If the Twitter/X thing teaches you one thing, let it be this: Twitter was a neoliberal place. Then Elon Musk made it into X, a fascist place. Once again, neoliberalism laid the foundations of fascism. But that’s not the (whole) lesson… Neoliberal folks are still using X, calling it Twitter to make themselves feel better, and pining for the good old days. And there’s the real lesson: When neoliberalism turns into fascism, neoliberals will adapt to life under fascism. Right, class dismissed.

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(We really need a better way to crosspost from mastodon…)

  • SuddenDownpourEnglish
    11·
    8 months ago

    According to Wiktionary:

    A political ideology or ideological trend based on neoclassical economics that espouses economic liberalism, favouring trade liberalisation, financial deregulation, a small government, privatisation and liberalisation of government businesses, passive antitrust enforcement, accepting greater economic inequality and disfavouring unionisation.

    The Spanish polisci professor Juan Carlos Monedero explained the utility of the term this way: “Classical liberals challenged the status quo because the status quo was antidemocratic. Neoliberals challenge the status quo because they want the state to shrink.”

    In US terms, both the Democrats and the Republicans have neoliberals, although both wings are shrinking in favor of progressives and ultraconservatives, respectively, in the last few years.