[14][15][16] Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker praised the book for exposing "the surprisingly shallow intellectual roots of the movements that appear to be engulfing our culture".

[10] According to theologian and author David W. Congdon, "framing the left as an alternative religion has made Lindsay popular among the Christian Right".

[26] In writing the paper, Lindsay and Boghossian intended to imitate the style of "poststructuralist discursive gender theory".

The paper argued that the penis should be seen "not as an anatomical organ but as a social construct isomorphic to performative toxic masculinity".

The project ended early after one of the papers, published in the feminist geography journal Gender, Place & Culture, was questioned by investigative journalist Toni Airaksinen of Campus Reform who suspected the article was not real due to its lack of adherence to academic journal publishing standards.

[31] The trio subsequently revealed the full scope of their work in a YouTube video created and released by documentary filmmaker Mike Nayna, which was accompanied by an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

[34] Prior to 2020, Lindsay supported Democratic Party candidates, including volunteering for Barack Obama, and was part of the New Atheism movement.

[35] In 2023, Lindsay published an article on New Discourses in which he set out to defend the philosophical basis of classical liberalism, which he summarized as "the project of organizing our society from a position of political equality with certain rights that are inalienable, among these life, liberty, property, capacity for their use toward our happiness and purposes, and a reasonable expectation of privacy in which we can maintain their sanctity".

[4][7] He is a proponent of the right-wing LGBT grooming conspiracy theory and has been credited as one of several public figures responsible for popularizing "groomer" as a slur directed at LGBTQ educators and activists by members of the political right.

"[43] His statement was met with widespread criticism, including from founder of libertarian anti-identity politics magazine Quillette Claire Lehmann who wrote: "James Lindsay is now peddling White Genocide Theory.