Quinn Slobodian is professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. His most recent book is Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, coauthored with Ben Tarnoff.
A growing share of world infrastructure is dominated by the eccentric, reactionary, annoying billionaire Elon Musk. He is, regrettably, a key figure to understand — which Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian set out to do in Muskism.
Today’s far right manages to combine the call for economic freedom with pseudoscience about natural hierarchies of race and IQ. Historian Quinn Slobodian explains how these ideas can be fitted together.
The late 20th century saw the creation of special economic zones that free capitalists from the normal constraints of popular sovereignty. This went hand in hand with the rise of radical libertarian ideologies proposing to do away with democracy entirely.
A group of 20th-century intellectuals saw the democratic nation-state as a threat to private property. Their solution: shifting power to unaccountable international bodies like the WTO, helping pave the way to what we now call “neoliberalism.”
Far-right ideas about race and intelligence are migrating into the mainstream — and not just in the US.