Summary of Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay's Cynical Theories

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay's Cynical Theories in 20 minutes.

Please note: This is a summary & not the original book.

Original book introduction: In this probing and intrepid volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognizable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media dogpiles, as by its tenets, which are all too often embraced as axiomatic in mainstream media: knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous. As Pluckrose and Lindsay warn, the unchecked proliferation of these anti-Enlightenment beliefs present a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to modernity itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jan 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781952482588

IRB Media

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Insights from Introduction

#1

The right is trying to preserve outdated Western values, while the left is advocating for a more ordered world based on their more global values. The problem is that they have become too authoritarian in the sense that they completely reject any values that slightly clash with theirs.

#2

The progressive left has aligned itself with postmodernism, which rejects objective truth as a fantasy dreamed up by naive and bigoted Enlightenment thinkers who underestimated the collateral consequences of modernity’s progress.

#3

The Social Justice Movement is authoritarian, censorious, and intolerant. It opposes freedom of speech and forces on you a set of beliefs that you must accept without question. In a sense, it is like a religion.

#4

Social Justice warriors believe that anyone with privilege contributes to the oppression of minorities. They tend to interpret every interaction with the more privileged as a microaggression, further victimizing themselves.

#5

The Social Justice Movement has gone so far in its tactics that a lot of people who are good-hearted and well-intentioned are afraid to speak out because they