Friedman redefined free-market advocacy as defense of neutrality and equality

Evidence

His deprecation of a language of “classes” drew on an insight that advocates of free markets should represent themselves as guardians of government neutrality, in contrast to a perceived leftwing tendency to divide societies into oppositional groups. He hoped to turn his po liti cal allies into defenders of equality and the ordinary individual, and interventionists into practitioners of social differentiation and paternalist elites. Characteristically, Friedman solved a rhetorical problem by restructuring the terms of the debate. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 487

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the deliberate repositioning of the market as the neutral, anti-class institution while painting the left as the divider — a strategic framing with lasting effect on political discourse.
• XREF: Connects to how ‘we’re not a class-based society’ rhetoric in modern conservatism traces to Friedman’s strategic recoding. — connects to: Friedman redefined economics’ goal from welfare maximization to freedom maximization. — Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas, Welfare for Markets: A Global History…, 118