Freddie DeBoer: The Cult of Smart

General:
Freddie’s Substack: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/
Freddie’s website: https://fredrikdeboer.com/
The Cult of Smart available here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250224491/thecultofsmart

Follow:
On X:  https://twitter.com/freddiesubstack?lang=en

References:
Freddie’s essay: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/education-doesnt-work-20

Timestamps:
1.04  Intros: A little on Freddie’s background.
2.05:  Iona reads from The Cult of Smart.
4.05: Freddie expands on the issues addressed in the book: the problems behind modern educational ideology and philosophy, how America compares to the rest of the world and within a historical context.
12.03:  Why is the education system not achieving its aims and how might these issues be addressed? The introduction of tech and various policies and interventions and how these have failed to have an impact. 
21.18: Iona reads the widget analogy from the book. They discuss the change in blame for poor results from the pupil to the teacher. 
27.32:  Freddie highlights our obsession with academic success and with a failure to acknowledge that certain characteristics are heritable. He and Iona discuss the merits and desirability of different skillsets. 
40.45:  The difficulty of predicting which skills will be most valuable in the future and on how technology plays a role. 
44.20: Freddie explains how, even within a Marxist framework, individual differences in aptitudes are still important and excellence is still valued. 
49.47:  Wage gaps between academics, middle-management administrators, and trades people. 
57.17: Iona argues for the inherent value of elite institutions and highlights how the UK model differs from the US model in terms of admissions and funding. 
1.04.07: Freddie expands on the enrollment crisis in the US and on how college is largely sold as a recreational experience versus the elite Ivy League colleges where endowments motivate a different admissions pathway. 
1.09.30: The difficulties of discussing IQ on a group basis, specifically regarding race.
1.20.42:  Freddie sums up his argument that educational interventions and policy cannot solve inequality and that insisting we are all capable of academic excellence is neither a compassionate nor useful goal. Schools should still be well-funded and be valued beyond chasing test score.
1.22.48: Thanks and outro. 

Sound editing: Justin Ward
Shownotes: Nicola Muir

Episode 145 - Freddie DeBoer - The Cult of Smart

I spoke with Izabella Tabarovsky about the war between Israel & Palestine and antisemitism on the left.
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach
Follow Izabella: @IzaTabaro

You can see the work Izabella here: 
https://londonantisemitism.com/
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/search?keywords=tabarovsky

Ep 161 Izabella Tabarovsky

I spoke with Yasmine Mohammed about the support for Hamas in the West and how what she had written about in her book, Unveiled, is playing out in real time. 
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Yasmine: @YasMohammedxx

You can buy Yasmine’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Unveiled-Western-Liberals-Empower-Radical/dp/B084HBTTMM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3UCQA2DC8LQYW&keywords=unveiled+how+western+liberals+empower+radical+islam&qid=1702822615&sprefix=unveil%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1
 
You can find out and support her work at Free Hearts Free Minds: https://www.gofundme.com/f/vhxs2s-free-hearts-free-minds?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

And you can listen to her podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL3JuJ41_RgM_D983YFvuRw

Ep 162 Yasmine Mohammed

I spoke with Darshan Maharaja about immigration in Canada, foreign students, the backlash from Canadians, and overcorrections from opposing parties. 
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Darshan: @TheophanesRex

You can find more of Darshan’s work here: https://darshanmaharaja.ca/

Ep 163: Darshan Maharaja

I spoke with Geoff Horsman about higher education in Canada, and if it is past the point of no return, some of the pushback happening, using legislation to push back, and run off effects as our institutions are ideologically captured. 
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow the Society For Academic Freedom: @SocietyforAcad1
And the Waterloo Chapter: @WatSAFS

Ep 164 Geoff Horsman

I spoke with Bruce Pardy about Government overreach, how historically citizens gave up their rights, overreach during COVID, Bill C-63, and we discussed solutions.
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Bruce: @PardyBruce  
You can find out more about Bruce’s organization here: https://www.rightsprobe.org/

Ep 165 Bruce Pardy

I spoke with Wilfred Reilly about his upcoming new book, Lies my Liberal Teacher Told Me. People being made historically illiterate, and how problems in education have downstream effects
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Wilfred: @wil_da_beast630
You can pre-order his new book here: https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780063265974/lies-my-liberal-teacher-told-me/

Ep 166 Wilfred Reilly

I spoke with Stuart Parker about being exiled from the left, how the left has adopted extreme ideologies of race and gender, the alliance between the far left and Islam, and his writing and work
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Stuart: @stuartlosaltos
You can find his collected essays here: https://amazon.ca/dp/B0CW189T6X?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk…
Get more information on his writing here: https://dimensionfold.com/authors/stuart-parker/
Check out his blog: https://stuartparker.ca
Subscribe to his Substack: https://stuartparkersblog.substack.com
And check out his work with Los Altos and their courses: https://losaltos.ca

