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The archetypes of alpha and beta have become incredibly popular, particularly within the online male self-improvement and dating space of the “manosphere.” Nonetheless, a coherent definition of alpha and beta has never been agreed upon. Within the existing depictions of alpha and beta reside a myriad of contradictions. In many ways the definitions of alphas and betas do not match the way the concepts are used in research of animal behavior.
In this article I will clear up popular misconceptions about alphas and betas in human and animal hierarchies. I will also give you research-based tips to ascend that hierarchy, or to be more “alpha.”
Addressing a dismissal of the alpha/beta concept
The most common criticism I have seen of the alpha/beta paradigm is that human beings don’t have this kind of social structure. Indeed, the terms were brought into the mainstream from a popular study of wolves. Human beings are not wolves, therefore human beings have no alphas and betas… right?
Well, maybe not. Primatologists recognize that chimpanzees, our closest relatives, have alphas. Further, as human beings we have nested social hierarchies that we are subject to. Alpha and beta may not be the best way to describe our roles, but they aren’t baseless concepts. In fact they have some degree of utility.
The problem is not with describing the human social hierarchy. Even people who disapprove of hierarchy as a form of social organization don’t dispute that social hierarchy exists. The problem arises in describing which men are high in the hierarchy, and why.
Dual strategies theory
Dual strategies theory is a framework within evolutionary psychology that asserts dominance and prestige determine one’s position in the human hierarchy (Henrich & Gil-White, 2001).
Dominance is very much as it sounds; aggression, physical power, or strategic violence.
Prestige is prosocial creative behavior. The ability to hunt and provide for the tribe. To help others with a valuable skill. Building a coalition of supporters within your group.
Inconsistent framing of alphas and betas, actual dominance and prestige versus perception
The manosphere can’t agree on what an alpha is. I will use dominance and prestige, our predictors of position in the hierarchy, as an example.
Conventionally, by which I mean in primatology or other mainstream/academic use of the term, an alpha is an animal in the dominant or leadership position. It is at the top of the hierarchy.
But when is the last time you’ve heard someone describe Joe Biden, George Soros or Bill Gates as an alpha? The most powerful men in the world, men in the highest positions of leadership, are rarely called alphas.
Conversely, men who are in low status positions are often described as alpha. This is usually based on their physical appearance (they are handsome or strong) or their behavior. For example, “hot felon” Jeremy Meeks has D-List celebrity status in the manosphere for his handsome face. He is an “alpha” because he is masculine and attractive, despite being an unemployed convict at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Dominance and prestige don’t actually inform the manosphere’s definition of alpha. It is partially detached from real leadership, social power, dominance and prestige. The manosphere does recognize leadership and dominance as alpha — until it suddenly doesn’t.
This is because alpha to the manosphere is, above all, an image. It is a caricature. The term macho can be used to describe this image; in Spanish machismo is an even better way of describing precisely the manosphere’s image of the alpha. It is just an amalgam of masculine stereotypes. A man must check off sufficient masculine stereotypes to fit the image, regardless of their real status in society.
Token behaviors that signal one is an alpha are important in the manosphere, not because they increase real status but because they maintain the caricature of an alpha. You don’t drink soy milk? Very alpha of you. This allows men to feel alpha while still being low in the hierarchy.
Antisocial behavior and alphas
The manosphere can’t decide if alphas are antisocial or not. In nature (for example with chimpanzees, wolves) alphas are highly prosocial. This prosocial behavior is in effect the prestige criteria in the dual strategies theory. Leaders and high status individuals take care of the group.
This is true for our human ancestors, we see it in modern hunter-gatherers and we see it in the society around us right now. Both chimpanzees and humans in leadership positions build strong social organizations and coalitions with their peers and subordinates (Gilbert & Basran, 2019). The highest status individuals are the ones that show a proficiency in resource acquisition. They are the best providers, the best hunters (Van Vugt, Johnson, Kaiser & O’Gorman, 2008).
Yet the manosphere regularly calls providership beta behavior; “beta provider” itself and “beta bucks” are common expressions. But it is not. At least not if the manosphere defines a beta as a low status individual. Across human cultures and time, as well as in our animal relatives, and right now in modern society, providership remains one of the strongest signals of high status (Kasser & Sharma, 1999). Providers consistently become the leaders and the most dominant individuals. Only in the correct sense that betas are high-dominant men who compete for the position of alpha would resource acquisition be a beta behavior.
