Neoliberals co-opt protest through takeover plus commercialized recruitment.

Evidence

The neoliberals have developed a relatively novel way to co-opt protest movements, through a combination of top-down hierarchical takeover plus a bottom-up commercialization and privatization of protest activities and recruitment. This is the extension of the practice of “murketing” to political action itself. Pop fascination with the role of social media in protest movements only strengthens this development. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 978

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: the continuum from Occupy’s commercialization to Astroturf movements — how ‘murketing’ of dissent hollows out genuinely oppositional politics.
• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on protest co-optation and to the reader’s interest in how the thought collective operationalizes power across domains. — connects to: Neoliberal markets pre-optimize and monetize protest identities for profit — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 912; Anti-brand activism can itself become a marketable brand. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 162; Capitalism co-opts opposition and must be escaped rather than confronted — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media: How Wall Street…, 468

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal markets pre-optimize and monetize protest identities for profit #expands (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 912
• Anti-brand activism can itself become a marketable brand. #exemplifies (0.92) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 162
• Capitalism co-opts opposition and must be escaped rather than confronted #corroborates (0.78) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 468