Editorial Announcement
Letter from Helen Essex, 6 April 2021 Hello, everyone. I’m very sad to say that I am stepping down as commissioning editor of Areo Magazine. I have been at the…
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Helen Pluckrose
50 posts
Helen Pluckrose is a liberal humanist, a cultural and political writer and the editor-in-chief of Areo. She is the co-author, with James Lindsay, of Cynical Theories, which looks at the evolution of postmodern thought in scholarship and activism.
Write to Helen at: https://letter.wiki/HELENPLUCKROSE/conversations
Defending the Key Liberal Value: Andrew Doyle’s “Free Speech and Why It Matters”
I did not expect to enjoy Andrew Doyle’s Free Speech and Why it Matters. I like Andrew himself very much and our values closely align. However, I seem to be…
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Is Critical Social Justice the Biggest Problem in the World?
I have always disagreed with people who liken the aims of Critical Social Justice (CSJ) activism to those of communist regimes. Last year, I still believed that, unlike communism, which…
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Why 14 Critics of “Social Justice” Think You Shouldn’t Vote Trump
People will always disagree on who to vote for. People may have all kinds of reasons for choosing a particular candidate—but they almost never deliberately choose badly because they are…
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Ideological Theory of Mind: How to Stop the Culture Wars
As someone who spends most of my time studying and attempting to accurately explain an ideology—Critical Social Justice—I myself do not believe to have much merit, I find myself coming…
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The Two Big Falsehoods of Critical Social Justice
The Critical Social Justice (CSJ) movement relies on a specific conception of the world: it does not understand or interpret reality in the same way as the rest of us—especially…
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White Fragility Training and Freedom of Belief
Image by Unitarian Universalist Association I don’t believe what you believe, and I don’t have to. I defend your right to hold, express and live by your own belief system,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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What Social Justice Gets Right
Social Justice ideas and the postmodern thought that underlies them are extremely difficult to critique in a balanced way. This is largely caused by black-and-white thinking: many people wrongly believe…
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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…
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The Anatomies of Two Academic Scandals
Recently, much attention has been drawn to several methodologically vacant papers in molecular and cellular biochemistry. They were all written by the same author, Dr. Yan Xin, and argue for…
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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…
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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…
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Teaching to Transgress: Rage and Entitlement at Evergreen College
What happened just under two years ago at Evergreen State College needs to be seen to be believed. It also needs to be made sense of because, without an understanding…
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