The Pragmatosphere

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The Pragmatosphere is a growing network of blogs with a shared interest in some far-right topics, such as racialism, hereditarianism, and a little bit of white genocide rhetoric. They call themselves "The Pragmatosphere" after one of the chapters in Blithering Genius's book On the Edge.[1] The chapter, titled "pragmatopia", attempts to provide a positive vision of the future by describing a more stable form of modernity, including a world government, a more sparing use of natural resources, and eugenic population control (a parental license system to prevent dysgenics and overpopulation). These measures are the main political goals of The Pragmatosphere, sometimes brought together under the euphemistically-tinged umbrella term rational humanism.[2]

Most of these bloggers are atheists, and much of their worldview is based on Blithering Genius's ideas of evolution. Other major influences are the HBD movement, Malthusianism and Richard Dawkins.[3]

In many of their writings, these bloggers show a very bad understanding of human behavior, social relations, etc. Besides the blogs described below, they and others have been publishing content on other platforms and channels for years.[4][5] The amount of content creators involved could be in the dozens.

Bloggers[edit]

Blithering Genius[edit]

Blithering Genius is the most prominent member of The Pragmatosphere. His blogs include TheWaywardAxolotl[6] which he started in 2013 and Expanding Rationality[7] which has some of the same essays. He is also a YouTuber[8]. While he doesn't appear to be the creator of the term, he is likely to have (possibly inadvertently) founded it, as other Pragmatospherians started their blogs after being influenced by him. So he somewhat serves as a cult leader in The Pragmatosphere.

He has an article titled "Why Most Academic Research is Fake", in which he argues that mainstream academia is plagued by ideological bias and perverse incentives to the point of most research papers being either wrong or otherwise useless. His final point is not that the process should be improved, but that academic research and the opinions of scientists should not be trusted.[9] This article has been very influential to other members of The Pragmatosphere, which has predictably lead to crank magnetism as they instead turn to much worse ideologically-driven sources.

Another influential article (within The Pragmatosphere) is called "It's Probably Mostly Genetic", in which he argues that differences in averages between white Americans and black Americans regarding income, crime, welfare use, and single parenthood are caused mostly by genetic differences. This is a different claim than the typical hereditarian claim that IQ differences between these two groups are 50-75% caused by genetic differences, as some of these things only exist in relation to one's environment.

Zero Contradictions[edit]

Zero Contradictions is a blogger who has been strongly influenced by Blithering Genius. His blog's homepage includes many links to articles on other blogs, with the lion's share being from Blithering Genius.[10] He is a big crank magnet.

He appears to defend the (alleged) legitimacy of race more strongly than Blithering Genius, going as far as to call those who reject the construct "race denialists".[11]

He seems to have learned a very bad lesson from the article "Why Most Academic Research is Fake", as he frequently cites racialist and white supremacist blogs for claims regarding human genetics. His more extreme claims regarding race are mostly attributed to Thuletide, a white supremacist blogger. Metapedia is also cited. This is despite Zero Contradictions claiming to be against white supremacy and racism.

In a FAQ page, he has a section on the Great Replacement, in which he fearmongers about white people disappearing.[12] He then cites "evidence" from Thuletide of "Anti-White Ideology And Propaganda In The West", none of which is convincing. Finally, he has a section called "Ideas For Boosting Western Fertility",[13] which is ironic given his claim that overpopulation will be "basically game over for civilization", and that population control will be required to prevent it.[14]

The website also links to articles on other topics, such as game theory, not all of which is crankery.

Brittonic Memetics[edit]

Felix of the blog Brittonic Memetics is arguably the most sane of the other bloggers of the Pragmatosphere. He appears to have a more accurate and complex social understanding of human behaviour than both Blithering Genius and Zero Contradictions.[15] However, he is rather gullible to some forms of biological crankery. He has said that he used to argue with racialists online, but they managed to change his worldview in the end.[16] He mentions them linking him to "studies". Given that he has linked to Emil O. W. Kirkegaard, it is likely that these were fake studies by racialist pseudoscientists.

Felix has his own "Racial differences" article. This one is milder than the one from Zero Contradictions. He acknowledges the socially-constructed nature of race. Though the reasons he gives here are not all logically sound.[17]

Felix has an article on the "gay germ theory", which is the hypothesis that male homosexuality is caused by a mind-altering pathogen. This hypothesis originated from pseudoscientist Gregory Cochran. Felix said he doesn't have complete confidence, but that he believes it's "likely to be true".[18] The article cites Emil O. W. Kirkegaard.

Eternal Anglo[edit]

This is a much smaller blog than the others. It has interactive maps showing fertility rates by race in various western countries by region,[19] as well as a blog post about where different countries should source their immigrants based on their purported IQs.[20] Why would anyone want that?

Links to Emil Kirkegaard's blog in the sidebar.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. On the Edge by T. K. Van Allen (2023). ISBN 9798386656836.
  2. https://thewaywardaxolotl.blogspot.com/2020/04/toward-rational-humanism.html
  3. Debunking the Selfish Gene: The Phenocentric Theory of Biological Purpose by T. K. Van Allen (2023). ISBN 9798379316754.
  4. Liberal / SJW Debate Tactics w/ Blithering Genius (Jul 28, 2018) YouTube.
  5. Is Morality An Evolved Delusion? An Impromptu Debate with Brittonic Antics (Aug 13, 2021) YouTube.
  6. The Wayward Axolotl Blogspot.
  7. Expanding Rationality Substack.
  8. https://www.youtube.com/@BlitheringGenius
  9. The Wayward Axolotl
  10. Zero Contradictions Philosophy Home Page
  11. https://zerocontradictions.net/FAQs/race-FAQs
  12. https://zerocontradictions.net/FAQs/race-FAQs#great-replacement
  13. https://zerocontradictions.net/FAQs/race-FAQs#boosting-western-fertility
  14. https://zerocontradictions.net/FAQs/overpopulation-FAQs#if-no-pop-regulation
  15. Copes by Felix (October 13, 2023) Brittonic Memetics, WordPress.
  16. Fallout by Felix (December 30, 2022) Brittonic Memetics, WordPress.
  17. Racial differences by Felix (June 7, 2022) Brittonic Memetics, WordPress.
  18. Bugs and rainbows by Felix (August 1, 2023) Brittonic Memetics, WordPress.
  19. Fertility by Race by Region, New Zealand (May 13, 2020) Eternal Anglo weblog.
  20. Click on a Country; I'll Tell You Where That Country Should Source Its Immigrants (Dec 29, 2023) Eternal Anglo weblog.