New Discourses
New Discourses is a podcast that explores the philosophical and cultural implications of postmodernism and critical social justice ideologies. Hosted by James Lindsay, it aims to dissect and critique contemporary movements such as critical race theory and gender ideology. The show seeks to promote objective truth and rational discourse in the face of what it sees as subjective and ideological narratives.
Episodes
On Power and Authority
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 186
There's a fundamental difference between mere power and legitimate authority, and that difference needs to be dragged into the center of our political discussions against Woke. Power is the raw capacity to do something, but authority is something more. It's power, which is to say capacity and permission, combined with right, which is justification. Woke movements c
Recognizing and Breaking Woke Faith
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 185
Woke beliefs, including in the potential success of socialism, antiracism, etc., are held on faith. That faith is just like the faith discussed in Hebrews 11 except bogus, a false hope in something they believe is assured but unseen and a confidence in its eventual emergence. This core faith tells us a few important things about Woke, including the idea that the fu
Totalitarianism and Its Purge Culture
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 184
Why does every totalitarian system enact so many and such brutal purges, even genocides, of its enemies? The reason is the logic of the systems themselves, which guarantee it. That logic proceeds on the idea that if the system is failing, it's because people who oppose or sabotage it must still be out in the world and must be stopped or destroyed. In this chilling
Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Woke
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 225
We all know by now that Woke presents an inverted world and then traps people into it. The Woke mind struggles to tell true from false, right from wrong, good from evil, and real from fake. The way this inversion works programmatically is interesting, though, tying together many threads of discussion about woke over the last few years in a ne
How Woke Creates a Low-Trust Society
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 183
The price of a Woke society is having a low-trust society. There's a reason for this, and it's not just that Woke is fundamentally a scam (and its programs are frauds). The reason is because Woke is intrinsically subversive in more than one sense, and it advances its agenda by exploiting the societal resource of trust. This fact is made undeniably clear in the 1987
Gender Ideology, Transgenderism, and "Doing Gender"
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 224
To view the issue optimistically, the medical front of the battle against gender ideology and transgender medicine is starting to go very well and might soon see more significant victories. The ideological and social side, including the damaging practice known as "social transition," has barely been impacted at all. To dig further into the ro
Wages for Housework, Wages for Housewives
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 223
Should housewives be paid by the state to be housewives? In some sense, it's an issue that's in present-day news, but this isn't the first time a political movement has broached the question. Back in the 1970s, it became a major issue among Marxist-feminists, believe it or not. The Marxist-feminists of the age believed that if the state paid
Epicycles and Conspiracy Theories
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 182
Before the geocentric model of the universe fell and was replaced by the heliocentric model of the solar system, the movement of the planets across the night sky couldn't be explained neatly by assuming simple circular orbits that all go around the Earth. The invention used to "correct" the model had the name "epicycles." The idea was that the planets went around i
Michel Foucault and Woke Mental Illness
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 181
Surely you have noticed a couple of things about Woke. First, it acts like mental illness. Second, it actually valorizes mental illness for real. These outcomes are the logical consequence of having adopted the views of the postmodernist Michel Foucault, particularly his early work in Madness and Civilization (1961). Among the consequences to this civilizational ca
How the Communist Manifesto Explains the Red-Green Alliance
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 180
Did you know the explanation for the Communist side of the Red-Green Alliance, including "Queers for Palestine," can be found on the last page of the Communist Manifesto (pdf), written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels? The explanation is simple and brief, "In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social
The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 17: Hitler at His Point
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 222
If we really peel back so much of the ranting and the drama around the Nazi Experiment, what are we left with? Well, the point, to be frank. In this episode of the Nazi Experiment series on the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes you into that point, which Adolf Hitler himself makes clear in a remarkably short chapter of his 1928
A Short, Comprehensive Definition of "Woke"
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 179
Woke can be summarized in a single, short way. Woke means thinking with critical theory and acting like a Leninist. That's all it really comes down to: having awakened to the alleged relevance of counter-hegemonic critical theory combined with friend-enemy tribal politics and Machiavellian permission structures. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James
