Last night, I recorded a Callin/podcast with Razib on his recent excellent article on the genetic history of Egypt. At the beginning, he mentioned that he had recently sent out a reader survey, which is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Hearing about the makeup of Razib’s readership made me think about my own, so our conversation motivated me to finally put one together after we were done.
I listened to the Callin show with Razib and it was interesting hearing about the demographics. For obvious reasons, Razib's audience skews toward smart graduate degree holding higher income people. Who else has a fascination with the topics he discusses?
I think your breakdown is going to be more right-wing and conservative. You're probably going to bring in a lot of the odd internet people like neo-reactionaries too. I would be surprised if the far left reads you much, because you're pretty offensive to them. There will probably be a fair portion that has similar views to Scott Alexander because you draw from his audience so much.
You seem to be libertarian-conservative with no social desirability bias, don't trust institutions, and care about science including behavioral genetics. I have to imagine that your audience would also have a positive view of Bryan Caplan.
Too bad it's missing the all important "don't know/no opinion" option because that's how I felt about a lot of the questions asked -- so I simply clicked the middle, "meh" choice instead.
I put 3 for people I hadn't heard of, because by default I'm neutral towards people until I have a reason to like or dislike them. In some sense this biases the results, but it's also in a sense more accurate than skipping the question, because it will more accurately reflect the views of the majority of readers, right? I don't want the results to say "Richard Hanania Fans HATE Spresguld Omagawani" just because the 3 people who had heard of him hate him. (But maybe you'd already accounted for that, in which case I apologize for not skipping those questions.)
Just took the survey and want to say that my favorite part of the whole thing is that you even know who Roissy is. Its just more proof that you really are a broad minded eclectic reader with a true desire for knowledge. This is why you are one of my favorite substacks.
The question about US leadership being important to world peace got a "1" from me due to a knee-jerk reaction about how awful the US foreign policy establishment is. I guess I could give it a "4" and believe the same thing, but with the assumption that our leadership needs to be completely gutted and replaced.
> There should be no law against a boss pressuring an employee for sex.
I thought it was still black-letter law that there is no law against this, and what we punish is applying this pressure in a sex-discriminatory manner.
It was personally interesting to do this. The ‘firebrand’ types I tend to despise all got 3s because plurality has come to matter much more to me now that we’re under so much social pressure to self sort into clear camps. Something I refuse to participate in.
Just a quick nitpick - how people feel about plastic surgery or implants might depend on the reason. I doubt anyone would begrudge a burn victim or breast cancer survivor their plastic surgery or implant, but some might be less enthusiastic about vanity surgery. And by some, I mean me.
Once I got to the part which asked for my opinion, after a short while the machine kept interrupting me and repeating that, when I had no opinion I was to leave blank rather than choose "3". This kept happening, again and again (even when I hadn't chose 3. I stopped after about the seventh or eighth iteration.
Richard Hanania Newsletter Survey
‘Claire Lehman’ after the listing of several of the harshest dictators in history made me involuntarily wake up my neighbors.
Should have allowed for ""never heard pf this person or issue/know little about this person or issue
I listened to the Callin show with Razib and it was interesting hearing about the demographics. For obvious reasons, Razib's audience skews toward smart graduate degree holding higher income people. Who else has a fascination with the topics he discusses?
I think your breakdown is going to be more right-wing and conservative. You're probably going to bring in a lot of the odd internet people like neo-reactionaries too. I would be surprised if the far left reads you much, because you're pretty offensive to them. There will probably be a fair portion that has similar views to Scott Alexander because you draw from his audience so much.
You seem to be libertarian-conservative with no social desirability bias, don't trust institutions, and care about science including behavioral genetics. I have to imagine that your audience would also have a positive view of Bryan Caplan.
Too bad it's missing the all important "don't know/no opinion" option because that's how I felt about a lot of the questions asked -- so I simply clicked the middle, "meh" choice instead.
There were issues I wish you had probed
Deficit and how to reduce it
Attracting high skilled immigration
Freer trade
Taxation of net CO2 emissions
VAT for financing SS and Medicare instead of the wage tax
Using cost-benefit analysis to reform regulations
I put 3 for people I hadn't heard of, because by default I'm neutral towards people until I have a reason to like or dislike them. In some sense this biases the results, but it's also in a sense more accurate than skipping the question, because it will more accurately reflect the views of the majority of readers, right? I don't want the results to say "Richard Hanania Fans HATE Spresguld Omagawani" just because the 3 people who had heard of him hate him. (But maybe you'd already accounted for that, in which case I apologize for not skipping those questions.)
Fun survey. As has been said needed a don’t know
Just took the survey and want to say that my favorite part of the whole thing is that you even know who Roissy is. Its just more proof that you really are a broad minded eclectic reader with a true desire for knowledge. This is why you are one of my favorite substacks.
Btw, Tyler Cowen also reads/knows about him too.
Also, not saying I endorse everything he writes!
The question about US leadership being important to world peace got a "1" from me due to a knee-jerk reaction about how awful the US foreign policy establishment is. I guess I could give it a "4" and believe the same thing, but with the assumption that our leadership needs to be completely gutted and replaced.
> There should be no law against a boss pressuring an employee for sex.
I thought it was still black-letter law that there is no law against this, and what we punish is applying this pressure in a sex-discriminatory manner.
It was personally interesting to do this. The ‘firebrand’ types I tend to despise all got 3s because plurality has come to matter much more to me now that we’re under so much social pressure to self sort into clear camps. Something I refuse to participate in.
Very interesting survey. I was a bit biased towards people who have come on the podcast.
Will you be providing us with a list of our glaring hypocrisies?
Just a quick nitpick - how people feel about plastic surgery or implants might depend on the reason. I doubt anyone would begrudge a burn victim or breast cancer survivor their plastic surgery or implant, but some might be less enthusiastic about vanity surgery. And by some, I mean me.
I am not going to answer a bunch of deeply personal questions, so I quit long before the end.
I suspect this is going to heavily bias your results.
Once I got to the part which asked for my opinion, after a short while the machine kept interrupting me and repeating that, when I had no opinion I was to leave blank rather than choose "3". This kept happening, again and again (even when I hadn't chose 3. I stopped after about the seventh or eighth iteration.