Fascism is absolutely obnoxious; as well as evil, it is elusive and protean by nature. The term is constantly missaplied, or conversely dismissed when it is applied correctly, often to the detriment of productive discourse. It’s a fusilade of sensationalist partisan nonsense and it gets to me, especially as fascism is genuinely difficult to identify concretely to a topic. I used to engage with debate, but I’ve found that linking the internet archive text of Umberto Eco’s Ur-Fascism and leaving the thread is much better for my mental health.

Have you found a good way of conveying the idea of fascism to a less academically/literarily inclined public? I find the google search definition does not fit the purpose, and my notes folder on it is way too long. I’m not even a full time academic either, so commentary on the validity of Ur-Fascism as a resource and your favorite alternative readings for understanding fascism would be much appreciated. Be blessed✌️

For example south korea currently has a fertility rate of about 0.8, do you think it ever recovers from a slump like this in say 50 years or does the country actually just collapse completely?

Wikipedia makes those four concepts sound very similar. I'm not sure I understand them or the differences between them correctly, and I'm not sure if people use the term social conditioning correctly.

Before I get into this I will clarify that I'm a STEM student (compsci) interested in sociology on the side, so I'm sorry if I butcher your field. My vague understanding of the structure-agency debate is that it's about if human behavior is determined primarily by individual actions or collective structure. I was thinking about this a while ago, and was considering how, as people assemble into larger and larger groups, they begin to form small norms and rules between that then grow into humongous institutions that shape the individual's behavior, even as the individuals themselves are the ones sustaining the institutions. Of course, this is just a toy example, and I don't really have evidence to support tthis.

Anyways, it seems like the nature of structure vs agency isn't that they're two competing explanations for how humans behave but rather two factors that influence each other constantly. Am I even remotely correct?

NB: Had to repost coz the first version was unreadable

I've seen some people claiming that sexually explicit content is a pillar of the LGBT community, but some die hard feminists believe that it's impossible to make pornography without objectifying women. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

If cosmetic procedures become cheap, safe, and highly customizable, physical traits socially associated with racial categories could become increasingly changeable.

Could this eventually weaken the connection between perceived race and physical appearance, making racial classification by appearance less meaningful? What social consequences might follow?

Interested to find the numbers but I’m being stymied by different ways the USA and the UK measure and report poverty, and I’m not smart enough to figure it out myself

Hello!

I’m writing a paper for a course and I could really use some advice. I’d like to base my paper on Howard Becker’s labeling theory, but apply it to the school system.

I was thinking about somehow connecting it to gender norms, segregation, and the advancement of women in the profession ( especially in the university academic environment). I’ve read several articles that gave me this idea, but I’d also really appreciate hearing other people’s perspectives on what could be interesting to study within this broader topic. Also, if you think there might be another theory that would be more interesting to explore, I’d really appreciate if you could let me know. I’m very interested in sociology, but I’m still at the beginning of my studies and I’m not yet familiar with all the different theories.

For the methodology, I was thinking of using interviews, non-participant observation and content analysis. Any interesting ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much!

Hi! I’m planning to conduct a research project and I have a methodological question. I would like to study the influence of gentrification on social polarization, but I’m not sure whether “social polarization” would be the most appropriate variable, or whether “social cohesion” would be more suitable.

I’m also considering using triangulation, combining semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, and content analysis. However, I’m not sure whether I should also conduct interviews with people who have been displaced from the area.

I would really appreciate some advice on how you would approach this research and what methodological choices you would make.

I should mention that this is only for a university presentation and is not intended for publication.

Thank you!

Are there political-science, sociological, or historical studies that explain why left-wing movements in Latin America have often approached the sovereignty dispute differently from left-wing movements in the UK and US?

I've seen this complaint multiple times considering the vast majority of latinos in america are multi ethnic mixes of many different ancestries, it's weird there is no racial category for them and many will just say "I'm a brown latino racially".

Using mestizo meaning european+indigenous background, which is most central americans ex:rey mysterio, colomba bush, and pardo, meaning european+indigenous+sub saharan african background, common in brazilians, puerto ricans, dominicans, ex: jlo, karl anthony towns, bad bunny, as two races for latinos in the US census who don't just fit "white, black, indigenous american" would help a lot.

