I Used to Beat Up Sex Offenders. Now I Question the Mob.
An ex-prisoner reflects on Jeffrey Epstein, the Epstein files, Prince Andrew, and the rise of online conspiracy theories.
Ben Gunn
· 7 min read
populism
A collection of 36 posts
The End of Australian Exceptionalism
The surge in support for Australia’s populist right-wing party One Nation suggests that immigration restrictionism has become increasingly popular with voters: a political trajectory that echoes that of many other Western nations.
Eric Kaufmann
· 9 min read
Populism’s Self-Defeating Trap
Populist rhetoric is exceptionally effective for pursuing and gaining power, but it provides no program for the complexities of actual governance.
Tomislav Kardum
· 7 min read
Weimar Vibes
The fate of the Weimar Republic stands as a warning of what happens when societies and their citizens indulge extremism.
Shalom Lappin
· 18 min read
Liberalism’s Lonely-Hearts Club
Standing up for due process, free speech, civil liberties, intellectual pluralism, and scientific rigour doesn’t win you many friends these days.
Jonathan Kay
· 8 min read
Owned by the Audience
Online audiences have become increasingly radicalised by predatory algorithms pushing conspiratorial, schizophrenic narratives and content creators are rewarded for feeding into them.
Corey Walker
· 5 min read
America’s Rancorous Public Square
Political discourse during our polarised moment can be vicious and exhausting, but it is still preferable to the alternative.
Milton Ezrati
· 8 min read
“Social Trust Has Really Eroded”
An interview with Francis Fukuyama.
Matt Johnson, Francis Fukuyama
· 29 min read
Faith, Fanaticism, and False Prophets
American populism and religion are bound by a shared desire for order in a rapidly changing world.
Timothy Devinney, Christopher A. Hartwell
· 11 min read
The Changing Politics of Oligarchy
Liberal democracies need to restore a climate of entrepreneurial opportunity and competition.
Joel Kotkin
· 10 min read
What’s So Terrible About Trade Deficits Anyway?
Populist rhetoric and the hidden costs of economic illiteracy.
Robert Johnson
· 7 min read
If ‘Woke’ Puritanism Is the Disease, Trump’s Amoral Populism Isn’t the Cure
Valid critiques of progressive moralism have devolved into an embrace of anything-goes strongman rule.
Eric Kaufmann
· 7 min read
The Open Society and Its New Enemies
What Karl Popper’s classic can teach us about the threats facing democracies today.
Matt Johnson
· 27 min read
A Very American Madness
America is not fallen; it is simply given to periodic bouts of insanity. The patient is tiresome; the patient is ridiculous; but the patient is stable.
Ronald W. Dworkin
· 17 min read
Nationalist Self-Hatred
The culture war alone cannot explain the civic rot on the populist Right.
Matt Johnson
· 18 min read