The neoliberal subreddit is a true wellspring of comedy. Nowhere else on the Internet do you see such an awkward coexistence between incredulous radlibs and actual genuine fascists.
The neoliberal subreddit is a true wellspring of comedy. Nowhere else on the Internet do you see such an awkward coexistence between incredulous radlibs and actual genuine fascists.
I don’t think they are even contrairian. The dem base is split between radlibs and neolibs, and each camp does have some internal coherence, but both camps have the complete opposite view from each other (pro-war vs anti-war, pro-market vs anti-markets, pro-state vs anti-state).
Depending on what part of the base you are talking to, that meme might be entirely ironic or unironic.
It’s so interesting how these neolib types jive with the radlib types and it’s always just unclear how ironic they all are being. It’s like if we allowed Nazis to post on Hexbear and Lemmygrad but they have to be ironic, then we’d also post the same things alongside them but also under the veil of irony. Like, dude, you realize you’re endorsing views that are (at least supposedly) diametrically opposed to your own, right? How do “progressive” radlibs find themselves in spaces like NCD where they’re making light of genocide, ironically, while the dude next to them is doing it straight faced?
I think it’s the “more perfect union” mindset. Radlibs might desire some progressive/left outcomes, but they see it as part of this reform narrative where the reactionary elements of the American project keep falling off over time (emancipation, women’s suffrage, end of Jim Crow, gay marriage, etc). So imperialism and genocide can be treated lightheartedly because they see it as a temporary embarrassment that progress and reform will eventually eradicate. Whereas the neolibs are lighthearted about it because they fundamentally don’t see it as a problem.
I don’t know honestly. I remember that pro-war libs basically radicalised me out of liberalism. Watching young radlibs stand side by side with well off neolibs is genuinely disheartening. The elderly libs are burning away the younger libs’ futures as if they were firewood.
It’s all about having common enemies, imo, plus similar cultural signifiers. They’re both in the “blue tribe” and whatever views someone might have about “political” things like war, it’s just a difference of opinion.
What I mean by “political” is that most people have a certain set of values that they’ll say, “shouldn’t even be political,” and you can generally tell almost everything about a person’s politics by what they put in that category. The neolibs and radlibs place things like LGBT rights in that category, but slaughtering a bunch of foreigners, well, that’s a complicated foreign policy debate where reasonable people can disagree. Plus, I mean, they’re radlibs, so they’re probably gonna see eye-to-eye with neolibs on Ukraine, for example.