By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 9 Dec 24
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
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
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Oct 24
Postmodern Neo-Marxists For the last few decades, North American education schools have been ground zero for two dangerous intellectual movements: critical theory and postmodernism. While they may seem like they don’t mix well on the surface, both of these ideologies have taken over teacher training programs, creating a twisted form of education that’s designed to indoctrinate rather than teach students anything useful. Critical theory, which I generally refer to as “Critical Marxism” (following Marxist educator Isaac Gottesman), claims to expose hidden systems of oppression and inequality in society. Postmodernism, which I generally refer to as “Postmodern Marxism,” questions reality itself,
Postmodern Neo-Marxists For the last few decades, North American education schools have been ground zero for two dangerous intellectual movements: critical theory and postmodernism. While they may seem like they don’t mix well on the surface, both of these ideologies have taken over teacher training programs, creating a twisted form of education that’s designed to indoctrinate rather than teach students
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 3 Sep 24
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 147 We’re hearing a lot about “joy” now that the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign have made it a byword of their project, so we have to ask what they mean by it. We all know, by this point, that Communists share your vocabulary but do not share your dictionary. So what might they mean by “joy“? Well, it appears what they mean by joy is “radical joy,” which is a kind of religious ecstasy associated with believing they are going to accomplish Communism, or at least their revolution. Radical joy is rooted in “critical hope” together
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 147 We’re hearing a lot about “joy” now that the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign have made it a byword of their project, so we have to ask what they mean by it. We all know, by this point, that Communists share your vocabulary but do not share your dictionary. So
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Aug 24
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 98 We need a perspective shift. It’s extremely common to hear people saying how “insane” or “crazy” Woke Marxism is, or to rhetorically ask “what are they thinking?” perhaps with a suggestion of “it won’t work.” Marxism is destructive, on purpose, and being befuddled about their destructive programs doesn’t help us stop them. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay breaks down the simple idea necessary for this shift in perspective: they have different goals than the rest of us. In fact, their goals are, in the words of Herbert Marcuse, to “protest against the totality of a well-functioning,
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 98 We need a perspective shift. It’s extremely common to hear people saying how “insane” or “crazy” Woke Marxism is, or to rhetorically ask “what are they thinking?” perhaps with a suggestion of “it won’t work.” Marxism is destructive, on purpose, and being befuddled about their destructive programs doesn’t help us stop them. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 5 Jul 24
“We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people of color differently than whites, elite students differently than those from working families. Yet, though language is fateful in teaching us what kind of people to become and what kind of society to make, discourse is not destiny. We can
“We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 10 Jun 24
I recently read a document released by the CIA in 2005 that describes the New Left and Herbert Marcuse’s influence on college campuses. What it reveals is extremely relevant to what’s happening on college campuses today. “Marx, the god; Marcuse, his prophet; Mao, his sword.” In June of 1968, the Current Digest of the Soviet Press released a scathing article, calling University of California San Diego professor Herbert Marcuse a “false prophet.” As a Soviet entity, the Current Digest set out to annihilate Marcuse’s “decommunized Marxism,” for obvious reasons. Marcuse had abandoned “vulgar” Marxism and the USSR’s bureaucratic and administrative
I recently read a document released by the CIA in 2005 that describes the New Left and Herbert Marcuse’s influence on college campuses. What it reveals is extremely relevant to what’s happening on college campuses today. “Marx, the god; Marcuse, his prophet; Mao, his sword.” In June of 1968, the Current Digest of the Soviet Press released a scathing article,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 30 May 24
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 93 Surely you’ve noticed that Woke doesn’t work. Of course it doesn’t. It’s not just bad ideas put into operation by bad people and obvious grifters, though, that causes the problem. Woke Marxism isn’t even interested in making things work. In fact, it’s worse than that, even. Woke Marxism is, by definition, hostile to making things work. It is, as Herbert Marcuse put it in An Essay on Liberation in 1969, a protest against “the totality of a well-functioning and prosperous society,” even against its very Platonic Form. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 93 Surely you’ve noticed that Woke doesn’t work. Of course it doesn’t. It’s not just bad ideas put into operation by bad people and obvious grifters, though, that causes the problem. Woke Marxism isn’t even interested in making things work. In fact, it’s worse than that, even. Woke Marxism is, by definition, hostile to making things
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 28 May 24
“What is culturally relevant teaching?” That is the question I set out to answer four years ago. Back in 2020, my wife and I were preparing to be parents and I had started researching the state of our educational system. I quickly realized that I knew essentially nothing about what was happening in our schools, despite attending them for the first twenty-two years of my life. The buzzwords were everywhere – “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” “social-and-emotional learning (SEL),” “restorative justice (RJ),” and “culturally relevant teaching,” to name a few. I was completely lost, but I knew that some people
“What is culturally relevant teaching?” That is the question I set out to answer four years ago. Back in 2020, my wife and I were preparing to be parents and I had started researching the state of our educational system. I quickly realized that I knew essentially nothing about what was happening in our schools, despite attending them for the