New Discourses

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 147

The friend-enemy distinction, as it is called, is the underlying organizational principle of the Marxist Left, radical Islam, and the Fascist Reactionary Left (usually mislabeled "Right"). It is spelled out in detail in a 1932 book by Carl Schmitt called The Concept of the Political, (https://amzn.to/4rbQpFN) and in that book Schmitt goes into great detail to explain what is meant by the term "enemies." He gives much less clear attention to the opposing term "friends," in his fundamental construction. So who are the friends in the friend-enemy distinction? Friends are those who will join with you to fight the enemy, who has been declared by the leader (or Führer). In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay exposes this ugly fact about the "friendship" (or, allyship) in the friend-enemy distinction and reveals that it is the root of authoritarian and totalitarian thinking. Join him to learn why this concept is so evil.

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The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 196

Today in America, we face a confusing "Christian Nationalist" (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/04/two-wolves-of-christian-nationalism/) movement that is reaching into many legitimate complaints and anxieties of American Christians and turning them to its project. While the term can mean many things, at least some of the meanings of "Christian Nationalism" are undeniably a kind of political movement (https://newdiscourses.com/2024/12/the-hoax-that-broke-the-conservative-internet/) posing as a theological movement. In fact, the most movement-ish strains (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/08/wtf-is-christian-nationalism/) of that line of thinking are precisely that. Something like this has happened before. When Hitler and his National Socialists were establishing the Third Reich, they had a huge cultural problem to overcome: nearly all Germans were Christians, not National Socialists. Their solution was an ambiguous term called "Positive Christianity" that increasingly got used as a bridge faith to turn believing German Christians into Nazis. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay continues his Nazi Experiment series (https://newdiscourses.com/?s=nazi+experimentto) explore the justifications for Nazi "Positive Christianity," revealing concerning echoes from the past. Join him to hear about the Third Reich's unique "Christian Nationalism" movement in their own words.

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New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 146

The essence of a critical theory is a philosophical stance we can and should call "negative idealism," and this negative idealism explains why "critical" movements like Communism, Fascism, and Woke of all types trend toward violence. Setting the stage against the recent sprees of "transgender" violence as an important backdrop, host James Lindsay explains the psychological destruction of holding a negative idealist worldview in this cutting-edge episode of New Discourses Bullets. Join him to understand these troubling phenomena in a deep and important way.

Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/

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The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 195

When we face the question of what makes us who we are, different people have different answers. Some see ourselves as receptacles of tradition. Others see us as a self to be discovered in the world. Still others see us as blank slates who can become whatever we can dream. In some sense, these dispositions are in all of us, and that's healthy. They also define broad political orientations and movements. Importantly, they can also all go bad. Some months ago, James Lindsay, host of the New Discourses Podcast, wrote an essay for New Discourses called "Man with Three Faces" (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/04/man-with-three-faces-politics-pathology-and-the-modern-selves/) discussing this idea, and in this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, he talks through it casually, explaining its meaning and relevance for a wider audience. Join him for a deep exploration into what it means to be ourselves and what it can teach us about our politics.

Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/

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© 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #politics

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 145

Carl Schmitt captured the essence of totalitarian politics in his book The Concept of the Political (1932) (https://amzn.to/4sf2Rpk). It is the distinction between friend and enemy. The poison of this kind of thinking is in the ugly fact that the declared enemy must be treated as the declared enemy once a political faction has declared one, and anyone who doesn't go along with that declaration declares himself one of the enemy. That is, it's not just the us-versus-them nature of the declaration of friend and enemy that poisons politics and societies; it's the logic of the friend-enemy political program entirely. Host James Lindsay explains this dangerous logic in this new episode of New Discourses Bullets. Join him to understand.

Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/

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© 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #friendenemy