Is Social Justice A Religion? - Andrew Doyle
Andrew Doyle (guest), Chris Williamson (host)
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Andrew Doyle and Chris Williamson, Is Social Justice A Religion? - Andrew Doyle explores is Woke Social Justice a New Secular Religion of Conformity? Andrew Doyle argues that contemporary social justice activism functions like an illiberal, quasi‑religious movement built on faith in concepts like invisible power structures, lived experience, and redefined language. Using examples from gender ideology, hate‑crime policing, and media controversies, he claims elites know much of it is false but comply out of fear and self‑preservation, creating a "frenzy of conformity."
Is Woke Social Justice a New Secular Religion of Conformity?
Andrew Doyle argues that contemporary social justice activism functions like an illiberal, quasi‑religious movement built on faith in concepts like invisible power structures, lived experience, and redefined language. Using examples from gender ideology, hate‑crime policing, and media controversies, he claims elites know much of it is false but comply out of fear and self‑preservation, creating a "frenzy of conformity."
He draws an extended parallel with the Salem witch trials, suggesting online activists resemble the hysterical accusers while institutional leaders play the cowardly magistrates who enable persecution despite private doubts. Doyle criticizes how terms such as racism, hotness, safety, and conversion therapy are linguistically inverted, making debate irrational and weaponizing victimhood.
He maintains that this "new Puritanism" undermines liberalism, free speech, science, and due process—particularly via concepts like lived experience as evidence and intersectionality as a rigid hierarchy of oppression. Humor and ridicule, paired with clear explanation of the underlying ideas, are presented as twin strategies to push back.
Ultimately, Doyle contends that social justice as currently practiced is anti‑liberal, religious in style, and dangerous when embedded in powerful institutions such as schools, courts, security services, and healthcare systems.
Key Takeaways
Self‑declared "hotness" reflects a broader attempt to deny objective standards.
Doyle sees the New York Times piece on hotness as part of an ideology that treats beauty and attraction as purely subjective, self‑bestowed identities, ignoring that desire is relational and others ultimately decide what they find attractive.
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Calling dating preferences bigotry repackages old homophobia as progressivism.
He criticizes Stonewall and similar groups for implying lesbians or gay men are "sexual racists" if they exclude certain bodies or identities, arguing this mirrors past homophobic claims that gay people should "open their minds" and change innate orientation.
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The language of "safety" and "harm" is used to shut down dissent.
From Ben Shapiro at a podcast conference to comedians losing gigs, Doyle argues that equating emotional discomfort with physical danger allows activists to brand mere presence or jokes as violence, eroding free speech norms.
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Lived experience and redefined terms erode evidence‑based policy.
He likens "spectral evidence" in Salem to modern appeals to lived experience as unquestionable proof, warning that when police and institutions treat subjective perception as fact, due process and rational standards collapse.
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Elite capitulation, not fringe activists, drives the culture war’s power.
Using Salem, he argues the real problem is journalists, civil servants, academics, and politicians who privately doubt activist claims but publicly endorse them, thereby institutionalizing extreme ideas in law, education, and healthcare.
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Critical social justice operates like a religion and is explicitly anti‑liberal.
Doyle notes parallels with fundamentalist faiths—sacred texts, heresy hunting, creeds like "trans women are women"—and cites early critical race theorists who openly reject liberalism, framing the movement as a dogma that punishes dissenters as evil.
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Protecting clear language and objective truths is central to resistance.
He advocates laughing at absurd claims, explaining concepts plainly to non‑activists, and reasserting that terms like racism, sex, and science have stable meanings, arguing that once institutions stop treating lived experience as evidence, the panic will recede.
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Notable Quotes
“They know that all of this is bullshit, but they're gonna go along with it because they think they will preserve themselves by doing so.”
— Andrew Doyle
“What I say in the book is that the closest synonym to the word 'woke' is 'anti‑liberal.'”
— Andrew Doyle
“When a Labour MP holds a placard saying 'Ban conversion therapy,' the placard actually means 'I support conversion therapy.'”
— Andrew Doyle
“For good people to do bad things, that takes religion.”
