Jason Manning

Explaining Behavior 14.5: Teaching Materials Quizzes and Applications on Pure Sociology

This is my last installment of classroom materials and exercises for the Explaining Behavior series.
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...

Bullfish Hole Links Roundup for February, 2026 Appalachia, AI, Academia, Patriarchy, Crime, Comics

He goes over variation across fields. Econ, demography, and education research do well. Evo psych does poorly, and, I regret to pass along, “Criminology Should Just Be Scrapped.”
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/links-for-...

Links for January, 2026 AI, Criminology, Opioids, Archaeology, Radicalization, Surveys, Tolerance

"Now I’m considering the possibility that sociological theory might actually be necessary to predict and explain the behavior of the models themselves."
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/links-for-...

The Secret of Their Success Is Moltbook the Beginning of Machine Culture?

A few weeks after writing this, it seems the Clawbots aren't social enough yet to produce substantial or rapid cultural evolution on Moltbook. We'll see how future iterations do. jasonmanning.substack.com/p/the-secret...

Collective Violence in American History 5: Judge Lynch Listen now | On the rise and fall of mob justice in America

After some complaints about volume and audio quality, I remastered (if that's the right word) my podcast on the history of lynching in America.
#lynching
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/collective...

Homeschooling Notes: Lyrical Science Educational songs on life, plants, animals, and planets

I wrote a few science-themed educational songs, about the kingdoms of life, photosynthesis, animal locomotion, and the planets.
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/homeschool...

Explaining Behavior 14: Pure Sociology The geometry of law, partisanship, lynching, and science

Black observes that ancient and medieval scholars had teleological explanations of the physical world, but these fell by the wayside as physics grew more scientific. He argues pure sociology's abandonment of teleology is a similar advance. #sociology
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...

Books: A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee Old times was serious times

For more, see: jasonmanning.substack.com/p/books-a-na...

On principles: "I voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a good honest vote, and one that I believe will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment."

On working the crowd: "the more experienced men went first, and spoke at such length that the crowd grew fatigued and eager to get the thing over with. So he was able to win their favor by cutting it short: 'I got up and told some laughable story, and quit.'"

On law without formalism: "we met, and appointed magistrates and constables to keep order. We didn’t fix any laws for them, tho’; for we supposed they would know law enough, whoever they might be; and so we left it to themselves to fix the laws."

On avoiding hypothermia: "My blood was now getting cold, and the chills coming all over me. I was so tired, too, that I could hardly walk; but I thought I would do the best I could to save my life, and then, if I died, nobody would be to blame."

On accommodating the culture of one's allies: “we let the Indians understand that we white men would first fire on the camp, and then fall back, so as to give the Indians a chance to rush in and scalp them. “

War is hell: "I recollect seeing a boy who was shot down near the house. His arm and thigh was broken, and he was so near the burning house that the grease was stewing out of him. In this situation he was still trying to crawl along"

On the Creek War: "Hostilities commenced when the Red Stick faction massacred 250 or more people at Fort Mims, 40 miles north of Mobile, killing enemy Creeks, white settlers, militiamen, and civilians alike. To the frontiersmen of Tennessee, it was something like Pearl Harbor."

"What broke him out of his funk was advice from another young woman. Proving that beggars can be choosers, Crockett describes her as: 'well enough as to smartness, but she was as ugly as a stone fence.'"

"'I now began to think, that in making me, it was entirely forgotten to make my mate; that I was born odd, and should always remain so, and that nobody would have me.'
Yes, fellas, Davy Crockett was taking the black pill. . . A frontier incel."

"David was so afraid of the promised whipping that he went straight to a drover acquaintance...Thus, at barely 13, young David Crockett set out on his independent life, beginning with a 380-mile journey through Lynchburg and Charlottesville and up to Front Royal."

Some highlights: "Ten years before his birth, both of his grandparents were killed in a raid by Creek and Cherokee Indians, and his young uncle was abducted and held prisoner for seventeen years. Such was life on the borderlands"

Books: A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee Old times was serious times

My newest Bullfish Hole post is on the crazy life and times of Mr. David Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, as told in his autobiography.
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/books-a-na...

#law

Explaining Behavior 14: Pure Sociology The geometry of law, partisanship, lynching, and science

The Explaining Behavior series is back! What makes pure sociology so pure? How does it explain law, partisanship, lynch mobs, science, and why most sociology is so goofy?
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...

I mentioned some of the weaknesses of collective teleology, and it is not that unusual for sociologists to acknowledge the problem with attributing goals to entire societies. But Black goes further and argues that all teleological explanation is unscientific.

I mentioned some of the weaknesses of collective teleology, and it is not that unusual for sociologists to acknowledge the problem with attributing goals to entire societies. But Black goes further and argues that all teleological explanation is unscientific.

What was crazy to me was reading other ethnographies of Samoa getting the picture of corporate kin groups led by firm patriarchs. Had that family structure ever been a recipe for young women being given libertine sexual freedom?

Explaining Behavior 14: Pure Sociology The geometry of law, partisanship, lynching, and science

jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...

#law

Explaining Behavior 14: Pure Sociology The geometry of law, partisanship, lynching, and science

jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...

Explaining Behavior 14: Pure Sociology The geometry of law, partisanship, lynching, and science

The Explaining Behavior series is back! What makes pure sociology so pure? How does it explain law, partisanship, lynch mobs, science, and why most sociology is so goofy?
jasonmanning.substack.com/p/explaining...