New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 123

The world of Woke doesn't believe in truth, not at all. It is a world in which truth may or may not exist but is, assuredly, inaccessible. In place of actual truth, Woke thinking believes there are narratives which are regarded as true because powerful groups have the capacity to make people believe in them as truths. Thus, a Woke perspective is that information is "narratives all the way down," resulting in a kind of unresolvable, subjectivist conflict and power struggle over everything. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay reads briefly from "The Book of Woke" (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/04/the-book-of-woke-introducing-critical-constructivism/) in order to help you understand this bizarre and dangerous (ultimately relativist) foundational perspective of Wokeness. Join him to see how they think and why it's so insane.

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Woke as Warring Narratives

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 124

Mao Zedong developed one of the most devastating dialectical techniques for mass mobilization ever conceived: the mass line. The idea with the mass line is that it is drawn from the masses, repackaged into a campaign for Communist Party goals, and then fed back to the masses to mobilize them to accomplish those goals, often including ruthless purges. For students of the New Discourses material, this pattern will seem familiar, both in terms of George Soros's (https://newdiscourses.com/2024/04/the-reflexive-alchemy-of-george-soros/) dialectic of "reflexivity" (https://newdiscourses.com/2024/06/reflexivity-leftism-in-the-21st-century/) and Paulo Freire's (https://amzn.to/4fkVck7) disastrous "generative themes" (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/05/paulo-freires-schools-new-discourses-bullets-ep-7/) method of education (which Freire (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/10/paulo-freires-critical-method-of-education/) openly admits he got from Mao). In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains the mass line and its relationship to these other ideas. You don't want to miss it.

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What Is the Mass Line?

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 125

Is America just an idea? No, it isn't, but America is based on an idea. That idea is simple: free men and women can govern themselves by taking personal responsibility, and organizing the political structure this way will produce both liberty and prosperity. No other nation in the history of the world has been explicitly based on an idea in this way, and the results have been tremendous. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay reminds every American of the idea his country was based on and calls them back to it. Join him to be inspired and have your faith in America restored!

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The American Idea

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 127

One of the more difficult experiences we all face today is how hard it is to tell when something blows up on the internet whether it's "real" or a "psyop" (part of an active measure with a political warfare purpose). Well, the answer is typically "yes" between these two choices. That is, it's frequently both. Using a process that would best be called "reflexive becoming," a psyops can be turned into a flashpoint issue in the culture war, a movement, or even an insurrection. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay breaks down the idea so that we're better equipped for life in our agitprop battlefield. Join him to prepare yourself.

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Is Woke Real, or Is It a Psyop?

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 128

Freedom of speech is a concept a lot of people appreciate but also struggle with. It can be challenging for people to distinguish between threats to their freedom of speech, cancellation, censorship, and, on the other hand, more speech being the answer to speech. Drawing from one of his oldest popular writings (https://newdiscourses.com/2020/01/freedom-of-speech-fallacy-demanding-heard/), host James Lindsay addresses the issue of freedom of speech in principle in this new episode of New Discourses Bullets. He breaks down the four component freedoms in freedom of speech: to speak, to hear, not to speak, and not to hear. He also distinguishes these from certain things that are not part of freedom of speech, including unprotected speech and a small variety of entitlement complexes that hide behind accusations of censorship. Join him to get clearer on this important issue.

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What Freedom of Speech Is and Isn't

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 131

What is civilization? What is it based on? In the biggest picture, there are three fundamental pillars to civilization: truth, justice, and love. (You'll notice how Biblical this is.) Truth allows us to make real, meaningful strides, and reality will punish us if we fail to keep to it. Justice is necessary to keep people functioning together and working for their society and the American Dream. But these must also be pursued with an orientation toward love, not enmity, if we are to foster a civilization instead of a tribalistic warzone. Join host James Lindsay for this important episode of New Discourses Bullets where he lays out these three crucial pillars of civilization.

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The Three Pillars of Civilization

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 132

There are several differences between the Left and the Right on ideological, philosophical, and political grounds, but in plain practical terms, there's another obvious difference. The Left has radicalized in a way conservatives have not, and in proportions that conservatives have not. Why is that? The answer is that the Left has succumbed to the blinding temptation for power far more than the rest of us have, and it has driven them mad. The thing is, while radicalism and political violence are not (at present) "both sides" problems, temptation is a both-sides problem. The friend-enemy distinction as a criterion of politics tempts us too, and we must continue to choose to reject it, or we will lose this most important distinction between Left and Right. Join host James Lindsay for this episode of New Discourses Bullets wherein he discusses this important matter.

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The Difference Between Left and Right

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 133

Over the last few years, much has been said about the "motte and bailey" rhetorical strategy, which is a dishonest way in which postmodernist, Woke, and other manipulative people argue. First described by Nicholas Shackel in a 2005 paper, "On the Vacuity of Postmodern Methodology," it has become a standard explanation for the Woke era in the last few years. In Counter Wokecraft (https://www.amazon.com/Counter-Wokecraft-Manual-Combatting-University/dp/B09LH2L3B6/ref=sr_1_1), James Lindsay and Charles Pincourt outline both offensive and defensive uses of this crooked strategy, which is a kind of "strategic equivocation" used to steal power. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains how the "motte and bailey" strategy can be iterated through a series of players to give legitimacy to truly radical ideas and programs while the actors involved keep their own hands mostly clean. Join him to understand an important dynamic.

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The Iterated Motte and Bailey Strategy

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 134

At the center of Woke thinking is critical theory. So, what is it? In short, critical theory is a tool for delegitimizing a real thing for not being some kind of sociopolitical ideal thing that cannot even exist. The way it works is by holding the real thing up to the standards of an imaginary ideal rather than against the contingencies of reality and criticizing it with the aim of breaking people's faith in it, simply for existing in reality. It's a wicked tool almost always used to undermine something legitimate so that something illegitimate can replace it (dialectics). Join host James Lindsay for this episode of New Discourses Bullets, where he breaks it down and makes it clear.

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The Essence of Critical Theory

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 135

Government can do many things in the world, but one thing it cannot do is produce abundance and prosperity. Why not? Its incentives are all wrong, and over time they tend to get worse. In this probing episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay dives into the intrinsic issues with government when it comes to creating abundance and prosperity, explaining why these are the product of a "problem-solving theory of value" that government is poorly incentivized to work with. Join him for the insights on why expanding the influence of government over the economy will not produce an economy more capable of producing abundance or prosperity (solving problems real people have).

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Big Government Can't Produce Abundance

Pursuing the light of objective truth in subjective darkness.

New tracks tagged #Nd Bullets