(RNS) — An atheist writer and critical race theory critic who made his name submitting fake articles for publication in progressive academic journals and later attacking “liberal” evangelicals has a new target: conservative Christian nationalists.
James Lindsay, who describes himself as a “professional troublemaker,” rewrote parts of “The Communist Manifesto,” adding some critiques of “the liberal establishment,” and then sent it off to the American Reformer, an online magazine that seeks to “promote a vigorous Christian approach to the cultural challenges of our day.”
The essay, published with a fake byline of “Marcus Carlson,” was published in mid-November, and begins with a lead that mimics the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
“A rising spirit is haunting America: the spirit of a true Christian Right,” the essay begins, reminiscent of the opening lines of “The Communist Manifesto”: “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.”
The idea, Lindsay explained, was to embarrass what he described as “Woke Right” conservatives by getting them to publish the works of actual communists.
“They published Karl Marx’s definitive Communist work, dressed up to resemble their own pompous, self-pitying drivel, when it was submitted from a completely unknown author with no internet footprint whatsoever bearing the name ‘Marcus Carlson,’” Lindsay wrote in revealing his hoax, an announcement that coincided with the magazine’s “Giving Tuesday” campaign.
The founder of American Reformer seemed to take the hoax in stride.
“Well, you have to hand it to James Lindsey — he ‘got us,’” Josh Abbotoy, co-founder of American Reformer, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, referring to Lindsay’s hoax.
The publication’s editors, who did not respond to a request for comment, added Lindsay’s byline to the story but did not retract it. However, in an editor’s note, they wrote that they’d be beefing up their editorial screening — and noted Lindsay’s lack of faith.
“The following article was written by James Lindsay, who, as an avowed atheist, is not eligible for publication in American Reformer,” the editors wrote.
The Karl Marx hoax is the latest twist in the story of Lindsay, a former massage therapist with a Ph.D. in mathematics who reinvented himself as an internet gadfly and self-proclaimed enemy of “woke” Americans — and an occasional ally of conservative Christians.
Lindsay first came to fame in 2018, when he and a pair of co-authors submitted a series of papers to what they called “grievance studies” academic journals, including one paper about “fat bodybuilding” and another about sex at dog parks. Some of the journals published the papers — which included fake research and, in one instance, a similar strategy of updated passages of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” with buzzy academic phrases — launching Lindsay into a career in mocking so-called woke liberals and critical race theory.
