Cynical Theories
Authors: Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
Reading Level: Adult
Score: 5/5
Why should you read this book?
Cynical Theories objectively explores the foundation of Critical Theories from postmodernism. It focuses not only on Critical Race Theory (CRT) but includes Postcolonial Theory, Queer Theory, Feminisms, Gender Studies and Disability and Fat Studies. The book is organized nicely to easily concentrate on a specific interest, however reading the full book to understand the history of each Theory and how they overlap is helpful!
The foundation of all these Critical Theories is Postmodernism. Postmodernism dangerously rejects science, reason and objectives truths – Critical Race theory embraces this thought and expands with the belief that “racism is both ordinary and permanent, everywhere and always.”
Learn key buzz words such as intersectionality and applied social justice. Discover the difference in the individual, group identity and the universal and why CRT only believes in group identity.
Cynical Theories takes a deep dive into the true objective of CRT:
“It does the same thing over and over again: look for the power imbalances, bigotry, and biases that it assumes must be present and pick at them. It reduces everything to one single variable, one single topic of conversation, one single focus and interpretation: prejudice, as understood under the power dynamics asserted by Theory. This, for example, disparate outcomes can have one and only one, explanation, and it is prejudicial bigotry.”
