October 1, 2020 - 12:04pm

Critical Race Theory was officially mainstreamed last month when President Donald Trump called the ideology in a speech last month a “Marxist doctrine” that was “inundating students across America”. This week, it came up again in the presidential debate after Trump defended his decision to a memo condemning the federal funding of any training based on it.

One person who understands this subject better than most is James Lindsay (whose work, reportedly, influenced the content of the President’s speech). Along with co-author, Helen Pluckrose, who has a piece in the magazine today, these two academics co-wrote a book called Cynical Theories, which provides the most comprehensive analysis of the rise of CRT to date.

Freddie Sayers spoke to James about CRT and whether the dangers posed by the ideology are as real as the President suggests.