His definition is broad enough to include the Catholic postliberals among white nationalists, national conservatives, and other groups that Goldberg opposes. The point is not that they oppose liberalism for the same reasons or envision the same alternatives, but that the term “postliberal” is more a way of identifying one’s factional affiliation. Oddly enough, leading postliberal Adrian Vermeule agrees with him on that point at least, calling postliberalism a “negative category” in which “all members of the genus reject the central premises of liberalism.” Therefore, Vermeule seems to set himself against Ahmari and Dougherty, and with Goldberg. What is one to make of all this?
Postliberals want the term “postliberalism” to remain vague, so that debates about it will center on definitions rather than the ideas and their implications. Debating definitions is much pleasanter than acknowledging that postliberalism opens up its adherents to a tradition that has historically embraced antisemitism and made common cause with fascism and Nazism.
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