The Bastard Children of Neoliberalism

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas sweats his way through a personally revealing exchange with Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University and the author of Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right (amzn.eu/d/02VhSIWC).

Quinn explains:

• Friedrich Hayek’s “knowledge problem” and his defence of markets over central planning.

• Hayek’s later theory of cultural evolution, inherited institutions, and the limits of universal market society.

• The split between “cultural Austrians” at George Mason University and “racial Austrians” around the Mises Institute.

• Murray Rothbard’s move from courting anti-war hippies to building alliances with paleoconservatives and racial nationalists.

• Hans-Hermann Hoppe, anarcho-capitalism, secession, and racially homogeneous private communities.

• The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, IQ research, and the politics of scientific claims about race and inequality.

• The difference between ideas that are empirically false and ideas rejected because they are morally disturbing.

• The post-Cold War transformation of neoliberal enemies from communism to environmentalism, affirmative action, feminism, and welfare.

• The divide between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives over US foreign policy, nationalism, and the Iraq War.

• Whether Hayek’s Bastards reveals a major genealogy of the modern Far Right—or exaggerates the influence of a provocative fringe.

Visit Quinn’s website: www.quinnslobodian.com

Find Quinn on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/quinnslobodian.com

And on Substack: zeithistoriker.substack.com

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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