>8. SCIENCE IS STUCK Science requires deviant thinking.

>scientific papers used to have style. Now they all sound the same, and they’re all boring.

Sometimes that can be because there's more paper than findings.

> we’re in a recession of mischief

I don't think this is true per se. It is more that a lot of things are censored or tailored into a specific direction now. The Trump administration shows this - see how recently the Python Software Foundation came to the conclusion that they could not ethically sign a grant proposal that was modified by the Trump administration seeking to manhunt down any LGBT supporter upon entry into the USA (once found they "abused" or rather misused US grants, which was the logical implication to follow-up on that clause the US government tried to sneakily add). Things became more uniform also because of Google search sucking now. How can we find alternative views? It is much harder than before. The world wide web has been turned into a nerfed variant by Google and co. All "AI summaries" show this - Google hallucinates to the user a variant of the web they control.

> Another disappearing form of deviance: people don’t seem to be joining cults anymore.

I guess it's not deviant if it's a large percentage of the population.

Two things kicked in around mid 90’s:

1. Dropping levels of elemental lead in folks born 20 years earlier, so lower impulsivity. 2. “The internet”, leading to higher levels of homogenization of culture

I have a hypothesis why that's the case:

1- Before everybody got an HD camera in their pocket, it was less costly to be "weird" in public. 2- Millennials and Gen Z's are both economically worse off than Boomers and Gen X. If you're economically insecure then counterculture and going against the trend don't quite live up to the feeling of what comes in their daily lives otherwise.

Just my two cents.

Rosalia gives me hope... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQBS2Ikz6c

T-shirt:

    No means no.
    Maybe means no.
    Yes means maybe.
    Regret equals rape.

    Fortunately, there's Pornhub.

The headline talks about deviance and the the article starts with "People are less weird than they used to be." and continues talking about weirdness mostly.

Deviance and weirdness are not the same thing. I 100% agree that deviance is in decline. I also think the authors impression that people are less weird and express themselves more boringly comes only from him living in his conformist bubble.

The weirdness has always been a countercultural thing and that is well alive; even though of course not accessible to everyone - like it never has been.

What is different in my opinion is that there is surprisingly little visible deviance (in the sense of dissent, defiance, disobedience) nowadays. I have a hunch this is because most young people value security more than freedom but I am not very sure about this.

Maybe this is also slow-scale evolution by traits.

Millennials are really great parents and the result of that is that the kids are well rounded and less deficient. That results in conformity because the history nerd, also goes to the gym and the gym bro also strives to do well at school.