I think about this book a lot. It's a brilliant take on the failures of moralistic American liberalism and a really interesting prism to view the rise of authoritarian populists across Eastern Europe.

The chapter on Trump was probably the least convincing. The "imitation as dispossession" framework is an interesting way to read the broader factors that led to Trumpism, but I genuinely don't think it's helpful to analyze him as a rational political actor with a coherent ideology – there are too many counterexamples and inconsistencies. It would be much more useful to think of him as a baboon, or some other species of primate w a double-digit IQ, slinging its shit on a wall, hoping some of it will stick.

This book is largely an analysis of how Trump and co. came to power, but it hits different reading it this year now that "Moral Leader" Biden is running foreign policy. Surely this can't go wrong