[pierrem15]

The author is confusing the two types of modernity: early modernity (basically Machiavelli through our Founders) and late modernity (Rousseau through Marx and Lenin).

Late modernity rejects early modern liberalism but not its rationalism, so they seek a hyper-rational illiberal state, of either a leftwing or a rightwing variety. The leftists believe in a cosmopolitan, universal class structure that justifies any action to combat it including eliminating any "bourgeois" rights. The right believes that society can be perfected only through ethno-nationalism that also justifies any action including the suppression of "bourgeois" rights.

What's happening in the US is that the left has seized on "racism" as a useful cudgel to create an all powerful state while the oligarchs have realized that funding social communism gives them cover to continue looting the country. So the US has a confusing mix where the left appeals to ethnicity while the oligarchy is rewarded with monopolies and corporate fascist public-private cooperation like the Big Tech censorship programs.

[KC Burke]

Gertrude Himmelfarb wrote The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments which is a great study on the various avenues through the enlightenment the nations took. There is a kindle version for about seven bucks. Next to Chapter Four of Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty (https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/836099/posts) it is my favorite clear picture of the enlightenment differences.

[TBP]

Public-private partnerships re essentially and inherently fascist.