For a part of the political spectrum that is so notorious for disparaging intellectuals, the radical right is very appreciative of those prominent libertarian voices that stand out from the crowd and champion men’s rights, anti-immigration, and second amendment rights. As universities grow increasingly uncomfortable employing academics or welcoming speakers who promote hate speech and undermine their safe space policies, right-wing intellectuals – from Jordan Peterson to Milo Yiannopoulos – pack out auditoriums on their speaking tours and attract millions of followers on social media. Despite the significant differences between the heyday of fascism and our own times, there is much we can learn from the past about why the radical right cherishes intellectuals who challenge received wisdom and validate their deeply held opinions.
Many libertarian intellectuals today complain about being marginalized by the academy and describe themselves as members of the “intellectual dark web”, a category popularized by Bari Weiss in 2018 that includes iconoclastic public intellectuals who spurn political correctness and promote ideas that are frequently synonymous with those of the radical right. Such people are not as rare in higher education as they would like us to think, however, and it is still easier for a right-wing historian, political scientist, or philosopher to get a job than it was for comparable thinkers on the far left in interwar Germany or Austria.
It is still easier for a right-wing historian, political scientist, or philosopher to get a job than it was for comparable thinkers on the far left in interwar Germany or Austria.
Nationalism, race theory, and eugenics were the dominant ideologies of 1920s and 1930s Europe, when right-wing professors used their influence to give jobs to their protégés as lecturers or newspaper columnists and exploited their positions on university committees to prevent disciplinary measures being taken against right-wing students accused of assault or disturbing the peace. In many parts of interwar East-Central Europe radical right movements were not exactly mainstream though, and activists cherished outspoken intellectuals who championed their ideas.
