In order for people to be able to say they are unique, they have to have a sense of themselves being unlike the undifferentiated masses. It's a fusion of those patterns in consumer culture, more individualized consumption, counter-culture and this kind of aristocratic distinction - they've all sort of fused to create a popular culture in which everyone thinks they're completely unique, and measures their values in opposition to everyone else.

Writer Angela Nagle examines the dark politics of mass hatred - from urbanism's new Malthusian panic over scarcity and overcrowding, to the ways consumer culture and neoliberal politics shape individuals with no relation to the other but opposition - and explains why the Sanders and Corbyn campaigns hint at a popular turn against misanthropy.

Angela wrote the Baffler article Enemies of the People and is the author of the soon to be released Kill All Normies, which we'll talk about with her in a few weeks.