• lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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    7 days ago

    Neoliberals

    Yet another confusion of US liberal (which means progressive, social liberal) & neoliberal.

    To quote from the House Resolution you’re rightly criticizing

    Whereas Charlie Kirk, at 18 years old, founded Turning Point USA in 2012, a student movement with the mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets [emphasis added], and limited government”;

    That is the proper definition of neoliberal.

    Social liberalism, however, favors a social market economy. Free isn’t social: they’re mutually exclusive.

    Even Supertramp from the UK back in 1979 understood liberal as socially liberating

    I said, now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radical
    A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal

    so the persistent confusion here is bizarre.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      7 days ago

      US liberal (which means progressive, social liberal)

      False. The US dominant form of liberalism is Neoliberalism. It’s the ideology of the leadership and donor base of the major party that isn’t outright fascist, it’s the dominant philosophy of the media, and it’s the default state of government institutions.

      Has been since 1980 if not sooner.

      Whereas Charlie Kirk, at 18 years old, founded Turning Point USA in 2012, a student movement with the mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, **free markets** *[emphasis added]*, and limited government”; \

      That is the proper definition of neoliberal.

      Nope, that’s a fascist masquerading as a right-libertarian aka an anarcho-capitalist.

      Social liberalism, however, favors a social market economy.

      You’re thinking of social democrats, a center left ideology that’s to the left of Neoliberalism and to the right of socialism. It’s basically what almost all American politicians who call themselves democratic socialists (yes, including Bernie Sanders) actually are.

      Free isn’t social: they’re mutually exclusive.

      That’s a misapprehension based on conservative gaslighting. You can be free to utilize public land. You can be free to roam wherever you please as long as you’re not hurting anyone. You can be free to associate and speak with people in whatever way you want that doesn’t unduly harm people.

      All of those things, with the possible but not categorical exception of the roaming, are highly social expressions of freedom.

      Just because the Republican party has rebranded freedom as “the freedom to do whatever I want with no consequences for me no matter how much others are harmed” doesn’t mean that you have to believe it.

      Even Supertramp from the UK back in 1979 understood liberal as socially liberating

      Well in the UK in 1979, the grandmother of Neoliberalism and wicked witch of the South Margaret Thatcher was known as a conservative. Corporations and the politicians they own had not convinced the UK people that liberty = greed and deregulation like in the US.

      the persistent confusion here is bizarre

      Well you’re right about that, but not about who’s confused.

      • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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        7 days ago

        False. The US dominant form of liberalism is Neoliberalism.

        Nope: your false is false. Tankies keep regurgitating that nonsense nonstop here.

        Neoliberalism is free market ideology

        Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism

        that took hold during the Reagan administration until it began to wane with the Great Recession.

        historical synopsis

        Beginning in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration and Thatcher government implemented a series of neoliberal economic reforms to counter the chronic stagflation the United States and United Kingdom had each experienced throughout the 1970s. Neoliberal policies continued to dominate American and British politics until the Great Recession.

        This trend continued into the 1980s under the Reagan administration, which included tax cuts, increased defense spending, financial deregulation and trade deficit expansion.

        Democrats flirted with neoliberalism until the Great Recession. Even as they did, their “New Democrat” policies retained a mixed economy social market while stressing civil rights.

        Arkansas governor Bill Clinton was one such figure, who was elected president in 1992 as the Democratic nominee. The Democratic Leadership Council was a campaign organization connected to Clinton that advocated a realignment and triangulation under the re-branded “New Democrat” label. The party adopted a synthesis of neoliberal economic policies with cultural liberalism, with the voter base after Reagan having shifted considerably to the right. In an effort to appeal both to liberals and to fiscal conservatives, Democrats began to advocate for a balanced budget and market economy tempered by government intervention (mixed economy), along with a continued emphasis on social justice and affirmative action.

        It was a brief shift away from their relatively longer history of modern American liberalism tracing back from the New Deal through the New Frontier and Great Society.

        Into the 21st century, the liberal faction represents the modern American liberalism that began with the New Deal in the 1930s and continued with both the New Frontier and Great Society in the 1960s. The moderate faction supports Third Way politics that includes center-left social policies and centrist fiscal policies, mostly associated with the New Democrats and Clintonism of the 1990s, while the left-wing faction (known as progressives) advocates for progressivism and social democracy.

        That modern liberal faction remained through the dominance of the neoliberal-leaning New Democrats

        While the resurgence of conservatism and the Third Way of Bill Clinton’s New Democrats briefly weakened the influence of modern liberalism, Barack Obama acted as an ideological bridge.

        and neoliberal decline with the Great Recession and Obama administration.

        Moderate Democrats, or New Democrats, are an ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. Running as a New Democrat, Bill Clinton won the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. They are an economically liberal and “Third Way” faction that dominated the party for around 20 years, until the beginning of Obama’s presidency.

        Since then, neoliberalism has been waning as liberals & progressives restored market regulation with the Dodd–Frank financial reform act, intervened in healthcare & expanded medicaid with the Affordable Care Act, and led Democrats to adopt an increasingly progressive economic agenda during the Biden administration.

        The liberal faction had always been there since the New Deal, they never leaned neoliberal. Even the neoliberal-leaning Democratic faction wasn’t hard neoliberal, and that faction has been waning for a while.

        You’re thinking of social democrats

        Nope, standard definition

        Social liberalism: Social liberal parties stress civil and human rights and favour a social market economy.

        and they overlap.

        That’s a misapprehension based on conservative gaslighting.

        Nope, a free market economy isn’t a social market economy or mixed economy, which is regulated with government intervention & public services. Free market means laissez-faire or minimal regulation. It doesn’t mean stronger regulation & government intervention. These are straightforward definitions.

        Well in the UK in 1979, the grandmother of Neoliberalism and wicked witch of the South Margaret Thatcher was known as a conservative.

        which Supertramp weren’t singing about. Listen to the goddamn song: it topped the charts across the west during the counterculture movements of the 70s, indicating a shared understanding at odds with yours that the word has to do with social liberation. Plus, this precedes the Reagan administration. The mental gymnastics of denying that generally understood meaning is tedious.

        Well you’re right

        Yes.