copycat menu-selection

Refers to da random meal-choice dat ya make in cases where you aren't familiar wif da types of offerings at a particular restaurant, often due to either da diner's being foreign-cuisine themed (i.e., Italian, Chinese, Hawaiian, etc.) or your not being accustomed to eating out in da fist place, and so instead of either asking yer friend who's treating you to choose "something tasty" for you or puzzling over da laminated dinner-options folder yerself, you just "enter default mode" or "go old school" by simply looking around at what meals other patrons are gleefully stuffing their cheeks wif, and then asking da waiter to serve you some of whatever dish looks/smells da best on said other folks' table.

My warm-natured tomboy friend Desiree took me out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant as a thank-you reward for my being such a helpfully-supportive friend to her; I wasn't accustomed to dat type of "savory 'n' spicy" fare, however, so I just observed a number of fellow diners' partaking of similar copiously-steaming and delicious-aromaed offerings, and then after my friend had ordered, I made a copycat menu-selection when asked which dish I wanted for myself.

copycat menu-selection by QuacksO December 31, 2025

Community Natural Selection Theory

The application of Darwin's core principles—variation, heredity, and differential survival—explicitly to communities as super-organisms. It argues that environmental pressures (climate, war, economic competition) naturally select for communities with the most adaptive bundles of institutions, technologies, and social norms. Communities that fail to adapt disintegrate or are absorbed. This frames history as the natural selection of social organisms.

Community Natural Selection Theory Example: Ancient Mesopotamian city-states that developed writing and codified law (adaptive traits) outcompeted and absorbed neighboring tribal societies that relied on oral tradition. Their social "organism" was more fit for complex administration and trade. This Community Natural Selection led to the dominance of a new, more complex community form.

Community Natural Selection Theory by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Theory of Paradigm Selection

The study of the messy, often non-rational process by which one paradigm wins over its rivals. Kuhn argued this isn't a simple logic puzzle; it involves persuasion, generational change, aesthetic preference ("elegance"), problem-solving promise, and the death of old-guard professors. Truth doesn't automatically win; the winning paradigm defines what counts as truth for the next era.

Theory of Paradigm Selection Example: Plate tectonics didn't win the paradigm war in geology just because it had better data. It won through paradigm selection: young geographers were dazzled by its elegant maps, it solved puzzles across sub-fields (seismology, paleontology), and, crucially, its elderly opponents in the "fixed continent" paradigm eventually retired. The social process of science selected the new reality.

Theory of Paradigm Selection by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 6, 2026

Theory of the Social Construction of Punishments and Executions

A critical criminological theory arguing that what counts as a just punishment, what forms of execution are considered acceptable, and who is deemed deserving of state violence are not natural or divinely ordained but socially constructed through historical struggle, cultural values, and power relations. The theory examines how punishment changes: from public torture to imprisonment, from execution for theft to life sentences, from burning heretics to lethal injection. It shows that these shifts reflect changing social norms, economic systems, and technologies of control, not a simple moral progress. The theory challenges any claim that current penal practices are the only rational or humane options.

Example: “The theory of the social construction of punishments and executions explained why the guillotine was once seen as ‘humane’ and is now seen as barbaric—not because suffering changed, but because society’s construction of legitimate violence shifted.”

Theory of the Social Construction of Punishments and Executions by Dumu The Void April 19, 2026

Judge, Jury, and Executioner 

A commonly used idiom that refers to someone who takes on all three roles in a situation. This person not only makes decisions about guilt or innocence but also carries out the punishment themselves.

Jake: Listen here, Emma. I’m your counselor, therapist, personal shopper, life coach, and if need be, your Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Emma: Uhh... did you just say 'executioner' and 'therapist' in the same sentence?

Jake: I like to cover all bases. Keeps things interesting

Judge, Jury, and Executioner by PJ BW April 3, 2025