







I dislike politics in general. That doesn’t mean I don’t write about it when it’s relevant, but I’m always less happy with any of my writing that touches on these subjects. …
'No Politics' Rules | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
My Political Journey | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
The social media discourse of engaged partisans is toxic even when politics are irrelevant
Abstract. Prevailing theories of partisan incivility on social media suggest that it derives from disagreement about political issues or from status compet

The social media discourse of engaged partisans is toxic even when politics are irrelevant
Abstract. Prevailing theories of partisan incivility on social media suggest that it derives from disagreement about political issues or from status compet

I've been dying to talk about the mail with you all day
57K votes, 411 comments. 719K subscribers in the NonPoliticalTwitter community. Twitter and Bluesky without the politics. Come vibe with us as we…

Left & Right: The Psychological Significance of a Political Distinction
This book brings together for the first time an updated, revised collection of influential essays and articles that capture some of the most exciting scientific and scholarly contributions to the topic ...

Views of American politics, polarization and tone of political debate
In many ways, Americans’ emotions toward politics today are as negative as their evaluations of the country’s political system. Majorities say they always or often feel exhausted (65%) and angry…

The social media discourse of engaged partisans is toxic even when politics are irrelevant
Abstract Prevailing theories of partisan incivility on social media suggest that it derives from disagreement about political issues or from status competition between groups. This study—which analyzes the commenting behavior of Reddit users across diverse cultural contexts (subreddits)—tests the alternative hypothesis that such incivility derives in large part from a selection effect: Toxic people are especially likely to opt into discourse in partisan contexts. First, we examined commenting behavior across over 9,000 unique cultural contexts (subreddits) and confirmed that discourse is indeed more toxic in partisan (e.g. r/progressive, r/conservatives) than in nonpartisan contexts (e.g. r/movies, r/programming). Next, we analyzed hundreds of millions of comments from over 6.3 million users and found robust evidence that: (i) the discourse of people whose behavior is especially toxic in partisan contexts is also especially toxic in nonpartisan contexts (i.e. people are not politics-only toxicity specialists); and (ii) when considering only nonpartisan contexts, the discourse of people who also comment in partisan contexts is more toxic than the discourse of people who do not. These effects were not driven by socialization processes whereby people overgeneralized toxic behavioral norms they had learned in partisan contexts. In contrast to speculation about the need for partisans to engage beyond their echo chambers, toxicity in nonpartisan contexts was higher among people who also comment in both left-wing and right-wing contexts (bilaterally engaged users) than among people who also comment in only left-wing or right-wing contexts (unilaterally engaged users). The discussion considers implications for democratic functioning and theories of polarization.

Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences
POLITICS AFTER THE END OF THE END OF HISTORYWhat happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? From the abandoned dance floors of Thatcher’s London to the mass mobilizations of Black Lives Matter, Anton Jäger traces how public life has become infused with protest, spectacle, and moral urgency — while the old infrastructure of parties, unions, and civic solidarity has been hollowed out.Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the “end of history” and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post–Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private passions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power.Ranging from Guy Debord and Wolfgang Tillmans to Houellebecq’s disenchanted fictions, Hyperpolitics makes sense of a world in which collective action remains fragmented and the social fabric thinner than ever. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so inconsequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.
Addressing the community regarding the "No Politics" rules
640 votes, 94 comments. Hello, everyone. As some of you may know, I'm u/Aspect-Infinity , and I've been a moderator here for a while now. On behalf…
Fanhackers – Your guide to research on fans.
Matt Hills is a fan studies and media scholar of really wide breadth, expertise, and versatility, author of the classic fan studies text Fan Cultures (2002) as well as a number of subsequent monographs: How To Do Things With Cultural Theory (2005),The Pleasures of Horror (2005), Triumph of a time lord (2010), Blade Runner (2011) Doctor Who: The Unfolding Event (2015) – he’s also one of the editors of Transatlantic Television Drama (2019), the Doctor Who reader Adventures Across Space and Time (2023), and Theatre Fandom (2025) as well as a prolific writer of essays and book chapters on a broad swath of fandoms, practices, and cult classics: Star Wars, Veronica Mars, Torchwood, Sherlock, Buffy, Lord of the Rings, and more.
Apoliticism | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
Objectivity | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
What do they put in those things?
68K votes, 906 comments. 719K subscribers in the NonPoliticalTwitter community. Twitter and Bluesky without the politics. Come vibe with us as we…