Antisocial individuals are rarely elevated to leadership positions. When they do enter leadership positions they often fail, since antisocial leadership styles are associated with poor coalition-building (Basran, Pires, Matos, McEwan & Gilbert, 2019). They provide fewer benefits to the group and consume the resources of group members. Individuals who violate group norms, for example by harming other group members, are punished. Expulsion from a group is common. Antisocial behavior can provide benefits to the individual, but rarely provides benefits to the group. This makes it a risky behavior, but also explains why antisocial behavior persists from an evolutionary point of view. There is a risk-reward tradeoff. It doesn’t pay off enough for antisocial behavior to become a norm, but it does pay off enough for antisocial behavior to persist in a minority of cases (Ferguson, 2008; Paquette, 2015).
Despite antisocial behavior being both an indicator and cause of low status (Piotrowska, Stride, Croft & Rowe, 2015; Tuvblad, Grann, & Lichtenstein, 2008), the manosphere glorifies antisocial traits. A salient example is endorsement of the emulation of the Dark Triad (DT), a cluster of antisocial personality traits. DT traits (mostly psychopathy and narcissism, less Machiavellianism) do predict some relationship outcomes, such as having more sexual partners (Borráz-León & Rantala, 2021) or interpersonal aggression (Pailing, Boon & Egan, 2014). DT traits also slot neatly into the macho, the caricature of the alpha. The fact that DT traits predict sexual partner count makes it appealing to men who want to have sex with more women.
As you might expect from a cluster of maladaptive personality traits, the DT predicts negative outcomes. The DT predicts abuse of intimate partners (Carton & Egan, 2017; Kiire, 2019), criminal behavior and incarceration (Brugués & Caparrós, 2021), addiction to drugs (Jauk & Dieterich, 2019) and social media (Lee, 2019), higher infant mortality (Jonason & Lavertu, 2017), as well as poor physical and mental health (Jonason, Baughman, Carter & Parker, 2015). This is not a comprehensive list; you can fill pages with the negative outcomes associated with the Dark Triad.
The point is that these are not traits found in competent coalition-builders or leaders. If they facilitate dominance or prestige it is rare and in a minority of cases. That is to say, the DT does more harm than good to your position in the social hierarchy.
Refer back to the link at the beginning of this article on chimpanzees. The alpha chimpanzee is not a rugged loner who claws his way to the top of the social hierarchy. He is physically imposing, but he is prosocial. He is elected, given the position of alpha by consent of the group. If he behaves antisocially he is removed by the chimpanzees below him and replaced with a new alpha.
Individualism vs collectivism
This brings us to a minor related point: alphas only exist within the context of a social group. Individuals or loners who separate themselves from social hierarchies are not alphas. It is not alpha to isolate yourself socially or withdraw from society. In human prehistory, isolated individuals were those cast out from the group. By themselves, they probably didn’t live very long.
Yet it’s common to see this type of antisocial individualism framed as alpha as well. The outlaw, the Western prospector, the homesteader or hermit. These were all men seeking out some alternative lifestyle from mainstream society precisely because they were at the bottom of the social pecking order.
Being an alpha only means something as far as you are an active participant in the groups around you. It is a description of your relationship to others in a hierarchy that you share with them.
The dual-mating hypothesis vs alphas and betas
The dual-mating hypothesis (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000), also called strategic pluralism, suggests that women have evolved a two-pronged strategy for selecting a mate. On the one hand, women select mates who are reliable long term providers. On the other hand, women select mates who have good genes (or, in other words, who are physically attractive).
The manosphere tends to associate alphas with the second choice: good genes. Meanwhile, betas are associated with the first choice: providers.
Decoupling of these two traits is the largest misunderstanding of alphas and betas.
In fact, alphas are likely to have good genes and be good providers. Betas, as the men who compete for the position of alpha, are also likely to have good genes and be good providers. Traits associated with attractiveness, such as physical strength, are also traits associated with resource acquisition ability. Resource acquisition is determined by genes and environment (Puillet, Réale & Friggens, 2018).
