Skeptics » The Michael Shermer Show » Helen Pluckrose — Principles-Based Strategies for Surviving and Defeating Critical Social Justice
The stated goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are often reasonable, if not noble—to create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for all. Yet, as more and more people are realizing, DEI as it is commonly practiced is not a natural continuation of earlier civil rights movements or an ethical framework for combating discrimination based on race, gender, etc. Rather, it is inextricably linked to an illiberal and authoritarian ideology—critical social justice—that demands adherence to its principles and punishes any deviation from its dogma.
Even the most innocuous questions about critical social justice claims—that all white people are racist, that all underrepresented minorities are oppressed, that sex and gender differences have no biological basis, that censorship is a necessary good—are routinely met by DEI trainers and human resource managers with canned instructions: “Educate yourself,” “Do your job,” “Listen and learn.” At work, raises, promotions, and future employment often depend on our nodding in agreement to such claims. At school, grades, nominations, and awards often depend on our active agreement with these beliefs. In our daily lives, critical social justice ideology poses a real threat not only to our basic rights but to the future of our democratic systems, but when we assert it, we risk being excluded or shunned by members of the community. When faced with a choice between silent submission and risky, albeit ethical, opposition, what is one to do?
While a growing number of groups concerned about the nature of critical social justice have begun to attack it from above with legal, financial and political means, The Counterweight Manual takes a decidedly different and novel approach. It works from the bottom up and is written to empower individuals who wish to fight critical social justice in their personal and professional lives. Based on the author’s many years of experience studying, exposing and combating critical social justice ideology and advising individuals and organizations struggling with it, The Counterweight Manual is designed to help people address critical social justice issues in the most ethical and effective way possible. It not only offers principled responses to the core propositions of critical social justice, but also teaches individuals what to do when asked to affirm beliefs they do not hold, to be educated in an ideology they cannot support, or to submit to unscientific testing and retraining of their “subconscious.” In short, it is for all of us who believe in freedom of speech and conscience, who wish to push back against the hostile work and educational environments that critical social justice has created, and who wish to stand up for our individual freedoms and universal rights.
Helen Pluckrose is a liberal political and cultural writer and co-founder of Counterweight. She was a participant in the Grievance Studies Affair inquiry, which highlighted problems in critical social justice research, and is co-author of Cynical theories And Social (in)justice. She lives in England and can be found on X under @HPluckrose.
Shermer and Pluckrose discuss:
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the problem to be solved?
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Origin of the problem: postmodernism and critical social justice ideology
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
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what it means to educate yourself, to do the work, and to listen and learn.
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Top-down (Chris Rufo, Ron DeSantis) vs. bottom-up countermeasures
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Gender pronoun explanations
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Race calculation
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Accusations of white supremacy and white guilt
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Anti-racism
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Gender ideology
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blackness
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Critical Race Theory (CRT)
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decolonize
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discourse
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dismantle
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fragility
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Intersectionality
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Normativity
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Positionality
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privilege
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problematic
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woke up.
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This episode was released on August 27, 2024.