New Discourses

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 151 Being a very effective propagandist doesn't just rely on having a powerful message. It also depends on trust. Thus, the ideal propagandist is, in fact, a "trusted voice." In the realm of "Woke," which is to say with regard to critical theories, that trusted voice tends to take on a particular form. He is a critic, one who calls out the embedded corruption of the system all around him. The mode in which this happens in our world today comes from Antonio Gramcsi's "organic intellectual." Of course, Gramsci was a father of the Western Marxist tradition, and his organic intellectual is a man of the people who really understands why things aren't right. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay breaks down this idea and presents it in terms that are relevant and timely, both on the Left and Right. Join him to learn all about it. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Gramsci

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 198 When we talk about Woke Left and Woke Right, while the essential core of being "Woke" is mostly the same, there are some key differences. These organizational and conceptual differences arise in part because of deeper differences in how each of these projects divides the world, always ultimately into "us versus them." With the Woke Left, it is divided starkly horizontally by classes deemed oppressor and oppressed. With the Woke Right, on the other hand, the model is more of circled wagons. The authentic, ideal nation defines the group that sees itself as alienated and even oppressed, while outside of that core are contaminants that are ultimately degrading it and ruining its inheritance. In this groundbreaking episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay introduces the concept of "Woke Nationalism" to explain this phenomenon, a Wokeness built around a collective of a nation. Join him to understand this important new idea. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 150 The Nazi Party had a problem through its entire existence, from 1920 to 1945. That problem was Christianity, which was in its way. The Nazi movement, you see, was a totalizing worldview that is in many ways at complete odds with Christianity. In order to get German Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, to accept and move toward Nazi ideology, a concept known as "Positive Christianity" was proposed as the official belief doctrine for the Third Reich, but what was it? Initially, it seems it was a placeholder meant to placate German Christians without offending either Catholic or Protestant. Later, it was developed by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg into a "bridge faith" meant to bring Christians in through their faith and slowly transform them into Nazis who would leave Christianity behind. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay lays it all out in a deep, thorough, and succinct way so that you can understand. Join him, and you'll see not only history but clear parallels to the "Christian Nationalism" movements of today. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Nazism

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 149 The Long March Through the Institutions is a Marxist strategy for infiltrating the West through its institutions. Realizing by the 1960s that they would not be able to take the United States and Western Civilization from the outside, Marxists started formulating strategies in the "Western Marxist" canon to take it from the inside. That required taking over its institutions and transforming them and their culture. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains this insidious concept and strategy and how it continues to this day, now infiltrating conservative institutions too. Don't miss it. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #institutions

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 148 A critical theory can be made out of anything. You can have a Critical Race Theory about race, a Critical Gender Theory about sex, even a Critical America Theory about America. And, we have all of these. In universities, Critical America Theory is usually branded as "American Studies," but we have it everywhere. It's not just in schools but in media, entertainment, law, and everything else. It also doesn't just appear in left-wing ways like Howard Zinn's infamous People's History of the United States or Nikole Hannah-Jones's crappy "1619 Project." It comes at us in right-wing forms as well, most visibly from Tucker Carlson. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains the idea of Critical America Theory and how we encounter it today across the political spectrum, including its funding and support by George Soros and his foundations. Join him to understand this wicked attack on America. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 197 The Jewish Question, which is "what do we do with the Jews?" rests on the presumption that they aren't wanted here, or maybe anywhere. It is therefore intrinsically antisemitic. Since the catastrophe of World War II, all civilized societies have come to recognize this fact and refuse the Jewish Question except in the dark margins of society (at least, until recently). With the state of Israel on the world stage again, though, the question hasn't gone away but has changed shape. Now, instead of asking about what we do with the Jews, presuming they aren't wanted, it is a sign of nationalist erudition to ask what we should do with Israel, still on the presumption that it isn't wanted. This is called "the Israel Question," and it is merely a proxy for the Jewish Question in our post-WWII world. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay explains in thorough detail how the Israel Question is just a modern reinvention of the Jewish Question that hides the same darkness. Join him to learn why almost all anti-Zionism is just the same old antisemitism pretending to be high-minded global politics and foreign affairs. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Israel

