> Hesiod felt it. Plato theorized it. Polybius mechanized it. Sallust prosecuted it (while guilty). Ibn Khaldun put it on a timer. Five civilizations, twenty-one centuries, one diagnosis. The only thing missing was proof.
> For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math.
> Sallust, it turns out, was doing game theory in a toga. He just didn’t have the notation.
> That’s not my characterization — it’s the title of the paper. And the researchers defined the term with clinical precision
> That single belief turns out to be a genetic marker. Everything else travels with it.
^^ that one in particular is a VERY strong Claude-ism
> Now, the finding inside the finding
> The study is not a catalog of monsters [...] It’s a measurement [...] with polling-grade precision
> Political violence wasn’t rhetorical; it was a body count
There are a lot in here, I could keep going...
> For most of history, “too many assholes ruin everything” remained a vibe. A well-documented, five-civilization vibe, but a vibe. Then, in the twentieth century, it became math.
> Sallust, it turns out, was doing game theory in a toga. He just didn’t have the notation.
> That’s not my characterization — it’s the title of the paper. And the researchers defined the term with clinical precision
> That single belief turns out to be a genetic marker. Everything else travels with it.
^^ that one in particular is a VERY strong Claude-ism
> Now, the finding inside the finding
> The study is not a catalog of monsters [...] It’s a measurement [...] with polling-grade precision
> Political violence wasn’t rhetorical; it was a body count
There are a lot in here, I could keep going...