American_Jihad
Flaming Libs/Koranimals
Oh my, they have a lot of issues on the left...
The LeftÂ’s War on Neoliberalism
August 23, 2013 By Steven Plaut
We all know how contorted the use of the term “liberalism” has been for decades. Liberalism once upon a time (before 1970) meant free competition and meritocracy without discrimination. But ever since then liberalism has meant affirmation action quotas and dumbed-down standards to achieve radical homogeneity in “representativeness.” Liberalism once favored eliminating the use of gender, racial and ethnic group membership as a criterion for advancement, whereas these days liberals almost unanimously endorse subordination of all advancement to such things. Liberalism once meant removing obstacles to competition and elimination of measures that simply protect special interests. These days liberals favor retaining as many such obstacles as possible. Liberals once favored reining in government and preventing subordination of markets to bureaucratic whims and political allegiances. Today the very essence of liberalism is to favor such things.
Nineteenth century liberalism was essentially the belief in free-market economics in most markets. This means that a nineteenth century liberal differs little from a 21st century conservative.
All this is highly confusing. When someone calls himself a liberal these days, we always need to clarify if he means that he believes in the 19th century’s classical liberalism, that of David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, or the 21st century liberalism of Rev Al, Obamacare, and MSNBC, or perhaps even the hardcore Stalinism “in the name of liberalism” of people like Noam Chomsky and the writers at “Counterpunch.”
As if the uses of “liberalism” had not muddied the waters sufficiently, along comes the even worse rhetorical invention of “neoliberalism.” Whatever it may have meant in the past, these days “neoliberalism” is the nonsense word of choice used by Marxists to refer to anyone who rejects communism. A more honest pejorative by such people should have been “anti-communist,” but that word has lost its ability to shock and trigger goosestepping and line-toeing by wannabe fellow travelers.
The simple fact of the matter is that anyone using the word “neoliberal” these days is a Marxist or at least someone who thinks that markets should never be allowed to operate freely. Anti-neoliberals favor nationalization and state controls.
...
The Left’s reversion to the snooty dismissal of liberals, neo or otherwise, is itself enlightening. While conservatives long mocked them by saying that socialists are merely liberals in a hurry, there was an underlying revulsion towards liberals among real radicals. Liberals tended to be too touchy-feely, non-violent, defending the need for freedom of speech, appreciative of middle class standards of living and wealth, and too anxious to get their kids into good colleges. Radicals wanted violence and class warfare, and were more than willing to forego bourgeois niceties like freedom of speech and the rule of law in order to seize power. While willing to play along with their assigned theater roles as “liberals in a hurry,” especially when this allowed them to manipulate “popular front” broad coalitions, the radicals felt nothing but disdain toward the non-Marxists. That pretense has now been dropped.
...
The Left?s War on Neoliberalism | FrontPage Magazine
The LeftÂ’s War on Neoliberalism
August 23, 2013 By Steven Plaut
We all know how contorted the use of the term “liberalism” has been for decades. Liberalism once upon a time (before 1970) meant free competition and meritocracy without discrimination. But ever since then liberalism has meant affirmation action quotas and dumbed-down standards to achieve radical homogeneity in “representativeness.” Liberalism once favored eliminating the use of gender, racial and ethnic group membership as a criterion for advancement, whereas these days liberals almost unanimously endorse subordination of all advancement to such things. Liberalism once meant removing obstacles to competition and elimination of measures that simply protect special interests. These days liberals favor retaining as many such obstacles as possible. Liberals once favored reining in government and preventing subordination of markets to bureaucratic whims and political allegiances. Today the very essence of liberalism is to favor such things.
Nineteenth century liberalism was essentially the belief in free-market economics in most markets. This means that a nineteenth century liberal differs little from a 21st century conservative.
All this is highly confusing. When someone calls himself a liberal these days, we always need to clarify if he means that he believes in the 19th century’s classical liberalism, that of David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, or the 21st century liberalism of Rev Al, Obamacare, and MSNBC, or perhaps even the hardcore Stalinism “in the name of liberalism” of people like Noam Chomsky and the writers at “Counterpunch.”
As if the uses of “liberalism” had not muddied the waters sufficiently, along comes the even worse rhetorical invention of “neoliberalism.” Whatever it may have meant in the past, these days “neoliberalism” is the nonsense word of choice used by Marxists to refer to anyone who rejects communism. A more honest pejorative by such people should have been “anti-communist,” but that word has lost its ability to shock and trigger goosestepping and line-toeing by wannabe fellow travelers.
The simple fact of the matter is that anyone using the word “neoliberal” these days is a Marxist or at least someone who thinks that markets should never be allowed to operate freely. Anti-neoliberals favor nationalization and state controls.
...
The Left’s reversion to the snooty dismissal of liberals, neo or otherwise, is itself enlightening. While conservatives long mocked them by saying that socialists are merely liberals in a hurry, there was an underlying revulsion towards liberals among real radicals. Liberals tended to be too touchy-feely, non-violent, defending the need for freedom of speech, appreciative of middle class standards of living and wealth, and too anxious to get their kids into good colleges. Radicals wanted violence and class warfare, and were more than willing to forego bourgeois niceties like freedom of speech and the rule of law in order to seize power. While willing to play along with their assigned theater roles as “liberals in a hurry,” especially when this allowed them to manipulate “popular front” broad coalitions, the radicals felt nothing but disdain toward the non-Marxists. That pretense has now been dropped.
...
The Left?s War on Neoliberalism | FrontPage Magazine
