James Lindsay on Marx, Education, and the History of “Woke”

Dad Saves America

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-2:47:53

James Lindsay on Marx, Education, and the History of “Woke”

John Papola

Aug 07, 2025

Transcript

I sat down with James Lindsay to unpack how woke Marxist ideology infiltrated Western society, starting from Marx himself up through the political turmoil of the past decade. While working on the “Grievance Studies” hoax papers alongside Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose, James began to realize that the ideological rot in academia was worse than he thought. Following that experience, he dedicated himself to researching the long intellectual history of wokeness, critical theory, and communism and educating the public about the political, rhetorical, and institutional traps set by the modern Left.

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Outline:

[0:00] Targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center

[12:26] Sense-making in the internet age

[25:43] Becoming the top intellectual historian of wokeness

[47:50] How Marxism transformed into intersectionality

[1:04:36] Power politics vs utopian Marxism

[1:24:53] Marxism is inherently anti-democratic

[1:31:42] Are academics are natural marxists?

[1:44:36] How neo-Marxism took over education

[1:58:21] Race, sex, and the internet