The Thing You Run Into When Your Beliefs Are False | James Lindsay

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Nov 26, 2024

James Lindsay delivers a thought-provoking critique of critical theory and its impact on social justice. He argues that this perspective dismisses objective truth in favor of shifting political agendas. Using the Challenger disaster as a poignant example, he stresses the need for evidence-based inquiry and grounded beliefs. Lindsay also discusses the troubling shift in education, particularly in mathematics, advocating for a balance between social issues and objective truths. Ultimately, he champions liberal values and the scientific method as essential to progress.

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INSIGHT

Truth vs. Politics

Critical theory prioritizes political change over truth, per James Lindsay.
Social justice seeks to emancipate us from the constraints of reality.

ANECDOTE

Challenger Disaster

James Lindsay recounts the Challenger disaster, where ignoring engineers' warnings about cold temperatures led to tragedy.
This illustrates how disregarding reality due to beliefs can have dire consequences.

INSIGHT

Critical Pedagogy and Power

Critical pedagogy views student claims not as truth claims, but as expressions of power.
Its goal is to show how power shapes understanding, not to assess truth.

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In this October 2019 lecture at the conference 'Speaking Truth to Social Justice' in London, James Lindsay presented a compelling critique of critical social justice and its ideological foundation in critical theory. He argued that this worldview fundamentally rejects objective truth, reason, and evidence-based methods, which are essential for genuine progress. According to Lindsay, critical theorists prioritize “strategic” theories over true or false ones, seeking to advance political agendas rather than to understand reality. Drawing on examples from feminist and social justice literature, Lindsay illustrated how critical theory undermines fields like engineering, climate science, and education by prioritizing social power over truth. He contended that while these disciplines traditionally rely on rigorous methods to solve problems, critical theory disregards such rigor, treating knowledge as a mere tool for enforcing power dynamics. For Lindsay, this ideological shift threatens progress, as it ignores that “reality is the thing you run into when your beliefs are false.” Ultimately, Lindsay called for a return to evidence-based inquiry and the liberal systems that have historically driven human advancement. By defending reason, scientific method, and open discourse, he argued, society can continue to make meaningful progress rather than regress into a cynicism that treats truth as a mere strategy for political ends. Viewers will find this talk interesting not just for its contents but also for the glimpse back in time by five years, which allows them to see how the views expressed have matured and developed over the intervening time. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Truth