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Debunking progressive claims isn’t hard, ‘it just requires making the effort to find out’: CU Boulder professor

A philosophy professor at the University of Colorado Boulder has released a new book debunking popular progressive claims.

Professor Michael Huemer’s new book, “Progressive Myths,” published Sept. 15, delves into progressive fallacies about feminism, economics, racism, and science. It addresses issues such as global warming, transgenderism, campus rape culture, and generational wealth. Independently published by Huemer, it is available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.

Huemer (pictured) told The College Fix the country’s acceptance of incorrect and divisive ideas was the driving force behind writing the book.

“My concern is that I see the country, over the last decade or so, being taken over by ideas that are not only factually wrong, but also extremely divisive and hostile to our core values and institutions. That’s my main reason for writing the book,” he said in an email last week.

The philosophy professor told The Fix he thinks progressive myths have taken hold because of a need for ideological commitment.

“[T]here is a high demand for progressive myths. That is, there are many people who have a psychological need for these things to strengthen their ideological commitment,” he said.

“Having a strong ideological commitment gives people a sense of community and a sense of meaning in life. But people can’t just believe anything at will; they need to hear information that supports their ideology. Hence the need for progressive myths,” Huemer said.

As to why these myths have become so widely accepted, “most people are lazy and biased,” he said. “If they hear something that seems to support their favorite ideology, they don’t look into it any further; they just accept it at face value.”

Another factor is social media, “an extremely efficient spreader of content that pushes people’s buttons or tells them what they want to hear,” he said. “It is very difficult for honest content providers to compete on social media.”

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When asked how people could more easily refute these myths, Huemer recommended light research.

“It’s generally not hard to find out what’s wrong with the progressive myths; it just requires making the effort to find out,” he said.

“Of course, you can’t just look at what one side says; you have to look at both sides, or sometimes many sides,” he told The Fix.

“[I]f you tell a progressive what’s wrong with one of the common progressive claims, they will probably just shift to some other claim or speculation that you haven’t yet looked into.

“You should expect that if you go off and research that one, you’ll probably find out that it is also bogus in some other way,” he said.

Huemer said the last part of the book, “Analysis,” was the most interesting to him.

“That’s where I try to explain where woke ideology came from, why progressive myths are thriving today, why they are harmful, and what we should do about them. But I had to go through the previous six parts to set up those questions,” he said.

He continued, “Of course, the force of that argument depends on the previous chapters’ having successfully rebutted many different progressive myths.”

Huemer mentioned that he sometimes receives pushback for his ideas.

“I’ve occasionally gotten hate mail or hate posts on the internet. When I do, I block the person and continue my day,” he said.

Huemer teaches various branches of philosophy at CU Boulder, including epistemology, ethics, metaethics, and political philosophy, according to the public university’s website.

Nick Dokoozlian, a former student of Huemer’s and a graduate of the university, promoted the book on X. He described the philosophy professor as someone who regularly deconstructed progressive ideas.

“He’s not a conservative, he’s an anarcho-capitalist but he does find a home in critiquing progressive ideology,” Dokoozlian told The Fix via social media message.

Dokoozlian explained how Huemer’s political philosophy class worked: “He would simply present an issue … and ask students to discuss how they would utilize government (or not) to address the issue.”

“During the class he would often point out that progressives are akin to authoritarians because of how they seek to utilize government to solve their issues … similar to the thought that we are all authoritarians about things we like,” he said.

Dokoozlian described Huemer as “an extremely smart and astute thinker.”

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IMAGE: Michael Huemer/UC Boulder, Amazon

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