A leftist would say that's because neoliberalism, despite having the word "liberal" in its name, is at best a center-right ideology, and would be very surprised at your assertion that leftists want to preserve the broken status quo.
I don't think neoliberalism is a real ideology; the term, to be honest, is a pejorative used by leftists to discredit anybody further right of social democrats. The people accused of being neoliberals are rarely ideological. Liberalism (not the American kind, rather classical liberalism) is about adherence to a scientific worldview and making policies based on sound evidence.
Yep - the leftists started by disparaging neoliberals, but today they just say liberals.
Even someone like Elizabeth Warren, who is generally recognized as very progressive, falls under this heading because of her basically positive disposition towards capitalism.
And to the inevitable downvoters - go read leftist social media. I'm just stating easily verifiable facts here. I don't have a problem with leftists.
Neoliberalism is a term that only resonates inside the socialist box. Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor school of thought.
Somewhere along the line, neo-liberalism got marketed as a left wing ideology (it's not) and has since caused all manner of confusion as to why its expressed values don't materialize out of neo-liberal policies.
The answer is that leftist messaging is just a thin veneer over staunchly capitalistic and globalist politics. As long as people look to "liberal" messaging from corporate America, it seems unlikely to change.
I suspect that this person doesn't understand what neo-liberalism is, who is a neoliberal, or what their talking points are.
Neoliberals are the centrist or right leaning part of the democratic party and the moderate republicans. It is the political position of laissez-faire capitalism, reform, and reduced state influence over the economy.
Reagan and Pelosi are both neoliberal. Maybe this person meant Leftist, Socialist, Anticapitalist, or Progressive talking points?
> To oversimplify, neoliberal means 'socially left, fiscally right'.
No, it doesn't. Neoliberalism has never had anything at all to do with social policy; nor is it particularly about the left/right political axis in any domain. Neoliberalism is an economic philosophy -- the "liberal" in it refers to classic economic liberalism, which is (in terms of the left/right spectrum) typical of the center-left to moderate right (both the far right and moderate-to-far left tend to diverge from economic liberalism.)
It can coexist with either left or right social approaches (in the US, the majority of the Democratic establishment is both neoliberal economically and socially liberal, whereas the Republican establishment tends to be neoliberal economically and socially conservative.)
The neoliberal ideology infects both parties, modern day democrats agree with much of Reaganomics. I'd be surprised if the right used it as a pejorative, though they may be misusing the term to apply to "new" liberalism, the social liberalism mentioned.
A quick search of "neoliberal left" brings up things like the Jacobin and Noam Chomsky criticizing the left, not something like Breirtbart.
> neoliberal means 'socially left, fiscally right'
Maybe originally. Whenever I've seen it used in a publication (almost invariably left wing) it tends to be synonymous with "nasty idea I don't agree with".
Interestingly it's often antonymous with the term "progressive".
The Wikipedia article is quite misleading; the current neoliberal movement absolutely leans left. In modern usage, neoliberal refers to a particular type of liberal/Democrat.
I appreciate the explanation, at the same time I can't help but feel that many people on the right refer to democrats as neoliberals as a pejorative. Is that just a misuse of the term, or is there more to it
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