Quinn Slobodian on the far right’s neoliberal roots

The Prospect Podcast

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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