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 147 The friend-enemy distinction, as it is called, is the underlying organizational principle of the Marxist Left, radical Islam, and the Fascist Reactionary Left (usually mislabeled "Right"). It is spelled out in detail in a 1932 book by Carl Schmitt called The Concept of the Political, (https://amzn.to/4rbQpFN) and in that book Schmitt goes into great detail to explain what is meant by the term "enemies." He gives much less clear attention to the opposing term "friends," in his fundamental construction. So who are the friends in the friend-enemy distinction? Friends are those who will join with you to fight the enemy, who has been declared by the leader (or Führer). In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay exposes this ugly fact about the "friendship" (or, allyship) in the friend-enemy distinction and reveals that it is the root of authoritarian and totalitarian thinking. Join him to learn why this concept is so evil. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 196 Today in America, we face a confusing "Christian Nationalist" (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/04/two-wolves-of-christian-nationalism/) movement that is reaching into many legitimate complaints and anxieties of American Christians and turning them to its project. While the term can mean many things, at least some of the meanings of "Christian Nationalism" are undeniably a kind of political movement (https://newdiscourses.com/2024/12/the-hoax-that-broke-the-conservative-internet/) posing as a theological movement. In fact, the most movement-ish strains (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/08/wtf-is-christian-nationalism/) of that line of thinking are precisely that. Something like this has happened before. When Hitler and his National Socialists were establishing the Third Reich, they had a huge cultural problem to overcome: nearly all Germans were Christians, not National Socialists. Their solution was an ambiguous term called "Positive Christianity" that increasingly got used as a bridge faith to turn believing German Christians into Nazis. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay continues his Nazi Experiment series (https://newdiscourses.com/?s=nazi+experimentto) explore the justifications for Nazi "Positive Christianity," revealing concerning echoes from the past. Join him to hear about the Third Reich's unique "Christian Nationalism" movement in their own words. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Christian

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 146 The essence of a critical theory is a philosophical stance we can and should call "negative idealism," and this negative idealism explains why "critical" movements like Communism, Fascism, and Woke of all types trend toward violence. Setting the stage against the recent sprees of "transgender" violence as an important backdrop, host James Lindsay explains the psychological destruction of holding a negative idealist worldview in this cutting-edge episode of New Discourses Bullets. Join him to understand these troubling phenomena in a deep and important way. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Idealism

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 195 When we face the question of what makes us who we are, different people have different answers. Some see ourselves as receptacles of tradition. Others see us as a self to be discovered in the world. Still others see us as blank slates who can become whatever we can dream. In some sense, these dispositions are in all of us, and that's healthy. They also define broad political orientations and movements. Importantly, they can also all go bad. Some months ago, James Lindsay, host of the New Discourses Podcast, wrote an essay for New Discourses called "Man with Three Faces" (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/04/man-with-three-faces-politics-pathology-and-the-modern-selves/) discussing this idea, and in this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, he talks through it casually, explaining its meaning and relevance for a wider audience. Join him for a deep exploration into what it means to be ourselves and what it can teach us about our politics. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #politics

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 145 Carl Schmitt captured the essence of totalitarian politics in his book The Concept of the Political (1932) (https://amzn.to/4sf2Rpk). It is the distinction between friend and enemy. The poison of this kind of thinking is in the ugly fact that the declared enemy must be treated as the declared enemy once a political faction has declared one, and anyone who doesn't go along with that declaration declares himself one of the enemy. That is, it's not just the us-versus-them nature of the declaration of friend and enemy that poisons politics and societies; it's the logic of the friend-enemy political program entirely. Host James Lindsay explains this dangerous logic in this new episode of New Discourses Bullets. Join him to understand. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #friendenemy

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 194 James Lindsay's second trip to Israel was very different from his first (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/11/am-yisrael-chai/). On this trip, he got what he calls his "Real Jerusalem Experience," and he did a wide variety of things, not so much a coherent, organized tour. In the process, he was introduced to Israeli and Jewish life in a new way, which has offered him insights on what it means to be American and why America is the way that it is. Perhaps most poignantly, while visiting Kibbutz Nir Oz with Seth Dillon, Rob McCoy, Karys Rhea, and others, he heard directly how the heartbeat of life, strength, and endurance in the face of tremendous evil and adversity can be summarized in two simple words: "Jewish values." Join James on this new episode of the New Discourses Podcast and travel with him through Israel for a second time. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #jewish

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 144 The ever-insightful Michael Malice once explained, "most people do not process information through a true/false filter but through an us/them filter." There are pretty deep and interesting reasons why this is true, and there are also insightful comments to be made about the necessity and value of at least some of us disciplining ourselves to prefer a true/false filter, or at least to defer to the results of one. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explores this idea out loud and explains its relevance to politics, society, and education. Be sure to join him! Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #UsVsThem

