James A. Lindsay Explained

James A. Lindsay
Education:
Notableworks:Cynical Theories (2020)
Main Interests:Criticism of religion, postmodernism, critical race theory
Period:2017–present
School Tradition:Conservatism, New Atheism
Birth Name:James Stephen Lindsay
Birth Place:Ogdensburg, New York, U.S.
Birth Date:8 June 1979
Thesis Url:https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/723/
Thesis Title:Combinatorial Unification of Binomial-Like Arrays
Thesis Year:2010
Known For:Grievance studies affair

James Stephen Lindsay (born June 8, 1979), known professionally as James A. Lindsay,[1] is an American author. He is known for the grievance studies affair, in which he, Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose submitted hoax articles to academic journals in 2017 and 2018 to test scholarship and rigor in several academic fields.[2] Lindsay has written several books including Cynical Theories (2020), which he co-authored with Pluckrose. He has promoted right-wing conspiracy theories such as Cultural Marxism and LGBT grooming conspiracy theories.

Early life and career

James Stephen Lindsay was born in Ogdensburg, New York. He moved to Maryville, Tennessee, at the age of five, later graduating from Maryville High School in 1997. Lindsay attended Tennessee Tech, where he obtained both his B.S. in physics and M.S. in mathematics; he later earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Tennessee in 2010. His doctoral thesis is titled "Combinatorial Unification of Binomial-Like Arrays", and his advisor was Carl G. Wagner.[3] After completing his degree, Lindsay left academia and returned to his hometown, where he worked as a massage therapist.[4] [5] [6]

Lindsay, along with Peter Boghossian, is the co-author of How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide,[7] a nonfiction book released in 2019 and published by Lifelong Books.[8] In 2020, Lindsay released the nonfiction book Cynical Theories, co-authored with Helen Pluckrose and published by Pitchstone Publishing. The book became a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller upon release.[9] [10] [11] Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker praised the book for exposing "the surprisingly shallow intellectual roots of the movements that appear to be engulfing our culture".[12] Tim Smith-Laing charged it with "leaping from history to hysteria" in a Daily Telegraph review.[13]

Lindsay is the founder of the website New Discourses, which is owned by Christian nationalist commentator Michael O'Fallon.[14] [15] [16] Lindsay's video series is also hosted by Sovereign Nations, O'Fallon's Christian nationalist website.[5] According to theologian and author David W. Congdon, "framing the left as an alternative religion has made Lindsay popular among the Christian Right".[17]

Lindsay has also appeared four times on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.[18]

In August 2022, Lindsay was permanently suspended from Twitter. His account was reinstated in November 2022 after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

Grievance studies affair

See main article: Grievance studies affair. In 2017, Lindsay and Boghossian published a hoax paper titled "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct". In writing the paper, Lindsay and Boghossian intended to imitate the style of "poststructuralist discursive gender theory". The paper argued that the penis should be seen "not as an anatomical organ but as a social construct isomorphic to performative toxic masculinity".[19] After the paper was rejected by Norma, they later submitted it to Cogent Social Sciences where it was accepted for publication.[20] [21] [22]

Beginning in August 2017, Lindsay, Boghossian, and Pluckrose wrote 20 hoax papers, which they submitted to peer-reviewed journals using several pseudonyms as well as the name of Richard Baldwin, a friend of Boghossian and professor emeritus of history at Florida's Gulf Coast State College. The project ended early after one of the papers, published in the feminist geography journal Gender, Place & Culture, was questioned by investigative journalist Toni Airaksinen of Campus Reform who suspected the article was not real due to its lack of adherence to academic journal publishing standards. This resulted in widespread interest in the incident, which was written about by several journalists.[23]

The trio subsequently revealed the full scope of their work in a YouTube video created and released by documentary filmmaker Mike Nayna, which was accompanied by an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.[24] By the time of this revelation, seven of their twenty papers had been accepted, seven were still under review, and six had been rejected. One paper, accepted by feminist social work journal Affilia, contained passages copied from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf with feminist language added,[25] though sociologist has contended that the paper only contained similarities in structure, and did not contain material "historically specific in Hitler's text (racism, references to the First World War, and so on)".[26]

