideas, but not to open. Theological Islam is very Stagnant there is no progressive revelation of God, or improved understanding of God. And repression of women, on the surface the Women in Islam has higher status than in the West but in practice more orpressed, that seems in general correlated the more status women have the more orpressed they are, like with openmind there has to be a balance. There are some sects of Islam who are realy "great" like the sect in Oman very industrial and commercial.
Muslims TOOK all the wealth and science but didn't know what to do with it. When they moved through North Africa and Europe they confiscated the wealth. When they took Turkey and Constantinople they then took all the Christian books. Algebra came out of the far east (India / China) . I would suggest that Islam didnt allow for any Science or progress, look at the world today.
Werent the knights Templer the first to use credit notes for travelers in Europe and the Lavant, to move funds? Then it was copied by a certain family of bankers in the 18th century to take over the world. Could you do one on why Isreal is Americas greatest allie, over the Anglosphere countries.
As a Nigerian, here's my simple answer: Bad geography, poor social and economic systems, poor political systems, failing legal and social institutions, dutch disease, tribalism and others. During the golden age of Islam, under Harun al-Rashid, the civilization was experiencing great economic, social and scientific development and Islam was moderatingbabd becoming more Secular until Orthodox pushback from Imams and others caused these changes to stop. Then, the Christian West embraced modernity and reform and advanced in all fields. The fact that Christianity abolished institutions like slavery, broke clan structures by removing cousin marriage, and stopped the ban on usary which led to stuff like capitalism and meritocracy, while islam refused to do all of this. Also, the colonialism excuse is just lazy and mainly used by tribalist Arabs as an excuse. Same way Pan-Africans use it as an excuse for Africa's failings.
@EncoreASMR About polygyny, i don't think it contributed that much to the trends you mention, if we define polygyny as having more than one partner at a time, then it is actually practiced more in the west in general compared to muslim countries In one muslim country, this could be just 5% of men doing it(too much financial responsibility for most men to carry), but in the USA, this could reach 20% (including infidelity and so on) About men and women and STEM degrees, this isn't because men study the things you mention, very few men study those things in college, this is probably driven by women having a lot more free time than men since they don't have to be independent financially from family and family is expected to provide for women anyway, so they find more spare time and put more time in education and they choose STEM as it is valued But keep in mind, even with this, increasing education for women doesn't translate much into the labor market in Middle Eastern countries, specifically.Most women don't have to support themselves financially
@orboakin8074 Muslims 1000 years ago were much more conservative than now, when Muslims were taking over, they were much more conservative It is actually less conservatism and more liberalism that makes the current muslim world weaker than the past Compare harun to leaders now, who do you think is more conservative? The answer is very clear
@orboakin8074 Early Muslims were much more into Islam and followed it more strictly The ones who took over the world and made developments were the ones who were more adhering to Islamic values. Compare harun to Leaders now. Do you really think harun followed Islam less than muslim leaders now?!! He wouldn't be able to do that even if he wanted to. People were much less liberal back then
My stance is that climate change is ALWAYS happenning since beginning of Earth and I wasn't shown anything that would even more probably suggest that it is in any way doing it faster and slower. All the data I was shown by activists is at best explained by having higher resolution of data compared to what we have in the past. And if they'd just go "let's plant forests and create nature parks, etc." I would be like "you don't have an argument, but it seems as net benefit anyway", but they demand extraordinary sacrifices from us all, so their evidence must be extraordinary, on the level you cannot even discuss with the fact of thats tuff happening, only at what speed it is. And they just aren't even close to that. And whether it is man-made or not, I do not care tbh. If it would be nature killing us off, I'd say man shall kill off nature, rho enslaving it would be better.
Its because of polygamy. If you have no chance of getting married why even try to improve yourself and society. I had a professeur who sAid wherever you have goats you have poverty and someone told me goats pull out plants by the roots and also kill young trees.so they turn areas into desert.
@Brent-z2s your theory isn't accurate In a recent paper, it found the opposite. The more polygyny, the more likely young men to be married That might sound surprising to you, but it seems because polygynous places value marriage in general, so men get married more Also, if we define polygyny as having more than one partner at a time, then the US and Europe practice it more than most muslim countries
Only a small percentage of Muslim families were polygamous. About the beginning of the 20th century, it was about 5% compared to around 30% in heathen West Africa.