The Myth of the Blood, Vol. 5: Pseudo-Gnostic Nazi German Mysticism
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 221
However weird you thought the Nazis were before, they're weirder than that. In fact, they were outright mystics, and the point of the Positive Christianity movement given in Point 24 of the Nazi Party platform can only be summarized as to take German Christians of all stripes, deconstruct their Christian faiths, and move them into this counte
John Adams's 1765 Defense of Religious and Political Liberty
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 220
In 1765, Great Britain had foolishly decided to continue escalating its attempts to recover the cost of the French and Indian War from its American Colonists by passing the infamous and odious Stamp Act upon the colonies, who famously were not represented in the Parliament that would tax them. In response, a great deal of pre-Revolutionary ma
Traditional Versus Critical Theory
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 178
Critical Theory originates in the formal sense from a 1937 essay penned by Frankfurt School director Max Horkheimer, bearing the title "Traditional and Critical Theory." In that essay, Horkheimer compares what he calls "traditional theory" against his neo-Marxist conception that he names "critical theory," thus organizing the approach behind the entire school of th
The Foundational American View of Romans 13
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 219
The United States of America was founded on a very particular view of the people's right relationship to government authority that can be, and was, summarized by the famous phrase, "Resistance against tyrants is obedience to God." But, many have wondered, even in our present day, what about the injunctions of Paul's famous Romans 13, which de
The Anatomy of a Critical Theory
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 177
In 1969, Max Horkheimer gave an interview in which he was called to account for his development of the Critical Theory and its application through the Frankfurt School, which he had directed for decades. In that essay, he offers a straightforward explanation for why he formulated the Critical Theory and what it is for, saying it allows criticism of a system that is
Traditional and Critical Theory According to Max Horkheimer
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 218
The school of thought known as Critical Theory was born, as we understand it today, in an essay written in 1937 by Max Horkheimer, who was director of the infamous Frankfurt School. This definitive essay of Western Marxism makes it clear that what we think of as "theory" is only one side of the story, and it's the side that keeps reproducing
A Short Defense of the Moral Institution of Profit
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 176
Profit is good. It is good practically, and it is good morally. Rarely today do we hear such a direct and clear statement or a thorough defense of these facts, but it's necessary. Our people, especially younger people, need to understand that they're not just participating in a successful system but also an intrinsically moral one: a fair one that creates opportuni
We, the Screamers
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 217
A very relatable feeling today is that of having something incredibly important to say while nobody listens. We go on screaming about the nearly existential horror of the situation we are in while everyday life goes on beside us, ignoring us, denying us. It's incredibly frustrating. This now far-too-familiar circumstance was written about elo
Resisting Welfare Mentality
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 175
Welfare mentality is believing that you should be given things you haven't earned because you simply deserve them, whatever the excuse. Maybe it's entitlement; maybe you believe it's a "human right." It doesn't matter. It is to be contrasted with a mindset that understands, recognizes, and honors the dignity of work, of production and the fair trade of parties seek
Edward Said and How the West Went Woke
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 216
In the late 1970s, a Palestinian-American postcolonial theorist and Columbia University literature professor named Edward Said wrote a book that changed the Left forever. That book was called Orientalism (https://amzn.to/45eMnE2). In this book, he brought the postmodernist deconstructive tools of Michel Foucault to a variety of Marxist and Cr
Reading the DSA Platform
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 174
The Democratic Socialists of America are making a bid to take over the Democratic Party, echoing the grim historical chapter during which Lenin's Bolsheviks abolished the more moderate Mensheviks from the future of Russian politics. They, like their historical predecessors, from whom they take inspiration, are Communists, and they have a party platform. In this epi
The Myth of the Blood, Vol. 4: The Anti-Christian Foundation of Positive Christianity
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 215
The Nazis had an ideological mission for their own Volk in addition to those we're all more familiar with from the dark stories of history: to transform a widely Christian Germany into a fully Nazi Germany, not just in practice and politics but in belief and commitment. That is, in the language of the Nazis, German Christians, both Catholic a
An Accessible Summary of Critical Theory
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 173
America and all of Western Civilization are being poisoned by a Western derivative of Marxism known ultimately as Critical Theory. So, what is Critical Theory, where does it come from, how does it work, and how can we possibly understand it? In this helpful episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay brings his considerable experience in studying and comm
What Is the DSA Platform?
