
Cynical Theories
How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Helen Pluckrose
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best seller!
Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga or cook Chinese food? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed so quickly to challenge the very logic of Western society?
In this probing and intrepid volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognizable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media dogpiles, as by its tenets, which are all too often embraced as axiomatic in mainstream media: knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous. As Pluckrose and Lindsay warn, the unchecked proliferation of these anti-Enlightenment beliefs present a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to modernity itself.
While acknowledging the need to challenge the complacency of those who think a just society has been fully achieved, Pluckrose and Lindsay break down how this often radical activist scholarship does far more harm than good, not least to those marginalized communities it claims to champion. They also detail its alarmingly inconsistent and illiberal ethics. Only through a proper understanding of the evolution of these ideas, they conclude, can those who value science, reason, and consistently liberal ethics successfully challenge this harmful and authoritarian orthodoxy - in the academy, in culture, and beyond.
©2020 Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay (P)2020 Pitchstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...




















People who viewed this also viewed...


















Impressive, informative, and compelling
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The robot
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent. A+
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Added some form of Marxism and added intersectionalism - this book will reveal the timelines and influences -
Masterpiece explains mind map of influences both post moderne& marxist that make social critical justice today
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It brings up everything I have been observing in our culture and puts it into clear language what I was not smart enough to say without swearing. It has helped both my ability to think rationally about things that I am finding scary and confusing in the world around me and also my ability to defend my position clearly
Important!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Possibly the most important book of our time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Essential reading in 2020
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Journey Into Madness
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
10/10 Recommend
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Difficult to listen to
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.