CASE STUDY: The ideological brain of Steve Bannon, the Rasputin of MAGA

The other day, I saw the interview with Steve Bannon, who, in the words of The Economist magazine, is "the former chief strategist of the White House whose worldview contradicts that of The Economist. He is a populist nationalist" and the Rasputin of MAGA, as he himself does not deny in the interview. 

The Economist justifies the interview because «it is classically liberal. But liberalism demands dialogue with those who oppose it. And as liberal values retreat worldwide, understanding Mr Bannon’s ideas—which have animated many people on both sides of the Atlantic—has become essential». Given his ideas, which are quite clear in the interview, it is unlikely that Steve Bannon would have interviewed Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, on her podcast, War Room.

What emerges very clearly from the interview is that MAGA is irremediably divided between the populist nationalist faction and the ideas of techno-archs like the "éminence grise" Peter Thiel - as I once anticipated in the post Another Brick in the Wall.

Coincidentally, I had read "The Ideological Brain" some time earlier, whose central conclusion is that ideologies change our brains, creating "ideological brains" rigid and resistant to new evidence. It occurred to me that the author Leor Zmigrod, a political psychologist and neuroscientist, could very well use Steve Bannon as a case study for her research.