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Cynical Theories
- How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody
- Narrated by: Helen Pluckrose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
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Cynical Theories
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Publisher's Summary
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best seller!
Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga or cook Chinese food? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed so quickly to challenge the very logic of Western society?
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.
While acknowledging the need to challenge the complacency of those who think a just society has been fully achieved, Pluckrose and Lindsay break down how this often radical activist scholarship does far more harm than good, not least to those marginalized communities it claims to champion. They also detail its alarmingly inconsistent and illiberal ethics. Only through a proper understanding of the evolution of these ideas, they conclude, can those who value science, reason, and consistently liberal ethics successfully challenge this harmful and authoritarian orthodoxy - in the academy, in culture, and beyond.
What listeners say about Cynical Theories
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 22-07-2021
great listen
great read. It could almost be a comedy if these theory's weren't becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. They are so easily debunked and dismissed yet still surge forward.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paul
- 14-04-2021
This is the most amazing book I have ever read
Honestly, this book took my mind to a place it has never been before.
Anybody who is concerned about the state of the world and why all this crazy stuff is happening in society generally must listen to this book. Listen two or three times to absorb its rich content. listening the first time is hard, there is so much to absorb, but you will not want to stop listening once you start. A must for parents!!!!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- E. J. Lizier
- 18-06-2021
Book of the year
Of the more than 50 non-fiction books I’ve read in the last 12 months, this was the best. Pluckrose and Lindsey have done a terrific job of breaking down and explaining in plain language the many concepts and issues that need to be understood in the realm of Critical Theory. This is a marvellous effort to reinvigorate liberalism and Enlightenment values.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- Miguel L.
- 30-11-2021
excellent book
fantastic book, definitely worth reading if you are interesting in theory - knowledge - social justice.
Note: the narrator have a couple of issues on chapter 7 (repeated sentence and changes in volume) but overall it's great book
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- Cris
- 03-12-2020
A must read in 2020
This book is very informative and provides a solid knowledge base into critical theories and the way they’re currently applied.
It’s really well written and easily digestible.
Narration is really nice too.
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3 people found this helpful
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- roger lewis
- 10-12-2020
brilliant
this is a brilliant reasonable book that talks common sense through out I absolutely loved it
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bill H
- 11-05-2021
An enormously edifying book. Well written, in fact one of the best I have read/listened to
This is book of the times. Enormous clarity of presentation and a message for the time.as well as an explanation and critique of present contentious thought and belief systems. Brilliant.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-06-2021
Detailed, rigorous, and complete
The book does an excellent job of surveying the social justice landscape, activism, and scholarly outputs. It spends time providing background and history to how these theories have developed to what they are today.
It uses a sophisticated and rigorous approach to pulling apart critical theory, and shines sunlight on it for all to see. The book isn’t a slam dunk on those people who follow theory, but a take down of the idea itself.
What is amazing when reflecting on what the book puts forward, is that critical theory is self contradictory, and overtly religious in its logic and practices, that anyone following enlightenment values can marvel at its absurdity.
Critical theory is creating new and harsh power dynamics which, ironically, are what it espouses to be tearing down.
This truely is a case study in how, with a vocal enough minority, destructive and farcical frameworks of belief can take hold and brainwash people into following suit.
The books ends with some simple instructions on why to do as a public when confronted with these ideas. Be brave, and just like that little boy declare that the emperor has no clothes.
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- K-2
- 26-06-2022
Excellent introduction to grievance studies
In this work, the authors introduce post-modernism and the current ideas which use it as cornerstone: from fat-studies to critical race theory, the authors show how they originated, their fundamentals and what can be considered their missing points. An excellent critique, beautifully narrated by one of the authors, Helen Pluckrose.
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- Nick
- 20-12-2020
A thorough breakdown of modern discourse madness
I would suggest this book as a brilliantly helpful academic summary of the underlying themes in our current social justice discourse. What a physics course does for driver education but instead for the new age of justified and rationalized descrimination in the pursuit of equity.
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