Speaking Truth to Social Justice Conference

In the Panel: Why We Need New Discourses, held on October 13, 2019, in London, panelists Peter Boghossian, Andrew Doyle, James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Mike Nayna, moderated by Michael O'Fallon, came together to critique the influence of social justice ideology on academia and public discourse. Each speaker addressed the effects of ideological capture, particularly in social institutions and education, arguing that social justice’s rigid worldview distorts reality and suppresses open conversation. Lindsay and the panel discussed how critical theory has infiltrated educational and social systems, creating an environment where questioning or debating its assumptions can be socially and professionally costly. Boghossian highlighted the importance of engaging others in genuine dialogue rather than retreating into polarized camps, despite the reputational risks involved. O’Fallon noted that "New Discourses" should reclaim the principles of classical liberalism, where diverse viewpoints are encouraged and respected, offering a much-needed alternative to the current divisive climate. Throughout the discussion, the panel stressed that fostering open, honest dialogue across ideological divides is crucial. They called for a renewed commitment to evidence-based, compassionate conversation, empowering individuals to resist ideological conformity and to support a society that values free inquiry over dogma. Viewers will find this panel 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

In her talk, Doing Social Justice Responsibly on October 13, 2019 at the 'Speaking Truth to Social Justice' conference in London, Helen Pluckrose tackled the ideological excesses within social justice activism, offering a way to address genuine social justice issues without abandoning reason or liberal principles. She argued that the dominant framework in social justice today—rooted in critical theory and postmodernism—has transformed genuine concerns about power and privilege into a rigid worldview. This ideology, she explained, rejects objective truth and promotes “strategic knowledge,” constructed to serve specific identity-based agendas rather than being tested against reality. Pluckrose acknowledged that while social justice concepts like bias, cultural narratives, and the power of language have validity, the radicalized methods often used within social justice turn productive critiques into dogma. Instead of engaging in open dialogue, activists demand conformity, condemning dissenting views as tools of privilege. She urged liberals and conservatives alike to stand for a balanced approach to social justice—one that promotes fairness without sacrificing truth and the ideals of secular liberalism. 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 #SocialJustice

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

In October 2019, James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose, and filmmaker Mike Nayna gathered in London for a panel moderated by Michael O’Fallon to reflect on the infamous "Grievance Studies" project (https://grievanceproject.com/), often called "Sokal Squared." This provocative project involved writing and submitting intentionally absurd papers filled with ideological jargon to academic journals. Their aim was to demonstrate how deeply critical social justice ideologies had compromised academic rigor, making it possible for nonsensical submissions to be accepted as legitimate scholarship. During the panel, Lindsay traced the project’s origins to a simple yet unsettling question about whether fields like gender studies had become akin to a secular dogma. This led to a series of papers, including the now-notorious "dog park" paper, which absurdly linked canine behavior to human rape culture. Mike Nayna, who documented the process, admitted his initial skepticism but explained how his own research into these academic fields revealed the seriousness of the problem. The panel highlighted the broader societal implications of their work. Lindsay and his co-authors warned that when ideology replaces the pursuit of truth, it threatens not only the integrity of scholarship but the foundations of public discourse itself. For them, the "Grievance Studies" project was a stark reminder of the dangers of allowing political agendas to override intellectual honesty and critical thinking. Viewers will find this look back five years in time interesting and informative not just in the content as presented but also in how the panelists' insights have developed and matured over the intervening years. 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 #grievance

In October of 2019, we held a conference in the heart of London with the simple mission of starting to "Speak Truth to Social Justice," a conversation that we can all plainly see now was, even by then, long overdue. Among the eight talks given that day to address the subject, Peter Boghossian addressed the important issue of the ways that the Social Justice ideology stifles free speech. In this passionate talk, he outlines many of the speech-stifling actions that have been made against himself and others when they have dared to speak up about something they believe in when it goes against the "prevailing moral orthodoxy." For Boghossian, and now many of us, that moral orthodoxy is the ideology calling itself Critical Social Justice. Join Dr. Boghossian as he walks you through these points, speaking truth to "Social Justice" and fighting back for freedom of speech and cognitive liberty. Follow Peter at https://twitter.com/peterboghossian. Support New Discourses: https://www.paypal.me/newdiscourses https://patreon.com/newdiscourses https://subscribestar.com/newdiscourses https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9K5PLkj0N_b9JTPdSRwPkg/join Website: https://newdiscourses.com Follow: https://facebook.com/newdiscourses https://twitter.com/NewDiscourses https://instagram.com/newdiscourses https://pinterest.com/newdiscourses/ https://linkedin.com/company/newdiscourses https://minds.com/newdiscourses https://reddit.com/r/NewDiscourses Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/newdiscourses https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-discourses/id1499880546 https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ipc3rvw364nzwvdjjpd6gg3cmuy https://open.spotify.com/show/0HfzDaXI5L4LnJQStFWgZp https://stitcher.com/podcast/new-discourses © 2021 New Discourses. All rights reserved.

