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Matt McManus is a lecturer at the University of Michigan and the author of The Emergence of Postmodernity and the forthcoming The Political Right and Inequality.
Socialist intellectual Georg Lukács was an astute critic of right-wing philosophy and its connections to fascism. For Lukács, philosophers of the Right were united by a reactionary disavowal of reason and justice.
The political right is a diverse intellectual tradition and world-making project. But there’s one thing that unites every variant of right-wing ideology: the belief that society will improve if we give up on the dream of a world where people are equal.
Despite his towering academic reputation, John Rawls’s ideas have had little impact outside the university. That’s a shame: as the failures of neoliberalism have become increasingly stark, Rawls’s egalitarian theory of justice has much to recommend it.
Sohrab Ahmari’s critique of capitalist power is surprising and compelling. But as long as he remains committed to unjust hierarchies of power in gender and sexuality, he can’t be a coalition partner with the Left.
Under capitalism, the formal equality guaranteed under the law is a farce. Democratic socialism can guarantee liberal rights like free speech while shattering the resource imbalances of capitalism.
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh has made a name for himself with his relentless, religious-inflected trans-bashing. He’s a bad thinker and a bad Christian.
In his new book, Ron DeSantis presents himself as a blue-collar kid who hates elites. But the truth is, DeSantis doesn’t oppose elite rule — this Ivy Leaguer simply wants a different set of elites like himself to rule over the rest of us.
A new history of libertarianism challenges the conventional understanding of the tradition by spotlighting its radical currents. Unfortunately, there’s barely a remnant of that history today — most libertarians threw in their lot with the Right long ago.
Buried for many decades by the dominance of liberal thought, the republican tradition of freedom as nondomination has been excavated in recent years. Democratic socialists should embrace it.
The capitalist work ethic insists that we keep our heads down and work endlessly, even if our job is degrading. Democratic socialists want to free workers from drudgery so we can develop our full human potential and simply enjoy the one life we have.
The conventional understanding of Marxism as doggedly anti-religious is wrong. In fact, as the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argued, Christianity and Marxism have at times inspired in humanity a radical sense of hope to build a more just world.
The eminent philosopher Raymond Geuss wants us to think about ways of being that exist entirely outside of liberalism. But the most feasible egalitarian project is not one that rejects liberalism, but one that goes beyond it — through democratic socialism.
Ludwig von Mises, the influential right-wing economist, thought of himself as a sober, scientific critic of socialism. In reality, he was a free-market ideologue, using dressed-up dogma to prove why workers should bow before their capitalist masters.
The radical idea at the heart of republicanism is a challenge to private bosses and public tyrants everywhere: that we can live free from the whims of arbitrary power. Democratic socialists should embrace the radical currents of this ancient philosophy.
Conservative Mark Levin has climbed the best-seller list again with his right-wing tract American Marxism. It’s a plodding mess of a book, with page after page of recycled slogans and analysis so thin you have to squint to find any substance.
Liberal democracy gives us essential rights like free speech and civil liberties. But without challenging the domination of capital, liberal rights will always be curtailed by the power of the rich.
James Lindsay has a best-selling book out called Race Marxism. Reading the book, you soon learn that Lindsay has a shallow understanding not just of Marxism or racism in the US but the classical liberal tradition he seeks to defend.
Karl Marx believed in the self-emancipation of the working class, while Friedrich Nietzsche had nothing but disdain for the masses. But a provocative new book claims the two thinkers can be read together to develop a socialism for today.
Paul Tillich was perhaps the most towering Christian theologian of the 20th century. His religious thought is well remembered today — but his resolutely socialist thinking and agitating is not.
Since the French Revolution, the Right has deployed a common set of arguments to resist the drive to democratize economic and political power. The Left will only win if we analyze their rhetoric — and counter it.