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New Discourses

New Discoursesnewdiscourses.com
Pursuing the light of objective truth in subjective darkness.

Episodes

New Discourses Bullets 114 - Elite Theory, Descriptive and Prescriptive

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 114 Are we ruled by elites? Must we be? Should we be? These are the key questions addressed by a school of thought that's sometimes called "elite theory," or, when answering in the affirmative to the question of whether elites should rule us, "elitism." It's a thoroughly unAmerican idea that is a sure threat to liberty. But what is it, how does it think, where does it come from, and isn't that what Lenin was doing with his Bolshevik Vanguard in the first place? In thi...

Apr 15, 202519 min

Can Nationalism Solve Our Woke Problem

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 113 Is nationalism the answer to our Woke woes? Well, yes and no, and mostly no, and to be that guy, it depends on what you mean by "nationalism." In fact, there are lots of ways to define both nationalism and the nation to which a nationalist program would be ideologically committed. It can be a sentiment in a variety of strengths, which can be quite good and valuable, or it can be a collectivist ideological project, which is not so good. Conquering nationalist regim...

Apr 10, 202520 min

The Book of Woke: Introducing Critical Constructivism

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 162 Woke isn't just a slang term describing Identity Marxist beliefs about the world. Woke is a worldview, a religion. The right name for the ideology and worldview of Woke is critical constructivism, and it was first codified and explained in detail by a critical pedagogue by the name of Joe L. Kincheloe. In 2005, Kincheloe published a primer text on critical constructivism, titled Critical Constructivism: A Primer (https://amzn.to/3YepptI), an...

Apr 03, 20251 hr 17 min

The State of Exception and the Unbound Executive

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 112 There's a political theory known as unbound executive theory. It originates with a German thinker, later turned Nazi, named Carl Schmitt. Schmitt, whose political theories were useful to Fascists and finds employment by the CCP in the People's Republic of China today, believed that for a sovereign or chief executive to truly be sovereign, he must be able to exempt himself at need from the general rule of law. That is, the executive must be able to become unbound b...

Apr 01, 202516 min

Woke Nationalism and the Nazi Experiment

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 161 In many respects, things were not going well in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s in the wake of the First World War. The population was humiliated and impoverished, distrusted throughout Europe, and riddled with various problems of social and cultural degeneracy, not least rampant corruption and the relentless manipulations of Marxism. To address these problems, a grand experiment was performed under the direction of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Exp...

Mar 06, 20253 hr 39 min

The Deadly Fraud of Restorative Justice in Schools

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 160 If you had to narrow it down to a single reason our school classrooms and hallways have become so much more dangerous, rough, irreverent, and violent, any honest assessment would identify the widespread misapplication of restorative justice programs. It's long past time we face up to this fact, which was first exposed in the unbelievably important book Why Meadow Died by Andrew Pollack (https://amzn.to/41y1TKi), whose child died in the Parkl...

Feb 27, 20252 hr 44 min

Agitation and Propaganda: The Battlespace of the 21st Century

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 159 By virtue of the technological world we inhabit, we live in a propaganda-saturated environment. In fact, whether we like it or not, we all live in a psychological warfare battlespace, which requires us all to prepare ourselves for that environment. As ever, preparation begins with understanding. In this deep-diving episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay pulls back the curtain on "agitprop," the combination of agitation and...

Feb 20, 20253 hr

The Road Away from Radicalization

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 158 Enough is enough. While there is much need for purposed action around the world to set our countries to right, we are rapidly realizing we've had enough radicalism. But radicalism, often in answer to radicalism, is still rapidly on the rise. These facts raise an important question: What is the road away from radicalization? How do we deradicalize generations? An answer can be found in the religious spirit cultivated by the Christian and Jewi...

Feb 13, 20252 hr 45 min

We Are the Fake News Now

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 157 "We are the media now!" So we hear. Much of that media is social media, and social media is a psychological and political warfare battlespace. More than that, it's incredibly fake. What we see there is mostly a well-crafted illusion meant to distort our perceptions of social and political reality. In this short episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay walks you through some of the many ways what we see on social media simply...

Feb 05, 202553 min

Never Again Is Now

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 156 How in the world did people become Nazis? How could it have happened? These are questions we grew up with and, maybe, always hoped against hope we wouldn't be able to answer. There's a comfort in them remaining mysterious, but in that comfort we're vulnerable. How can we possibly make good on "Never Again" if we do not know how it happened? Sadly, today we're threatened with the same menace. Sadly, today, we're learning not how it could have...

Jan 30, 20251 hr 28 min

No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 111 In the fight against the Woke, there is so much to be done. Luckily, there are also many hands eager to help in the work. Personally, as I travel the country and speak and meet with thousands of everyday Americans, many express to me their fear that they're too small to make a difference. Nothing could be further from the truth! In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, I, James Lindsay as your host share an important message about how everyone, no matter how sma...

Jan 30, 202517 min

America's Sons and the Dark Temptation of the Woke Right

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 155 America, we're losing our sons. A decade ago, the Woke Left arose rapidly in feminist circles and stole many of our daughters, and now the reaction is here, a "Woke Right" that is drawing our sons to Fascism, hatred, and Nazism. It can no longer be denied, and it must be confronted. What draws our young men, and also our young women, to this Woke Right monstrosity? Seductive lies fed into fear and pain. In this episode of the New Discourses ...

