Critical America Theory, Left and Right
You can have a Critical Race Theory about race, a Critical Gender Theory about sex, even a Critical America Theory about America.
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James Lindsay
691 posts
The Israel Question as the Modern Jewish Question
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.
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Forced “Friendship” Under the Friend-Enemy Distinction
The friend-enemy distinction is the underlying organizational principle of the Marxist Left, radical Islam, and the Fascist Reactionary Left.
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The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 12: Positive Christianity as the “Christian Nationalism” of the Third Reich
A "Christian Nationalist" movement is reaching into many legitimate anxieties of American Christians and turning them to its project.
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The Poison of Negative Idealism
Negative idealism explains why "critical" movements like Communism, Fascism, and Woke of all types trend toward violence.
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Who Are We, and What Does That Mean About Politics?
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.
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How the Friend-Enemy Distinction Poisons Politics
Carl Schmitt captured the essence of totalitarian politics in his book The Concept of the Political (1932). 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 go along with that declaration declares himself one of the enemy.
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What Jewish Values Can Teach Us About Being American: Another Trip to Israel
Join James on this new episode of the New Discourses Podcast and travel with him through Israel for a second time.
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True and False or Us Versus Them?
In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explores this idea of "us versus them" out loud and explains its relevance to politics, society, and education.
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From Transgender to Transhuman
The same arguments that justify "transgender" also justify transhuman: that who we really are does not depend on our physical body at all.
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OnlySubs: Why Do Leftists Make Themselves Ugly?
Why do Leftists make themselves ugly? Is it just the mental illness at the heart of Leftist thinking? Well, no; it's more than that.
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Why Communists Do the Red-Green Alliance
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.
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Introducing the Problem-Solving Theory of Value
What makes something valuable? How do we determine value? One hypothesis on value is famously forwarded and relied upon by the Marxists.
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Woke Interpretation and “Lived Experience”
James Lindsay revisits the topic of "lived experience" and explains how it manifests outside of Leftist enclaves and without the cutesy name.
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Milestones, Vol. 2: Jahiliyyah, the False Consciousness of Islamism
In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay goes back into the text of Milestones to discuss this important concept and its profound parallels to Marxist Communism.
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All Roads Lead to Woke
In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay dives into this construction and how it sets up other Woke "magic spells" (like affordance traps) to get you to do their bidding.
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The Book of Woke: The Production of the Woke Self
What gets called Woke, especially on the Left, is a complete worldview (or ersatz theology) that therefore provides all the usual philosophical elements.
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Ideological Psychopathology
It goes without saying at this point that "Woke" activists appear to exhibit a suite of psychopathological traits and behaviors, but why?
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The Nazi Experiment, Vol. 11: Dictatorship by Reichstag Fire
An undeniable part of the Nazi Experiment is that it operated a fascist-style dictatorship for its infamous "racialist worldview."
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Saving American Liberty: All Sessions
Watch James Lindsay and Michael O’Fallon in Dallas, TX, recorded August 22–23, 2025, to learn more about this rising threat and how we can save American liberty.
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