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Cynical Theories [electronic resource] : How Universities Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity - And Why this Harms Everybody

Lindsay, James2020

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Summary

‘Exposes the surprisingly shallow intellectual roots of the movements that appear to be engulfing our culture’ Steven PinkerHave you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practise 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 Cynical Theories, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma behind these ideas, from its origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognisable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media pile-ons, 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 they warn, the unchecked proliferation of these beliefs present a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to the fruits of the Enlightenment 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.