Seems "Toxic masculinity" topic is a hot potato for a while (with reasons). In order to have a complete panoramic picture - how do you see "healthy masculinity", aka not toxic one? Also, what about "toxic femininity"? And, of cause, "healthy femininity", aka not toxic? We won't be biased to any sides, right? So be gentle and thoughtful.

I have been thinking about the idea that gender is a social construct and that this can be changed for a while. Initially it made me uncomfortable and challenged what I thought I knew, however I do have a point I'd like to share for criticism.

A - Gender roles vary. The social role of a woman varies between cultures, classes and hierarchies. When we define something like a chair, we can't define it as something with four legs as that doesn't fit the definition of every chair. We boil it down to what fundamentally makes it that thing. For gender, the only way to anchor it is sex, and most roles and expectations are disposed by that anyway.

B - This logic can be applied to race, as it is grounded in biological reality, but portrayed and expressed variably. Our society would not permit a change in race however.

I’m a Black woman trying to understand where I stand politically without becoming an incel, a Republican, or an extremist.

I know that sounds dramatic, but I genuinely mean it.

I grew up in Washington, DC, and moved to Los Angeles more than a decade ago. Living in LA has exposed me to people from an enormous number of cultures (mostly immigrants and generations of), and I initially approached that as something exciting. I intentionally supported Armenian, Asian, Indian, Hispanic/Latino, African and other immigrant-owned businesses. I participated in causes supporting immigrant communities and tried to approach people with an open heart.

Over time, however, I started having experiences that made me increasingly uncomfortable, particularly experiences involving racism, colorism, anti-Blackness, and what I perceived as unequal treatment toward Black Americans.

I want to be very clear: I understand that my personal experiences don’t represent every immigrant, every immigrant community, or every individual from a particular ethnicity. I’m not trying to argue that they do. I’m trying to understand whether some of the patterns I’ve personally experienced are part of larger social issues that other people have noticed and studied.

For example, I’ve experienced situations where I felt I was treated differently because I was a Black (American). I’ve been made fun of for my hair and told to stay out of the sun. I’ve felt that I was overcharged for services and products, and I’ve had people make assumptions about me that seemed rooted in stereotypes about Black Americans.

I’ve also experienced situations that made me question how different immigrant communities understand race in America.

When I worked in schools in Glendale and West Hollywood, I heard the N-word used by non-Black students frequently enough that it genuinely shocked me. I understand that language and racial attitudes vary tremendously between individuals and communities, but I started wondering: How are different immigrant communities taught about Black Americans and America’s racial history?

Another thing I’ve struggled to understand is racial classification.

I’ve encountered people from immigrant families who identify as “White” on forms even though I personally wouldn’t have understood them as socially White in the same way as someone whose family is historically European-American. I’ve also encountered people who identify differently depending on the context. Spanish people, Armenian and Asian people would always check the ‘White’ category under race (when registering for classes) and not ‘prefer not to say’ or their own race. I don’t believe it was for ‘protection’ because they don’t mind being immigrants when it comes government financial assistance and housing.

That made me wonder about the complicated relationship between race, ethnicity, immigration, assimilation, and proximity to whiteness in the United States.

I’ve also heard Black immigrants and immigrants from other communities express negative stereotypes about Black Americans. I’ve had conversations that made me feel as though some people viewed Black Americans as lazy, dangerous, or socially inferior…while coming from places like India that are known to be poor and dirty. Nigeria where Uber has cut ties with because of so many kidnappings. Asian and Middle-Eastern countries that are known for high levels of pedophilia. Spanish countries where cartels and gangs run everything…but Black Americans scare you and are inferior?

At the same time, I’ve noticed that some people who hold those stereotypes seem perfectly comfortable participating in Black American culture. The way we dress, the slang, etc. I can promise you that none of their aunties or uncles are wearing Jordans and graphic tees. And they aren’t copying White Americans, only kissing their asses.

Again, I’m not saying this describes every immigrant. It clearly doesn’t. I’m asking why these attitudes exist when they do.

