Polymath

Hello everybody, this isn't in fact a normal Polymath episode but is a talk I did being interviewed by the @livglobalrelief podcast! It's a fascinating and important podcast about social-humanitarian issues going on around the world right now, and the Spotify link is https://open.spotify.com/show/3fiZdPwaJcIhwxcygBa8bX?si=dfe66237c40a4088 Thanks a lot Erin for having me on!

This talk is all about the status of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, stretching from Morocco to Iran. It's a massive examination of their lack of basic rights; lack of any legal protection from violence and abuse; lack of basic freedoms and dignity; and lack of an ability to live a full, decent life.

But it's also more than that: we delve into the beliefs of these societies themselves, sociologically analysing the thoughts and moral values of the people living in them. We then integrate this analysis with statistics to properly show you guys what life for women in the MENA region is really like.

We don't just give the facts about rates of sexual harassment, abuse, forced marriage, child marriage, etc but we talk about the norms and beliefs of the societies themselves and how the violence and subjugation of women is normalised. For example, we go through what real people on the ground think about when (not 'if') it's acceptable to beat women and about how women shouldn't leave the house without male permission.

Finally, we talk about how Islam itself is not the problem, but rather the application of Islam- or any of the Abrahamic religions- into politics inevitably leads to sexist legislation and normalisation of female abuse. We back up these arguments using historical and sociological evidence.

I'm going to talk about all this on a Polymath episode at some point, getting a bit more into the psychology of all this and the specific case study of Afghanistan. For now though, please enjoy the episode, and go check out the @livglobalrelief podcast! The podcast itself is just one wing of the @livglobalrelief society, a really impressive activist society which raises awareness and funds for dire humanitarian causes around the world. Enjoy!

‘maybe… 1200 to 1500 [civilians] a month, easy. If I am only 10% right, and believe me it’s lots more, then I am trying to tell you about 120-150 murders, or a My Lay [sic] every month'

-Anonymous Sergeant to General Westmoreland, 1970, referring to 'Operation Speedy Express'. Nothing was done.

This is not an episode of Polymath.

CONTENT WARNING: This video contains very graphic descriptions of physical and sexual violence, as well as descriptions of gross brutality and injustice.

This video is meant to address the misconception that U.S. war crimes in Vietnam (such as the My Lai massacre) were isolated incidents, condemned by both fellow servicemen and officers. In reality, grievous war crimes were described by veterans as ‘standard operating procedure’.

Their accounts (and subsequent research) depict acts such as unprovoked murder of civilians, mutilation, destruction, rape, and torture as both widespread and normalised. At all levels of the command hierarchy, war crimes were tolerated, facilitated, and actively encouraged. There was a top-down impetus of hatred, dehumanisation, and pressure which was absorbed by soldiers in the field, and a bottom-up ubiquity of atrocities which went unpunished (nor even discouraged) by the armed forces and its officers.

The My Lai Massacre was a U.S. mass-murder/-rape of unarmed Vietnamese civilians on 16/03/68.

The American soldiers found women, children, and the elderly getting ready for a market day and cooking breakfast over fires. The killing continued even after people realised no guerrillas were present. Houses were also burnt down and people tortured. U.S. soldiers raped girls as young as 10. There were zero US casualties from the Vietnamese and none were attacked.

Ernest Medina, the Captain of the 'attacking' Charlie Company, was quoted as saying, "They're all VC [enemy combatants], now go and get them". He clarified that this applied to "Anybody that was running from us, hiding from us, or appeared to be the enemy. If a man was running, shoot him, sometimes even if a woman with a rifle was running, shoot her." Nobody in the village was even a male of fighting age.

At Lt William Calley's trial (Calley led ~100 men and personally commanded some to fire on unarmed women and children), a defence witness testified that he remembered Medina instructing his men to destroy everything in the village that was "walking, crawling or growling". Varnado Simpson said ‘we did what we were told.’

The first killer at My Lai was a man from 1st Platoon who stabbed someone, before blowing someone up with a grenade. Then, he saw 15-20 women, children, and elderly on their knees praying and crying around a temple. They were all killed by shots to the head.

