The Reluctant Truce

The UnPopulist just posted a podcast interview I did with them as a follow-up on my recent article about the American right’s fascination with the Orban model of authoritarianism.

The discussion is mostly about the folly of the idea of using the power of the state to impose one’s religious or political ideas, and I thought one of my more interesting observations was this point: “The history of religious liberty is really a history of failed religious conflict,” in which institutional neutrality was accepted as a reluctant truce.

This is not the only reason or even the main reason to fight for intellectual freedom. But this is the reason for a certain degree of political optimism.

Listen to the whole podcast, or read the (slightly rough) transcript at The UnPopulist.