Ep 167 Stuart Parker

I spoke with Helen Pluckrose about her forthcoming book, The Counterweight Handbook, the differences between CSJ and liberalism, and techniques for pushing back against CSJ ideologies. 
Follow me: @Dangerousspeach
 Follow Helen: @HPluckrose

You can read Helen’s writing here: https://helenpluckrose.substack.com/

You can order The Counterweight Handbook here: https://www.amazon.com/Counterweight-Handbook-Principled-Strategies-Justice_at/dp/1634312287/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33VETH9XJF4DW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WgHUxpQxCQVDEiOeWkMT01Vwz0aKOTQfL3kzFPAuS0MiDlT5wGp2pzj4csq2cGyW.6oLuW9lOcrBU3Pa_Dpc85FgNgoNI_uEH09ExP1CMKsU&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+counterweight+handbook&qid=1716031323&sprefix=The+counterweight+%2Caps%2C112&sr=8-1 

You can get Cynical Theories here: https://www.amazon.com/Cynical-Theories-Scholarship-Everything-Everybody/dp/B08LDSWJ9V/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BDXTEUKTA5I4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Jr-8Si3y-CoDBap-V0rYHfeBSLHPGE56yChUI-4-1m-8nqsUF0mSril3IjHvERvSVWwkaIGoS2LwFdnPjETnkyjFyvdvAMqtw6Bo8VdUszqmzvYis27h1zzkj1EuEEOlfUK52kOwUhMQnqxuvm9HOAMj8XbNP50O0dP0CAwskKJ4haHghSLdeG8GOtxfyEiN21KizMKSQhbIshJY-etbWjpSJHdMy78C_6jAv611Muc.36KE_enU1XFBXh8SMSW0F8UXdUMK_brvwleq8J9J43c&dib_tag=se&keywords=cynical+theories&qid=1716031167&sprefix=cynica%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1

You can get Social Injustice here: https://www.amazon.com/Social-justice-Important-Wrong-Reader-Friendly/dp/1634312236/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20QNU9IDBW1F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2OUzhqD07lTUUuTUdUFhy19n7ar9-a-J2OD-YBYS4GTGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.tJDlbAw74R0Rj9d8D3k-Q6w1txjrqqXu8Kh70L-tstA&dib_tag=se&keywords=Social+injustice+helen+pluckrose&qid=1716031219&s=audible&sprefix=social+injustice+helen+pluckrose%2Caudible%2C109&sr=1-1

Ep 168 Helen Pluckrose

I spoke with Eric Kaufmann about his latest book, The Third Awokening. Have we reached peak woke, how far CSJ ideology has spread, and how to pushback.

Follow me: @Dangerousspeach 
Follow Eric: @epkaufm
You can get Eric’s book here: https://a.co/d/eYrFUSg
You can check out more of Eric’s work here: https://www.sneps.net/

Ep 169 Eric Kaufmann

You can find Aaron’s podcast, Embrace the Void, here: 
https://voidpod.com/podcasts; 

and his podcast, Philosophers in Space, co-hosted by Thomas Smith, here:
https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/

You can find Aaron’s conversations on Letter and write to him here:
https://letter.wiki/AaronRabinowitz/conversations

Support Aaron here (I’m a patron!):
https://www.patreon.com/EmbraceTheVoid

Follow Aaron on Twitter: @ETVPod

Further References

Thomas Chatterton Williams, A Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race (2019)
My article on fascism:
https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/05/fascism-and-how-to-fight-it-a-letter-exchange/

Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963):
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail

J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859): econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty.html

Gurwinder Bhogal, “How Not to Deradicalize a Twitter Neonazi”:
https://areomagazine.com/2017/10/28/how-not-to-de-radicalize-a-twitter-neo-nazi/

Rohit Chopra, The Virtual Hindu Rashtra (2019):
https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Hindu-Rashtra-Saffron-Nationalism/dp/9353029570

For our discussion of Jordan Peterson, see the timestamps:
https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/14-william-buckner-and-cody-moser

My letter exchange with Nick Kano:
https://letter.wiki/conversation/250

Clyde Rathbone’s interview on Embrace the Void:
https://voidpod.com/podcasts/2019/11/20/ev-117-letterswiki-with-clyde-rathbone

Timestamps

6:15 Is civility fetishised? Tone policing and the difficulty of arguing.
19:10 Should some people be excused from civility? Is frankness itself a privilege?
22:35 Is the left is more averse to free speech than the right?
27:13 Freedom of speech in academe
39:47 The ecological fallacy
47:30 Protesting
50:58 Moral signalling
55:27 Free speech and its trade offs; free speech on social media

46 - Aaron Rabinowitz - Is Civility Overrated?

Areo Magazine's Two for Tea podcast is hosted by Iona Italia. For early access to episodes, support us at https://www.patreon.com/twofortea or https://www.patreon.com/areo.

46 - Aaron Rabinowitz - Is Civility Overrated?

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