Judith Butler's War on Science: The Architects of Woke

The Architects of Woke will release episodes throughout 2019. The series takes aim at far-left post-modernist and Marxist thinkers and activists responsible for the spread of identity politics from college campuses to society at large.

The first episode exposes the outsized influence of Judith Butler, the University of California at Berkeley feminist gender theorist famous for making the argument that gender is a performance rather than biological reality, leading to the notion that gender is an endlessly divisible spectrum that can have far more than two types, male and female, which is contradicted by substantial evidence. Butler’s theories, spread through dense, opaque jargon, gave birth to the notion that gender is subjective and non-binary, which has corrupted feminism and harmed women, according to lesbian activists. Butler is a powerful force in academe; she serves on the executive council of the Modern Language Association, which sets writing standards for high school and undergraduate students.

The Architects of Woke is hosted and directed by filmmaker Rob Montz. Montz is the co-founder and CEO of Good Kid Productions. His online documentary work has attracted millions of views and coverage in major outlets, including The Economist, USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Adam Carolla Podcast. His 2017 documentary “Silence U. PT 2: What Has Yale Become?,” published on We the Internet TV, won the 2018 Reason Video Prize.

Subjects of upcoming episodes of The Architects of Woke will include Slavoj Žižek, a highly influential Marxist-Leninist philosopher, and Chapo Trap House, the wildly popular podcast that’s the highest-funded project on Patreon. The radical socialist podcast has been described as “the last stop off the socialist train before Antifa.”

[khaileigh]

More people need to talk about this woman! We were introduced to her at the University here in Europe in Literature Theory class and while professors were stating that gender theory is *just* a theory (this was 10 years ago), now I can see the effects of these teachings. I think it evolved into this bizarre "wokeism" by twisting, expanding and blurring the well established terms and meanings. I hope we see more gender critical individuals in academia who won't be dismissed as transphobic and bigot.

[zeenuf]

Studied quite a bit of this at university. Read quite a bit on my own. Had plenty of debates with so-called 'pomos' types. Here's my takeaway:

1) Postmodernism is essentially a rhetorical strategy and not a 'philosophy' per se. Derrida pretty much came right out and said this.

2) Pomo types will very conspicuously do anything they can to avoid being 'nailed down' in a debate. Whenever you try and clarify what the say into something coherent, they move the goalposts and/or perform some kind of verbal gymnastics to re-define what they just said. Or they just accuse you of not grasping 'nuance.'

3) 'Nuance' to pomo types = whatever they want to make up in the next 30 seconds.

4) The more jargon-laced it is, the more marketable it is. Foucault himself admitted to ginning up his language on the advice of his editors, in order to make his writing seem more 'profound.'

5) Having dealt face-to-face with the results of a generation fed on pomo thinking re: the lgbtqxyz movement, most of these people firmly believe that 'reality' is whatever they want it to be at any given moment, according to how they feel. That's why their language is so heavily 'Me' and 'My' centered. 'MY personal experience.' 'MY pronouns.' "MY self identification.' They've been taught that their subjective 'truth' experience is a universal truth that everyone else must accept ipso facto.

6) At least one pomo type will respond to this comment that I 'know nothing about postmodernism.'

[RJFPme]

To hell with biology, science, or facts ! Academia has jumped the shark by eliminating logic.

[heisenberg]

I can’t believe the one time snl hits the left instead of the right they get mad

[SameBasicRiff]

Wow found this as a commercial and watched the whole thing. I was hoping it would turn from impartial reporting to calling out the insanity and I was not disappointed! Thank you very much for this!

[SL]

As I posted on another video about this subject:

There is no such thing as "gender". There is only SEX, of which there is male and female. You are male if you have a Y chromosome, and female if you only have X.

You can be a man who looks, dresses and behaves like a stereotypical woman, and that is fine.

The same goes for women who look, dress and behave like stereotypical men. There is nothing wrong with being a tomboy or a feminine man.

But a feminine man is NOT a woman, and a tomboy is NOT a man, even if they are convinced they are for any reason.

If I had a mental condition that made me believe that I'm a lion biologically, that doesn't mean that I'm a lion. Or that the word "lion" needs to be redefined.

[ChuckyMarks]

“Then a bunch of philosophers came in and made us question what things meant. How anti-intellectual!”

[ZacharyBittner]

I have one complaint. Foucault never said that the social constructs were bad, just that they should be criticized of their utility.

[regalsmartie]

Excellent. We need more of this pls do McKinnon, Crenshaw and that crazy woman who wrote "white fragility".

[davidgrover]

Imagine how they would react if a street preacher just told them to pray and believe?
But they want and even have used the force of law to enforce this.

[seantalbot]

I wouldn't be surprised if Judith Butler turned out to be neither male, female, fe-elam, elaminante, or a squirrel. She probably self identifies as one of the land porpoises that enjoys the company of unicorns. I'd consider describing her as a nutcase, but that would be an insult to cases of nuts.

[Dhhtyu]

I love you calling her out on her pretentious language

[markw]

You should definitely do more of these videos on post modernists. It will hopefully show more people what really caused politics and culture to descend to this point.

[ethananweiler]

I once told someone I identified as a carrot and they didn't bat an eye. Crazy world we live in smh

[ozurgdx]

This is horrible. The president of my college student Council is a woman. But goes by he/him pronouns in a women's college. There are no men students in my college. Like what the heck

[DGAirbrushing]

The fact that any of this is being debated is mind boggling! Obviously men and women are different in some ways. Obviously there is only men or women. To suggest anything else is silly

[silverpenn]

Yikes 😬😮 these people are now in power

[gavriloprincip]

don't forget Dr John Money's hand in this disaster!

[joshualenarobertson]

I've been trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and searching the internet for the identities of those women talking about "speech-cat." Who are they, and what event was that?

[olicastle]

I find this really interesting I’m a trans man and have always struggled with the idea that there could be endless genders and honestly it Is really uncomfortable to think about. If I am trans because I have dysphoria because my brain does not match my biology then the concept that gender is infinite seems ridiculous and contradictory to transgenderism and in my opinion is a bit transphobic. I feel like I could have worded this better but I’d love to see what y’all think on the parallel of non existent gender and transgenderism