DEI Explained by James Lindsay

Lessons from New Discourses

5 min readSep 4, 2023

Digging deeper into DEI, I have come to realize that there’s a lot of depth. This seems like a full on religion, especially ideologies require absolute conformity.

James Lindsay, mathematician turned culture critic and author, put together this website called New Discourses, which he describes as a refuge for the politically homeless with content to help understand the “Critical Social Justice” movement.

DEI Explained: Episode 1

Concepts

These are my notes on the topics from this video.

The Goal is Equity

The goal of DEI is equity, which is essentially a rebranding of socialism. The theory of social equity comes from the author H. George Frederickson, and it represents the seizure of the means of distribution of resources, whether this is material or cultural, to groups so that the outcomes are equal. These groups are organized by identity, such as immutable characteristics of race and sex.

A more technical term for equity is Neo-socialism that uses Neo-Marxist theory with the goal to create a socialist redistribution system. Diversity and Inclusion are means to install a new administration to redistribute resources using equity.

Diversity does not mean Diversity

Diversity means that characteristics are spoken to in an authentic way, as defined under Neo-Marxists identity theories, such critical race theory, gender theory, queer theory, or other identity theories. In this system, you are not authentically diverse unless you’re speaking to it from a position that’s adopted the critical theory orthodoxy.

For hiring practices, this means hiring people with expertise in diversity, that is, those who speak in the authentic way conforming the critical theory belief system. This allows for for installation of political officers.

Structural Determinism

In identity Neo-Marxist ideology, there are power dynamics like systemic racism, systemic sexism, misogyny, CIS heteronormativity, transphobia. These oppressive systems condition people and limit the range of how they can understand the world, understand themselves, and their place in the system.

Those that have adopted the identity Marxist theory, are considered awakened or critically conscious, e.g. race conscious, gender conscious, etc. An awakened person is one that understands their identity and class status in terms of Marxists analysis of it. This gives them the authentic voice that describes the true nature of their lived experience or lived realities that has been structurally determined by forces of society conditioning.

Segue: This if from the Oxford Quick Reference:

The stance that the pre-given structure of some signifying system — such as language or any kind of textual system — determines the subjectivity (or at least behaviour) of individuals who are subjected to it. Althusser was a structural determinist in this sense (see interpellation). This anti-humanist position contrasts with perspectives stressing the role of human agency.

Segue: This seems very similar to Lived experience or standpoint epistemology, which Douglas Murray described as poisonous and anti-human. (source The Woke Reformation)

In order to be a political officer, you must be an an expert, i.e. fully trained and qualities to think and speak in this way, and then enforce this line of though on everybody else because you’ve mastered the theory.

Inclusion = Censorship + Purges

Inclusion is censorship and purges, which is the other half of installing a political party.

Under the doctrines of systemic power, anybody who is offended by something that upholds the existing system power, has the moral authority to call this out, and stop everybody that is committing the problem. This is necessary because of the power dynamic that they are reproduces.

In terms of power dynamics, inclusion means that people who are affected badly by the power dynamics have to be made included. Everybody else is believed to be automatically included, so ideas that might offend someone that is a protected class must be excluded to promote an inclusive environment.

This can mean changing words that may draw offense, such as the word “master bedroom” or “mother”, must be censored to bring about an inclusive environment.

Someone that has done something racially insensitive or something in the past that might may remind them of that power dynamic or uphold that power dynamic, will have to be removed, purged.

This can mean that the mere sight of a white person or a straight person in a space might remind somebody of white supremacy and its inescapability according to critical race theories (aka Race Marxism). Segregated spaces are being promoted as desegregation and inclusive environments, so inclusion means censorship and purges.

Newer DEI Trends

Belonging

In some versions of DEI, such as DEIB, belonging is inclusion (that is censorship and purges) plus positive affirmation and celebration. It is not enough to not offend someone of the so-called oppressed classes, you must positively affirm their presence.

In implementation, one cannot note the error or correct an error of the oppressed class, because this would make them feel that they do not belong.

The language used is “we want to make a space where everyone feels like they belong”

Justice

In some versions of DEI, such as JEDI, and the term justice. This is more complex, as one has to understand classical Marxist theory on this:

Marx believed that if you install socialism and you administer this economy. Eventually people won’t know hot to live without it. They’ll see that it’s perfect and beautiful. The contradictions will work themselves out through its tribulatory installation phase and then it will become the natural way of life for the entire planet in one giant commune. And so he said socialism will eventually become communism as it becomes the logic that everybody accepts and then the state will wither away and you’ll have a utopian stateless classless society.

Justice is a parallel concept:

Social equity enforced long enough becomes interjected morals that people can’t get away from and eventually we arrive at things like social justice or racial justice.

If bad actors are brought to justice, this is not called “justice” but accountability. This justice “only emerges after equity has been enforced long enough so that it’s spontaneous and just the way it is the new hegemonic state”.

So justice is the parallel concept to communism in the woke Marxist ideology. Thus equity is the near-term goal and justice is the long-term goal under neo-marxists identity politics.

Summary

In summary, DEI is the installation of Communist Political Officers for the goal of establishing socialism under Neo-Marxist identity politics mechanism.

Diversity is the means of installing political officers to enforce equity. Inclusion and belonging are the tools by which political officers will be concentrated, and the means by which opponents and dissidents will be removed.