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 193 As we encounter both the material in the infamous Epstein Files and revelations from some of Epstein's associates, not to mention the advances in AI and robotics, we're confronted with what seemed like dystopian science fiction just a few years ago: transhumanism. Tech futurists, however, have been predicting it and working toward it for decades, including the curious figure of "Martine" Rothblatt, creator of SiriusXM Radio and board member at the Mayo Clinic. Rothblatt is trans and has written at least two very odd books about sex and gender, The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender (https://www.amazon.com/Apartheid-Sex-Manifesto-Freedom-Gender/dp/051759997X/) (1996) and an updated version called From Transgender to Transhuman: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Form (https://www.amazon.com/Transgender-Transhuman-Manifesto-Freedom-Form/dp/0615489427/) (2011). In this latter book, Rothblatt explains, perhaps ironically now, that the same arguments that justify "transgender" also justify transhuman: ultimately that who we really are does not depend on our physical body at all. In this creepy episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay presents some of this troubling book to you. You will not want to miss this. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Transhumanism

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 143 As normal people who value ideological and logical consistency, we tend to find movements like the Red-Green Alliance (Communists and Islamists) and "Queers for Palestine" confusing. How can people with such different views and goals work together? Obviously, part of the answer is the simple one: they have a common enemy to defeat and can work out their differences after they solve that problem. Nevertheless, the answer to this question, at least from the Communist side, is written explicitly as a command on the last page of the Communist Manifesto. Communists will always take the side of any movement against the existing order of things, simple as that. Host James Lindsay explains this to you in this important episode of New Discourses Bullets. You don't want to miss it. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Communist

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 192 What makes something valuable? How do we determine value? One hypothesis on value is famously forwarded and relied upon by the Marxists. It is called the "Labor Theory of Value," and it insists that labor is what transforms raw materials into something "humanized" and therefore of value. Therefore, in this theory, labor is what makes something valuable. Of course, this theory has not proved to be adequate for economic purposes, which is just another part of why Marxism is an abject failure even as an economic doctrine (aside from everything else). The question, however, remains. In this fun episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes a casual stab at a different answer: a problem-solving theory of value. This would be the idea that value is determined in relation to a good, commodity, or service's capacity to solve problems for people, particularly their consumers. Join him on this exploration to think about some things in a new, different way. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #theory

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 142 What in the world do the Woke mean by "lived experience"? (https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-lived-experience/) As has been discussed here before (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/10/lived-experience-explained/), lived experience is a kind of magical combination of what someone actually lives and experiences and a Woke (or "Critical" or Marxist) interpretation of what causes that experience and what it means. That is, it is experience plus Woke interpretation. The thing is, while only the Woke Left calls this mixture of experience and activating misinterpretation by the term "lived experience," the phenomenon is spreading outside of Leftist circles. It's important we see how. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay revisits the topic of "lived experience" and explains how it manifests outside of Leftist enclaves and without the cutesy name. You don't want to miss this one. It's an important one. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #livedexperience

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 191 Central to the idea of Marxist thought, although Marx himself rarely used the term, is the idea of "false consciousness." People, it is alleged, are going through their lives unaware of the realities of the world around them, existing in an ideologically constructed false consciousness that maintains the existing power structures of the world. (Being "Woke" in fact, is adopting an awakened "true" consciousness of the nature of self-replicating and self-sustaining systemic power and the need to overthrow it.) In the Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood, as articulated by its intellectual centerpiece, Sayyid Qutb in his 1964 book Milestones (https://amzn.to/4sSnI33 ), there's a similar dichotomy called "Jahiliyyah" (Ignorance) and Islam (submission to God under Shari'a). Of course, this is no surprise because Qutb was a Leninist before he was an Islamist. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay goes back into the text of Milestones to discuss this important concept and its profound parallels to Marxist Communism. Join him to understand. Milestones, Vol. 1: Islamist Bolshevism: https://youtu.be/uOR5qG07fmA Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #islamism

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 141 "Woke" often proceeds by what amounts to social magic spells, and some of the most potent kinds of these spells are certain framings of inevitability or universality. The general gist of the construction would be "everything is already like this, so we should do it consciously (and according to Woke framing)." An alternative is "everything will eventually work this way, no matter how it started, so we should lean into it consciously (and according to Woke framing)." Surely, you've encountered this. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay dives into this construction and how it sets up other Woke "magic spells" (like affordance traps: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/03/staying-out-of-affordance-traps/ ) to get you to do their bidding. You won't want to miss this important expose of Woke manipulation. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #woke

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 190 What gets called Woke, especially on the Left, is a complete worldview (or ersatz theology) that therefore provides all the usual philosophical elements. It isn't just a way of knowing or of acting in the world; it is also a comprehensive theory of being in the world. Because Woke (especially on the Left) is critically constructivist in its underlying architecture, the self it believes in is a constructed self, or even a self-constructed self. To highlight and explain this, in this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes us back into Joe Kincheloe's Critical Constructivism: A Primer (https://amzn.to/4qUzlVx ), which he calls "The Book of Woke" to discuss the idea of self-production in a Woke ontology. Join him to get yet another deep look at Woke as it was actually formulated by the people who believe it. Latest from New Discourses Press! 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 © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #woke