How does this theory apply to say, gay marriage or healthcare in America?

These are the counterexamples to the ratchet effect that demonstrate the theory is false.

What the ratchet effect fails to encapsulate about neoliberalism is that neoliberals are not blocking progress to the left. Neoliberals are intentionally moving too slowly to the left to make meaningful, systemic change.

Democrats move one step forward, Republicans move three steps back. So even though Democrats are moving us forward they do it so slowly that over multiple administrations we move backwards.

Democrats never bothered to codify Roe v Wade. Republicans aggressively pursued Supreme Court appointments. Democrats refused to remove the filibuster when RBG died. Republicans removed the filibuster to get their Supreme Court picks through the Senate.

Side note, it was Democrats for who removed the filibuster for most Presidential appointments, but not Supreme Court appointments. People tend to learn the wrong lesson for this as well. Republicans are bad faith actors. They are going to try to seize power no matter what Democrats do. The Democrats did not bring this upon themselves. Republicans did it.

This distinction, that the Democrats are moving too slowly not blocking progress, matters because it is a core appeal of neoliberalism. If neoliberals completely blocked progress as the ratchet effect claims, people would more readily reject neoliberalism. Instead neoliberalism allows for incremental progress which at a glance can seem appealing. What people who partially internalize neoliberalism fail to realize is that our problems our systemic. Incremental change is too slow to correct criminal justice, wealth inequality, or stop climate change.

In short we need a new meme. I've been thinking about two dancers moving slowly to a furnace on the right. Something like:

🚪 💃 🕺🔥

Where the dancer on the left keeps moving one step towards the exit while the dancer on the right takes three steps toward the furnace. This meme could probably use some work though or maybe a different approach altogether. I would definitely would like to hear people's thoughts.

Leave your house, and interact with other humans face to face.

I do thanks.

You have “theoretical” knowledge, but no real world, interacting with real people knowledge.

My argument is informed by real interactions with real people including yourself.

OK, you’re sucking your own d#$k, and I’m done with it. The “Well, akshully…” thing is a meme for a reason. And not a good one.

Read my argument. It will take a few minutes of your time. Then you will have an informed opinion to critique it.

Critical thinking is a skill. Anyone can learn it. We can measure a person's ability by giving them tests and throwing a wide array of problems at them.

Smartest implies general intelligence which we do not know how to measure. There is no test. IQ tests are a cultural knowledge test designed to marginalize and ostracize Black people masquerading as general intelligence tests.

Regardless it is not even a case of not having critical thinking skills in all cases. But refusing to apply those skills in certain contexts.

The smartest people can effectively have blind spots where they suspend these critical thinking skills for personal, moral, or ethical reasons that allow them to support amoral, unethical, and rapacious practices or outcomes without consciously choosing to embody these qualities themselves.

edit: Also, even with what you read it should be evident that your critique of my argument is a straw man.

The smartest people DON’T lack critical thinking skills.

My argument is not that they lack those skills, although they could in theory.

My argument you claimed to have read is this:

They demand that you suspend critical thinking.

It is thankfully the vast majority of the time a case of being unwilling. People can change their minds, but it takes time. The better outcomes for society and the planet depended on convincing people to change their minds as soon as possible.

This summarizes the bulk of my essay comment.

TLDR Neoliberalism and fascism are puzzles that can be solved so that people look for actual solutions to their problems. The problem for us is how to reach and educate everyone.

And people still fall for it.’

That's because it isn't an intelligence test. The smartest people you know can fall for these ideologies. They demand that you suspend critical thinking. Religion instills this in people and all the fascist has to do is convince a person their ideology falls under that umbrella of suspended critical thinking.

But it goes further than that. Because people need not be religious in order to fall for these ideologies either. There is wide spread acceptance of neoliberal ideas in the Western world that causes a person to reject socialism out of hand. You've probably heard socialism doesn't work at one point or another, but probably heard little to support this thesis beyond the Soviet Union collapsed.

Many people have partially internalized neoliberalism without considering it's implications and accepted those flaws as virtues. For example, a core principle of neoliberalism is that our societies' institutions, whether they be political or economic, are near flawless and beyond reproach. According to the neoliberal it is not the systems that need to change, but the people leading the systems.

This walls people, who have accepted this idea, off from the majority of progressive and socialist policies which call for systemic change and wealth redistribution respectively. And it leaves them open to a relevant fascist idea. Rather than only changing the people running the system, change the people living within the system. This of course means genocide in the form of mass deportations and when that fails to be feasible mass executions.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, THEY have fucked you over.”

This is a much easier idea for a population, that has been living under neoliberal rule since 1981, to accept than the alternatives. Alternatives that would inherently involve restructuring society to be more inclusive both politically and economically. Such as but not limited to abolishing the electoral college, amending the constitution so that representation in Congress is proportional to the population, the redistribution of billionaire wealth through both taxation and mandated worker owned corporations. These ideas are workable alternatives to fascism, but they are a fundamental restructuring of our society.

Beyond the inherent opposition from the owner class, military industrial complex, Republican Party, the right-wing infosphere the challenge is resolving the partially internalized neoliberal ideology in people's minds. To even begin to rethink a person's relationship to society in terms of work, government, and other people, a person has to understand that these are up for rethinking. Another prevalent neoliberal idea is that we live at the end of history and all social, political, and economic problems have been solved.

If you benefit from the neoliberal society enough it can be trivial to ignore the people who have fallen through the cracks. But under a casual examination it becomes evident that injustice is still prevalent all over the world and that history did not end because politicians said it did. Even under the worst projected outcomes of climate change there will still be people. But unless a person fully internalizes that this neoliberal narrative that we live at the end of history is false, it can be difficult to see the impetus to meaningfully and rapidly change society.

Thankfully, the challenge is not be to be intelligent enough, as we don't even understand general intelligence enough to measure it. Even a rejection of fascism after fully internalizing the ideology and its self-destructive implications, while necessary, is still insufficient. In addition to a rejection of fascism, the challenge is for enough of the population to have the knowledge and critical thinking skills to full internalize neoliberalism as a sales pitch for the scam that is late-stage capitalism and reject it. This is what it takes to even have the open-mindedness needed to fully internalize socialism and progressivism as viable solutions to our problems.

On a side note, the idea that intelligence determines success or failure of a population with fascism is derived from our cultural obsession with intelligence. Everyone knows if you're a 'genius' and make a breakthrough for a corporation like Google, Facebook, or Amazon you make it rich. The only reason we care about being rich is because we know that all of our needs will be met in this society. The reason we know that is because we live in a capitalist society that only cares about profit for the owner class. So ~~the only~~ a main reason we care about intelligence is because we live in a capitalist society where if we make our corporate overlords wealthier we can have a slice of the pie.

So I explained the essence of the problem. But now here's the problem. Maybe I've successfully convinced you or someone with this argument. Or maybe you've solved the fascist and neoliberal puzzles yourself. However you got here, to these conclusions, the challenge becomes an issue of scale. How do we convey this understanding to a national population of 340 million people and global population of 8 billion people before the fascist death camps are in full swing and/or climate change gets us. This is a logistical and educational problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. edit: typos and clarification

The MAGA movement is a cult. Don Jr, the eldest son of the cult leader, is telling the other cultists this author is excommunicated from the cult. Thus the cultists know to ignore anything relating to this topic and can continue their blind devotion in peace.

He's dead Jim.

This is how I found out. I assumed it was purely a meme. Congrats.

Happy Easter!

Yes, but do they have little bunnies piloting them?