This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Canadian historian Quinn Slobodian.
The rise of the populist right is often framed as a backlash against neoliberalism—a revolt by those “left behind” by globalisation. But in his new book Hayek’s Bastards, Quinn argues the opposite: that movements like Maga are not a reaction to neoliberalism, but its latest iteration.
Tracing the intellectual lineage of today’s far right, he characterises it as a “new fusionism” between three ideological pillars: racialised beliefs in genetically hardwired human nature, hard money, and hard borders.
Quinn answers: who are “Hayek’s bastards”? Are the right better at engaging with ideas than the left? And what does Trump really believe?
Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right is available here.
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