Fredrik deBoer
American author and cultural criticWikipedia
8
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 8 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Fredrik deBoer".
Oct 8, 2026
John StonestreetHOST
She ended with, and I quote, "Thank you for dubbing me Mom of the Year, but please believe me when I tell you I can only be so with the dad sitting next to me." End quote.
John StonestreetHOST
In another Substack post about the whole incident, a self-described Marxist and atheist named Freddy deBoer wrote about what should be obvious to all of us, but seems to no longer be obvious in this social media world.
John StonestreetHOST
Quote, "For the record, saying that a stranger whose life you know nothing about should divorce their spouse is weird and stupid and low character.
John StonestreetHOST
Saying that a happy family unit should be ripped apart by divorce and a very young child denied the very many and real benefits that come from a stable two-parent household based on a whim, yeah, you're a bad person if you engage that way, as thousands did." End quote.
Jesse SingalHOST
We can bring in the specialist and catch them up.
Jesse SingalHOST
And that's, I think that's often not how it works, and, I mean, this is very Freddie deBoer.
Jesse SingalHOST
These are the arguments he makes.
Jesse SingalHOST
But when you think about just how much time kids spend outside of school, um, I think the one, one benefit of the Nicole Hannah-Jones storyline that, that, you know, part of this has to come down to individual decisions is it does sort of put, like, privileged parents at the center of this moral story in a way that-
Catherine LiuGUEST
I do.
Catherine LiuGUEST
And I think you're talking about Freddie deBoer's book, I think, on, um, mental illness as identity, and it's become...
Catherine LiuGUEST
Like, the survivor identity, I think, is at the bottom of this, um, uh, is a foundational concept here.
Catherine LiuGUEST
And I wanted to show how the trauma script for feminists like Judith Herman and anti-war a- advocates like, um, Robert Jay Lifton have this kind of crypto religious, um, uh, positioning of the survivor, because the survivor h- is almost a sacred character in their-
Katie HerzogHOST
Mm-hmm.
Sandeep KaushikGUEST
That Freddy DeBoer is kinda on this stuff, like, um, and criticized my piece in some sense 'cause he doesn't agree with anything of that-
Katie HerzogHOST
Period
Sandeep KaushikGUEST
... uh-
Jack Despain ZhouGUEST
What it can be and what it will be is, well, what will build this person up in meaningful ways? And how can we orient education towards turning people into the sort of people we want to hand the future to? And, you know, it's going to be increasingly pressing in this age of AI.
David HydeHOST
controversial blogger, prominent blogger, Freddie DeBoer, writes a lot about education, has a lot of strong feelings about it.
David HydeHOST
I don't know how similar or different your views are from his, Jack, but one of the things he talks about is IQ.
David HydeHOST
And he says that liberals are kind of unwilling to consider IQ in ways that are really important.
David HydeHOST
And he thinks that maybe some kids aren't smart enough to pass algebra.
David HydeHOST
I don't totally agree with him, but I'm wondering what you think.
Jack Despain ZhouGUEST
Yeah, great question, and this is fantastic because Freddie DeBoer is one of the big inspirations for me in starting this because I think he is right about so much and then wrong about everything that's most important.
Jack Despain ZhouGUEST
So Freddie DeBoer basically argues that education can raise the absolute performance of students, but it will never change kids' relative rank order in aptitude.
Christian BritschgiHOST
So it's, uh, it's, uh, uh-
Robby SoaveHOST
I mean, there is an idea that pervades liberal education that, for instance, Freddy deBoer writes about why this is wrong a lot, and I think he takes it, like, way too far, but the idea that, y- you know, not every kid can just, like, be improved by effective teaching.
Christian BritschgiHOST
Mm-hmm.
Robby SoaveHOST
Uh, but he thinks...