Episode Details

In this episode of Based Camp, Malcolm and Simone unpack a striking civilizational pattern: nearly every major cultural movement of the past 100 years—blues, rock, rap, punk, goth, grunge, techno, heavy metal, and more—along with most modern sports (soccer, basketball, baseball, rugby, American football, etc.), top video games, and key inventions originated in Protestant-majority countries or regions.

Catholic-majority areas dominate refinement and style (think Paris and Italy) and often excel at competing within existing frameworks, yet almost never invent the new forms themselves. Japan, Korea, and a few outliers like Poland provide the main exceptions.

They dig into why this pattern holds, using Ireland as a critical test case that points to a Protestant vs. Catholic cultural difference rather than a simple North/South European one. Topics include historical differences in innovation, scandal handling (IRA, Church), terrorism rates, treatment of captives, status-seeking vs. inventiveness, religious orders, and what Catholics (and others) can usefully reverse-engineer.

This is not about identity or conversion—it’s about treating culture as technology and stealing what works.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. I’m excited to be here with you today. Today we are going to be pulling on one of those threads where my mind notices a pattern, and then I start pulling on it, and I’m like, “Oh my God, this pattern is so much more robust than I expected it would be, so much larger than I expected it would be,” and it kind of changes how I think about things at a civilizational level, and it’s something that we need to talk about.

[00:00:23] I began to think about, like, various cultural movements throughout the last 100 years. So what do... ‘ Blues, rock and roll, rap, punk, goth, grunge, mod, techno, cyberpunk, reggae, heavy metal house music, rave and acid music, new romantic, straight edge, and industrial music have in common.

[00:00:46] Here I’m gonna note other things that have this in common, okay?

[00:00:50] Simone Collins: Okay.

[00:00:51] Malcolm Collins: Okay. Of, of the music varieties that don’t have this one thing in common or cultural movements or stylistic movements,

[00:00:58] Simone Collins: Christmas classics

[00:01:02] Malcolm Collins: Unfortunately, that would also fit the pattern. But- Are

[00:01:05] Simone Collins: you sure?

[00:01:06] Malcolm Collins: Yeah. With the one potential alternative that I’ll get to in a second.

[00:01:10] Then you have the other what, what mu- what stylistic patterns don’t fit this pattern, okay, on Earth? The only popular ones on a, on an international stage are ones that come out of Japan, ones that come out of Korea or reggaeton maybe. Out of, out of the past 100 years, these are the only ones that don’t fit this pattern.

[00:01:32] Now we’re gonna go to the second thing that fits this pattern, okay? Because there’s actually a lot. Okay, the invention of various sports. So what do soccer, cricket, rugby, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, lacrosse with maybe a caveat, volleyball, American football, tennis, golf, field hockey, boxing, picket ball, pool/billiards, bowling-

[00:01:59] Simone Collins: Picket ball or pickleball?

[00:02:02] Malcolm Collins: Oh, oh, pool might actually not fit this pattern. It’s a bit mixed. Bowling pickleball is what I said here. And the only ones that don’t fit this pattern clearly are cycling and then a few that come out of Japan, sumo, judo, and taekwondo So this pattern is- I

[00:02:19] Simone Collins: think dressage would also fall into your criteria.

[00:02:23] Malcolm Collins: Yes. Yeah. This pattern is was this cultural thi