What your best argument for using the term neoliberal? I’ve read the exponents post about it:
“There is a trend in politics recently (and in fact since the beginning of time) for old political labels to be rediscovered, reused and redefined. One of these terms, and perhaps the most contentious one, is “Neoliberalism”. The reason for this is because the definition of the term, and the relationship between who identifies with it and who is identified by it, has shifted dramatically over its history.”
While the post clearly explains what your movement of neoliberalism is trying to acheive, it doesn’t clarify the name choice. It seems like to say: “politicals terms get reused, so we’re going with neoliberal”. This doesn’t seem like a substantial analysis of the costs and benefits of using the name for your movement. Indeed, it’s seems like there might be major reputational risks involved. In my personal experience being loosely affiliated with neoliberalism, it takes a lot of work to explain that: “No, I don’t support Margaret Thatcher, Reagan, or union-busting. Sorry, no, we’re reinventing it to mean this, that, and the other thing. Forget you previous bad connotations of neoliberalism” More remarkable is that while neoliberalism is attempting to push back against the current wave of leftism , it is truly only on a few issues, and agrees on a lot of the basics. If I had to list a few of these major differences, it would be that (regulated) markets, YIMBYism, and free trade are good. In the grand scheme of things, these are small (but important) differences.
However the nomenclature choice seems odd, given that the term neoliberalism is the ultimate insult in progressive circles, with an often nebulous definition, but an always evil connotation. I see a certain contrarian satisfaction in trying to reclaim the term and redefine it, but ultimately I do not see what you gain from using the term . However, it does seem clear to me that you make an immediate poor first impression on many of the folks you might be trying to persuade to become part of your movement.
Personally, I support London’s Neoliberal chapter becoming the London New Liberals, and would welcome a broader shift towards New Liberalism or something similar. Of course, there are costs to switching the name now, but I think it’s possible that the benefits would overcome the switching costs.
What’s your best response to my argument? What am I missing?
I think it’s important to realize that different names serve different purposes at different points in time.
If the initial subreddit had called itself the very sober sounding ”/r/NewLiberal” from the beginning, I firmly believe that what we are doing right now would not exist. The subreddit would never have gotten the attention it got, and would never have grown as fast as it did. Reclaiming the term neoliberal was delightfully subversive and grabbed people’s attention—people who loved it and people who hated it. Before the Neoliberal Project had even been conceived and we were just a loose collection of social media spaces, we had already been profiled in Vice, Gawker, NPR, and many other places. We had mainstream media attention because the name was controversial. The attention brought in both supporters and attackers, and the inevitable tribal battles that happened forged a sense of community that attracted people further. We’ve grown pretty fast, all things considered.
So I think there were very strong reasons to lean heavily into the neoliberalism branding early in our existence. And once you lean heavily into a brand, it’s hard to divorce yourself from that brand—path dependency is a thing. A lot of our members identify with the neoliberal brand. I also continue to think there’s a benefit to being controversial and iconoclastic. Think about the DSA’s rise in popularity, and how the left has successfully redefined ‘socialism’ from ‘the scary communist USSR with a brutal dictatorship and absolute total state control over every part of the economy’ to ‘socialism is when free college and healthcare’. (which may be a slight exaggeration of how many GenZ socialists understand themselves, but only a slight one)
With that said! I do think it’s likely that as we move further into serious advocacy within the political establishment, we’ll move more towards a different branding. We already have the Center for New Liberalism which is essentially just a new wrapper on the same ideas, and is helpful to use in instances when ‘neoliberal’ might scare people off. Clearly it does restrict some things for us and isn’t the best branding in all situations. Right now we’re letting our chapters choose whichever name is best for them in their local context. I’m ultimately a pragmatist and am willing to use different names in different contexts.
What your best argument for using the term neoliberal? I’ve read the exponents post about it:
“There is a trend in politics recently (and in fact since the beginning of time) for old political labels to be rediscovered, reused and redefined. One of these terms, and perhaps the most contentious one, is “Neoliberalism”. The reason for this is because the definition of the term, and the relationship between who identifies with it and who is identified by it, has shifted dramatically over its history.”
While the post clearly explains what your movement of neoliberalism is trying to acheive, it doesn’t clarify the name choice. It seems like to say: “politicals terms get reused, so we’re going with neoliberal”. This doesn’t seem like a substantial analysis of the costs and benefits of using the name for your movement. Indeed, it’s seems like there might be major reputational risks involved. In my personal experience being loosely affiliated with neoliberalism, it takes a lot of work to explain that: “No, I don’t support Margaret Thatcher, Reagan, or union-busting. Sorry, no, we’re reinventing it to mean this, that, and the other thing. Forget you previous bad connotations of neoliberalism” More remarkable is that while neoliberalism is attempting to push back against the current wave of leftism , it is truly only on a few issues, and agrees on a lot of the basics. If I had to list a few of these major differences, it would be that (regulated) markets, YIMBYism, and free trade are good. In the grand scheme of things, these are small (but important) differences.
However the nomenclature choice seems odd, given that the term neoliberalism is the ultimate insult in progressive circles, with an often nebulous definition, but an always evil connotation. I see a certain contrarian satisfaction in trying to reclaim the term and redefine it, but ultimately I do not see what you gain from using the term . However, it does seem clear to me that you make an immediate poor first impression on many of the folks you might be trying to persuade to become part of your movement.
Personally, I support London’s Neoliberal chapter becoming the London New Liberals, and would welcome a broader shift towards New Liberalism or something similar. Of course, there are costs to switching the name now, but I think it’s possible that the benefits would overcome the switching costs.
What’s your best response to my argument? What am I missing?
I think it’s important to realize that different names serve different purposes at different points in time.
If the initial subreddit had called itself the very sober sounding ”/r/NewLiberal” from the beginning, I firmly believe that what we are doing right now would not exist. The subreddit would never have gotten the attention it got, and would never have grown as fast as it did. Reclaiming the term neoliberal was delightfully subversive and grabbed people’s attention—people who loved it and people who hated it. Before the Neoliberal Project had even been conceived and we were just a loose collection of social media spaces, we had already been profiled in Vice, Gawker, NPR, and many other places. We had mainstream media attention because the name was controversial. The attention brought in both supporters and attackers, and the inevitable tribal battles that happened forged a sense of community that attracted people further. We’ve grown pretty fast, all things considered.
So I think there were very strong reasons to lean heavily into the neoliberalism branding early in our existence. And once you lean heavily into a brand, it’s hard to divorce yourself from that brand—path dependency is a thing. A lot of our members identify with the neoliberal brand. I also continue to think there’s a benefit to being controversial and iconoclastic. Think about the DSA’s rise in popularity, and how the left has successfully redefined ‘socialism’ from ‘the scary communist USSR with a brutal dictatorship and absolute total state control over every part of the economy’ to ‘socialism is when free college and healthcare’. (which may be a slight exaggeration of how many GenZ socialists understand themselves, but only a slight one)
With that said! I do think it’s likely that as we move further into serious advocacy within the political establishment, we’ll move more towards a different branding. We already have the Center for New Liberalism which is essentially just a new wrapper on the same ideas, and is helpful to use in instances when ‘neoliberal’ might scare people off. Clearly it does restrict some things for us and isn’t the best branding in all situations. Right now we’re letting our chapters choose whichever name is best for them in their local context. I’m ultimately a pragmatist and am willing to use different names in different contexts.