Private First Class (PFC) Dennis Konti said, "A lot of women had thrown themselves on top of the children to protect them, and the children were alive at first. Then, the children who were old enough to walk got up and Calley began to shoot the children".

When Hugh Thompson tried to stop Calley, he was told ‘This is my business’. Thompson replied, ‘But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.’ Calley replied: ‘Look Thompson, this is my show. I’m in charge here. It ain’t your concern.’

Calley was under house arrest for 3.5 years and 79% of polled Americans believed the conviction should be overturned. People thought it was unfair to convict him for following orders and that he was a scapegoat for the unit as a whole (no other soldier, including Captain Medina, was charged).

Politicians (including Jimmy Carter) and musicians (many of whom country music/Southern musicians) rallied to his defence. A song praising an defending him reached #37 on the Billboard Top 100. Eyewitness accounts stated as he walked around Army facilities where he was held, servicemen bought him beers. Hugh Thompson, who stopped the massacred, was ostracised by other army officers and threatened.

Radicalisation: you've all heard of it, but what actually is it and how- from a scientific, not an opinion-based, perspective- does it happen? Let's find out!

This episode integrates a huge range of information, encompassing a metric shit-ton of theories, models, and evidence to synthesise a definitive, evidence-based model on just how- scientifically- this process happens. We will explore all kinds of radicalisation, focusing on Islamist and Western alt-right radicalism- and what we can do about it.

Radicalisation of both these ilks has been on the rise in the 21st century: this episode illuminates why- politically, psychologically, sociologically, and economically- why that is. It explores the components of radicalisation, how they all interact, how the process works, and what the end result is. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a soothing discussion on terrorism 🤗🥰 Remember, clips of these episodes is on my YouTube channel @danielaaronlevy, where you can listen to me yapping at a more manageable ~5-20 minutes at a time. The paper I wrote proposing a new, integrative model of radicalisation can also be found on my website, daniellevy.com .

PS: I say in this video that a certain individual committed crimes of a sexual nature. However, I formally retract all statements to that nature because ✨libel✨. Don't sue me ok cheers

How did we go from picking berries on the savannah to the world we live in now? What was it like to be a hunter-gatherer? Why did they start forming states? What did that journey look like? And was it a good - or bad - decision?

Welcome back to Polymath, where we examine all these questions with facts and statistics- rather than 'hot takes'. This is a massive journey through how the world we take for granted was born. We'll be exploring this topic by combining anthropology, sociology, political economy, ecology, and history, unravelling thousands of years of humanity's evolution. Not only do we synthesise al these perspectives and insights from various expert thinkers, we critically evaluate whether all this change was GOOD.

Was the transition to agriculture and statehood the worst mistake we ever made? Should we be glad we're alive in the 21st century or hauling ass back to the rainforest? Let's find out!

This is the second ever episode on this channel recorded in video, so you now see both me and the NPC room in the background. Also, if you're viewing this on Spotify, find my YouTube at @danielaaronlevy for shorter, more manageable clips and snippets of the video. Enjoy!

This is Polymath's first ever video episode, meaning that you can now both hear and see me yap! Join me as we go on a journey exploring human physiology, evolution, anthropology, and hairless chimpanzees. Spotify isn't letting me use my own custom thumbnail, so please enjoy this image of me looking silly with my undecorated NPC room in the background. Enjoy!

Is the world getting worse? Were you born in the wrong generation? Have we left the good old days? Let's find out!

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptions of physical, emotional, and sexual violence; cruelty; and brutality 👁👄👁 (wee lil hint that the past wasn't great)

We'll be looking at the past- but not just a few generations back. We will examine the entire span of human civilisation to uncover what people's daily, lived experience was like back then. What was the human condition like for all of your ancestors? THIS video will tell you!

This is a massive tour de force combining psychology, sociology, history, statistics, and political science to give you genuine insight. To find out what life in the past was like, we don't just list some figures and call it a day: we will explore the human condition itself and the worlds that we've made for ourselves.

