The recent banning of Trump is a good example of the Neo-Liberal adjustment.
Twitter and other social media platforms didn't just start to censor now, this was a precedent for some time now already.
However now, the new, updated Neo-liberalism is solidified into precedent. Compared with the old version which initially tolerated major figures like Trump, the new alteration will attempt to banish them.
The system readjusted itself, even major figures are not allowed on if they are to be disruptive to the system in any way. And while we know that the MAGA mob, even if they realised their ambitions, their revolution would really lead to pretty much the same old just with different faces and maybe extra amendments regarding gun laws that would get scrapped 20 years after anyway.
The days of the wild west social internet are over, there was a time where on YouTube, you could access everything and even have your content promoted because it was all about getting views.
Don't think that you're immune because you're on the 'left', this is bad news for non-MAGA radicals too, for communists, socialists etc. Any on-the-ground work is now in danger, any work aiming at recruiting members to the cause is now threatened too, Caitlin Johnstone wrote two detailed and interesting articles about this, as she notes:
This is absolutely true.
This all doesn't mean that 'conservatives are being targeted' as the alt-right likes to claim, it is targeting the elements which may threaten the system, the CIA operative in charge of making plans for societal adjustment doesn't quite care about your political alignment. He or she cares whether you're a potential threat or not and their job is to eliminate that threat. And not just eliminate the threat but try to turn you into an unconscious agent for the system rather than against it!
It's quite ingenious because they know that what is more important than trying to change people's ideological label, is to try to get to the bottom of **how** they think.
To decipher and influence the system of rationales by which they reach conclusions. If you change that, then after some time, sooner or later, they will change their ideological affinity.
You plant the seed, you let it grow, forcing them into changing ideology is just performative and ineffective. The Neo-Liberal establishment uses a method of persuasion and subconscious influence, this is how it manufactures consent. John Carpenter's movie 'They live' is a good representation of the subconscious influence, how humanity is covertly ran by an alien specie which is, in reality, responsible for their alienation (pun intended). The main character possesses glasses which allow him to see the capitalist ideology translated into what it essentially is. An advertisement for a vacation, with a scantily clad woman is replaced with black text on a white background with the words 'Marry and Reproduce'. We don't think about advertisements in their essence like this, but this is what they are and the movie brings that to the forefront, which is: The hidden mass-manipulation for the people to act as the establishment mandates.
You're never explicitly told to do something, you're influenced to do it, you're fooled into believing that it is your choice, it isn't. You didn't choose to vote for Biden or Trump, the aliens, or more aptly, the intelligence agencies chose that this is what you will do.
Their reaching into your subconscious in this new version of Neo-Liberalism is manifested with record turnouts to vote for horrible Neo-Liberal presidential candidates, approved by the establishment. For them, this is a sign that their propaganda, egging people onto buying the 'lesser evilism' narrative, worked, and the best part is that they did all of that, without ever explicitly telling you anything.
If they can get even bigger numbers next time, higher percentage to elect their candidate, then this will just give them a stronger mandate to push for more explicitly authoritarian, Neo-Liberal policies elsewhere, after all 'If 70% of the country chose Neo-Liberal candidate [A] over Neo-Liberal candidate [B] then clearly they wanted Neo-Liberalism!'
Congrats if you voted for Biden or for Trump, you did their bidding!
Remember, Neo-Liberalism doesn't much care about your personal views.
It cares about the way you think, how you form thoughts because uncontrolled minds are very volatile and dangerous to the system. If you call yourself a communist but axiomatically find yourself to be sharing the Neo-Liberal axioms and mindset in the way you form your thoughts and ideas, then you're not a threat to the system. You will leave yourself justifying voting for people like Clinton or Biden sooner or later, you will find yourself fighting the working class right wing opposition, you will end up defending the establishment, the system which you verbally oppose but via your actions (which were engineered), you actually support it. You will find yourself buying communist flags, uniforms and all merchandise just for the aesthetic rather than the substance. You will find yourself advocating for the working class while never even being close to actual workers, in fact, the thought of going to a factory and trying to talk to them is unimaginable to you.
This is why the modern left is a joke as many people have noticed, because it is performative. Its radical declaration is just one of Neo-liberal identities that do not fundamentally change anything as it is grounded on the same axioms and principles as the Neo-Liberal ideology.
A systemic analysis though, if practised, will reveal the machinery behind the way you form your thoughts and what influences them, this self-awareness allows you to develop a method of resistance to the dominant ideology.
It will answer the questions of why do you think that Biden is supposedly the lesser evil, why do you support voting for him and why do you get angry at 'Trump supporters/tankies/etc.' what purpose does your anger serve??
This ultimately allows you to challenge the system rather than unconsciously aid it.
The systemic analysis will reveal what is happening, it will lead you to understand the world in a different light, but understanding is just the first step, you need a strategy, you need a method for counter-acting what is happening otherwise you're just a useless intellectual who writes but doesn't do. This is what we don't need. Hence we discuss the strategy to take in Part 3 of this blog series: "Resuming the future: Strategies for Challenging Neo-Liberalism".
-Bradley Gabriel
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