Academic reviewers had praised the hoax studies of Lindsay, Boghossian, and Pluckrose as "a rich and exciting contribution to the study of ... the intersection between masculinity and anality", "excellent and very timely", and "important dialogue for social workers and feminist scholars".[27]

Views

Lindsay has supported Democratic Party candidates, including volunteering for Barack Obama, and was part of the New Atheism movement.[28] In 2023, Lindsay published an article on New Discourses in which he set out to defend the philosophical basis of classical liberalism, which he summarized as "the project of organizing our society from a position of political equality with certain rights that are inalienable, among these life, liberty, property, capacity for their use toward our happiness and purposes, and a reasonable expectation of privacy in which we can maintain their sanctity".[29]

Lindsay is a critic of "wokeness", which he analogizes to religious belief.[30] He describes "the Social Justice Movement" as his "ideological enemy".[31] Though he opposed Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election, Lindsay announced his intention to vote for Trump in the 2020 election, arguing that the danger of "wokeness" is much greater than that of a Trump presidency.[32]

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler looked to Lindsay to understand critical race theory[33] because, in Mohler's words, few have "given sustained attention to critical theory from a conservative viewpoint".

Conspiracy theory promotion

Lindsay has promoted several prominent conspiracy theories.[34] [35]

He is a proponent of the right-wing LGBT grooming conspiracy theory and has been credited as one of several public figures responsible for popularizing "groomer" as a slur directed at LGBTQ educators and activists by members of the political right.[36] [37] [38] Lindsay has referred to the Pride flag as "the flag of a hostile enemy."[39] [40]

In 2021, Lindsay wrote on Twitter that "there will be" a genocide of whites if critical race theory "isn't stopped."[41] His statement was met with widespread criticism, including from founder of libertarian anti-identity politics magazine Quillette Claire Lehmann who wrote: "James Lindsay is now peddling White Genocide Theory. Implying that a genocide against whites in the U.S. is imminent has the potential to inspire racist violence. Such comments are extreme, reckless, and irresponsible. They should be denounced."[42]

Lindsay has promoted the far-right Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory,[43] [44] [45] which alleges a concerted effort by Marxist critical theorists to undermine Western civilization using Marxism.

