New Discourses

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

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 140 It goes without saying at this point that "Woke" activists appear to exhibit a suite of psychopathological traits and behaviors, but why? They can't all be crazy, not in the literal sense. The answer might lie in a concept that is sometimes called behavioral psychopathology, although the behaviors in this case are actually ideologically conditioned, motivated, and driven. That is, the answer might be that they aren't literally crazy but their ideological belief structure makes them behave, think, and even react in psychopathological ways. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay raises this possibility and offers a short discussion on it in the hopes of adding clarity and depth to a conversation that is becoming absolutely undeniable. 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 #Psychology

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 189 An undeniable part of the Nazi Experiment is that it operated a fascist-style dictatorship for its infamous "racialist worldview." It got this dictatorship not just through the election of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler but through some rapid changes to the law that were made in the first sixty days of Hitler's role in Germany's Chancellorship. Basic liberties were suspended, the Constitution was overridden, and all governing authority was placed ultimately in the hands of the German government and its new Chancellor. All of this had to be done to respond to certain existential emergencies, or so it appeared, following a fire in the Reichstag, the German Parliament, set by arson, allegedly by a Communist as a first stroke in a broader Communist uprising. Within less than two months, Hitler had effectively full control of Germany. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay presents the eleventh volume in his Nazi Experiment podcast series, outlining how this sudden emergency changed the entire course of the history of the world in a span of under four weeks. Join him for what he calls the "schizophrenic discomfort" of the terrifying parallels this period offers for us 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 #dictatorship

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 139 As many people are now aware, children are being separated from their parents, both by the state and beyond the state's reach, as a result of indoctrination in gender ideology. In many "gender sanctuary" states, child protective services can even step in and "protect" children from their own parents and good parenting on these grounds, and the circumstances of these separations (sometimes de facto terminations of parental custody without due process) are sometimes developed and encouraged by third parties in schools, counseling offices, clinics, and online spaces. This situation has enough of a feel of "trafficking" of children to it that the word is naturally attaching to these situations even though it is legally incorrect. So, what is going on with "gender trafficking," and can it be developed into a genuine legal definition that gives parents legal options and paths to action? In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains and explores these ideas in a new way. If the issue of gender ideology and protecting children from it are important to you, this is a must-listen. 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 #gender

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 188 What is "Woke"? Even though it's a term that has come to us through slang and without a stable meaning as it evolved, the term "Woke" is increasingly coming to mean something quite specific and precise. For several years now, we have associated it with the radical Leftism of our day, sometimes being so precise as to say that it means having adopted (or "woke up to") a critical constructivist worldview. What does that mean, though? At bottom, Woke is a worldview rooted in entitlement and alienation that gets located for the individual in class conflict. By absorbing his own sense of alienation and "superseding" himself for a group identity, a man becomes "Woke." Along with that comes a preference for subjugated or marginalized knowledges and ways of knowing, as the lingo goes. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay breaks down "Woke" and all that it means in this deeper way. Join him to gain the insight needed to understand this important term correctly. 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

Saving American Liberty, Session 9 What is an American? Or, rather, what makes Americans American? This is a question we have been able to take for granted for a long time, but due to unwanted pressure from the "Woke Right," we're now facing a deliberate attempt to redefine American identity. At New Discourses, we believe in taking these kinds of challenges head on, so at the Saving American Liberty learning seminar we hosted in Dallas, Texas, on August 22-23, 2025, New Discourses founder, James Lindsay, made it his fifth, final, and anchor lecture of the event. It's an informative but more importantly inspiring talk that hearkens to the intrinsic and sacred covenant with Liberty that defines American identity. Join him for a better answer to the question "What is an American?" than you'll hear almost anywhere else, and may your faith in our great nation and its Blessings of Liberty be renewed by it. The other lectures in this series can be found here: Session 1: https://youtu.be/4u2ak-DmKD4 Session 2: https://youtu.be/gUiLUmZWsc4 Session 3: https://youtu.be/WRheQNDTSOQ Session 4: https://youtu.be/AjKqBgzF36w Session 5: https://youtu.be/wHMPBILnAw0 Session 6: https://youtu.be/nchy8NdHigs Session 7: https://youtu.be/LnX--YIF_co Session 8: https://youtu.be/Y9VB1tigffk 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 #America

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 187 What is Islamism? Is it the same thing as Islam? Has it varied over time? What's its relationship to Communism, at least in our present era? These are important questions, particularly in light of the undeniable force of the Red-Green Alliance currently besetting the West. Against the backdrop of American leaders naming the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, at least in limited fashion, it's a worthwhile endeavor to explore its intellectual underpinnings, which were recorded by Sayyid Qutb in a book called Milestones (https://amzn.to/48QcfHR) in 1964, two years before he was hanged in Egypt for his radicalism. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay goes through the introduction of this book and explains its deep similarities to the Leninist Communism Qutb was immersed in before radicalizing, particularly Lenin's 1902 tract What Is to Be Done? Join him for insight into this important work that shapes one of the biggest movements against the West in the world 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 #Islam

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 138 As it turns out, a small number of bad actors who have an informational advantage over a much larger but naive population in turn have a gigantic strategic advantage over that same population. In order to demonstrate this fact and make it popular, a Russian student some decades ago devised a popular party game called "Mafia" that, after spreading to Western nations, got rebranded "Werewolves." This game can teach us a lot about how a small band of actors who are deliberately coordinating with one another can extract an enormous strategic advantage over a population who doesn't realize who the bad actors are or that they're coordinating. Join host James Lindsay for this fascinating episode of New Discourses Bullets where he explains the relevance of this game and its lessons to our everyday experience of political warfare environments. 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 #Werewolves

Saving American Liberty, Session 8 In this session, Michael O’Fallon argues that contemporary post-liberal and integralist movements, while often presented as moral correctives to modern liberalism, pose significant challenges to pluralism, constitutional governance, and individual liberty. O’Fallon examines how concepts such as distributism and subsidiarity can shift authority away from individuals toward centralized structures claiming to serve the “common good,” and how modern forms of integralism blur the distinction between spiritual and temporal power, raising concerns about dissent and conscience in diverse societies. O’Fallon situates these developments within broader dynamics of social destabilization and reform, noting how periods of cultural conflict and institutional distrust create openings for sweeping structural change. He further explores the evolving role of religious institutions, cautioning that partnerships with political and economic elites risk instrumentalizing faith in support of technocratic agendas. O’Fallon concludes that the convergence of political theory, religion, and technology signals a transition toward more integrated forms of authority that require careful, historically informed scrutiny to ensure they remain compatible with freedom, accountability, and human dignity. 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 #michaelofallon #Integralism