Culture Links, 4/20/2026

Tove K on religion; Freya India on social media and feminization; Simon Cooke on social collapse; Steve Stewart-Williams on men vs. women on casual sex

Tove K writes,

Religion is the attribution of human-like intention outside of humans. That is the simplest and most comprehensive definition. Polytheistic spirits and monotheistic, all-powerful gods have this in common: They possess intentions similar to those of humans. From the perspective of science, religion is the misattribution of intention to where there are no observable reasons to attribute intentions.

Her hypothesis is that we have had a capacity for belief in human-like intention since very early in human evolution.

It might be enough if only a small proportion of individuals actually perceive the supernatural and transmit their impressions to the wider population.

In modern human populations, about four percent of people are believed to fulfill the criteria of schizotypal personality disorder. Schizotypals are socially withdrawn and have trouble interacting with people. But the most characteristic symptom is that schizotypals tend to think in magical terms.

Psychologists have wondered about the capacity of some people to have “mystical experiences,” with some of these leading to the formation of religions. The discovery of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s sparked an interest in the connection between unusual mental states and religion.

The capacity to believe delusions can serve a function.

Surrounded by groups guided by useful delusions, no group can survive without delusions. That is a probable reason why both religion and people with unrealistic types of perception exist everywhere: Because no groups that do not possess them have been capable of surviving the competition with the others.

False beliefs create a binding force. They allow me to distinguish the people who are in my tribe from those who are not.

She argues that stress is a factor in priming people for religion.

People who are, and perceive themselves to be, in a precarious situation, suffer a higher risk of psychosis.

…Populations that experience hardship are more likely to need supernatural inspiration. And individuals who experience hardship compared to their peers are more likely to gain from the opportunity to become a shaman or an oracle or a sorcerer compared to individuals for whom life is going smoothly.

But modern religions tend to filter out the ancient hallucinations.

As civilization grew more complex, religion evolved in a direction away from hallucination-like tales, toward greater levels of abstraction. Religious leaders who produce new delusions increasingly get replaced by religious leaders who tidy up in the old delusions. Christianity and Islam are case points. Their prophets abolished rules and deities in favor of abstract principles and general laws.

Her essay is long. Even with all of these excerpts, I have not given it justice.

Freya India writes,

Something feels painfully familiar about the way we act and communicate online lately. Things feel more petty, catty, anxious, adolescent, as though everyone is more immature, more prone to emotional outbursts.

…these platforms exploit girls’ and young women’s vulnerabilities for profit. And how they exploit our vices too: passive-aggression, reputation-destruction, social exclusion, vanity. I argue that social media rewards stereotypically feminine traits, that features on apps like Instagram and TikTok tap into and amplify them. For a long time, I thought this was a problem for girls.

But now I think things are worse than that. These platforms encourage everyone to act this way, tempt us all toward this behaviour.

Simon Cooke writes,

Our enemy is anyone who thinks a better future comes from less liberty, less choice and more power to government. Our enemy is the person who wants to stop you having French cheese, New Zealand lamb or Argentinian beef. Our enemies are those - Mazzucato, Stiglitz, Deneen - who think betterment is directed by the state not created by a free people. Our enemy is tariffs, licences, bans and controls, he is Mike Bloomberg, Sadiq Khan, Rishi Sunak and Wes Streeting. And yes, he is Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

Our enemy is the public health officer who wants to ban gambling, vaping, drinking and the humble hamburger. Our enemy is someone who says “free speech is vital but…” while calling for advertising bans on sweets or the silencing of someone - perhaps another enemy - with unsavoury views. Our enemy is the planning system, it is Ofsted, Ofcom and Ofgen. Our enemies are the ‘experts’ who say globalism and neoliberalism are to blame or who tell you free markets aren’t free and capitalism makes people poor. Our enemies are those who want to fix the price of fuel or rent or groceries, who believe they know better than millions of people making choices every day.

If society collapses, it will do so because politicians exploit - for entirely selfish ends - people’s real concerns.

I would push back and say that the enemy is us. We are the ones whose Fear Of Others’ Liberty gives politicians license and encouragement to take control of our lives.

Steve Stewart-Williams writes,

A second group of people who can reliably get what they want on the mating market are individuals with absolute power. As the anthropologist Laura Betzig documented, in every one of the world’s early civilizations, despotic male leaders assembled large harems of fertile young women. Despotic female leaders, in contrast, didn’t assemble even small harems of fertile young men.

substacks referenced above: @

Keeping It Casual, Part 1

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As society collapses we must know our enemies

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How Social Media Feminised Us All

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The origins of religion