This is because what makes “good genes” good, in part, are the genetic physical and behavioral traits that make an individual good at acquiring resources (Hunt, Bussiere, Jennions & Brooks, 2014).
Let’s look at an example: married men are called betas within the manosphere. Yet, married men on average have higher incomes (Pollmann-Schult, 2011), are more physically attractive (McNulty, Neff & Karney, 2008) and are taller. They are more desirable mates, both as potential providers and as far as physical attractiveness. They are not the lowest men in the social hierarchy. The lowest men are usually those unable to provide.
Single men are less likely to be good providers and less likely to have those valuable good genes. In other words, you are coping hard if you are a man who can’t form relationships while telling yourself that you are an alpha.
Long term providers are the preferred mate
Research on the dual-mating hypothesis also indicates that reliable, long term mates are the preferred mates (Pillsworth & Haselton, 2006). This is why serial monogamy is the dominant human mating pattern (Jokela, Rotkirch, Rickard, Pettay, & Lummaa, 2010). It is why fewer than 1-6% of children have historically been from extra-pair fathers (Larmuseau et al., 2019). It’s possibly why women evolved a birth canal shape that requires assisted birth (Rosenberg, 1992), as well as why women evolved concealed ovulation (Benshoof & Thornhill, 1979; Strassmann, 1981). It is related to the long gestation period and extended childhood of humans relative to other mammals.
Women are consistently selecting the so-called betas, the men with a preference for long term mating. They are having the children of those men and raising those children to viability with those men. The genes of those men, their dispositions and traits, are consequently passed on.
Women are attracted to resource acquisition ability. The manosphere copes by repeating the narrative that women don’t find betas, which they define as low status men or ordinary men, attractive. Apparently the Red Pill maxim “watch what women do” does not apply here. If we watch what women do, we consistently see women mate with and have the children of physically ordinary men who are still considered attractive because they have traits that signal providership: intelligence, humor, etc.
Betas vs men low in the dominance hierarchy
Betas are often described as abject losers. Physically weak, soyboys, the bottom of the totem pole. This is incorrect. Beta should be really used to designate a group of dominant males who compete for the position of alpha.
Betas are the boys on the football team who are the football captain’s best friends. They are the best friends of the popular girl. They are not the isolated loners who don’t participate in extracurricular activities.
After all, who is higher in the hierarchy: the 60th percentile man with a girlfriend or the 30th percentile man who is single and didn’t have sex last year?
Summary, or; So, you want to be an alpha
Based on the traits of men high in the social hierarchy I can give you some research-based do’s and don’ts if you want to be more alpha:
- Avoid antisocial behavior. Don’t come at me with “muh nice guys.” No one is telling you to put on a fedora and roleplay a 19th century gentleman. The fact is that antisocial behavior will backfire most of the time and lower your position in the dominance hierarchy. It will cause a world of problems for you. You most likely don’t have genuine antisocial personality traits to begin with and, since personality is highly stable, you’re unlikely to be able to copy them consistently anyway. That is probably a good thing.
- Boost your resource acquisition ability and signal competence. This effectively means you need to stay in school. Education level is one of the most robust predictors of status in Western society. It remains one of the most robust predictors of income as well. Forget “just do a trade bro” unless you’re going into trade school after getting at least a Bachelor’s degree.
- Learn social skills and be liked by your peers. This is your coalition-building ability. It does not even mean being the most extraverted person with the most friends. What it does mean is being liked by those around you, being looked up to and being trusted. You should be kind and you should know the difference between kindness and “niceness” per above. People should desire to be around you and feel safe with you. They should look back and feel like they had a good time with you.
- Lift. There it is, bros. Your physique is one of the things that signals both dominance and prestige. No amount of macho LARPing is going to be as good as being physically imposing. It is an ancient signal of resource acquisition ability and of your ability to protect others. You should look like you wont get immediately rolled by a foe and like you can chase down a gazelle.
Importantly, I want you to remember that human hierarchy is a spectrum. It is not a bimodal distribution. You do not have to be the top man in every room. It is statistically impossible for us all to be number one at everything. Not being a Giga-Chad does not make you undesirable or low status. Don’t get in the habit of comparing yourself to the top 0.01%. Set realistic goals for yourself. Try to make yourself a little bit better than you were yesterday. Do it consistently and one day you will wake up and realize how far ahead of everyone else you are.