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 214
The Democratic Party is in trouble. Many of us have known that for a long time, but only a few Democrats have. This is the moment where that needs to change. Through internal declarations of their own, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is for all intents and purposes a Marxist-Leninist Communist organization, isn't just winnin
The Nature of Islam's Attack on Israel
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 172
Why are the various Islamic states around Israel so frequently hostile to it? Why are so many Muslims so antisemitic? Why is Islam itself coded with antisemitism? These are all answerable questions, and to the average Westerner, the answer is hard to fully understand. Thankfully, there are an increasing number of accessible resources making the issue clear. One ex
The Inseparable Relationship Between Islam and Islamism
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 171
A heated and important discussion rages about the two parallel terms "Islam" and "Islamism." Are they the same? Is there some difference? Is that difference, if it exists at all, a distinction without any real difference? Different people have different, and strong, opinions on this matter. To look into it in this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Linds
The Unwelcome Arrival of Woke 2.0
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 170
Woke is coming back, but not the crude Identity Marxism (Intersectionality) of the 2010s and first years of the 2020s. A new Woke, a "Woke 2.0," is arising. It's focuses will be largely a return to old-school Marxist standbys like class theory, materialism, and "anti-imperialism" in its new postcolonial form. Hating, not just opposing, Israel is a hallmark of this
Milestones, Vol. 4: Sayyid Qutb's Islamic Bolshevist Vanguard
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 213
In the 1960s, a radical Islamic Salafist named Sayyid Qutb wrote a short little radical book called Milestones (https://amzn.to/4bn9hMX) in which he laid out a new vision for what the world usually calls "Islamism" today. That model wasn't just rooted in a backwards-looking radical fundamentalist vision of Islam called Jihadist Salafism as ta
The West Is Judeo-Christian-American
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 169
What are the foundations of "the West" as we understand it today? Many of us land on a hyphenated term that finds itself under attack in the world today: our foundations are Judeo-Christian. But then, we also must admit the relevance of the seismic shifts in thought and political organization of the various movements we retroactively recognize as "the" Enlightenmen
Propaganda and the Palestinian Cause
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 212
The entire world is turning today around the "Palestinian" Cause, but what is it? It is a fabrication. It is a manipulation. It is a forgery. It is a psyop. This fact, and the many facts it is based upon, is plainly and beautifully articulated in Danny Burmawi's (https://x.com/DanBurmawy ) new book Islam, Israel, and the West: A Former Muslim
Traditionalism with a Capital T: A Parasite on the Right
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 168
We're seeing a lot from the Right about a return to tradition... or is it to "Tradition"? As it turns out, there's yet another example of a twisted esoteric philosophy out there that uses a term we're all familiar with in a specific way most of us don't even know about. That school of thought is called "Traditionalism" and has a very peculiar, esoteric (Gnostic) un
The Real Word for "Globalism"
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 167
Most of us, if you are a fan of New Discourses, at least, are opposed to "globalism," but we have a rather thin understanding of what it represents. That's because we're lacking the correct vocabulary, as usual. In this case, the word we need is "mondialism," which is a kind of one-world philosophy. The trouble is, our opposition to mondialism runs in parallel to o
The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 16: What Hitler Got Right, Wrongly
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 211
Hitler didn't like parliaments. Indeed, much of his political formulation was based on his absolute hatred for them. Interestingly, his critiques of parliamentary bodies in Mein Kampf is largely correct, if a bit polemical. This introduces an interesting situation where Hitler is correct on a narrow but important point and then proposes the w
Islam Is Sharia
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 166
Here in the West, we talk a lot about Islam and Sharia as though they're separate things. They are not separate things. Islam means submission. Submission is expressed through the Divine Law called Sharia. Therefore, Islam means submission to God through keeping Sharia. According to Sayyid Qutb in his 1964 book Milestones (https://amzn.to/4xviKeR), "This is Islam.
