Posts by author

Helen Pluckrose

44 posts

Helen Pluckrose is an exile from the humanities with research interests in late medieval/early modern religious writing by and about women. She is editor-in-chief of Areo. Helen took part in the "grievance studies" probe and her upcoming book with James Lindsay, Cynical Theories, looks at the evolution of postmodern thought in scholarship and activism. Write to Helen at: https://letter.wiki/HELENPLUCKROSE/conversations

8 min

Intersectionality: An Excerpt from “Cynical Theories”

I never again want anyone to say theorizing doesn’t lead to change. Black feminist theory and intersectionality informed the creation of black lives matter. We’d never be this close to…

7 min

Generalisations, Complicity and Jeff Goldblum

Image by Gage Skidmore Yesterday, Jeff Goldblum sparked controversy by asking Jackie Cox, a hijab-wearing contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, whether there was something about Islam that was anti-woman and…

6 min

A Letter from Helen and Iona

Dear Readers, This is a very stressful and, indeed, frightening time. In addition to the fear that we or someone we love could become horribly ill or even die and…

12 min

Politics

The Left is Having an Identity Crisis

The Left is in crisis. We no longer present a cohesive movement, and we no longer form coherent political parties. We are a fractured and ill-defined mess, our goals are…

6 min

Politics

Calm the F*** Down About Brexit

Dear Fellow Brits, You are upset. I get that. I am hardly sanguine myself. Leaving the European Union is a massive undertaking that cannot help but have profound consequences for…

3 min

Letter from the Editor

Letter From the Editors: On Retracting the Essays of John Glynn

Dear Areo readers. As many of you will now know, Areo was one of several outlets to have recently published pieces by a person calling himself “John Glynn.” It seems…

8 min

No, Secular Humanism is Not a Religion

I was recently surprised to read in Quillette an essay which argues that secular humanism is a religion. Although a number of thoughtful arguments for and against the similarity of secular…

3 min

Letter from the Editor

Areo and Letter: A Message from the Editors

Greetings! We at Areo are very excited to be trialing a partnership with the new conversation site Letter. Areo prides itself on being a nonpartisan site. This doesn’t mean that…

19 min

Culture & Media

A Response to Portland State’s Vanguard’s Anonymous Letter.

Prof. Boghossian and co-authors’ reception of the letter. On November 9th, Vanguard, Portland State University’s student newspaper ran a very strange article written not, it claims, by students but by…

5 min

Battle of Ideas

“Cultural Marxism” is a Myth. The Threat Comes From Elsewhere.

This is a lightly edited transcript of Helen Pluckrose’s opening statement on the panel “Cultural Marxism: Threat or Myth” at the Battle of Ideas. “Cultural Marxism” in common usage is…

47 min

Features

Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship

This essay, although hopefully accessible to everyone, is the most thorough breakdown of the study and written for those who are already somewhat familiar with the problems of ideologically-motivated scholarship,…

14 min

Identity Politics Does Not Continue the Work of the Civil Rights Movements

It is nearly beyond dispute that the Civil Rights Movement, second-wave liberal feminism, and Gay Pride were liberal projects, both in the broad philosophical sense and in the narrower meaning…

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