Towards a Conservative Left (Ft. Michael Behrent)

Get access to The Backroom (95+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeIn this week’s episode of 1Dime Radio, I’m joined by Professor Michael C. Behrent to discuss Towards a Conservative Left: Selected Writings of Jean-Claude Michéa, a newly translated collection of essays by one of France’s most fascinating dissident socialists, sometimes described as “the French Christopher Lasch.”Michéa is a rare kind of left thinker: fiercely anti-capitalist and pro-democracy, but deeply skeptical of the Left’s cultural project, especially when it becomes a substitute for class politics, or when it turns working class “common sense” into something to be morally corrected. We talk about his Orwellian framework (including “Tory anarchism” and “common decency”), his critique of liberalism as both an economic and social ideology, and why these arguments suddenly feel uncomfortably relevant.In The Backroom (Patreon), we go further into what “conservative leftism” could actually mean today: socially conservative and economically leftist, what that synthesis would look like in practice, and what parts of the modern Left Michéa thinks have become complicit with liberalism.Timestamps:00:00:00  The Backroom Preview Culture vs Race, and The Cosmopolitan Delusion00:04:19  Jean Claude Michéa: The French Christopher Lasch 00:10:38  Towards a Conservative Left: Michéa’s Conservative Socialism00:14:05  Orwell: The Tory Anarchist00:17:50  Michéa’s background, communist parents, the Resistance, and patriotism00:28:01 Why Orwell is the key to Michéa’s synthesis00:35:57  Orwell’s “common decency.”00:50:15  Common sense vs left suspicion, and the populist question00:59:22  The “bourgeois left” & The drift away from the working-class 01:02:45  What “conservative” really means here01:31:02  A New Political Synthesis (The Backroom Transition)GUEST:Michael C. Behrent• Towards a Conservative Left (Bookshop): https://bookshop.org/p/books/towards-a-conservative-left-selected-writings-of-jean-claude-michea-jean-claude-michea/22912345• Towards a Conservative Left (Barnes & Noble): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/towards-a-conservative-left-jean-claude-michi-a/1147813503• Vauban Books (Publisher): https://www.vaubanbooks.com/• Behrent faculty page (Appalachian State): https://history.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/profiles• Behrent’s site: https://sisterrepublic.wordpress.com/about/FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.