The Three Sides in the Ukraine War
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 210
Moral clarity on the Ukraine War has been difficult for many Republicans. There are reasons for that, some good, some less good. For one thing, the Democrats in the name of what seems to be some bizarre globalist agenda, which is the precise thing many Republicans reject, went all in on Ukraine, demanding more and more support. For another, t
Twenty-First Century Propaganda Is Interactive
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 165
The propaganda we face in the twenty-first century has a new and different character that we must rapidly make ourselves aware of. It's interactive. That is, rather than just feeding you agitation or propaganda in order to engage you, the propaganda methods of the social-media age influence you by giving you contoured feedback on what you post: likes, reposts, shar
Milestones, Vol. 3: The Basic Nature of Islam
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 209
One of the best ways to understand something is to turn to its sources and see for ourselves. We've made a brand of that here at New Discourses, in fact. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes us back into Sayyid Qutb's 1964 book Milestones (https://amzn.to/4xviKeR), which is considered something of an intelle
The Myth of the Blood, Vol. 3: Love as the Enemy of Race and Honor
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 208
In 1930, Adolf Hitler's chief ideologist for the Third Reich, Alfred Rosenberg, sought to write a new mythology for the twentieth century that was meant to be the foundational belief system for Nazis. The book he published was the second most important and popular book in the Third Reich, and it's called The Myth of the Twentieth Century (htt
What Are The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 163
As antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda rises across the West (largely catering to recent imported audiences), we're forced to confront its most egregious and damaging source, a 1903 book compiled by the Russian Tsar's Secret Police (Ohkrana) called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This fabrication was a bit of darkest black propaganda organized by the Russia
How American Foreign Aid to Israel Supports America
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 162
We hear a lot these days about the foreign aid money the United States sends to Israel, but most people don't know how that money works. Now, we see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling to wind down and terminate that foreign aid deal, which operates under a "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement, while President Trump seems less happy about it. Why w
Radical Ideology as Therapy for the Humiliated Psyche
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 207
Radical ideologies have many things in common. Among them, it increasingly seems apparent, is a psychological structure that can only be described as psychopathological. In this groundbreaking episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay explores the interesting idea that perhaps what these radical ideologies are all ultimately a
What Seizing the Means of Production Really Means
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 160
At the heart of the Communist project is "seizing the means of production." But what does this really mean? Is it just taking control of factories and farms and "expropriating the expropriators," as Marx had it, or is there something deeper? In this fascinating episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay takes a unique look at the concept of seizing the m
Totalitarianism and Fantasies of the Sinless Man
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 161
Totalitarian projects are peculiar. They're obsessed with telling us who man is and then controlling who man can become from their unique theories about our true nature. Within each, though, is a particular fantasy about who man is outside of sin (and what defines the nature of sin and depravity). The theological word, at least in Christian circles, for this sinles
Where Communism Really Started
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 205
Where did Communism really come from? Did it originate with Karl Marx? Is it... "Jewish"? The answers to these latter questions are no. Communism arose out of a combination of German idealism and French socialism, and the first documents on the subject were composed in France. In fact, not only that, the first revolutionary Communist was a Fr
The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 15: Hitler's Land Equity Argument for Lebensraum
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 205
One of the things the Nazi Experiment series tries to do on the New Discourses Podcast is to bust popular myths about the Nazis that have popped up in recent years for new audiences. One of these myths is that the Nazis didn't start out with any designs to conquer Europe, which ultimately precipitated World War II. In fact, they did have thes
Introducing the Nazi Myth of the Blood
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 159
Underneath the Nazi program in Germany was a worldview, what Hitler called the "racialist worldview." At the very foundations of that worldview lurks a dark and peculiar pseudoscientific mythology. Hitler's "Chief Ideologist" Alfred Rosenberg called it "the Myth of the Blood" and presented it in a book called The Myth of the Twentieth Century, which he published in
The Myth of the Blood, Vol. 2: Aryan Dynamism and the Living Revelation
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 204
The Nazi mythology, the so-called "Myth of the Blood," refused the idea of a static, "monist" world, one built on a single thesis, one morality, and one unchanging God. Instead, it favored polarization and dynamism as the fundamental Law of Nature. This fact is clearly laid out and explained in Alfred Rosenberg's 1930 word The Myth of the Twe
How Society Works
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 158
How does society work? That seems like an important question for people who live in societies and are thus tasked, whether they like it or not, with keeping the thing going. The answer is pretty surprising, actually, and it all boils down to how we incentivize people to work in ways that benefit other people even when they don't know or care about those other peopl
The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 14: Germany Is Not an Economic Zone
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 203
Among the peculiar anxieties that fueled the Nazi Experiment in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was the fear that Germany would be relegated to merely economic participation in a broader world order, causing Germans and Germany to subordinate their personalities and race to merely economic concerns. Of course, this anxiety exists again today a
Did Jews Move to Palestine Legally?
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 157
One of the most contentious issues in the modern world, raging now for at least a century, is the issue of the legality of Jewish settlement and statehood in Israel. There are strong arguments on both sides of this difficult issue, but there's a narrow question involved as well: Did the Jews move to the region legally (or are they illegal settler-colonialists)? In
The Myth of the Blood, Vol. 1: Pseudo-Traditionalism and the Nordic Science
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 202
Underneath the Nazi Experiment lay a mythology. That mythology was called "the Myth of the Blood" by Hitler's chief ideologist Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg recorded this mythology in a very peculiar book called The Myth of the Twentieth Century, originally published in 1930. In it, Rosenberg lays out a complete treatise of what Nazis were supp
Heroism and Honor in the Fascist Mind
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 156
Central to the psychological and social construction of both Fascists and Nazis are the concepts of heroism and honor. These sound good, like sound foundations of society. Then again, from the Marxist Left, so do fairness and justice. In both cases, though, we find a rule of totalitarian systems: the virtues are defined in terms of the totalitarian project itself.