Jan 23, 20251 hr 16 min

The Propaganda of Telling the Truth, Falsely

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 110 Our present circumstance is a political warfare battlefield, like it or not. That means we are inundated with propaganda from all sides. Propaganda, of course, takes many forms, and one of the most common, subtle, and effective is what can be called "telling the truth, falsely," or "being right, wrongly." In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay outlines this bread-and-butter propaganda tactic to help you become better able to see it and resis...

Jan 22, 202517 min

Welcome to the Two-Front War Against Woke

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 154 It is upon us: the fight against Woke is now a two-front war. On our Left, we have Woke Marxism that hasn't gone away. Arising rapidly from our Right, we now also have a Woke Fascism that threatens to ruin everything we've accomplished. Those of us who love America now have to fight the battle against Woke on two fronts: Woke Left and Woke Right. In this free-ranging episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay discusses the cur...

Jan 16, 20252 hr 35 min

Leftism Means Coveting Power

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 109 There are many ways we could conceive of Leftism, and one of the best is that it is a covetous relationship with power. It's easy to understand how toxic and bad that is, if not evil. Yet here we are at a crossroads in world history, and we're being led toward precisely that pit. There's a popular line out there now that goes something like this: "the Left wants power, and conservatives don't. That's why conservatives always lose." The implication is that conserva...

Jan 15, 202514 min

Our Present Choice: Catharsis or Civilization

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 108 America is at a crossroads, and how it chooses may affect the fate of the entire world. Though there are different ways to conceive of the choice that lies before us, one is that we will have to choose between catharsis and civilization. It's unlikely we can have both, so this choice is incredibly important and deadly serious. If we choose catharsis, a sweet release of all our anger and frustration from the oppression and chaos of Woke Marxism, we will likely upse...

Jan 13, 202514 min

Drag Queens as Priests of Queer Theory

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 107 Queer Theory, which is to say Queer Marxism, is a religious cult, as discussed at length in The Queering of the American Child (https://amzn.to/40GX0i5). So what's the role of the drag queen in this cult? While much has been said on this issue to clarify for people that the drag queen in the presence of children is meant to be the purveyor of an initiation rite into Queer Marxism for the kids, a clear explanation of why they're chosen would be of use. In this epis...

Jan 08, 202515 min

Socialism, Communism, Marxism; What's the Difference?

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 106 Socialism, Communism, and Marxism are clearly related ideas, but they're not identical. What's the difference? People ask all the time. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains each of these concepts and how they differ from one another while offering some insights into other related concepts like Fabian Socialism and Fascism. Join him to increase your clarity on these issues. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://quee...

Jan 02, 202517 min

Korenizatsiya: Stalin's Soviet DEI Program

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 153 Did you know the Soviet Union ran a DEI program exactly like the Woke Marxist one of today? How about Mao's China? As it turns out, DEI isn't an American invention. It's a Soviet invention and Soviet export, designed, outlined, and implemented by Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin in the USSR in the 1920s. The results were predictable, of course: massively increasing ethnic strife arising from within the world's most widespread Affirmative Acti...

Dec 26, 20242 hr 16 min

Why Communism Is So Deadly

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 105 We all know Communism is perhaps the world's deadliest ideology, but what makes it that way? As it turns out, there's a simple reason Communism leads to mass murder, starvation, and death, and it's this: Communists believe Communism can never be wrong. What this amounts to in practice is that when Communist programs start to fail, it cannot be that they were bad ideas in the first place. It can only be that someone failed to do them right, and, as it always happen...

Dec 25, 202415 min

Panel: Why We Need New Discourses | Boghossian, Doyle, Lindsay, Nayna, O'Fallon, Pluckrose

In the Panel: Why We Need New Discourses, held on October 13, 2019, in London, panelists Peter Boghossian, Andrew Doyle, James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Mike Nayna, moderated by Michael O'Fallon, came together to critique the influence of social justice ideology on academia and public discourse. Each speaker addressed the effects of ideological capture, particularly in social institutions and education, arguing that social justice’s rigid worldview distorts reality and suppresses open conver...

Dec 21, 20241 hr 3 min

The Real Purpose of Safe Spaces

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 trauma...

Dec 18, 202413 min

Doing Social Justice Responsibly | Helen Pluckrose

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 world...

Dec 16, 202431 min

The Hoax that Broke the Conservative Internet

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...

Dec 08, 20241 hr 21 min

Communism 3.0: Corporate Communism | James Lindsay

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 ...

Dec 07, 20242 hr 19 min

The Thing You Run Into When Your Beliefs Are False | James Lindsay

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 r...

Nov 26, 202447 min

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

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 coalit...

Nov 22, 20241 hr 20 min

Communism 2.5: Social Communism | James Lindsay

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 ...

Nov 17, 20242 hr 14 min

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

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 ...

Nov 14, 202454 min

Woke for Dummies

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 f...

Nov 07, 20241 hr 28 min