Opinion of postmodernism and its critics

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

"Postmodernism" is a bit of an umbrella term, I know. Some people describe practically all non-analytic (and some analytic) philosophy developed after World War II as postmodernist, while others will tell you that Well, Actually, anti-pro-post-structuralism is reacting to post-neo-anti-foundationalism or whatever. It gets impossible to sift through after a certain point, even for someone like me who has a master's degree in theology and led a philosophy discussion group in undergrad.

For this thread let's define postmodernism as any postwar philosophy that's overtly skeptical of overarching narratives about history, the universe, etc.; that is interested in identifying various aspects of human life as being social constructs; and that includes a Marxist-derived technique of attempting to expose internal contradictions in texts, worldviews, societies, and so forth. This would include both the "French theory" (Foucault, Derrida, Cixous) that is paradigmatic postmodernism and various idpol-oriented political and philosophical currents in the English-speaking world (particularly those focusing on sexual politics). However, it does not include post-colonial theory, which often involves cultural determinism and many of whose proponents consider "postmodernism proper" an effete effluence of well-heeled Western academicians.

By postmodernism's critics I don't just mean anybody who's read a Judith Butler paper and come away wondering where the beef is. I'm referring to people who devote themselves to extended, often politicized criticisms of postmodernism and its influence on academia and on the world. On the left, these critics include many Marxists, radical feminists, and old-school Enlightenment liberals; on the right, they include most conservative Christian thinkers, much of the alt-right, and, outside the Western world, most advocates of non-Western nationalisms or of political Islam. They also include the Bush-era stable of "new atheists", who might be classified either with the left or with the right depending on whether one focuses on their original positioning as hardcore social liberals or their more recent pivot to being fellow-travelers of the alt-right.

Personally, I think postmodernist thinkers and their most ferocious critics are both mostly pretty awful bunches of people, although in both cases there are some postmodernists and some critics of postmodernism for whom I have much more respect than others.

[°Leprechaun]

I'm afraid I don't know enough about postmodernism to form an opinion about it, although I do know that Jordan Peterson, who tends to trigger a lot of people, is a strong critic of the philosophy.

[Georg Ebner]

"Postmodernism" is just another kind of modernism - nihil novae sub bove.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm afraid I don't know enough about postmodernism to form an opinion about it, although I do know that Jordan Peterson, who tends to trigger a lot of people, is a strong critic of the philosophy.

Jordan Peterson is just Marie Kondo for internet Nazis and I'll never understand why anybody takes him with enough gravity to get offended by him.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Post-modernism is crucial to contemporary comedy and I enjoy a cultural commentary as much as anyone, but absolute poison when we begin to think in terms of social policy and morality.

[Mopsus]

I'm afraid I don't know enough about postmodernism to form an opinion about it, although I do know that Jordan Peterson, who tends to trigger a lot of people, is a strong critic of the philosophy.

Jordan Peterson is just Marie Kondo for internet Nazis and I'll never understand why anybody takes him with enough gravity to get offended by him.

To be fair, Internet Nazis would enjoy Marie Kondo too, if exposed to her.

[TJ in Oregon]

Tempted to go with the I-hate-everyone option, but went with Horrible Ideology/Freedom Critics on the basis of its critics at least being in opposition to postmodernism, whatever else they might be. Really they are too wide a net of people with next to nothing in common for me to have a strong opinion of them.

[RFayette]

Tempted to go with the I-hate-everyone option, but went with Horrible Ideology/Freedom Critics on the basis of its critics at least being in opposition to postmodernism, whatever else they might be. Really they are too wide a net of people with next to nothing in common for me to have a strong opinion of them.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Postmodernism tends to be highly toxic when applied to any practical purpose, and that it has become as influential as it has indicates to me that a more critical eye must be given to academia and the implicit concept that an idea is better if more intelligent people consider it.

[Del Tachi]

Freedom Philosophy/Freedom Critics