"the rise of far-right politics is insulting to the reader's intelligence. He seems to think it is reducible to the energy economy rather than the actual behavior of leftists and liberals"

This appears to be you saying "look what they made me do".

If it isn't, you should clarify your point.

Really not saying anything particularly profound that wasn't said a hundred times by the liberal and center-left intelligentsia after the arrival of Trumpism.

They correctly noted that many people feel left behind by globalization, whereas those in the professional managerial class don't feel as threatened. Liberals have long been fretting about the viability of multiculturalism since the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis, and before. And the particular rise of aggressive identity politics has put the public image of left-wing people in the trash, as they are now associated with speech police and people obsessed with identity issues in ways that are often tinged with hate or which aren't related to the material interests of anyone.

All of this has been said ad nauseam in The Atlantic, the New Yorker, The New Republic, WaPo, NYT, and even NPR... all of which could be fairly criticized as epicenters of the very problem they have also critiqued.

Pretending like pointing out any of this a problem is a succinct demonstration of why the Right keeps winning.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/19/677346260/warning-to-democrat...