A pre-registered replication finds conservatives relative to liberals, and radicals relative to centrists, are more likely to experience "aesthetic chills. shivers and goosebumps in response to stimuli such as music or speech." Might speak to some underling motivations.

I agree that the probability of Trump coming up with that line is tiny. However, the probability of the WSJ just making it up is also small. Maybe Trump had someone else write it, but why would someone else write this content? No obvious explanation seems to fit well.

To use an Epstein inspired example: it is true that intelligence agencies have utilized secret agents, black mail, etc., but it is not true that such secret agents are detectable because they pal around with the president of the nation they are secretly working for.

It's informative that conspiracies everyone agrees happened, things like Cointelpro or the NSA's spying on Americans, did not produce the sort of evidence for their detection that more controversial conspiracies theories normally rely on.

In general, I think this is wrong. The "great authors" of the past are very hit or miss. Even when very smart, the amount they did not know is huge, both in terms of simple facts and in terms of how to reason well. In a sense, they are just people who became popular. Today we.

This is funny, an article from as far back as 1992 writes of Epstein "one outrageous story links him to the CIA and Mossad". Didn't explain why anyone at that time thought that.

I agree with Shapiro that Epstein probably did not work for Israel. However, saying that Israel has not spied on America since 1987 is misleading. For example, we know there was a case in 2006 finding that DoD employees and people at the top of AIPAC were trying to spy on the US

Relatedly, Trump saying he does not want people to support him anymore if they are pushing the Epstein Hoax is probably not the best move.

A rare level of consensus. Poll finds most Americans think there is a government coverup regarding Epstein including most democrats and most republicans, young and old people, all races, both sexes, poor and rich, liberal and conservative, trump and harris voters.

Pew evidences the growing favorability of China across the world. The Mexico numbers are interesting, I would not have guessed that the US and China would be so close.

Study finds that, across the West, non-whites and right wingers report a greater preference for strong leaders than do others.

This study conducts large pre-registered replications on findings in the psychology of socio-economic class. It estimates a replication rate around 50%. Some findings it failed to replicate include that higher SES people act more unethically, and that thinking about financial

Given that he was a rich and well-connected Jewish American, none of these observations are obviously significantly more likely if he was also secretly working for the Mossad. Him publicly being friends with top Israeli officials (and US officials) seems significantly less likely.