New Discourses

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The Real Purpose of Safe Spaces Dec 18, 2024

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New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 104 "Safe spaces" on college campuses are not new. In fact, they're now a very old, very tired topic. So is all of the "Coddling of the American Mind" (https://amzn.to/3O6nEtl) infantilization like we recently saw on campuses across America in the wake of President Trump's second electoral victory. The thing is, these obviously pathetic phenomena serve an educational purpose. That is, they're pedagogical. Their real purpose is to convince young minds that it is traumatic when politics don't go Left and then to "structure the environment to resolve that [trauma] productively" for Woke causes. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains the twisted pedagogical purpose of safe spaces, coloring books, puppies, and bubbles as a response to politics that rejects Marxism. Join him for an important lesson. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #safespace

Doing Social Justice Responsibly | Helen Pluckrose Dec 16, 2024

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In her talk, Doing Social Justice Responsibly on October 13, 2019 at the 'Speaking Truth to Social Justice' conference in London, Helen Pluckrose tackled the ideological excesses within social justice activism, offering a way to address genuine social justice issues without abandoning reason or liberal principles. She argued that the dominant framework in social justice today—rooted in critical theory and postmodernism—has transformed genuine concerns about power and privilege into a rigid worldview. This ideology, she explained, rejects objective truth and promotes “strategic knowledge,” constructed to serve specific identity-based agendas rather than being tested against reality. Pluckrose acknowledged that while social justice concepts like bias, cultural narratives, and the power of language have validity, the radicalized methods often used within social justice turn productive critiques into dogma. Instead of engaging in open dialogue, activists demand conformity, condemning dissenting views as tools of privilege. She urged liberals and conservatives alike to stand for a balanced approach to social justice—one that promotes fairness without sacrificing truth and the ideals of secular liberalism. Viewers will find this talk interesting not just for its contents but also for the glimpse back in time by five years, which allows them to see how the views expressed have matured and developed over the intervening time. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #SocialJustice

The Hoax that Broke the Conservative Internet Dec 08, 2024

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The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 152 On December 3, 2024, James Lindsay revealed to the world that he had perpetrated a hoax (https://newdiscourses.com/2024/12/a-communist-manifesto-for-christian-nationalists-testing-the-woke-right/) against the nominally "Christian Nationalist" magazine American Reformer in which he had rewritten a significant portion of the Communist Manifesto to flatter their "Woke Right" ideology. In the ensuing days, the hoax has caused quite a stir on the conservative side of the internet, generating a completely unexpected response in which, in addition to deflecting from the hoax and bashing James, many ostensible conservatives launched into robust defenses of Marxist analysis, critical theory, and postmodernism. How good was the hoax, though, and what did it actually say? In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay reads through a rough side-by-side comparison text (https://newdiscourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CM-for-CN-Appendix-Docs.pdf) he prepared showing how close the hoax actually was so you can hear and decide for yourself. Join him and see if you agree that the hoax was good. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Hoax