As a Nigerian, here's my simple answer: Bad geography, poor social and economic systems, poor political systems, failing legal and social institutions, dutch disease, tribalism and others. During the golden age of Islam, under Harun al-Rashid, the civilization was experiencing great economic, social and scientific development and Islam was moderatingbabd becoming more Secular until Orthodox pushback from Imams and others caused these changes to stop. Then, the Christian West embraced modernity and reform and advanced in all fields. The fact that Christianity abolished institutions like slavery, broke clan structures by removing cousin marriage, and stopped the ban on usary which led to stuff like capitalism and meritocracy, while islam refused to do all of this. Also, the colonialism excuse is just lazy and mainly used by tribalist Arabs as an excuse. Same way Pan-Africans use it as an excuse for Africa's failings.
The Muslim peoples had the best environment for shipping in the Mediterranean, access to the Silk Road, but the value of those things has changed over time.
@@orboakin8074 Early Muslims were much more into Islam and followed it more strictly The ones who took over the world and made developments were the ones who were more adhering to Islamic values. Compare harun to Leaders now. Do you really think harun followed Islam less than muslim leaders now?!! He wouldn't be able to do that even if he wanted to. People were much less liberal back then
Islam also has this culture of glorifying poverty. Most people dont know that most islamic cultures nowadays is not from quran but " Sahih al hadith" which glorifies poverty. Sahih al hadith portrays a islam which is very heaven hell centered and eternal life centered. Which basically harms innovation and human drive to sucess as people are told that this world is temporary and thus not worth pursueing worldly success.
Malcom, about polygyny, i don't think it contributed that much to the trends you mention, if we define polygyny as having more than one partner at a time, then it is actually practiced more in the west in general compared to muslim countries In one muslim country, this could be just 5% of men doing it(too much financial responsibility for most men to carry), but in the USA, this could reach 20% (including infidelity and so on) About men and women and STEM degrees, this isn't because men study the things you mention, very few men study those things in college, this is probably driven by women having a lot more free time than men since they don't have to be independent financially from family and family is expected to provide for women anyway, so they find more spare time and put more time in education and they choose STEM as it is valued But keep in mind, even with this, increasing education for women doesn't translate much into labor market in middle eastern countries specifically, most women don't have to support themselves financially
Oh look at the route Europe did on Islam in the 1400's. Literally Islam never recovered. Removed them from the trade routes in the Mediterranean sea. Sacked the cities and pretty much knocked all of Islam into the Stone age.
I don't think it has anything to do with religion or culture. It's just the wheel of fortune. Europe was poor when Muslims, Indians and Chinese were rich for centuries, then these old civilizations became hubris and complacent, and lazy. European based (including American) civilizations have been wealthy and powerful since 18 century. Maybe the wheel of fortune is starting to turn with China leading the way... with the Western civilizations getting increasingly complacent with self entitled labor unions and overblown government debts.
As a Nigerian, here's my simple answer: Bad geography, poor social and economic systems, poor political systems, failing legal and social institutions, dutch disease, tribalism and others. During the golden age of Islam, under Harun al-Rashid, the civilization was experiencing great economic, social and scientific development and Islam was moderatingbabd becoming more Secular until Orthodox pushback from Imams and others caused these changes to stop. Then, the Christian West embraced modernity and reform and advanced in all fields. The fact that Christianity abolished institutions like slavery, broke clan structures by removing cousin marriage, and stopped the ban on usary which led to stuff like capitalism and meritocracy, while islam refused to do all of this. Also, the colonialism excuse is just lazy and mainly used by tribalist Arabs as an excuse. Same way Pan-Africans use it as an excuse for Africa's failings.
@@orboakin8074 you have just described the history. But going forward you are seeing some glimpses of Western cultures rejecting modern technology while developing economies embracing them. EVs and crypto for instance.
1- I just read as a teen the horrible cruel evil genocides God command people to do in the name of good. Nothing, NOTHING will change my mind killing kids, babies and even pregnant women is good, morally right and virtuous. 2- If Yahweh is perfect, then all his laws and commands are perfect and therefore that God DOES NOT NEED TO CHANGE. If he was imperfect, it makes sense he learned his old ways was evil and decided to do things different. 3- Theres an old testament verse where Yahweh says he gave bad laws to people on purpose so they fail obeying it. 4- Get me a better God, honestly goor, honorable, not narcissist, constant behavior, confident and secure of his choices, laws and work, willing to prove his own existence globally, imperfect and willing to learn from his own lessons and change accordingly(or so perfect he doesn't need a "new pact").
