DAMON LINKER ON THE INTELLECTUAL LAZINESS OF OUR RULING CLASS:

For members of a centrist establishment under siege, it’s far more comforting to dismiss as illegitimate the motives of those who support Donald Trump’s presidency, who voted for Brexit, who travel from the French provinces to don yellow vests on the streets of Paris, and who have empowered populist parties in Poland, Italy, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. They’re racists, xenophobes, rubes, bigots, and entitled whiners who are stomping their feet like spoiled, resentful children, empowering fascists rather than deferring to the experts who actually know how the world works and how to govern the liberal international order.

But of course things look quite different on the other side of the dispute.

Related: To understand events around the world today, one must think in terms of the class struggle. Plus: “Immediately, the protesters were denounced as xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist, but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore.”