It's widely understood that, when it comes to highly contentious political/social issues, particularly at times when the tension is highly acute, huge numbers of people will "talk tough" but "act chicken." They use belligerent language (even make threats), and they signal their stances in other ways: clothing, bumper stickers and other vehicle decorations, flags/signs/etc. on houses, and these days, of course, lots of icons/words in profiles/whatever on social media. Does anyone have any idea on what fraction of people are willing to "walk the walk" after "talking the talk?" This doesn't nece ..read more

Note that I'm not saying that these don't exist other places (there's many across the world, and elsewhere in Asia too, e.g. Korea), but particularly in the past couple centuries – after modernization at the end of the Edo period & during the Meiji Restoration – Japan has had dozens upon dozens crop up... enough that not only does the standalone "Japanese new religions" Wikipedia article exist, but most of the ones listed there are also considered prominent/notable enough to have their own articles, too. I think the distinction between the term "cult" and "new religion" can be a bit nebul ..read more

(Unsure if this is the correct sub, apologies if not) Retirement is a financial proposition, not an age. However, a lot of people die 5-10 years before their investments / savings rate would make preeminent retirement financially feasible. Or people who die working at 65, when they could have retired at 62. Is there a stat that tracks the % of people that go through this dilemma? Just an interesting thought... what % of the population actually retires? Which requires: 1. A 40 ish year career with consistent investing 2. A 60ish year life submitted by /u/jtpower99 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

In your opionion, what is a principle/value most people live by that you find absurd? submitted by /u/ThatThingUnderUrSink [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

I admit, sociology and human psychology are not my strong suits, so I've been struggling with the above question. When learning about different historical or current events, it seems to come up very often that institutions theoretically meant to protect or serve people end up turning people within those institutions against those outside of it. Militaries and police are are pretty frequent offenders. I refuse to believe that most people joining such institutions were already predisposed to violent, malicious, or otherwise negligent behavior towards members of their own communities or nations ..read more

I know it's a common proverb, but is it actually supported by evidence or is it just a plausible sounding proverb that people have convinced each other of? submitted by /u/This_Caterpillar_330 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

The solution is to create drug abuser prisons. You only go here if you get to the level of those homeless zombies on the streets, or willfully if you see yourself heading down that road. These are like regular prisons except they lack the "punishment" aspect of normal prisons and are are strictly about rehabilitation. The idea is you forcibly lock them inside for a few years, however long it takes for them to get clean, both physically and psychologically (better methods of testing this will need to be developed but we have enough of an idea to start). They are locked in a cell that is furnis ..read more

Help! I feel like this text is making me dumber. The more I read the less I understand. It's like my brain can't comprehend her words? I get the second half of the text but I'm having trouble understanding the first half with Foucault and Deleuze, and Marx. I'm attempting to study decolonization and development in the Social Sciences and wanted to include Spivak's work. Does anyone have discussion points or the summary/gist of this? Thanks! submitted by /u/blessed-bhie [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

Theory Wednesday topics include: * Social science in academia * Famous debates * Questions about methods and data sources * Philosophy of social science * and so on. Do you wonder about choosing a dissertation topic? Finding think tank work? Want to learn about natural language processing? Have a question about the academic applications of Marxian theories or social network analysis? The history of a theory? This is the place! Like our other feature threads (Monday Reading and Research and Friday Free-For-All), this thread will be lightly moderated as long as it stays broadly on topics tangen ..read more

Karl Marx was the son of a wealthy lawyer while Vladimir Lenin himself was a lawyer. Friedrich Engels was born into a family that owned factories, and he himself joined the family business. Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh traveled to France to receive their education. Ho Chi Minh was the son of a Confucian scholar, while Pol Pot was born to a wealthy prosperous farmer along with Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong. Che Guevara was a physician who was born to a civil engineer submitted by /u/Moonfire9 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more