Dr. James Lindsay in his talk, “The Truth About Critical Methods,” makes very clear that Critical Social Justice is not the same thing as social justice. He argues that the branding of social justice, which is how Critical Social Justice promotes itself, misleads people about the nature of that movement. Support New Discourses: https://www.patreon.com/newdiscourses Website: https://newdiscourses.com Follow: https://facebook.com/newdiscourses https://twitter.com/NewDiscourses https://www.instagram.com/newdiscourses https://www.linkedin.com/company/newdiscourses https://www.minds.com/newdiscourses https://www.reddit.com/r/NewDiscourses © 2021 New Discourses. All rights reserved.

Helen Pluckrose develops the definition of "Social Justice" as it is used in the academic literature in this tradition, explains its connections to identity politics and the political correctness movement, and then shows the relevance of the original postmodernists to this Theory in some detail. She does this to elegantly describe the progression of these ideas from Theory to activism to the streets by describing how these ideas originated, evolved, and were built upon by successive generations of Theorists leading up to those who have become famous names even outside of the scholarly world today: for examples, Peggy McIntosh, Barbara Applebaum, and Robin DiAngelo. She wraps up by explaining how this newest generation of Theorists simplified the highly abstract ideas of their predecessors and made it far clearer and easier to understand so that it could, as we now see all around us, eventually go mainstream. Follow Helen https://twitter.com/hpluckrose Support New Discourses: https://patreon.com/newdiscourses https://subscribestar.com/newdiscourses Website: https://newdiscourses.com Follow: https://facebook.com/newdiscourses https://twitter.com/NewDiscourses https://instagram.com/newdiscourses https://pinterest.com/newdiscourses/ https://linkedin.com/company/newdiscourses https://minds.com/newdiscourses https://reddit.com/r/NewDiscourses Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/newdiscourses https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-discourses/id1499880546 https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ipc3rvw364nzwvdjjpd6gg3cmuy https://open.spotify.com/show/0HfzDaXI5L4LnJQStFWgZp https://stitcher.com/podcast/new-discourses © 2020 New Discourses. All rights reserved.

New Discourses convened in October of 2019 in the National Liberal Club of London for a day-long conference titled Speaking Truth to Social Justice. There, Portland State University philosophy professor Peter Boghossian gave a rousing talk about the need to “speak truth in the face of danger,” parrhesia, as the Ancient Greeks called it, as this applies to Critical Social Justice. Follow Peter Boghossian: https://twitter.com/peterboghossian Support New Discourses: https://patreon.com/newdiscourses Website: https://newdiscourses.com Follow: https://facebook.com/newdiscourses https://twitter.com/NewDiscourses https://instagram.com/newdiscourses https://linkedin.com/company/newdiscourses https://minds.com/newdiscourses https://reddit.com/r/NewDiscourses © 2021 New Discourses. All rights reserved.

In October of 2019, a small group of genuinely liberal-minded people gathered together for a day of speeches, panels, and community in the Gladstone Library in the National Liberal Club of London. The conference had a title that succinctly described its purpose: Speaking Truth to Social Justice. Over the course of the day, even as the Extinction Rebellion protest raged outside just a block away, we gave seven talks and held two panel discussions, all with the intention of recovering and restating genuine liberalism in this unique era of history, where it faces unique threats. Last to speak in the evening was our good friend Andrew Doyle, a comedian and satirist most famous for his excellent work with the satirical faux-Woke Twitter account Titania McGrath. In his brilliant and hilarious talk, Doyle provides a worthy and robust defense of both free speech and free thought. He does so by explaining the long history of satire and satirical hoaxes and their applications against unjust power. These, he reminds us, are necessary anywhere power over-asserts itself, especially in censorship, not just to deflate scolds we tend to associate with the right but also those who have arisen recently on the left, before ending with a twist: revealing that he, too, (maybe…, and that’s beside his point) has contributed to this sometimes-necessary tradition. Support New Discourses: https://www.patreon.com/newdiscourses Website: https://newdiscourses.com Follow: https://facebook.com/newdiscourses https://twitter.com/NewDiscourses https://www.instagram.com/newdiscourses https://www.linkedin.com/company/newdiscourses https://www.minds.com/newdiscourses https://www.reddit.com/r/NewDiscourses © 2021 New Discourses. All rights reserved.