By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-06-26 12:46:10 | Updated at 2026-06-26 13:46:34
1 hour ago
American historian Victor Davis Hanson has delivered a scathing assessment of contemporary left-wing politics across Western nations.
Sitting down with GB News star Will Kingston, Mr Davis Hanson described today's progressive movement as fundamentally "nihilistic," arguing it bears little resemblance to earlier iterations of leftist thought.
The historian declared: "The Left is very strong in Europe, the West, the UK, United States, but it's a nihilistic Left now.
"It's not the old Left that you knew when growing up or I knew here in the United States, it's a self-loathing hatred of Western civilisation brought on by their increased leisure and affluence, and they're going at warp speed to do."
According to Mr Hanson, this ideological shift has manifested powerfully throughout Europe, Britain and America.
He took aim at energy policies pursued during Joe Biden's administration, criticising what he termed "the dismantling of fossil fuels" alongside "the subsidisation of inefficient wind and solar that makes a country inefficient non-competitive."
He said: "So in Europe, and we saw that under the Joe Biden administration, it was the dismantling of fossil fuels, the subsidisation of inefficient wind and solar that makes a country inefficient non-competitive.
"Especially when China is building two or three coal plants a month and exporting solar panels, but below the cost of production here in the United States and in Europe, the open borders."
Victor Davis Hanson has declared that the 'nihilistic Left' has 'hijacked Britain'
GB NEWS
The historian also attacked immigration policy, dismissing what he called "the open borders" approach rooted in multiculturalism.
He rejected the notion that migrants "from antithetical cultures will culturally integrate or assimilate," declaring such expectations "impossible, especially given the nature of Islam."
Mr Davis Hanson explained: "This multicultural idea that the West is not preeminent, and that people from antithetical cultures will culturally integrate or assimilate when you when you know that's impossible, especially given the nature of Islam.
"We always look toward Britain not as superior wisdom, but as a co-partner and a very important part of the West as opposed to Europe.
Mr Davis Hanson told GB News that there is a 'self-loathing hatred of Western civilisation'
GB NEWS
"We were much closer to the English speaking Commonwealth, Australia, Canada and Britain. But now we're confused and we don't know which way it's going to go."
This ambivalence, Mr Hanson suggested, stems from concerns about the direction of British governance under its present leadership, which he views as having departed from traditional values.
Despite these concerns, Mr Hanson voiced optimism that "the traditionalists in Britain, which we think are more numerous, will bring back" the country's direction.
He told GB News: "We're hoping that the traditionalists in Britain, which we think are more numerous, will bring back. They've had their Government hijacked by radicals and we hope that they'll restore sanity.
"And so it's I think that was the the tempo of what JD Vance was trying to say, wasn't trying to be critical of the British people.
"I think he could have been a little bit more explicit."
Mr Hanson drew parallels with America's own experience, stating "we went through this too and we're coming out of it now, and you can do the same thing."
He concluded with a caution: "Don't ever underestimate the power of the left."
