TRIGGERnometry The Biological Reason Socialism Always Fails — Nicholas Wade
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May 6, 2026 
Nicholas Wade, veteran science journalist and former Nature, Science, and New York Times writer, explores why socialism collides with human nature. He gets into kibbutzim, freeloaders, male competition and cooperation, sex differences, monogamy, tribalism, immigration, falling birth rates, and the explosive politics of race, status, and inequality.
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Monogamy Redirected Male Competition Into Stability
- Wade argues durable social reforms work when they redirect evolved instincts rather than deny them.
- He presents monogamy as a successful constraint on elite male polygamy because it reduces unrest among unmarried men and stabilizes society.
How The Church Helped Break Tribal Europe
- Wade says tribalism once maintained order and defense without formal courts or police, making it hard to displace.
- He cites Francis Fukuyama and argues Europe's church weakened tribes by banning cousin marriage and inheritance practices that kept wealth inside kin groups.
The Nation State Works Like An Extended Tribe
- Wade argues tribal psychology never disappeared but scaled up into the nation-state, which functions like an extended tribe without kinship.
- He says common language, religion, ethnicity, and founding myths replace kin ties, and weakening those bonds makes cohesion fragile.