The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World

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Taught that reality is constructed through language and language is a tool for oppression, a generation of arts and social science graduates “have taken this ideology into adult life and the institutions they now occupy ”.

The New Puritans by Andrew Doyle: skewering the culture wars

A great read for anyone unhappy with the current political climate and its attendant disregard for the importance of good-faith debate. If you find yourself on these corners of Twitter, a huge number of the people complaining about this stuff are on the left. Andrew Doyle has written a masterful broadside against the woke that will also discomfit the anti-woke, proposing to both the radical notion that rather than being identities, we embrace our status as individuals. Doyle quotes Humpty-Dumpty in 'Through the Looking Glass': ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean –neither more nor less.Coincidentally, I read Andrew Doyle’s “The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World” on the heels of reading Noah Rothman’s “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun. Doyle's observations about the persecution of a perfect man leading to salvation were very helpful for me to understand the role this plays in their faith.

new puritans | Stephen Daisley | The Critic Magazine Those new puritans | Stephen Daisley | The Critic Magazine

The architects of this movement are “the new puritan s” and their religion is critical social justice, Doyle’s term for what is more commonly known as wokeism. There's very little meat on this bone; Doyle rabbits on for 22 pages before giving the first example of the problem he's meant to be examining.Pluckrose and Lindsay do a much better job in Cynical Theories, and that's kind of the topic of that book actually. There does not appear to be any level of spiritual maturity in the New Puritans, whereby they acknowledge, that they too have a shadow. That the EHRC actually had to state that human biology is legal speaks volumes about the state we're in. If you don a Hitler moustache and parade in a patently ridiculous manner, like John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, you are now likely to be accused of actually endorsing the doctrines you are satirising – and be cancelled, as Cleese was, by streaming services like UKTV.

The New Puritans by Andrew Doyle | Hachette UK

She is a non-binary, vegan social justice warrior, living on a trust fund, who identifies as a black trans-lesbian even though she is white.Written in the spirit of optimism and understanding, Doyle offers an eloquent and powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values and explains why it’s important we act now. He also lost a contract teaching stand up comedy in a London theatre because one of his pupils felt one of his jokes was “unsafe” . Written in the spirit of optimism and understanding, Doyle offers an eloquent and powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values and explains why it's important we act now. None of this was particularly popular when I grew up and I was often targeted for bullying by Christians (it is very hard for me to lie and say I believe things I don't truly believe so I was an easy target). Doyle makes the point that these people do not have defendable points, and they are not open to discussion and debate, as their ideas are not defensible in any sensible arena.

The New Puritans by Andrew Doyle | Waterstones The New Puritans by Andrew Doyle | Waterstones

For instance he would talk about how people deep in the movement shut down debate and rely on blind faith but did not describe how this happens. We are reminded of Jesus saying to the people about to stone the female adulterer, “he who is without sin, cast the first stone! We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories. I’ve agreed to interview the author and journalist Andrew Doyle about his new book at the Conservative party conference – on stage, no less – so I thought I’d better read it.They want to be seen as caring and virtuousness people who “do the right thing”, and yet that tendency is being abused and many people are being siloed into ideological prisons, unable to speak out against injustice.