Disrupting Power Structures through Radical Actions

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The chapter challenges the effectiveness of traditional tools in addressing systemic issues like racism and oppression, advocating for radical actions such as defunding the police. It explores the concept of dismantling oppressive systems through an analogy of a house and discusses manipulating language for specific goals within critical social justice. The conversation emphasizes the importance of discomfort in seeking truth and delves into interventions at societal, interpersonal, and individual levels to promote equity.

What happens when ideology replaces critical thinking across academia? Philosopher, author, and former professor Peter Boghossian witnessed this firsthand at Portland State University, and his school was not an anomaly. Known for his role in the “Grievance Studies Affair”, exposing the low quality scholarship published in activist-oriented journals, Peter is worried about how this strange fringe of academia has come to dominate universities. He’s now working to revitalize and advocate for what should be the core of education - critical thinking, open debate, and the rigorous pursuit of truth.

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Follow Peter on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/peterboghossian

Peter on Substack: https://boghossian.substack.com/

Peter on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drpeterboghossian/featured

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Outline:

[0:00] Philosopher, author, and father

[2:06] How tenure corrupts academic journals

[13:50] Grievance studies and hoax papers

[21:18] Reasoning vs rationalizing

[29:56] Can ideology infect the hard sciences?

[36:50] What makes people vulnerable to dogma?