In this episode, Jerry and Stably discussed Stefan Borg's book, The Return of the Common Good: The Post-Liberal Project Left and Right, with Stably finding it enjoyable but wanting more and Jerry viewing it as a concise outline confirming prior beliefs, while both criticized its dense, academic style. A major talking point was the assertion that post-liberals offer a "fantastic critique" of liberalism's self-undermining nature but are "incredibly light on prescription," with participants exploring alternative post-liberal approaches like Michael Lind’s and the intellectual genealogy rooted in "radical orthodoxy." The conversation covered various facets of the post-liberal critique, including its US and UK contexts, its distinction from National Conservatism (NatCon), its theoretical core identifying liberalism as an ideology rooted in fear and violence, and its analysis of liberalism's internal contradictions, which erode social trust and necessitate state enforcement of radical individual freedom, alongside a critique of post-liberal feminism.