Works

Notes and References

  1. 1289362946817028096. Oh, yeah. The A. I was writing atheist leftist books in the conservative Christian South and decided a thin veneer of pseudonym might help keep me safer at the time. The A stands for 'next to S on the keyboard.'. conceptualjames. August 1, 2020.
  2. News: What an Audacious Hoax Reveals About Academia . Mounk . Yascha . Yascha Mounk . October 5, 2018 . The Atlantic . October 8, 2018 . en-US . https://web.archive.org/web/20181007073756/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/new-sokal-hoax/572212/ . October 7, 2018 . live.
  3. Lindsay. James. May 1, 2010. Combinatorial Unification of Binomial-Like Arrays. Doctor of Philosophy. . Doctoral Dissertations.
  4. Web site: Davis . Joel . Maryville man walks path of healing and combat . https://web.archive.org/web/20220425235616/https://www.thedailytimes.com/news/maryville-man-walks-path-of-healing-and-combat/article_5ea3c0ca-2e98-5283-9e59-06861b8588cb.html . April 25, 2022 . May 16, 2022 . The Daily Times . May 7, 2012 . en.
  5. Web site: May 18, 2021 . Why grievance studies hoaxer and atheist James Lindsay wants to save Southern Baptists . July 3, 2022 . Religion News Service . en-US . The hoax got the attention of Michael O'Fallon, a conservative activist and president of Sovereign Nations, a conservative Christian nationalist group..
  6. Web site: James Lindsay . 2023-07-12 . Southern Poverty Law Center . en.
  7. Book: Boghossian. Peter G.. How to have impossible conversations: a very practical guide. 2019. Lindsay. James A.. 978-0738285320. First. Life Long. New York. 1085584392.
  8. Web site: How to have impossible conversations. November 7, 2020. spiked-online.com. en.
  9. Book: Pluckrose. Helen. Helen Pluckrose. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity – And Why This Harms Everybody. Lindsay. James A.. 2020. Pitchstone . 978-1634312028.
  10. News: September 3, 2020. Bestselling Books Week Ended August 29. The Wall Street Journal. October 1, 2020. 0099-9660.
  11. News: Associated Press. US-Best-Sellers-Books-USAToday. The Washington Post. October 1, 2020. 0190-8286.
  12. News: Paul Kelly. Paul Kelly (journalist). September 12, 2020. Tracing the dangerous rise and rise of woke warriors. The Australian. October 1, 2020.
  13. News: Smith-Laing. Tim. September 19, 2020. 'Postmodernism gone mad': is academia to blame for cancel culture?. en-GB. The Telegraph. June 11, 2021. 0307-1235.
  14. Web site: New Discourses :: Florida (US) . May 16, 2022 . opencorporates.com.
  15. Web site: James Lindsay . May 16, 2022 . New Discourses . en-US.
  16. Web site: 2021 FLORIDA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY ANNUAL REPORT . Secretary of State for the State of Florida.
  17. Congdon, David W. (2024). "Weaponizing the Rule: Making Christianity (and America) Great Again". Who Is a True Christian? Contesting Religious Identity in American Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 176-229. . .
  18. Web site: Peters. Justin. March 21, 2019. How Joe Rogan's Hugely Popular Podcast Became an Essential Platform for "Freethinkers" Who Hate the Left. November 7, 2020. Slate.
  19. News: Jaschik. Scott. May 22, 2017. Hoax With Multiple Targets . Inside Higher Ed. January 23, 2019.
  20. Web site: Tillberg. Anneli. June 12, 2017. Attack on gender studies despite rejection of hoax article. April 17, 2019. Genus. May 12, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512171052/https://www.genus.se/en/newspost/attack-on-gender-studies-despite-rejection-of-hoax-article/. dead.
  21. Web site: May 26, 2017. Statement regarding hoax article. April 17, 2019. Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies.
  22. News: Beauchamp . Zack . The controversy around hoax studies in critical theory, explained . . October 15, 2018 . February 17, 2021.
  23. News: July 25, 2018 . Academic journal duped by author of 'dog rape culture' article. en-US . Toni Airaksinen . Campus Reform . August 10, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181009132026/https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11158 . October 9, 2018.
  24. News: Melchior. Jillian Kay. October 5, 2018. Fake News Comes to Academia. en-US. . October 8, 2018. 0099-9660.
  25. News: Schuessler . Jennifer. October 4, 2018. Hoaxers Slip Breastaurants and Dog-Park Sex Into Journals . . October 8, 2018 . …a third paper, published in a journal of feminist social work and titled 'Our Struggle Is My Struggle,' simply scattered some up-to-date jargon into passages lifted from Hitler's 'Mein Kampf…' They set out to write 20 papers that started with 'politically fashionable conclusions,' which they worked backward to support by aping the relevant fields' methods and arguments, and sometimes inventing data..
