The messy, often brutal process described by Thomas Kuhn where an old scientific paradigm (like Newtonian physics) is challenged by too many anomalies, leading to a crisis and eventual revolution, installing a new paradigm (like Einsteinian relativity). The struggle isn't just about data; it's about power, reputation, and worldview. Old-guard professors die, textbooks are rewritten, and what was heresy becomes dogma until the next crisis.
Example: "The conference on consciousness was a full-blown science paradigms struggle. The neuroscientists waved fMRI scans, the quantum biologists talked about orchestrated reductions, and the panpsychists quoted ancient philosophy. It was less a debate and more a three-way intellectual cage match with a cash bar." Science Paradigms Struggle
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
Get the Science Paradigms Struggle mug.The messy, often brutal intellectual civil war that erupts when a new scientific theory (like plate tectonics, relativity, or germ theory) challenges the established, dominant paradigm. It's not a polite debate over data; it's a fight for the soul of a field, where careers, reputations, and entire worldviews are at stake. Old-guard professors who built their lives on the old model dig in, journals reject radical papers, and the new idea is mocked—until the evidence becomes undeniable, the old guard dies off, and textbooks are rewritten. It's the painful, essential process by which science, an inherently conservative institution, is forced to evolve.
Example: "The conference on consciousness was a full-blown Science Paradigm Struggle. The neuroscientists, armed with fMRI scans, defended their materialist model like a fortress. The quantum biologists, talking about 'orchestrated objective reduction,' were the besieging army. The panpsychists were the weird partisans in the hills, shouting that everyone was wrong. It was less a symposium and more a three-way academic knife fight over who gets to own the future of the mind."
by AbzuInExile February 1, 2026
Get the Science Paradigm Struggle mug.The hidden political and economic battle that determines which science gets done, by whom, and for what purpose. This is the dark underbelly of the paradigm struggle: the fight over grants, tenured positions, journal editorships, and prestige. It's where corporate funding shapes research agendas to favor profitable outcomes, where senior scientists block rivals' work, and where governments weaponize research for geopolitical advantage. Truth may win in the long run, but in the short term, power decides which truths get the microphone and the money.
Example: "His groundbreaking paper on a cheap renewable energy storage method was buried for a decade due to a Science Power Struggle. A powerful reviewer with ties to the fossil fuel industry sat on it, called it 'not sufficiently rigorous,' and fast-tracked his own graduate student's competing, weaker paper. The better science lost because it threatened the wrong people's kingdoms."
by AbzuInExile February 1, 2026
Get the Science Power Struggle mug.A modern conception of class conflict that moves beyond the static Marxist model of bourgeoisie vs. proletariat. It views class not as a fixed economic category, but as a fluid, multi-axis battlefield involving not just wealth, but also control over data, cultural capital, platform access, and precarious gig-based labor. The struggle is between the Owner/Platform class, the (shrinking) Stable Professional class, and the expanding Precariat, with alliances and conflicts shifting dynamically around issues like privacy, automation, and debt.
Example: "The protest wasn't just workers vs. bosses; it was Dynamic Class Struggle. Uber drivers (precariat) were striking against the app's algorithms (platform owner), supported by sympathetic software engineers (stable professionals) who wrote the code but didn't control it. The fight wasn't for a factory, but for control over data, pricing, and the very rules of the digital marketplace."
by AbzuInExile February 1, 2026
Get the Dynamic Class Struggle mug.The analytical framework that attempts to model and explain Dynamic Class Struggle. It incorporates elements from sociology, economics, and network theory to map the shifting power relations in a digital, financialized, and globalized economy. It focuses on vectors of power beyond mere ownership of the means of production, such as control of algorithms, financial flows, attention, and legal/regulatory frameworks.
*Example: "Her thesis used Dynamic Class Struggle Theory to analyze the influencer economy. The 'owner class' was the social media platform, extracting value. The 'professional class' was the top 1% of influencers with managers and contracts. The 'precariat' was the millions of micro-creators fighting for scraps of attention, perpetually trying to hack an algorithm that benefits the owner. The struggle was over visibility and monetization rules, not wages."*
by AbzuInExile February 1, 2026
Get the Dynamic Class Struggle Theory mug.