Refuting Yourself

‘How to Destroy Your Only Major Contribution’ with James Lindsay

I remember listening to an interview between Jeff Deist and Lew Rockwell a few years ago, and in the discussion, the subject turned to the state of contemporary public intellectuals. Mr. Deist asked Mr. Rockwell what he thought of, if my memory serves correctly, Jordan B. Peterson. Mr. Rockwell was less enthusiastic about Peterson, and he continued to state that the caliber of public intellectuals today is quite diminished compared to earlier eras. Mr. Rockwell’s perception of public intellectuals has been obviously vindicated after James Lindsay’s self-refutation.

James Lindsay was first made noteworthy by his participation in the “grievance studies affair,” in which he and two of his colleagues demonstrated that “woke” academic fields were conducting illegitimate scholarship, or, more accurately, ideological theorizing. The trio specifically demonstrated that “scholarship” in these fields consisted of studies and theories crafted to reach a specific conclusion, and that the peer review process at least did not prohibit this and at most encouraged the practice. Most infamously, part of Mein Kampf was refitted with “woke” language and published, causing many to draw similarities between the two systems of thought. To accomplish this, Lindsay had to masquerade as a Leftist, something that, in hindsight, probably felt more natural to him than he would ever care to admit publicly.

After the news broke of this affair, many American conservatives began listening to James Lindsay as some sort of thought leader. These years proceeding from his academic scandal are the most interesting to us. Both Lindsay and his conservative followers have painted him as some sort of prophet and protector of the Right (2000s liberalism in their minds — see the below screenshot), and this is not entirely unmerited.