  26. Lagerspetz. Mikko. May 5, 2020. "The Grievance Studies Affair" Project: Reconstructing and Assessing the Experimental Design . Science, Technology, & Human Values . 46. 2. 402–424. 10.1177/0162243920923087. 0162-2439. free.
  27. News: Whipple. Tom. October 4, 2018. Journals publish hoaxers' absurd gender studies. 19. . subscription. January 27, 2019. EBSCOhost Newspaper Source Plus.
  28. Web site: Joyce . Kathryn . Meet James Lindsay, the far right's "world-level expert" on CRT and "Race Marxism" . Salon . February 17, 2022 . February 23, 2022.
  29. Web site: Lindsay . James . 2023-11-10 . The Basis of Classical Liberalism . https://web.archive.org/web/20231110195142/https://newdiscourses.com/2023/11/basis-of-classical-liberalism/ . 2023-11-10 . 2023-11-11 . New Discourses . en-US.
  30. Web site: Romano. Aja. October 9, 2020 . How being 'woke' lost its meaning. November 7, 2020. Vox.
  31. Web site: Lindsay. James. Naming the Enemy: Critical Social Justice. November 9, 2020. New Discourses. February 28, 2020.
  32. Web site: Mounk. Yascha. October 26, 2020. Trump Is the Best Candidate for the Illiberal Left. January 11, 2021. The Atlantic.
  33. Web site: Mohler . R. Albert . Albert Mohler . September 2, 2020 . Critical Theory and the Cynical Transformation of Society: A Conversation with James Lindsay . albertmohler.com.
  34. Web site: July 5, 2021 . Counterweight, and the continued enabling of bad faith 'anti-woke' actors . January 10, 2023 . The Skeptic . en-GB.
  35. Philip R.. Conway. Critical international politics at an impasse: reflexivist, reformist, reactionary, and restitutive post-critique. International Politics Reviews. 1 June 2021. 2050-2990. 213–238. 9. 1. 10.1057/s41312-021-00111-3. 256552762 . [Lindsay] has also taken to promoting the conspiracy theory that global elites are enacting a vast, diabolical “plan” to reduce “world population to under 2B[illion], perhaps by the end of the decade” (2021a) – a task to which the insidious grievance-mongering of critical academics is apparently essential. Only one ‘Enlightenment’-loving conspiracist among many others, these views are propounded from the bully’s pulpit of a 201,000-follower Twitter account (at the time of writing)..
  36. Web site: 2024-01-14. Elon Musk's 'amnesty' pledge brings back QAnon, far-right Twitter accounts. 2 December 2022. NBC News.
  37. Web site: Right-wing 'groomer' attacks target suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth . May 16, 2022 . News . May 4, 2022 . Yahoo . en-US.
  38. News: April 27, 2022 . How the Intellectual Dark Web Spawned 'Groomer' Panic . The Daily Beast . May 16, 2022.
  39. News: Moyer. Josh. April 22, 2023 . Two events featuring controversial right-wing speakers at Penn State are canceled. en . Centre Daily. January 1, 2024.
  40. News: Fisher . Anthony L. . August 9, 2022 . The Banned 'OK Groomer' Guy Is Not a Free-Speech Martyr . en . The Daily Beast . August 30, 2022.
  41. Web site: Woodruff . Chase . June 12, 2021 . Ousted Space Force commander defended by Rep. Lamborn advanced white 'genocide' theory in book . October 31, 2022 . Colorado Newsline . en-US . James Lindsay, a well-known right-wing academic whose work Lohmeier cites in his book, faced criticism from many of his fellow conservatives last week after writing on Twitter that "there will be" a genocide of whites "if this ideology isn’t stopped." Earlier this month, Lindsay was a featured panelist at the annual retreat of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a conservative networking organization, at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs. "James Lindsay is now peddling White Genocide Theory," Claire Lehmann, founder of the right-leaning website Quillette, wrote on Twitter on June 9. "Implying that a genocide against whites in the U.S. is imminent has the potential to inspire racist violence. Such comments are extreme, reckless, and irresponsible. They should be denounced.".
  42. Lehmann . Claire . clairlemon . 1402771614631006208 . June 9, 2021. James Lindsay is now peddling White Genocide Theory. Implying that a genocide against whites in the US is imminent has the potential to inspire racist violence. Such comments are extreme, reckless, & irresponsible. They should be denounced. . en . dead . https://archive.today/20220501161818/https://twitter.com/clairlemon/status/1402771614631006208 . May 1, 2022.
  43. Moira. Weigel. Hating Theory: "Cultural Marxism," "CRT," and the Power of Media Affects. International Journal of Communication. 29 October 2023. 1932-8036. 21. 17.
  44. News: Skopic . Alex . December 1, 2022 . James Lindsay's "Race Marxism" is Ignorant About Both Race and Marxism . en . Current Affairs . January 16, 2023 . 2471-2647.
  45. Web site: James Lindsay . splcenter.org . . 2 February 2024.

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