The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 13: The Nazi Myth of the Blood
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 201
As we have been exploring, the Nazis had a worldview, and that worldview formed the core of their European experiment in the 1930s and 1940s. Underneath that worldview was a myth: the Myth of the Blood. This myth was concocted by the Nazi's chief ideologist, Alfred Rosenberg, and formalized the race-based thinking of the Third Reich. And myth
Fascism and the Naturalistic Fallacy
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 155
Underneath the hood of Fascism is a heavy insistence that its program aligns with various aspects of Nature. Generally, the belief that something being "natural" (right or wrong in the assessment) means that it is also good is referred to as the "naturalistic fallacy." That means it is an error. That something is "natural" does not necessarily imply that it is good
The Creepy Real Meaning of Fascism as Corporatism
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 154
Father of Italian Fascism, Benito Mussolini, is famous for having remarked that Fascism can be summarized simply enough as "corporatism." When we hear this, many of us assume it refers to an ideology of the state being fused with its corporations. That's part of the economic program of Fascism, no doubt, but that's not actually what it means. What it means is much
The American Experiment: Federalist 51 and Political Realism
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 200
At the end of the day, the magic that makes the American Experiment work is that it is grounded in an astute understanding of human nature and political realism. Almost nowhere is this fact more evident than in Federalist 51 (https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0199), written by either James Madison or Alexander Hamilton
Fascism Is Progressive
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 153
Fascism is generally regarded as a reactionary and right-wing ideology (though that latter characterization is strongly contested for good reasons). The truth is, it is a progressive ideology, though. It would be most appropriate to say that Fascism is progressive by reactionary means, in fact. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay makes the
Are Jews Really God's Chosen People?
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 152
The usual understanding of the Jewish people is that the Jews are God's "chosen people." What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean what antisemites and detractors of Jews tend to believe it means, and what it means is actually extremely interesting. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay "goysplains" the idea of Jews being God's "chosen peop
"Insurrection Barbie's" Long Game and the Conservative Right
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 198
Early in March 2026, the famous but anonymous X account known as "Insurrection Barbie" (https://x.com/defiyantlyfree) dropped a long article (https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/2029681200189636717) about an Integralist operation to disrupt and hijack the American right-wing (or conservative movement, or Republican Party). The results were tr
The "Trusted Voice" as Gramsci's Organic Intellectual
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 151
Being a very effective propagandist doesn't just rely on having a powerful message. It also depends on trust. Thus, the ideal propagandist is, in fact, a "trusted voice." In the realm of "Woke," which is to say with regard to critical theories, that trusted voice tends to take on a particular form. He is a critic, one who calls out the embedded corruption of the sy
Introducing Woke Nationalism
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 198
When we talk about Woke Left and Woke Right, while the essential core of being "Woke" is mostly the same, there are some key differences. These organizational and conceptual differences arise in part because of deeper differences in how each of these projects divides the world, always ultimately into "us versus them." With the Woke Left, it i
What Was Positive Christianity in the Nazi Movement?