In this beastly 2-hr episode we go on a massive journey through how human beings think, the belief systems of societies, and the fundamental values that drive how societies- and the people in them- behave. We will investigate both the broad sweep of history and how societies have evolved, and we will zoom all the way in to a myriad examples of how people throughout history have acted.

If you want to REALLY understand what civilised human existence was like since its very beginning, you've found the answer. The ghost of Yap-mas past has entered my vocal chords and compelled me to pour out words for over two hours, all because I want to give you guys the best understanding possible. Enjoy!

Anarchism! What's it all about?

More specifically: what even is it? What do anarchists want? How do they think? Is anarchism just chaos? How do rules get enforced? How does the economy work? Are anarchists terrorists? Are they Marxists? Communists? Has anarchism ever happened?

We'll be answering all these questions, and we'll be doing it properly. This colossal episode sweeps away all the emotion, the confusion, the bullshit and the bias, and presents you- as always- with only the genuine truth. Welcome to Polymath!

And we're not just listing definitions: this episode is a massive tour de force of real, unbiased political science, political philosophy, sociology, economics, history, and psychology. We combine all these different approaches; we integrate insights about communism, socialism, and capitalism; we unite all the different factual, expert consensuses we need- for me to give you the most accurate, comprehensive understanding that I can.

This is the sixth and biggest episode of my channel's 'Objective Guide to Political Ideologies' series. But don't worry, you don't need to listen to any previous episodes to understand this one. All Polymath episodes are designed to make complete sense individually and with no background knowledge. Enjoy!

Your national hero probably had some very questionable views. But are they morally culpable for them? Let's take a look!

I gotta say, I almost feel bad for you- you're probably sodden with different influencers, politicians, and newspapers all sharting out their own opinions at you, all demanding your allegiance in the culture wars. But on Polymath, we examine questions with real, meaningful academic disciplines: today, we'll be using political science, psychology, sociology, and history.

We don't just talk about Edward Colston and call it a day. This episode is a massive journey through nature VS nurture, the meaning of politics, personality metrics, societal bell curves, the Enlightenment and liberalism (shoutout), moral relativism, and political psychology. We even start entering philosophy territory- but just the tip.

Of the iceberg, of course. Enjoy!

The obvious answer to a 90-minute video on this is to go and touch grass, but really: if the Harry Potter world genuinely existed, what would it look like? If there’s a wizarding world… is there wizarding communism? A wizarding Karl Marx? Was there a wizarding civil rights movement? Is there wizarding nationalism? Is Wizarding Russia currently attacking Wizarding Ukraine?

The Harry Potter universe is a fictional world written for children that is not meant to be taken seriously. What does it look like if we do? In true Polymath fashion, we conduct a massive synthesis of politics, economics, sociology, demography, psychology, history, and global political economy to answer a question that nobody asked. Along the way, we'll be covering a good deal of info about all of these and learning new insights into how Western society works.

I've also (☝️🤓) made another Harry Potter episode about the world's macroeconomics (Episode 3), and will soon be lovingly birthing another episode about my own personal rewrite of the series according to (social) scientific rules and phenomena.

Despite appearances, I don't actually really care about Harry Potter (honest), but I do care about giving you guys entertaining yappery to kick back to that you can also learn some real, useful information from. With that said, enjoy!

'Oof... messed up a little there'

In 1933, Hitler got 43.9% of the vote- and it wasn't even close. What happened there? The good news is we can use some clever psychology to get right to the heart of the issue: what was actually happening in people's heads. The less fun news is that because human nature hasn't changed since- it CAN happen here. Let's find out why!

This episode is a journey through that very human nature, values, politics, and how they all interact. We'll be answering how would-be dictators get people to vote for them; what their classic techniques for getting into power are; why it keeps happening; and whether it's happening to you right now.

If you want to keep your rights, you've got to understand how societies lose them. But don't worry- we'll be making this episode on losing rights as witty, entertaining, and cheerfully breezy as possible, because I don't want you to get depressed. Tune in, kick back, and enjoy!

also the statistic at the start should be 44% oop