The Appropriation of Artificial Intelligence Within “Post-Liberal” Intellectual Currents: A Symptom of the Fascist Turn of the Illiberal Right

This paper examines the discourses of “illiberal” intellectuals on technology, and more specifically on artificial intelligence. Contrary to a narrative that remains prevalent in academic journals and part of the scholarly literature - namely, the assumption of an ideological opposition, or even incompatibility, between the “traditionalist” currents of the illiberal constellation (national conservatism, post-liberalism, Catholic integralism, etc.) and so-called “techno-optimist” currents (Dark Enlightenment, neo-reactionary movements, “TESCREAL,” etc.) - this paper aims to demonstrate that the Heideggerian-inflected critique of capitalism and “technology” articulated by intellectuals such as Adrian Vermeule, Rod Dreher, and Patrick Deneen conceals a growing appropriation of AI and technological innovation as a necessary means to dismantle progressivism in all its forms. Our central hypothesis is that this increasingly unapologetic appropriation of technology - particularly generative AI - to discipline judicial and parliamentary counterpowers and to disseminate a specific conception of the “common good” throughout the population indicates that the concept of fascism remains analytically relevant for understanding the ideological recomposition of contemporary right-wing movements.