Why I don't use the word "neoliberalism"
People complain that "neoliberalism" is vague but "socialism" encompasses François Hollande and Pol Pot.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 18, 2017
Problem not vagueness but that "neoliberalism" is mostly used as a pejorative to smear Clinton-Obama as essentially like Thatcher-Reagan. /1 https://t.co/A4WzPHrsMU
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Whereas socialist often used as a self-identifier, and you can ask people what sort of socialist they are. /2
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Doesn't mean you can't use "socialist" to mischaracterize or misunderstand people, but "neoliberal" used for little else. /3
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
More charitably I'll say people who use the term want to understand e.g. why Dems are doing such a bad job of reducing inequality, racism. 4
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
But, though you can say that mixed-economy liberals underestimate the intractability of free-market capitalism... /5
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
...you're dishonest if you say that mixed-economy liberals embrace the unfettered free market, much less the intractability. /6
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Okay, it might not be what you mean; rather, that neoliberals are too accommodating. But why not use the word "liberal," without the smear 7
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Btw, this not directed at Yglesias, who only uses term ironically, as if directed at liberals like himself. E.g., https://t.co/SiraqbGNZ1 /8
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Problem for those who feel farther left is that merely using "liberal" doesn't explain how they aren't themselves mixed-economy liberals. /9
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
The task here, though, is to be inventive in self-definition oneself, if one is farther left, and creative in one's ideas. /10
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017
Aware @delong calls himself neoliberal, with interesting reasons, no doubt. He's pretty left. This was before current sneer use of term. /11
— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) July 18, 2017