Education

Social Construction

2023.10.20 • Jon Guerin

American Cultural Revolution

Education Series

Social Construction

Critical Pedagogy holds a fundamental epistemology, meaning theory of knowledge, where truth is a social construction. While everyone has their own truth, the truth of the authoritarians, that is those with “Critical Conciousness”, is considered morally superior and must be favored.

There is a difference between critical thinking and critical theory. Critical thinking helps explain the external world, clarifies opinions and makes rational arguments. Whereas, critical theory, critique, and critical pedagogy are opposed to critical thinking. The goal of critical theory is liberation from external reality and to socially construct reality based on the moral and political worldview of Critical Consciousness.

After asserting the moral superiority of Critical Consciousness, which includes sustainability and equity, the authoritarians then claim all other worldviews and knowledge as inferior social constructions. Thus, the authoritarians then proceed to dismiss external reality and any evidence against their political agenda. They demonize all opposition as anti-science.

By shifting education and research towards social construction and their political agenda, the authoritarians are corrupting science to support their narratives regardless of external reality as part of the ongoing American Cultural Revolution.

Episode Clips

References

  • "Specifically, over the course of a year we wrote twenty academic papers and submitted them to significant peer-reviewed academic journals in these fields with the hopes of getting them published. Every paper combined an effort to better understand the field itself with an attempt to get absurdities and morally fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research."
    Lindsay, James. Pluckrose, Helen. Boghossian, Peter. "The Grievance Studies Project", New Discourses, 2018, https://newdiscourses.com/grievance-studies-project/
  • Direct link to The Reformers documentary. Nayna, Mike. The Reformers, 2023, https://www.michaelnayna.com/p/the-reformers-recommended-viewing
  • "The academic was fired after almost 20 years of his data — including figures used in an explosive study, which claimed the legacy of lynchings made whites perceive blacks as criminals, and that the problem was worse among conservatives — were found to be in question."
    Schlott, Rikki. "Professor fired for ‘faking data to prove lynching makes whites want longer sentences for blacks,’ 6 studies retracted" New York Post, 4 August 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/08/04/professor-fired-for-faking-data-to-prove-whites-want-longer-sentences-for-blacks/
  • "We run into this term especially often in education, where the Woke Marxist objective is to use the pun on “critical” that exists between “critical thinking” and “Critical Theory” to advance their agenda under a positive-sounding cover."
    Lindsay, James. "Critical Thinking versus Critical Theory" New Discourses Bullets, Episode 11, 16 June 2022, https://newdiscourses.com/2022/06/critical-thinking-versus-critical-theory/
  • "This means we need reform. And, yes, we should reform them: the studies of topics like gender, women, race and sexuality are important and valuable interdisciplinary studies that can draw upon both the humanities and science, to do rigorous work that provides important information for solving difficult problems. What’s going on in these fields now simply fails the noble mission they set out for themselves, by failing to live up to the basic principles we should expect of any rigorous approach to studying anything."
    Lindsay, James. "Should Universities Teach Conspiracy Theories as Knowledge?", New Discourses, 26 December 2019, https://newdiscourses.com/2019/12/should-universities-teach-conspiracy-theories-knowledge/
  • Critical Theory has a simple formula to follow to apply it to any subject.
    Lindsay, James. "How to Make a Critical Theory Out of Anything", New Discourses Podcast, Episode 45, 13 August 2021, https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/how-to-make-a-critical-theory-out-of-anything/
  • Conselers are being trained to guide patients to believe in Critical Consciousness.
    Day-Vines, N. L., Wood, S. M., Grothaus, T., Craigen, L., Holman, A., Dotson-Blake, K., & Douglass, M. J. (2007). "Broaching the subjects of race, ethnicity, and culture during the counseling process.", Journal of Counseling & Development, 85(4), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2007.tb00608.x
  • Research is being censored that is not politically correct.
    Geher, Glenn Ph.D. "Politics in Academia: A Case Study", Psychology Today, 26 November 2020, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/202011/politics-in-academia-case-study
  • Resources for inclusive research practices which means applying the moral and political worldview of critical consciousness to research practices.
    "African American Studies", University of California at Irvine Libraries, Accessed 18 October 2023, https://guides.lib.uci.edu/african_american_studies/inclusive-research