Hong Kong Soars

John K. Taber jktaber at onramp.net
Mon Sep 7 09:10:19 PDT 1998


michael perelman wrote:
>
> Louis Proyect wrote:
>
> > This is ridiculous. There is no such thing as "neo-liberalism." You must be
> > referring to capitalism.
>
> Terms like neo-liberalism gall me. The right has been able to use Orwellian
> phrases at will without any resistance. You want to destroy the social safety
> net, don't call it class labor, call it reform. You want to destroy the
> ability of unions to have a political voice, call it paycheck protection ....
> A crisis means that the stock market has trouble.
>
> The only leftish phrase that had any cachet was corporate welfare.

I don't understand the objection. I thought "neo-liberalism" was a sarcastic and amusing play on "lib'rul" (as it is pronounced here in Texas), which the Right has made into a dirty word for anything ranging from centrist to progressive.

It seems only fitting to repay the dirty word to the Right with sarcasm in full.

I kind of like calling libertarians "neo-lib'rul". It makes them fume. You know, like, that neo-lib'rul William Buckley?



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