Neoliberalism’s ‘giving people what they want’ defense has lost public credibility

Evidence

Read Adam Curtis’ potted history of Murdoch4 and it’s instructive to see how the justification for tabloid sensationalism has changed. The denials that the News of the World would be salacious which Murdoch made when he took over the paper in the social democratic era give way to neoliberalism’s claim to be only giving people what they want. … Tabloid sensationalism is a drug, but there was a sense last night that the QT audience was no longer willing to conceal from itself the cost of procuring that cheap hit. … What we’re left with is a whole set of questions about culture that are now posed again with renewed force: neoliberalism has failed, the patrician culture it defeated cannot be revived, nor should it be — so where next? — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1578

Categorization

• SEED: Angle on the rhetorical arc of consumer-culture ideology from denial that one compels to claim one merely serves demand.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal persuasion works by convincing people they cannot be manipulated — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 392; Neoliberalism lacks a stable meaning or historically specific constituency — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 17; Neoliberalism’s political strength partly derives from being poorly understood — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 81

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s political strength partly derives from being poorly understood #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 81
• Neoliberal persuasion works by convincing people they cannot be manipulated #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 392
• Neoliberalism lacks a stable meaning or historically specific constituency #complicates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 17