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 150
The Nazi Party had a problem through its entire existence, from 1920 to 1945. That problem was Christianity, which was in its way. The Nazi movement, you see, was a totalizing worldview that is in many ways at complete odds with Christianity. In order to get German Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, to accept and move toward Nazi ideology, a concept known as
Explaining the Long March Through the Institutions
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 149
The Long March Through the Institutions is a Marxist strategy for infiltrating the West through its institutions. Realizing by the 1960s that they would not be able to take the United States and Western Civilization from the outside, Marxists started formulating strategies in the "Western Marxist" canon to take it from the inside. That required taking over its inst
Critical America Theory, Left and Right
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 148
A critical theory can be made out of anything. You can have a Critical Race Theory about race, a Critical Gender Theory about sex, even a Critical America Theory about America. And, we have all of these. In universities, Critical America Theory is usually branded as "American Studies," but we have it everywhere. It's not just in schools but in media, entertainment,
The Israel Question as the Modern Jewish Question
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 197
The Jewish Question, which is "what do we do with the Jews?" rests on the presumption that they aren't wanted here, or maybe anywhere. It is therefore intrinsically antisemitic. Since the catastrophe of World War II, all civilized societies have come to recognize this fact and refuse the Jewish Question except in the dark margins of society (
Forced "Friendship" Under the Friend-Enemy Distinction
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 147
The friend-enemy distinction, as it is called, is the underlying organizational principle of the Marxist Left, radical Islam, and the Fascist Reactionary Left (usually mislabeled "Right"). It is spelled out in detail in a 1932 book by Carl Schmitt called The Concept of the Political, (https://amzn.to/4rbQpFN) and in that book Schmitt goes into great detail to expla
The Nazi Experiment Vol. 12: Positive Christianity as the "Christian Nationalism" of the Third Reich
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 196
Today in America, we face a confusing "Christian Nationalist" (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/04/two-wolves-of-christian-nationalism/) movement that is reaching into many legitimate complaints and anxieties of American Christians and turning them to its project. While the term can mean many things, at least some of the meanings of "Christian
The Poison of Negative Idealism
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 146
The essence of a critical theory is a philosophical stance we can and should call "negative idealism," and this negative idealism explains why "critical" movements like Communism, Fascism, and Woke of all types trend toward violence. Setting the stage against the recent sprees of "transgender" violence as an important backdrop, host James Lindsay explains the psych
Who Are We, and What Does That Mean About Politics?
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 195
When we face the question of what makes us who we are, different people have different answers. Some see ourselves as receptacles of tradition. Others see us as a self to be discovered in the world. Still others see us as blank slates who can become whatever we can dream. In some sense, these dispositions are in all of us, and that's healthy.
New Discourses Bullets 145 - How the Friend-Enemy Distinction Poisons Politics
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 145
Carl Schmitt captured the essence of totalitarian politics in his book The Concept of the Political (1932) (https://amzn.to/4sf2Rpk). It is the distinction between friend and enemy. The poison of this kind of thinking is in the ugly fact that the declared enemy must be treated as the declared enemy once a political faction has declared one, and anyone who doesn't g
What Jewish Values Can Teach Us About Being American: Another Trip to Israel
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 194
James Lindsay's second trip to Israel was very different from his first (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/11/am-yisrael-chai/). On this trip, he got what he calls his "Real Jerusalem Experience," and he did a wide variety of things, not so much a coherent, organized tour. In the process, he was introduced to Israeli and Jewish life in a new way
True and False or Us Versus Them?
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 144
The ever-insightful Michael Malice once explained, "most people do not process information through a true/false filter but through an us/them filter." There are pretty deep and interesting reasons why this is true, and there are also insightful comments to be made about the necessity and value of at least some of us disciplining ourselves to prefer a true/false fil
From Transgender to Transhuman
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 193
As we encounter both the material in the infamous Epstein Files and revelations from some of Epstein's associates, not to mention the advances in AI and robotics, we're confronted with what seemed like dystopian science fiction just a few years ago: transhumanism. Tech futurists, however, have been predicting it and working toward it for deca
Why Communists Do the Red-Green Alliance
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 143
As normal people who value ideological and logical consistency, we tend to find movements like the Red-Green Alliance (Communists and Islamists) and "Queers for Palestine" confusing. How can people with such different views and goals work together? Obviously, part of the answer is the simple one: they have a common enemy to defeat and can work out their differences
Introducing the Problem-Solving Theory of Value
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 192
What makes something valuable? How do we determine value? One hypothesis on value is famously forwarded and relied upon by the Marxists. It is called the "Labor Theory of Value," and it insists that labor is what transforms raw materials into something "humanized" and therefore of value. Therefore, in this theory, labor is what makes somethin
Woke Interpretation and Lived Experience
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 142
What in the world do the Woke mean by "lived experience"? (https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-lived-experience/) As has been discussed here before (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/10/lived-experience-explained/), lived experience is a kind of magical combination of what someone actually lives and experiences and a Woke (or "Critical" or Marxist) interpretation of what c
Milestones, Vol. 2: Jahiliyyah, the False Consciousness of Islamism
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 191
Central to the idea of Marxist thought, although Marx himself rarely used the term, is the idea of "false consciousness." People, it is alleged, are going through their lives unaware of the realities of the world around them, existing in an ideologically constructed false consciousness that maintains the existing power structures of the world
All Roads Lead to Woke
New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 141
"Woke" often proceeds by what amounts to social magic spells, and some of the most potent kinds of these spells are certain framings of inevitability or universality. The general gist of the construction would be "everything is already like this, so we should do it consciously (and according to Woke framing)." An alternative is "everything will eventually work this
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