Battle of Ideas “Cultural Marxism” is a Myth. The Threat Comes From Elsewhere. Posted on October 30, 2018October 30, 20189 commentsbyHelen Pluckrose This is a lightly edited transcript of Helen Pluckrose’s opening statement on the panel “Cultural Marxism: Threat or Myth” at the Battle of Ideas. “Cultural Marxism” in common usage is… View Post
View Post 14 min Features Politics Identity Politics Does Not Continue the Work of the Civil Rights Movements Posted on September 25, 2018September 25, 201833 commentsbyHelen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay It is nearly beyond dispute that the Civil Rights Movement, second-wave liberal feminism, and Gay Pride were liberal projects, both in the broad philosophical sense and in the narrower meaning… View Post
View Post 8 min Politics The Fundamental Sense: Why Enlightenment Values Belong to Everyone Posted on September 22, 20185 commentsbyNeel Sengupta There’s something terribly wrong with how we talk about liberalism. By liberalism, I mean both the political idea—that individual liberty and human rights are paramount—and the historical movement— that expanded… View Post
View Post 10 min Politics Liberalism as Pluralism: A Conservative Argument. Posted on September 13, 2018One commentbyPaul Barnes There are several possible conservative arguments for the liberal tradition, especially within Anglo-American strains of liberalism. Michael Novak’s book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, a serious account of the type… View Post
View Post 19 min Features Politics How Did We Become Post-Liberal? Posted on August 28, 20189 commentsbyRussell Blackford Introduction In what follows, I will offer the best picture I can of the character of liberalism as a set of political theories, given that there has never been a… View Post
View Post 12 min Politics No, Liberal Lefties are Not Right-Wing Posted on August 23, 2018August 25, 201855 commentsbyHelen Pluckrose Left-wing liberals who are opposed to the identity politics developments on the left increasingly find ourselves accused of being right wing, referred to as “right wing” and scornfully urged to… View Post
View Post 6 min Politics The Liberal Spectrum: Cultural Libertarianism to “Call Out” Culture Posted on July 28, 2018July 28, 20185 commentsbyHelen Pluckrose The term “liberal” is wide-ranging and potentially confusing. This is unsurprising considering that the label ‘liberal’ is culturally specific to the extent where it is often understood to refer to… View Post
View Post 13 min Features Liberal Individualism and the Challenge of Narrative Posted on July 12, 2018August 10, 20183 commentsbyJohn Wood, Jr. There is a philosophical self-image at the heart of the western world’s conception of itself. That image is the classically liberal vision of the self—the individual—as the essential unit of… View Post
View Post 10 min Politics The Worst of Liberal Absolutism Posted on June 5, 2018June 5, 20182 commentsbyO.T. Ford The problem is that there are also valid arguments on the other side. Only an absolutist pretends otherwise. View Post
View Post 17 min Politics Sympathology: Being Aggrieved on Behalf of Those Who Are Not Posted on May 18, 2018May 19, 20184 commentsbyStephen Clouse Pathologized Sympathy There is a group of people who frequently appear in the headlines, identified by a wide range of terms. Instead of listing all of them here, it’s best… View Post
View Post 24 min Features A Principled Defense of the University Posted on March 23, 20184 commentsbyJames A. Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose The modern university is undoubtedly among humanity’s crowning achievements, and, more than many other advances made over the last five centuries, it is in danger. Now, more than any time… View Post
View Post 9 min Politics A Liberal Who Remembers Posted on March 11, 2018March 14, 201825 commentsbyOliver Traldi Lefty friends keep asking me if — or telling me that — I’m a conservative now. But I’m just a liberal who remembers what they’ve forgotten. I remember what it meant to… View Post
View Post 10 min Features Jacobin Is for Posers Posted on July 5, 2017December 31, 201712 commentsbyChristopher England In the wake of the global financial meltdown, Jacobin magazine has emerged as the preeminent mouthpiece for a resurgent Marxist intelligentsia. It attracts a steady stream of articles from academics… View Post
View Post 10 min Features The Left: Why It Should Be Saved — Not Abandoned Posted on March 9, 2017September 9, 20176 commentsbyAndrew Gripp On February 11, journalist and lifelong liberal Chadwick Moore “came out” in the New York Post — but not as gay (he did that when he was 15). This time,… View Post
View Post 11 min Politics Moderates in the Extreme: The Islamist Spectrum and its Challenge for Liberal Democracy Posted on January 24, 2017September 9, 20173 commentsbyAR Devine One day in 2011 when I was living in Manchester, I encountered a Christian fundamentalist standing on Market Street wearing a sandwich board that expressed some of the fundamentals of… View Post
View Post 6 min Politics Enemy of My Enemy: The Importance of Avoiding Alt-Right Conspiracy Theorists Posted on January 22, 2017January 23, 2017One commentbyMalhar Mali | by Wyatt Harding | As our culture wars rage on, a vast array of socio-political ideologies are emerging as traditional boundaries of thought are becoming increasingly fractured. An entire… View Post
View Post 10 min Features Why I No Longer Identify as a Feminist Posted on December 29, 2016December 31, 2017172 commentsbyHelen Pluckrose I don’t remember ever not being a feminist. I toddled in marches of the 1970s with my mother. She became a second wave feminist in the 1960s after being denied… View Post
View Post 7 min Culture & Media MLK Would Gladly Violate Your Safe Space Posted on November 21, 2016October 2, 2017No commentsbyLucas Lynch Martin Luther King’s legacy is all-encompassing and — like all great works of art — speaks to us personally and to the things that we care about. Today is a day… View Post