1:00:46 Indonesian 🇮🇩, Malaysia🇲🇾, Bangladesh 🇧🇩, India🇮🇳, Pakistan🇵🇰, Nigeria 🇳🇬 . Home of 50% Muslim population are not Arab and . Still democracy .🤔
Edward Dutton, in his book 'Islam: An Evolutionary Analysis', claims that islam, if followed strictly, suppresses phenotypical intelligence. Wether it's getting up at inconvenient times to pray, causing chronic sleep deprivation, to abstaining from food and water during daytime while fasting, to defining intellect first and foremost in terms of rhote memorisation of holy scripture, and corporal punishment of children, all to some degree suppress the potential for intellectual development within the bandwidth that one's genetics allow. Another factor might be that islam allows less leniency regarding its own doctrines, meaning they close themselves off from newly developed knowledge if it runs contrary to islam, whereas Christianity and Judaism allow for much more mental gymnastics to allow both a pursuit of traditional religion as well as embracing new technological and social insights.
@@classicallpvault8251 Very wrong things here. Current evidence shows that doing inconvenient things (for most) like fasting and training increase will power by increasing the size of some brain region Anyway, fasting can be done to be beneficial for health, and Islam encourages sleeping earlier and waking up early, so fitting the biological clock and is more healthy for the mind. Intellect isn't defined as memorization, but being able to memorize correlates with iq positively. Judaism doesn't celebrate innovation. At least Islam tells its people to look at the creation and think about things. Christianity? Look how the church suppressed science. Islam actually has the best record in dealing with science. It isn't known to suppress science as much as the church
Yup, that's why we should fully support them in practicing it, just in their own countries, because even proximity to practitioners is potentially dangerous for life and property.
Why was Islam able to spread so quickly the first 120 years, but then almost not at all? With the exceptions of Indonesia and a portion of Türkiye, Islam’s map in 750 AD and today look almost identical. Were those military campaigns debt-financed or were they already adhering to the Islamic finance laws? What happened after 750 AD that stopped its spread?
If I remember correctly, civil war. Proto Sunnies vs Shiites. Though, in my opinion, the militarism eventually led to an anti-intellectual culture. Christian Europe then had time to grow and develop.
The initial conquest spurt was because the Roman Empire and Persia had just completed a slug-fest that left them both exhausted and depleted. Islam slammed into that vacuum. The following centuries saw significant conquests every few decades (Iberia fell in the following century, and the Battle of Tours is located in today's Paris was the century after that). Next, Asia Minor fell, then the Balkans (Budapest was conquered, and the invasion ended only at Vienna). What stopped its rapid spread ... for a small time? Christians got tired of being abused, abducted into their armies, and taxed to pay for further conquest. But, if you think it's done, you're kidding yourself and need to read about the Muslim Brotherhood (see their book called "The Plan" translated during a post-9-11 trial in Dallas Federal Court), and the Koran itself, which in Sura 1:191 (among many others) commands its followers to wage literal war against non-believers, and to cut them at the neck. Once Islam always Islam is another edict you should know; which is why a Muslim word for Europe's migration is "The Reconquest."
@blotto3422 What? If militarism fosters anti-intellictualism, then how did the muslims prosper? It seems exactly the opposite Muslims were the most prosperous and innovative when they were spreading their power over the world Once they stopped doing that, innovation declined.
@ThrashLawPatentsAndTMs Weren't the Roman empire taxing them even more? Muslims seemed like a relaxation for Christians Also, what is your evidence for the "reconquest " word? That doesn't seem real.
There was no Muslim Enlightenment, so there was no Muslim Liberalism, so there was no Muslim Economic Liberalism, So there was no Muslim Industrial Revolution, so they just stayed poor.
Economist Gregory Clark thinks that it's because muslim countries fell into cousin-marriage while European countries had high rates of assortative mating for genes conferring socioeconomic status (aka IQ plus pro-success traits like conscientiousness and sociability) which he demonstrated from church parish wedding records from 400000 related individuals in Britain over 400 years in "for whom the bell curve tolls". so basically they are low IQ because of inbreeding effects and because their society had less assortative mating which means selection for IQ did not happen as quickly. Assortative mating in evolution is like leverage in trading.
Yes, that is one major factor. Christianity in the west, broke the clan structure by abolishing cousin marriage on sanguinity grounds. This had the effect of necessitating more trust-based social systems while the Arab world continues the opposite. And it has led to cratering genetic issues as you point out.
