Neoliberal think tanks deliberately concealed their political aims from the public in the 1950s.
Evidence
See the letter from Smedley to Antony Fisher dated June 25, 1956, quoted in Cockett (1995, 131): “[I]t is imperative we should give no indication in our literature that we are working to educate the Public along certain lines which might be interpreted as having political bias… . it might enable our enemies to question the charitableness of our motives.” — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2175
Categorization
- SHARE: A specific person working on think tank funding or nonprofit law would love this primary-source smoking gun of strategic opacity.
- XREF: This connects to the broader literature on the ‘double truth doctrine’ in the book and to critiques of dark-money think tank funding. — connects to: Neoliberal think tanks were designed to influence elites rather than politicians — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 576; The early neoliberal network deliberately concealed its political-bias intentions from the public — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1829; Postwar business conservatives built think tanks that functioned like political parties without mass support. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1440 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- The early neoliberal network deliberately concealed its political-bias intentions from the public
#corroborates(1.00) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1829 - Neoliberal figures deliberately blurred their boundaries with rival right-wing factions
#expands(0.75) - Neoliberalism’s political character was ambiguous from the start, with left and right currents blurring
#complicates(0.73) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 103 - Postwar business conservatives built think tanks that functioned like political parties without mass support.
#qualifies(0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1440 - Ousted neoliberal officials retained power through think tanks and civil society
#expands(0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1616 - Neoliberalism differs from traditional conservatism in ways that shield it from accountability
#expands(0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2313 - Billionaire-backed radical-right networks manipulate politics through clandestine think tanks.
#expands(0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1768