Top all-time · #3650
N.S. Lyons
Personal blog · theupheaval.substack.compoliticsphilosophyculture
N.S. Lyons writes The Upheaval, a personal blog at theupheaval.substack.com about politics, philosophy and culture. Since 2021, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 37 times, most often “The China Convergence”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-06-14, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Essays by N.S. Lyons on politics, managerialism, religion and institutional credibility. HN readers link them as background on hypocrisy, elite competence and a proposed 500-year religious cycle.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Exploring the shared upheavals of our era, including technological and cultural change, the ideological revolution consuming the West, the rise of China, and the crisis of liberalism. Click to read The Upheaval, by N.S. Lyons,
Most-linked posts?
- The China Convergence5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2023-08-03
- It’s Not Hypocrisy, You’re Just Powerless4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-08-15
- No, the Revolution Isn’t Over3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-02-09
- Reality Honks Back: A Reflection on the Reality War2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-17
- The World Order Reset2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-04-29
- There Is No Liberal West (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-23
- The Upheaval2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-04-25
- Just Say No to Central Bank Digital Currencies2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-10
What Hacker News says?
Here's some emergency reading https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/its-not-hypocrisy-youre-j...
Comment linking /p/its-not-hypocrisy-youre-just-powerless
on “U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel”Submitted Just Say No to Central Bank Digital Currencies as a story · 390 points
HN discussionPhyllis Tickle wrote a book on this about a decade ago. Her argument is that every ~500 years there is a major shakeup in the Christian world, and we’re in the midst of one right now. https://www.amazon.com/Great-Emergence-How-Christianity-Chan... This post explains it well: https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/are-we-in-a-500-year-reli...
Comment linking /p/are-we-in-a-500-year-religious-revolution
on “As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen”Submitted The Reality War – It’s just Gnostics all the way down as a story · 69 points
HN discussion“Poland and the demon in democracy” https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/poland-and-the-demon-in-d...
Comment linking /p/poland-and-the-demon-in-democracy
on “Poland’s PM says previous government illegally used Pegasus spyware”Submitted The World Order Reset as a story · 52 points
HN discussionhttps://theupheaval.substack.com/p/just-say-no-to-cbdcs
Comment linking /p/just-say-no-to-cbdcs
on “Joseph Stiglitz: 'We should shut down the cryptocurrencies'”Submitted Reality Honks Back: A Reflection on the Reality War as a story · 22 points
HN discussionhttps://theupheaval.substack.com/p/there-is-no-liberal-west describes it thusly: The act criminalizes utterances deemed to be “aggravated by prejudice” against any protected identity group (including race, religion, or transgender status) with up to seven years in prison. How exactly any of this is defined is not clear. Private speech, even within privates home, is not protected. Indeed, Justice Secretary Humza Yous…
Comment linking /p/there-is-no-liberal-west
on “Scotland's Hate crime bill: Hate talk in homes ‘must be prosecuted’ (2020)”Submitted The World Order Reset as a story · 8 points
HN discussionI urge you to read this and then share it with other people as appropriate. The sad reality is that much of the electorate does not care about hypocrisy, even the people who complain about hypocrisy when they perceive themselves to be on the losing end. https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/its-not-hypocrisy-youre-j...
Comment linking /p/its-not-hypocrisy-youre-just-powerless
on “RFK Jr threatens ban on federal scientists publishing in top journals”Submitted The Inscrutable Ideology of the New China as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThey're blaming lawyers for the deportation fiascos, which are technically due to the European Court of Human Rights and not the EU. That bit will have to be left separately. However, what they're dealing with is ultimately all the same culture of managerialism: https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/the-china-convergence Civil servants went into meltdowns over Brexit because for the first time they might actually have…
Comment linking /p/the-china-convergence
on “Why do so many people hate EU bureaucracy?”Submitted The Rise of the Right-Wing Progressives as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIt's a problem across society, not unique to the CIA. Here's an intriguing theory: we live in what can be called a "managerial regime" [1]. This system of governance relies for its control and credibility not on democratic mandate but rather people's belief in its competence and expertise. Although there may be elections in this system, they have relatively little effect because decisions are actually made outside t…
Comment linking /p/the-china-convergence
on “Select Subcommittee: CIA Paid Analysts for Virus Origin Statements”Submitted It’s Not Hypocrisy, You’re Just Powerless as a story · 6 points
HN discussionBased on the author's other writings (e.g. https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/no-the-revolution-isnt-ov... ), he appears to identify with the culturally conservative, anti-woke wing of American politics. Presumably, his team is team B, while modern liberals are presumably his team A, which from a neutral observer's standpoint makes the article rather bizarre. (And which might be why the author was careful not to lab…
Comment linking /p/no-the-revolution-isnt-over
on “It’s not hypocrisy, you’re just powerless”Submitted It’s Not Hypocrisy, You’re Just Powerless as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The China Convergence as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted There Is No Liberal West (2021) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Freedom (To Live a Normal Life) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted No, the Revolution Isn’t Over as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Millennial Snot as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted It’s not hypocrisy, you’re just powerless as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted No, the Revolution Isn’t Over as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reality Honks Back as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Four Big Questions for the Counter-Revolution as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The China Convergence as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Is China So Obsessed with Food Security? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The China Convergence as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
