Conservatives Are Wrong: There’s Nothing Natural About Hierarchy

When Roger Scruton died early last year at the age of seventy-five, right-wing outlets hailed him as “the most important conservative thinker of his era,” even “sacred.” The honorifics were understandable. The British philosopher possessed a rare combination of theoretical intelligence and expository panache that made him both a deep and accessible thinker. Whereas conservative figures like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro blow a lot of hot air complaining about Marxist authors, Scruton took the increasingly novel step of actually reading leftists and meticulously responding to their points.

But I’ve come here to criticize...