References
Basran, J., Pires, C., Matos, M., McEwan, K., & Gilbert, P. (2019). Styles of leadership, fears of compassion, and competing to avoid inferiority. Frontiers in psychology, 2460.
Benshoof, L., & Thornhill, R. (1979). The evolution of monogamy and concealed ovulation in humans. Journal of Social and Biological Structures, 2(2), 95-106.
Borráz-León, J. I., & Rantala, M. J. (2021). Does the Dark Triad predict self-perceived attractiveness, mate value, and number of sexual partners both in men and women?. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110341.
Brugués, G., & Caparrós, B. (2021). Dysfunctional personality, Dark Triad and moral disengagement in incarcerated offenders: implications for recidivism and violence. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 1-25.
Carton, H., & Egan, V. (2017). The dark triad and intimate partner violence. Personality and Individual Differences, 105, 84-88.
Ferguson, C. J. (2008). An evolutionary approach to understanding violent antisocial behavior: diagnostic implications for a dual-process etiology. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 8(4), 321-343.
Gilbert, P., & Basran, J. (2019). The evolution of prosocial and antisocial competitive behavior and the emergence of prosocial and antisocial leadership styles. Frontiers in Psychology, 610.
Henrich, J., & Gil-White, F. J. (2001). The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and human behavior, 22(3), 165-196.
Hunt, J., Bussiere, L. F., Jennions, M. D., & Brooks, R. (2004). What is genetic quality?. Trends in ecology & evolution, 19(6), 329-333.
Jauk, E., & Dieterich, R. (2019). Addiction and the dark triad of personality. Frontiers in psychiatry, 662.
Jokela, M., Rotkirch, A., Rickard, I. J., Pettay, J., & Lummaa, V. (2010). Serial monogamy increases reproductive success in men but not in women. Behavioral Ecology, 21(5), 906-912.
Jonason, P. K., Baughman, H. M., Carter, G. L., & Parker, P. (2015). Dorian Gray without his portrait: Psychological, social, and physical health costs associated with the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 78, 5-13.
Jonason, P. K., & Lavertu, A. N. (2017). The reproductive costs and benefits associated with the Dark Triad traits in women. Personality and Individual Differences, 110, 38-40.
Kasser, T., & Sharma, Y. S. (1999). Reproductive freedom, educational equality, and females’ preference for resource-acquisition characteristics in mates. Psychological Science, 10(4), 374-377.
Kiire, S. (2019). A “fast” life history strategy affects intimate partner violence through the Dark Triad and mate retention behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 140, 46-51.
Larmuseau, M. H., van den Berg, P., Claerhout, S., Calafell, F., Boattini, A., Gruyters, L., … & Wenseleers, T. (2019). A historical-genetic reconstruction of human extra-pair paternity. Current biology, 29(23), 4102-4107.
Lee, S. L. (2019). Predicting SNS addiction with the Big Five and the Dark Triad. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1).
McNulty, J. K., Neff, L. A., & Karney, B. R. (2008). Beyond initial attraction: physical attractiveness in newlywed marriage. Journal of family psychology, 22(1), 135.
Pailing, A., Boon, J., & Egan, V. (2014). Personality, the Dark Triad and violence. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 81-86.
Paquette, D. (2015). 20 An Evolutionary Perspective on Antisocial Behavior: Evolution as a Foundation for Criminological Theories. In The development of criminal and antisocial behavior (pp. 315-330). Springer, Cham.
Pillsworth, E. G., & Haselton, M. G. (2006). Women’s sexual strategies: The evolution of long-term bonds and extrapair sex. Annual Review of Sex Research, 17(1), 59-100.
Piotrowska, P. J., Stride, C. B., Croft, S. E., & Rowe, R. (2015). Socioeconomic status and antisocial behaviour among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 35, 47-55.
Pollmann-Schult, M. (2011). Marriage and earnings: Why do married men earn more than single men?. European Sociological Review, 27(2), 147-163.
Puillet, L., Réale, D., & Friggens, N. C. (2016). Disentangling the relative roles of resource acquisition and allocation on animal feed efficiency: insights from a dairy cow model. Genetics Selection Evolution, 48(1), 1-16.