— Andrew Doyle, citing Steven Weinberg
“Most disputes that I see online are figments of someone's imagination—two people arguing against specters they've conjured.”
— Andrew Doyle
Questions Answered in This Episode
If social justice activism functions like a religion, what would effective "reformation" look like without abandoning its legitimate concerns about discrimination?
Andrew Doyle argues that contemporary social justice activism functions like an illiberal, quasi‑religious movement built on faith in concepts like invisible power structures, lived experience, and redefined language. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can institutions balance respect for lived experience with the need for objective standards of evidence in law, policing, and healthcare?
He draws an extended parallel with the Salem witch trials, suggesting online activists resemble the hysterical accusers while institutional leaders play the cowardly magistrates who enable persecution despite private doubts. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
To what extent are ordinary people truly persuaded by critical social justice ideas versus merely intimidated into silence or compliance?
He maintains that this "new Puritanism" undermines liberalism, free speech, science, and due process—particularly via concepts like lived experience as evidence and intersectionality as a rigid hierarchy of oppression. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Is ridicule a sustainable and ethical strategy for confronting illiberal ideologies, or does it risk deepening polarization and misunderstanding?
Ultimately, Doyle contends that social justice as currently practiced is anti‑liberal, religious in style, and dangerous when embedded in powerful institutions such as schools, courts, security services, and healthcare systems.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What concrete steps could governments or courts take to roll back ideological capture in education and science while safeguarding academic freedom?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
There are all these crazy activists online with anime avatars and "Everyone's a fascist, a homophobic Nazi," whatever. They see it everywhere and they probably believe it. But then you have the politicians, the civil servants, the journos, the people who, when you ask them, "What is a woman?" they go, "Uh, um, well, you know, it's complicated." And, "Uh, uh..." And you see the fear in their eyes. They know that all of this is bullshit, but they're gonna go along with it because they think they will preserve themselves by doing so.
Andrew Doyle, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
As a man who has dedicated his life to thinking about fashion and style, I'm sure that you're familiar with the recent New York Times article, "Redefining what 'hotness' means," saying that, "'Hotness' is no longer in the eye of the beholder. It's a mood. It's a vibe. A social media movement inspired by the rapper Megan Thee Stallion strikes back at the gatekeepers of beauty." Do you see this?
I am not familiar with this at all, but maybe it's because I don't go out of my way to find fashion articles.
Wow, that surprises me.
I have no read this.
So, many people, many people are expanding the definition of hotness, taking it beyond its former association with old notions of attractiveness. These days, being hot no longer pertains to only your physical appearance, but includes how you move through the world and how you see yourself. Many of those pushing for a broader understanding of the term are also pushing back against the idea that you need to wait for confirmation from someone else before feeling justified in calling yourself hot. To them, hotness is a self-declaration, and that's that. "Hotness" is no longer in the eye of the beholder. It's a mood. It's a vibe. Emily Sundberg, 28-year-old editor and filmmaker in Brooklyn, was eating spaghetti when she had a realization. She was hot. There was nothing glamorous about it.
(laughs) .
It was just a solo weeknight dinner in the kitchen counter, and Ms. Sundberg was wearing workout clothes and glasses, but she felt moved to make a video of herself as she twirled pasta strands on a fork and succeeded-
For God's sake.
... succeeded in getting most of them all the way into her mouth. As she chewed with Kanye West's "Jail" blaring in the background, she stared into the lens with a blank expression. So this is hotness in Zoomer generation.
What's the sexuality, the sexual orientation, where you're attracted to people because of w- the way they think, their brain? Is this one of-
Oh.
It's something like sco- scopiosexual or sc-
Yeah, yeah.
Some-
Sapiosexual.
Sapiosexual, there we go. Sapiosexual. Oh my god. Um, yeah, I d- I wasn't familiar with this article, but, you know, e- e- it's, I, I guess it's fitting into this, this whole movement's obsession with the way that b- beauty is a, is not a thing. Beauty is a sort of a, a, a patriarchal Western construct, and, um, therefore anything can be beautiful. But the thing is, some things just aren't. (laughs) Right?
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