James Lindsay: “Counter Wokecraft” and Responses to Institutional Takeover

“You have to have a steel spine in your liberalism. ‘What kind of government did you create, sir?’ ‘We created a republic, if [you] can keep it.’ The ‘if you can keep it’ part requires a steel spine.”

Editor’s note: The phrase “A republic, if you can keep it” discussed during the interview reportedly originates from Benjamin Franklin.

On January 17th, Merion West editor-in-chief Erich Prince was joined by author and commentator James Lindsay for a discussion prompted by the recent publication of Charles Pincourt’s book Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond, for which Dr. Lindsay wrote the foreword. Dr. Lindsay is the founder of New Discourses and co-authored the 2020 book Cynical Theories, co-authored with Helen Pluckrose. During their conversation, Mr. Prince and Dr. Lindsay discuss the enduring preferability of liberalism as opposed to the currently ascendant post-liberal movement, how the Woke movement is largely repackaged Marxist theory, and how those opposed to the movement’s advance can respond. This conversation follows a January 6th discussion between Mr. Prince and Mr. Pincourt.