Communism 3.0: Corporate Communism | James Lindsay Dec 07, 2024

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The EVILution of Communism Workshop, Session 4 Communism is a religious view that has evolved and adapted over the last two centuries, including right up to the present day. Understanding the developments and threats in our present world requires understanding what Communism really is, especially in its Marxist variants, and how it has developed and changed over the years. In response to this need, James Lindsay of New Discourses held a four-lecture workshop series on the EVILution of Communism in Dallas, Texas, at the start of August 2024. In this fourth and final lecture in the series, Lindsay picks up the loose threads from the previous two lectures and weaves them together to describe a new Communism for the twenty-first century, a "Communism 3.0" or "Twenty-first Century Communism." Lindsay characterizes this new model of Communism as the "Chinese model," derived from the practical implementation by former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping in the People's Republic of China, where it was tested first. Meanwhile, in the West, a parallel model was developed tracking not just with Deng Xiaoping Theory but also with the Western Marxist sensibilities of Herbert Marcuse, demanding a more "Sustainable" and "Inclusive" economy. Calling the model "Corporate" or "Corporatist" Communism, Lindsay explains how this model of Communism blends a Communist political theory and structure with a Fascist economic model of productive forces, creating the tyrannical hybrid that is intended to be the future for mankind both East, under the Chinese Communist Party, and West, under the United Nations and affiliates. This groundbreaking lecture provides a basis for completely changing the discourses around what's happening in our world today. Notes (PDF): https://newdiscourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DallasWorkshop24-Evilution-of-Communism.pdf The other three lectures in this series can be found here: Session 1: Communism 1.0: Theoretical Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/10/communism-1-0-theoretical-communism/ Session 2: Communism 2.0: Industrial Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/11/communism-2-0-industrial-communism-james-lindsay/ Session 3. Communism 2.5: Social Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/11/communism-2-5-social-communism/ New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Communism

The Thing You Run Into When Your Beliefs Are False | James Lindsay Nov 26, 2024

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In this October 2019 lecture at the conference 'Speaking Truth to Social Justice' in London, James Lindsay presented a compelling critique of critical social justice and its ideological foundation in critical theory. He argued that this worldview fundamentally rejects objective truth, reason, and evidence-based methods, which are essential for genuine progress. According to Lindsay, critical theorists prioritize “strategic” theories over true or false ones, seeking to advance political agendas rather than to understand reality. Drawing on examples from feminist and social justice literature, Lindsay illustrated how critical theory undermines fields like engineering, climate science, and education by prioritizing social power over truth. He contended that while these disciplines traditionally rely on rigorous methods to solve problems, critical theory disregards such rigor, treating knowledge as a mere tool for enforcing power dynamics. For Lindsay, this ideological shift threatens progress, as it ignores that “reality is the thing you run into when your beliefs are false.” Ultimately, Lindsay called for a return to evidence-based inquiry and the liberal systems that have historically driven human advancement. By defending reason, scientific method, and open discourse, he argued, society can continue to make meaningful progress rather than regress into a cynicism that treats truth as a mere strategy for political ends. Viewers will find this talk interesting not just for its contents but also for the glimpse back in time by five years, which allows them to see how the views expressed have matured and developed over the intervening time. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Truth

Is the "Woke Right" Really Woke? | OnlySubs with James Lindsay, Ep. 142 Nov 22, 2024

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This episode of the OnlySubs Podcast with James Lindsay is available for FREE! To get access to all past and future episodes, consider becoming a contributor. Learn more: https://newdiscourses.com/2020/12/announcing-new-subscribers-only-podcast-james-lindsay/ What is the "Woke Right"? Does it really exist? Is it really Woke? If so, how? These are increasingly important questions in our present circumstances as a visibly radicalized Rightism is emerging from within the broader conservative coalition and aiming to distort its aims and values along some new (or new-old) path. In this special long episode of James Lindsay OnlySubs, my subscribers' only podcast, I take you through an essay (https://americanreformer.org/2024/05/is-there-a-woke-right/) about the Woke Right written by someone ostensibly on the Woke Right, C. Jay Engel, published in late May 2024 in American Reformer. Join me to explore the idea that the Woke Right really is Woke (and the Right hand of the Left) through an analysis of one of its members' own words. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Woke

