One thing I take a step backwards to contemplate when I think about intellectual dialogue is the idea of critical theory.
I took a critical theory class the first semester of my sophomore year and it remains as my favorite class ever taken in college.
Part of the appeal was how hard you had to think about seemingly trivial and unthinkable situations, events, and intentions, and ideas became larger, more significant ideology. Now, there was meaning behind everything.
But as I have conversations with people who don't think like me and who haven't studied critical theory, the first thing that comes into my mind is probably the same thing they are thinking: the [blank] is being overanalyzed.
While most people hardly think twice about implications like political discourse or historical context, I think it's natural for a theorist to immediately come to these ideologies in order to come up with an analysis.
Is the second-wave feminist just a crazy lady who wants free tampons? Is the critical race theorist putting her afro and gender on a pedestal of privilege simply because of history?
I think not.