Rosenberg, K. R. (1992). The evolution of modern human childbirth. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 35(S15), 89-124.
Strassmann, B. I. (1981). Sexual selection, paternal care, and concealed ovulation in humans. Ethology and Sociobiology, 2(1), 31-40.
Tuvblad, C., Grann, M., & Lichtenstein, P. (2006). Heritability for adolescent antisocial behavior differs with socioeconomic status: gene–environment interaction. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(7), 734-743.
Van Vugt, M., Johnson, D. D., Kaiser, R., & O’Gorman, R. I. C. K. (2008). Evolution and the social psychology of leadership: The mismatch hypothesis. Leadership at the crossroads, 1, 267-282.
12 comments
Fantastic blog! I love the Evo psych angle. Are you familiar with @realyeyoza on twitter? He has made arguments similar to yours in reference to abortion. He even pointed out that more women than men support forced hijab and have pro life views because this decreases competition for mates.
Thanks for your comment, I am glad that you are enjoying it! I hadn’t been following him yet, but I am now. Definitely seems like the kind of information I am into. There has been some recent research on that as well; abortion restrictions as a sort of broad social mating strategy.
As an hilarious aside, I once chatted with an MRA who, after telling me that he was an “alpha” went on to explain that he should have the legal right to have the state intervene and deny his gf an abortion. He was worried that she might leave him!
He simultaneously wanted abortion to remain legal for those one night stands that might result in him owing child support!
The above is just as bad as feminists who want the right to abortion and also the right to force men to pay child support, regardless of circumstances!
Curious if you have any explanation on differences between kindness and “niceness,” and if there’s any data or research on the differences (maybe Big 5 related to sexual intercourse consistency or similar?) Is niceness only in a quid pro quo sense (offering resources expecting a relationship back, the “nice guy”) or is it more personality based with eg high agreeableness but poor interpersonal boundaries?
Are Trades generally seen as low status positions? In what sense? I find this to be somewhat counter-intuitive as I’ve generally seen higher levels of comradery and physical fitness from those fields. I also see an easier path to 6 figure salaries.
How do historical rates of extra-pair fathers compare to the last decade? What would be considered historical, pre- or post-1970s?
Was just turned onto your articles, looking good so far.
I recommend that you read the “Rational Male” books if you haven’t done so already as it touches on multiple points in this post.
“The manosphere can’t agree on what an alpha is…
But when is the last time you’ve heard someone describe Joe Biden, George Soros or Bill Gates as an alpha? ”
It is difficult to get a word by word exact definition of what an alpha is but I think there is agreement in what it means.
Alpha only means something in a context. Bill Gates is an absolute killer alpha in the context of business world but maybe not an alpha towards girls – although we don’t know at least I don’t know him personally.
“married men are called betas within the manosphere” Nobody ever says that anywhere, marriage status is unrelated from being alpha or not.
Hope this helps:
https://therationalmale.com/2012/02/21/defining-alpha/
This is all right but I don’t think it really gets to why many are drawn to the Mano sphere in the first place. There are a large number of productively employed nerds who fail to get women. Many fail to get women in their youth, when neither they nor their competition are gainfully employed; others struggle even in their late 20s, even when making fairly good money.
Game theory has an explanation for why they fail when men who lack their education and income still attract women (though often women lower down in the SES totem pole. I suspect actually that a lot of these guy’s problems would solve themselves if they were willing to go down the SES/education totem pole, where their positive traits would seem more distinctive).
This post doesn’t really address the problem the Manosphere masses have: why isn’t education and gainful employment enough (especially for a 24 y old?)
The large majority of men who work in IT or highly-paid technical jobs in general are well-adjusted and no more likely to get laid/find a wife than others. (Just look at Alex!) Yes they may be more introverted than average but there’s wide variation.
The stereotype of the socially inept but highly intelligent nerd/geek may have been true 20-30 years ago (and possibly not even true back then) but it isn’t nowadays. Computers and the Internet are now mainstream. Everybody is a “geek” now. One can pick an IT job for a wide variety of reasons.
This is an interesting article.
