Certain economic arrangements encourage certain political programs. When economic pressures favor real production over finance, and local or regional enterprise over global abstraction, they tend to strengthen conservative instincts and weaken the grip of ideological radicalism.
Today, I watched the latest video by Ilona Švihlíková — which I strongly recommend, as her work keeps improving — and realized that she has precisely identified the missing piece of the puzzle. She points to the connection between rent extraction and ideological fanaticism. And that is the core of the problem.
The fundamental flaw of progressive agendas is not foolish ideas, but fanaticism. The world is full of errors and bad theories. In fact, debate over mistaken ideas has often been the starting point of genuine discovery. A healthy society tolerates eccentric views and marginal movements. It allows people to be wrong — sometimes spectacularly wrong — without turning disagreement into moral warfare.
Ideas become dangerously destructive only when open discussion is no longer possible and when ideological zeal is reinforced by immense power — financial, military, or both.
Eliminate rent-seeking, and the madness will fade.