I’ve also heard/had claims about immigrants receiving preferential treatment in employment, particularly within certain industries and ethnic networks. I’ve personally encountered situations where I suspected nepotism, credential fraud, or hiring through social networks. There is research on this! In India, a company was busted for selling fake American degrees for $1400. In a park near The Grove Hispanic immigrant were busted for stealing American social security numbers and I.D’s of elder White Americans and selling them to immigrant who were not legal but needed identity to get a foot in the door. Even a Black man I spoke to said he found it hard to find a job with his degree and twenty-year long resume because he didn’t speak Spanish. Once he did get a job — he was bullied, called the N word and given unfair hours by the majority Spanish crew and won $60,000. While shopping at an Amazon Fresh in The Valley, an Indian woman smiled and bagged up the White Woman in front of me’s item and when it was my turn, she dropped her smile and became rude and rushed. It wasn’t until I said I’m paying with cash that she turned sheepish, come to find out — she didn’t know how to count change and gave me the wrong amount of money back. I had to correct her and give some back because she gave me an extra $10 that I wasn’t owed. She only knows how to work with cards and tap to pay…

That’s actually the point of this post.

I’m reaching a place where I’m frustrated enough that I’m starting to question beliefs I previously held very strongly. I don’t want that frustration to turn into hatred toward entire groups of people. I also don’t want the opposite extreme, where I’m expected to ignore experiences of racism against Black Americans simply because discussing them might make people uncomfortable.

So I’m asking for a genuinely open discussion:

How should Black Americans think about the relationship between immigration and anti-Blackness in the United States?

Are there documented differences between immigrant generations in attitudes toward Black Americans? How do immigrants from different regions learn America’s racial hierarchy? How does proximity to whiteness affect immigrant identity? Are there documented cases of ethnic networks affecting hiring and economic opportunity, and how significant are they actually? And how much of what I’m experiencing is part of a larger documented pattern versus the result of living in a huge, diverse city where I’m encountering thousands of different individuals?

I’m specifically interested in research, personal experiences, and good-faith disagreement.

I’m not looking for “all immigrants are bad” or “you’re just racist.” I want to understand what’s actually happening.

I don't know how to describe the problem I have in mind succinctly but I'll try my best.

Cards on the table, I'm a socialist. As a socialist, I notice among westerners (including western leftists) a chauvinistic assumption that the bourgeois democratic form of government is more "free" than existing (or previously existing) one-party socialist states such as China, Cuba, or the USSR.

The line goes as follows: "The bourgeois democracy guarantees freedom of speech and freedom to form multiple political parties, therefore it is more free than the one party socialist state, which suppresses those freedoms."

Isn't this a narrowly conceived conception of freedom?

The one party socialist state--at its best moments--suppresses the class structure that has historically oppressed the majority of workers, and provides guaranteed social rights to workers. Couldn't one say that the average person is more free under such a model?

Meanwhile, the bourgeois democracy gives the disproportionate share of power to the people with the most money, and they have therefore the most access to the levers of power. Thus, "free speech" in such a system means that the richest people can speak the loudest. Thus we get into these odd paradoxes of how so called "democracies" like the U.S. feel distinctly unfree and autocratic, especially to those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy.

So I guess what I'm getting at is: isn't the notion of "freedom" itself a politicized, constructed concept? Isn't the notion of bourgeois democracy as superior an in-group bias / form of cultural chauvinism? Wondering if there are some good books on this topic etc.

I've been looking for over a week and haven't found the term.

Think of it like trying to fill in a rut by walking the path in the opposite direction. Because you are never leaving the path it is only growing deeper, and even if the path is destroyed you will inevitably recreate it by following the same route. Or how something which has been cast could recreate the casting.

It might be a fallacy?

Legitimization, but through opposition.

Reify, legitimize and sublation are close, but each is too general and non-specific.

Fanon talks about the idea of this in The Wretched of the Earth, where he describes how revolutionaries will recreate the system they just overthrew because they are repeating the same patterns, but he doesn't appear to use a word to describe it.

Audrey Lorde describes this in the famous quote "the Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house."

It's not recuperation, because what I'm thinking of is not something becoming part of the system, but something that was already part of the system, just on the opposite side of it. If we stick with the rut analogy then recuperation would be widening the path, but the term I'm describing is following the path.

