Applied Postmodernism: How "Idea Laundering" is Crippling American Universities

In 2017 and 2018, as a part of a whistleblowing effort, James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose wrote ideologically-driven, morally horrific papers and submitted them to leading peer-reviewed academic journals. Seven of these were published, and seven more were under review before their project was uncovered and subsequently revealed by the Wall Street Journal. The trio’s intention was to expose a kind of academic corruption (idea laundering) that puts radical social and political agendas ahead of scholarship and a dispassionate search for truth.

Aspen attendees had the opportunity to hear from all three whistleblowers who discussed what, in their opinion, is going on behind the scenes in universities today, and how activist "scholarship" is making its way into many aspects of our increasingly fraught civic culture. They explained what they dubbed "grievance studies," described how certain university departments are indoctrinating college students into a perpetual "grievance" mindset, and illustrated how "applied postmodernism" seeks to "remake society."