Is Liberalism Just Fascism in Disguise? | Aaron Bastani Meets Adrian Wooldridge

We want to hear from you! Take part in the 2026 Novara Media survey: novara.media/survey 00:00 Introduction 04:25 What Is Liberalism? 07:48 What Were Liberalism’s Precedents? 10:23 The Tyranny of Thomas Hobbes: A Totalitarian Liberal 14:12 Who or What Does the Liberal State Fundamentally Serve? 17:08 Liberalism’s Dark Shadow: Fascism 25:30 The Relationship Between Liberalism and Modern Slavery 35:01 An Unwillingness to Accept Accountability for Historical Crimes 41:52 Double Liberalism or ‘Bourgeois Bohemianism’ 47:41 How Unpopular is ‘BoBo’ Politics Today? 50:02 Two Moments That Changed Adrian’s Mind 57:50 The Shrunken Middle: How Can Liberalism Survive in the 21st C? 1:00:27 On Migration 1:03:07 Are Liberals Receptive to Criticism Today? 1:10:25 Is Adrian a Xi Jinping-Pilled Liberal? 1:13:21 Liberals Need to Restrain Big Tech 1:16:53 Redistribution Versus Reining In Big Tech 1:26:09 The Flaws in the Liberal Approach to Drug Use and Abuse Liberalism, in one form or another, has been the pervading political ideology of the past 200 years. It has become so pervasive, as an ideology, that it lays claim to the middle ground and common sense itself. But liberalism is a set of dogmas and doctrines like any other political ideology, and unfathomable horrors as well as huge advances have been made in its name. Today on Downstream, the ideas we call liberal or centrist are up for scrutiny, as Aaron Bastani interviews Adrian Wooldridge. Wooldridge is a liberal insider, having been a journalist at the Economist magazine for thirty years. His new book, Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism is an account of his own sense that liberalism in 2026 is in a state of crisis. It must reinvent itself, he argues, or die. So what exactly is liberalism, where did it come from, and how can we characterise it today? What was the historical relationship between liberalism and slavery? Why are liberals always so reluctant to acknowledge this aspect of their history? In times of crisis, do liberals always defect to the fascist far-right? And what must centrists do today, if they want their ideas to organise the 21st century? Sign up for the Downstream Newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/the-downstream-newsletter/ Support our work: http://novara.media/support Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/