Cynical Theories: Difference between revisions

A brave book in our polarised times, in {{br|Cynical Theories}}, {{author|Helen Pluckrose}} and {{author|James Lindsay}} take on the intellectual foundations of the current strain of militant leftist “critical” thought. Brave because the received wisdom piped into our liberal echo chambers declares that the intolerant ''right'' is the problem. Brave, because of the repercussions — mass shaming, mob rule cancellation, livelihood ruination — that sometimes rains down on those who transgress its principles, even inadvertently. It’s somewhat bracing even writing a favourable book review.

====The [[Theory]] of [[Theory]]====

Anyway. Call it what you will: critical [[theory]], social justice [[theory]], applied (''post''?) [[post-modernism]], “[[Theory]]” with a capital “T” or just raving bonkers wokeness — it is a movement that tactically defies categorisation, and therefore critical appraisal by deliberate design. In {{br|Cynical Theories}} Pluckrose and Lindsay wilfully transgress those [[Hermeneutic|hermeneutical]] boundaries and pin it down, articulating, examining and shining an unflattering light on it and the ways it subverts traditional liberal values of openness, enquiry and reasoned debate — liberal values that, they cogently argue, have delivered most of the social progress of the past half-century.