Neoliberals reject naive laissez-faire in their internal thinking while professing it publicly

Evidence

The filmmaker Adam Curtis has written in disgust, “Despite the disasters we are [still] trapped in the economists’ world.” Yet it will become necessary for us to differentiate the world of the economists and the world of the neoliberals. This conflation is an affliction of many on the left. A major sticking point here is that neoliberals themselves generally do not believe in the comic-book version of laissez-faire sometimes promoted by the economists. They may profess it to the masses; they may even propound it in Economics 101; but it does not characterize their sophisticated internal discussions, and is belied by their political activities. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 32

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the economists’ folk laissez-faire from the sophisticated doctrine actually driving the neoliberal thought collective.
• XREF: Connects to the left’s habit of conflating mainstream economics with Nazi-tinged ordoliberalism, and to his larger argument distinguishing the thought collective from academia. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s public rhetoric of open liberalism contradicted its actual closed, hierarchical organization — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200; Neoliberals do not practice the laissez-faire they preach to the public.; Neoliberalism is a mutable thought collective, not a fixed market-fundamentalist creed — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 32

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals do not practice the laissez-faire they preach to the public. #corroborates (0.95)
• Neoliberalism’s public rhetoric of open liberalism contradicted its actual closed, hierarchical organization #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200
• The early neoliberal network deliberately concealed its political-bias intentions from the public #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1829
• Neoliberalism operates through systematic contradiction and disavowal of its own practices #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 81
• Neoliberalism is a mutable thought collective, not a fixed market-fundamentalist creed #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141
• Neoliberalism holds together several unresolved internal contradictions by asserting both sides at once #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2142