hegemony

n. Curious social contagion in which people inexplicably refuse to dance to Billy Idol music.

The reunion DJ was having a great set until he played "White Wedding," and hegemony cleared thd dance floor.

by T*MMY June 14, 2024

Hegemony Bias

A bias and meta-bias that combines objectivity bias (thinking one's views are objective), neutrality bias (thinking one's position is neutral), impartiality bias (thinking one's judgments are impartial), and normality bias (thinking one's way is normal) into a unified framework of assumed superiority. Hegemony Bias is the cognitive architecture of cultural dominance: the assumption that one's own perspective is not just a perspective but the perspective—objective, neutral, impartial, normal. Everyone else is biased, partial, interested, deviant. Hegemony Bias makes its holders incapable of seeing themselves as others see them, incapable of recognizing their own position as a position. It's the bias of empire, of privilege, of power that has become invisible to itself.

Example: "He thought his views were objective, his position neutral, his judgments impartial, his way normal. Hegemony Bias had made his perspective invisible to him—not a perspective at all, just reality. Everyone else was biased; he was just correct. The bias was invisible to him, which is how it worked."

by Dumu The Void March 10, 2026

Hegemony of Science

A critical metascientific framework that examines how science functions as a dominant cultural force, exercising authority over other ways of knowing and shaping what counts as legitimate knowledge in modern societies. Drawing on Gramsci's concept of hegemony, this framework analyzes how scientific ways of knowing have achieved such dominance that they appear natural, inevitable, and universal—not one knowledge system among many but the standard against which all knowledge is measured. The hegemony of science operates through institutions (education, media, policy), through language (what counts as "scientific" versus "unscientific"), and through the internalization of scientific standards by the public (the belief that science is the only reliable path to truth). It examines how this hegemony marginalizes other knowledge systems—indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, experiential knowledge, religious knowledge—not through explicit coercion but through the quiet assumption that science is simply how rational people know things. Understanding the hegemony of science is essential for understanding knowledge politics, epistemic justice, and the possibilities for cognitive diversity.

Example: "Her hegemony of science analysis showed how traditional healing practices are systematically delegitimized—not because they don't work, but because they don't fit scientific standards of evidence. Science's hegemony means that other ways of knowing must be validated by science to count at all."

by Dumu The Void March 16, 2026

Hetemosexual

It referres to a person identifying as a homosexual but is in a relationship with a trans person, or vice versa. The correlation of the trans person being straight (heterosexual) and the lesbian/gay (homosexual) gives rise to the word hetemosexual.

She is a hetemosexual lesbian, that’s her boyfriend.

by Kisia May 14, 2025

Technological Hegemony

The dominance of technological solutions and technological thinking over all other approaches to human problems. Under technological hegemony, every challenge is reframed as a technical problem requiring a technical fix—education needs an app, loneliness needs a social network, meaning needs a virtual reality. Alternative approaches (community-building, political change, spiritual practice, simple human connection) are marginalized as inefficient or outdated. Technological hegemony also describes the dominance of technologically advanced nations and corporations over those without such capabilities, creating dependencies that are as much cognitive as economic.

Example: "When the community proposed a neighborhood watch to address safety, the city responded with a proposal for surveillance cameras and predictive policing algorithms—technological hegemony reducing a human problem to a technical fix."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Rationality Hegemony

The cultural dominance of a specific model of rationality—typically means-end calculation, utility maximization, and consistent preference ordering—as the only legitimate standard for sane, competent decision-making. Rationality hegemony operates when economic models of rational choice become the measure of all human behavior, when anyone who makes decisions differently is pathologized as "irrational," and when alternative frameworks for good decision-making (based on virtue, relationship, tradition, or spiritual insight) are simply invisible. It's the assumption that Homo economicus isn't a model but a description of how humans should be.

Example: "His decision to care for his aging parents instead of taking the high-paying job was treated as 'economically irrational'—a perfect example of rationality hegemony mistaking one model of choice for the only model."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Reason Hegemony

The dominance of a particular conception of "reason" itself—usually the Enlightenment ideal of dispassionate, analytic, individual cognition—over all other modes of thought and understanding. Reason hegemony operates when this specific style of thinking is treated as the pinnacle of human cognition, and all other modes (emotional intelligence, embodied wisdom, relational knowing, intuitive insight) are relegated to lower status. It's the cultural assumption that the most "reasonable" person is the one who reasons like a Western philosopher, and that other ways of making sense of the world are merely primitive precursors to "real" thought.

Example: "The committee valued the candidate's cold analytic memoranda while dismissing the warm, contextually rich reports from field workers—a classic case of reason hegemony mistaking one cognitive style for intelligence itself."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026