Polyamory Is Not Polygyny

Original-research post testing the claim (National Review's and Heartiste's, from opposite valences) that polyamory is really disguised polygyny -- high-status men hoarding women, leaving low-status men and women worse off. Scott pulls the 2014 LW survey (53 poly women, 164 poly men, 70 mono women, 690 mono men) and finds the predictions fail: the median person of either sex has one partner, poly men are LESS likely to be single than mono men (29% vs 45%), and women actually average more partners. He candidly flags the skewed sample and self-identification problems; an edit concedes it measures actually-existing polyamory, not a hypothetical society-wide version.

Quality 60 · Strong. Solid/Strong edge (60). A clean, fair empirical check that does the data work instead of arguing -- epistemically virtuous and characteristic. Held at the band edge, not higher: narrow topic, small/skewed sample Scott himself calls 'not great data,' and a modest scope.

Claude’s paradigm shift 40 · Moderate. Moderate (40). Applying survey data to puncture a specific claim; the actually-existing-vs-hypothetical reframing is a small fresh distinction, but no new frame.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. 1 -- negligible. A niche within-community empirical post on polyamory demographics; essentially no reach beyond the blog.