Article Summary:
This David Brooks article explores how modern conservative movements, particularly MAGA, have appropriated left-wing revolutionary intellectual concepts to challenge the current cultural establishment. The author traces this phenomenon through various philosophical and political ideas originally developed by left-wing thinkers.
Key examples of co-opted concepts include postmodernism (rejecting objective truth), anti-globalization, conspiratorial thinking about power elites, and Marxist-Leninist revolutionary strategies. Figures like Steve Bannon and Christopher Rufo explicitly embraced revolutionary tactics aimed at dismantling existing institutional structures.
The right has strategically adopted leftist intellectual frameworks such as critical theory, identity politics, and Gramscian cultural power dynamics. Notably, they’ve inverted these concepts, positioning themselves as the oppressed group fighting against educated elites. Donald Trump exemplifies this approach by undermining traditional institutional neutrality and embracing performative transgressiveness.
The author argues that while the left originally developed these ideas to challenge bourgeois establishments, the right has effectively weaponized them against the current cultural mainstream, particularly in universities and media. This includes embracing cancel culture, provocative rhetoric, and conspiracy-driven narratives.
The transformation is deeply ironic: revolutionary left-wing intellectual tools are now being used by conservative movements to deconstruct progressive institutions. The right has selectively adopted destructive methodologies without constructive alternatives, while the left has become intellectually stagnant.
Ultimately, the article suggests contemporary politics is characterized by revolutionary rightists without a constructive ideology confronting progressives whose movement has been captured by failed radical left-wing philosophies.