Communism 2.5: Social Communism | James Lindsay Nov 17, 2024

Show notes

The EVILution of Communism Workshop, Session 3 Communism is a religious view that has evolved and adapted over the last two centuries, including right up to the present day. Understanding the developments and threats in our present world requires understanding what Communism really is, especially in its Marxist variants, and how it has developed and changed over the years. In response to this need, James Lindsay of New Discourses held a four-lecture workshop series on the EVILution of Communism in Dallas, Texas, at the start of August 2024. In this third lecture in the series, Lindsay continues discussing the development of twentieth-century Communism along its second track: Western Marxism. The Western Marxist tradition contains many threads, virtually all of which start with either the Fabian Socialist Society in the UK or, more infamously, with Cultural Marxism elsewhere throughout the Western world. Cultural Marxism itself gives way to Critical Marxism (that is, Critical Theory) through the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in America, and informs other movements such as feminism, radical racial movements, critical education theories, and eventually the development of an intersectional "Woke" Marxism we're dealing with today. Understanding this requires understanding the influences of many Marxist thinkers including Mao Zedong, whose most culturally destructive ideas were imported by the Critical Marxists and Critical Pedagogues. This in-depth lecture describes the development of a whole new "Social" Communism that sought to find ways to penetrate Western Civilization to make it soft to socialism and Communism. Notes (PDF): https://newdiscourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DallasWorkshop24-Evilution-of-Communism.pdf The other three lectures in this series can be found here: Session 1: Communism 1.0: Theoretical Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/10/communism-1-0-theoretical-communism/ Session 2: Communism 2.0: Industrial Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/11/communism-2-0-industrial-communism-james-lindsay/ Session 4: Communism 3.0: Corporate Communism: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/12/communism-3-0-corporate-communism/ New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #communism

Panel: Grievance Studies | Boghossian, Lindsay, Nayna, O'Fallon, Pluckrose Nov 14, 2024

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In October 2019, James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose, and filmmaker Mike Nayna gathered in London for a panel moderated by Michael O’Fallon to reflect on the infamous "Grievance Studies" project (https://grievanceproject.com/), often called "Sokal Squared." This provocative project involved writing and submitting intentionally absurd papers filled with ideological jargon to academic journals. Their aim was to demonstrate how deeply critical social justice ideologies had compromised academic rigor, making it possible for nonsensical submissions to be accepted as legitimate scholarship. During the panel, Lindsay traced the project’s origins to a simple yet unsettling question about whether fields like gender studies had become akin to a secular dogma. This led to a series of papers, including the now-notorious "dog park" paper, which absurdly linked canine behavior to human rape culture. Mike Nayna, who documented the process, admitted his initial skepticism but explained how his own research into these academic fields revealed the seriousness of the problem. The panel highlighted the broader societal implications of their work. Lindsay and his co-authors warned that when ideology replaces the pursuit of truth, it threatens not only the integrity of scholarship but the foundations of public discourse itself. For them, the "Grievance Studies" project was a stark reminder of the dangers of allowing political agendas to override intellectual honesty and critical thinking. Viewers will find this look back five years in time interesting and informative not just in the content as presented but also in how the panelists' insights have developed and matured over the intervening years. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #grievance

Woke for Dummies Nov 07, 2024

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The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 151 What is "Woke"? What is its relationship to "Social Justice"? Why did so many people explain Woke as "Critical Social Justice" for several years? In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes you into the book that first opened his eyes to what "Woke" really is: Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo's Is Everyone Really Equal? (first edition) (https://amzn.to/4eHH5Ed). This book could truly serve as an eye-opening "Woke for Dummies" guide to where Woke comes from, what it really means by "Social Justice," and how it thinks about the world. It, like all Woke books, is also a Woke grimoire, drawing the reader in and putting a Woke "spell" on her as she reads it and considers its contents. Join James for his introduction of this book to you, so you can better grasp the basics of Woke Marxism. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Woke

Be a Leader or Be a Supporter Nov 06, 2024

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New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 103 In the fight against Woke Marxism, there is no sitting out anymore. Too much is on the line. That means everyone who realizes what's going on in our countries and around the world has a simple choice to make: be a leader or be a supporter. Leaders have to lead, and they need supporters, not merely followers. It's up to you to figure out which one you have the capacities to be, and where, and to take up that mantle. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay discusses this idea and its critical importance to stopping Woke and globalism from winning everything. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Woke

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