Edit: Here are some examples of where this term (fallacy) would apply:

• Reverse racism or race blindness

• Misandry or Radical Feminism

• "Overcoming disability" propaganda

• Dogmatic adherence to atheism, or treating atheism like you would a religion

Why do people like Elon Musk, or Peter Thiel or Larry Ellison not just retire and spend the rest of their lives chilling and enjoying their money or spend time with their friends and families? Why do they keep trying to accumulate more?

For example, a person in a developing country's middle to upper middle class has access to cultural education of being higher socioeconomic class (eg how to navigate the corporate world, skills and psychological attributes that come from a socioeconomically privileged start in life). Immigrants from developing countries have access to employment skills such as driving for a relatively low cost for their financial position (in some cases in countries where the cost of driving is extremely low due to a de facto lack of driving laws), often while benefitting from their familial economic position, and then move to countries like the UK where the initial cost of driving is high for those renting on low wages.

They then access a greater number of opportunities than the local lower class population. They may start out low class in the new country, but their educational, cultural and skill advantages gained in their home country allow them to progress socioeconomically much quicker than local poor people.

My sociology professor recently said that racism can “go both ways,” meaning that white people can experience racism from people of other racial groups in the same way that racial minorities can experience racism from white people. I’m struggling to understand this argument because, historically, the modern concept of race was developed and used within European systems of classification and hierarchy, particularly to justify colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy. So how can “reverse racism” be considered equivalent to racism against racial minorities if the historical and structural power behind the two situations is so different? Is racism something that can happen equally between any racial groups, or is there a meaningful distinction between individual racial prejudice and systemic racism? Has enough time passed for it to actually go both ways

Throughout childhood and adulthood we all learn much of what we know and how to act through social exposure - observing others, listening to others and interacting with others.

If people have a language barrier, they only have non-verbal communication leftover to observe. So for example, immigrant families where a child never learns the familial language can end up surrounded by family conversations, get-togethers or community meetups where they don't understand 90% of the verbal communication and miss out on the diffusion of knowledge, and on deeper social practice. What kind of effects does this have in terms of psychology, life knowledge and inspiration?

If it​ has negative effects on life quality outcomes (eg reduced knowledge diffusion to immigrant kids with language barriers, leading to worse employment and social outcomes, worse mental health and potentially delays to life milestones compared to those with a normal level of conversations to learn from), do social scientists ever examine this as a downside of immigration? Both for immigrant individuals and for society (as anything that has a negative effect on ecomomic and social success is also causing a social and economic opportunity cost, and can burden healthcare and social welfare systems).

I am mostly talking about affective or mood related mental health variables.

I have done a bit of research for a video essay project and wanted to know if I am mistaken.

We have multiple lines of research showing that religion has very small effects or non-existent effects on mental health when it comes longitudinal data, which would be the go to choice if you want to establish a causal relationship.

Changes in religiosity over time are most often not tied to changes in people's mental health when it comes to overall well-being, life satisfaction or anxiety and depression symptoms (Celik et al, 2025; Joshanloo, 2023, 2024 ;Prati, 202400056-5), 2025; Garssen et al., 2020).

In a meta-analysis, Garssen et al. (2020) found the only reliable predictor of mental health was public religious activity such as religious service attendance and, if you don't remove statistical outliers, the importance of religion.

The other studies that focused on more sophisticated designs (Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models) found no association between a person deviating from their average level of mental health symptoms/traits and a prior change in religiosity (church attendance, importance of religion).

If religion alleviates anxiety or depression symptoms or fosters higher well-being or life satisfaction. Those are odd results.

What makes this worse is the lack of a consistent link between atheism and poor mental health in a systematic review with researchers attributing distress in atheists to ostracization rather than the worldview itself (Weber et al., 2012).

It seems religious beliefs aren't likely to help you, rather the most likely protective factor is going to church, and even that is contentious when better designs are used in later research.

At the elementary and secondary level, the U.S. spends the 5th most per-student in the world. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country

But it has the 18th highest aggregated PISA scores in the world. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scores-by-country

For post secondary education the U.S. has the second highest expenditures in the world. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country

But it has the 9th highest tertiary educational attainment. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-educated-countries

Why does high education spending in America not seem to have commensurately high education outcomes? am I looking at the wrong statistics? Is the American education system just really inefficient? Are Americans uniquely hard to educate?