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> The opposition could focus on morality and pay lip-service to neoliberal diversity theatre while simultaneously selling out to corporate interests.

Pretty sure any phrase preceded by the word 'neoliberal' is already (by definition) aligned with corporate interests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

"Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism refers primarily to the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism. Those ideas include economic liberalization policies such as privatization, austerity, deregulation, free trade and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. These market-based ideas and the policies they inspired constitute a paradigm shift away from the post-war Keynesian consensus which lasted from 1945 to 1980."



Yes, I agree, I know what the term means.

A common critique of neoliberalism is that it pays lip service to adding diversity to traditionally high status/class/prestige careers and positions without disassembling the unfair power structures that cause those careers and positions to be so desirable. Hence "neoliberal diversity theatre" is somewhat separate from ostensibly selling out to corporate interests, because diversity theatre's goal is to advance justice along identitarian lines without removing injustice from the system; it's spreading injustice out among races and gender without addressing it as an intrinsic symptom.

Politicians selling out to corporate interests is the main mechanism through which those power structures are maintained and expanded, but the equality-charades are a necessary ingredient to make the main course palatable (for the democrats. Republicans are also neoliberal but use other wedge issues).


> Republicans are also neoliberal

Some Democrats and some Republicans are neoliberal; the dominance of the neoliberal faction in the Democratic Party is weakening, and it's even weaker in the Republican Party—Trump is decidedly not a neoliberal.)


True, but I would correct "some" to "most." Neoliberalism is a blanket term that encompasses multiple axes that some might be split on, so many people aren't either 0 or 100% neoliberal, too. Republican rhetoric may not by and large lean neoliberal, but the way they vote often is. Even if neoliberalism is weakening, it's still the dominant economic ideology in the US government.


Yeah, "neoliberal" is pretty much a slur. No one calls themself neoliberal.





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