Some points that occur to me in no particular order: The Bill Gates types are not really Alpha from a man’s point of view. They are Machiavellian, or Iago types: people who use their intelligence to manipulate systems and gain power through corruption. Like you said, Alpha types prove themselves, then are elected to a position by consent of the group. The Bill Gates take social dominance despite the dislike of the group. In a natural setting, we would simply beat them to death, but in a social setting they are able to maintain and extend their power indefinitely to the detriment of the group.
Beta Providers: It’s not that providing is Beta, it’s that a lot of men lead with their wallet and use provision as a way of trying to get women. AKA simps. It’s not the provision that’s the beta behaviour, it’s the mindset. An Alpha provider is the leader who gives graciously to help others. The beta provider is the mark, the chump, the fool easily parted from his money.
The promotion of Dark Triad characteristics, is simply a strategy based on the reality of what confronts men in the modern age. Good men with morals who provide are not respected by large groups of women, nor by the law courts. Do everything right, you still get penalised. Work hard, be educated, be kind and compassionate, do everything exactly right and the courts will still give your house, money and children to your faithless, cheating wife. There is no reward for good behaviour. Feminism promotes anti-social behaviour as the norm. Promiscuity, anti-marriage, anti-family, single motherhood (which results in the production of criminals and abusers). With anti-socialism in the guise of Feminism enshrined not only as the culture, but as the Legal Structure of society, men are largely forced to follow anti-social norms as well. You can still access sex, you can still procreate with a Dark Triad strategy, while your risks of being destroyed are less. Men are fully aware that it is not healthy for anyone, or for society, which is why we had better ideas in the past, but men are not in control of any aspect of society in this gynocentric age. We have no collective power, no voice in society and can only react to the situation that confronts us. In this age, people who try to do the right thing are at an enormous disadvantage, generally speaking.
I have nothing profound to imply here but I just wanted to say that I genuinely enjoy reading this article. I would definitely save and share this powerful message, especially during these times when red pill content has become widespread in social media.
Missed it from the get-go. WOMEN define and decide who is Alpha or not.
Alpha is the guy that women want to have sex with for no other reason than that he gets them hawwwwwwt, and the sex this guy gets is sheet-shredding, bed-breaking, change-my-religion -ly mind blowing.
A Beta is someone that must offer ANYTHING ELSE to get sex, typically resources, a great sense of humor, kindness, good with children, interesting, or any of the other 361 bullet point “requirements’ that the typical woman has on her list of must-haves.
When you start with this definition, you can get a much more useful discussion and conclusion, like why Dark Triad/Tetrads are so attractive to women? I’ll mention again, Hybristophilia.
Alpha fux, Beta bux.
There we go! No need tor scientists this guy gets it
The “alphas” of different species, while sharing some common denominators, do and can be expected to display wide variation in behavior, many or most of which will not be shared with alphas of other species. Wolves will not groom and preen prospective mates in the manner chimps will, nor will humans, etc. There will be far more variation in alpha/beta behavioral machinations between groups than within groups. As it turns out, humans are far more complex as a species than the vast majority, if not all of all of their co-terrestrial peers, thus it makes little sense to analyze the behavior/traits of other species and import these on a 1:1 basis as evaluative criteria to diagnose a given male’s sexual hierarchy positioning. As noted by Kyfho Myoba, the criterion for “Alpha” is one that is behaviorally determined by females, though I would expand the definition slightly; for our purposes (given that our primary focus is intersexual relations and behavior as it relates to sexuality, intimacy, mating, dating, etc.) “alphas” can be defined as the men with whom women are the most desirous of sexual contact and/or demonstrate the most sexual availability/willingness toward, free from any ulterior motive aside from sincere desire and/or gratification (anticipated or actual) derived from the experience (a male who regularly has sexual contact with attractive women, but which is nearly always transactional or is to some degree based on the expectation of some benefit, favor, or other compensation would not qualify as “alpha”, ditto for the fat, creepy film producer, etc.) As we all know, many women fuck different men for different reasons, and there is generally far more diversity of motive found in women than in men. These points are so simple and easy to comprehend that it’s baffling that someone who otherwise articulates such lucid insights and incisive points, and who is capable of such complex analytics (such as the author of this blog) could possibly struggle to understand them. I don’t want to believe that the author is unwilling rather than unable to comprehend these points, but other conclusions currently remain elusive.