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It's funny you reference the 'neoliberal age' because in the 'pre-neoliberal age' totalitarian regimes were nationalistic and far right e.g. Nazi Germany. Howev

by j_m_b 7y ago

It's funny you reference the 'neoliberal age' because in the 'pre-neoliberal age' totalitarian regimes were nationalistic and far right e.g. Nazi Germany. However, in this 'neoliberal age' the most totalitarian regimes are actually far left with noticeable examples being the PRC and DPRK. A far more concerning trend is the radicalization of far left ideology and the zero tolerance shown by its members. Cancel-culture is a symptom, lack of diversity in speakers on campus are a symptom. This isn't just me saying it, Dave Chappelle highlighted the cancel culture and Barack Obama has noted this trend on college campuses. Right-wing neonazi groups are on the fringe of society whereas left-wing ideology is mainstream culture.

claudiawerner 7y ago
> However, in this 'neoliberal age' the most totalitarian regimes are actually far left with noticeable examples being the PRC and DPRK. While there is absolutely no denying that the PRC and DPRK are totalitarian regimes, many scholars of political economy and sociology would argue that they are simply totalitarian in a different way; for instance, one common theme is that the notion of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia has conditioned us to think of totalitarianism in a very specific way with specific consequences. The issue is that totalitarianism can acutally be conceived of in terms of totality, a concept critics of neoliberalism use a lot. See the work of Herbert Marcuse, who, while before the time of neoliberalism, argued the notion of totality in the West, while quantitatively not as bad as the regimes you name, was still more pernicious in the fact that we don't consider them totalitarian. Orwell was somewhat of a break in this style of thinking, but now we conceive of totalitarianism as Orwellian rather than otherwise. I have a comment here[0] with more about this. In short, we tend to start from the assumption that are own societies are not totalitarian because the totalitarianism is natural to us. But it's also a mistake to assume that there is a "view from nowhere" which can tell us which societies are tolatitarian and which are not. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20187622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20187622
tonyedgecombe 7y ago
I'm not sure I'd call China far left, autocratic certainly but they have embraced capitalism.

by j_m_b 7y ago

claudiawerner 7y ago

> However, in this 'neoliberal age' the most totalitarian regimes are actually far left with noticeable examples being the PRC and DPRK. While there is absolutely no denying that the PRC and DPRK are totalitarian regimes, many scholars of political economy and sociology would argue that they are simply totalitarian in a different way; for instance, one common theme is that the notion of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia has conditioned us to think of totalitarianism in a very specific way with specific consequences. The issue is that totalitarianism can acutally be conceived of in terms of totality, a concept critics of neoliberalism use a lot. See the work of Herbert Marcuse, who, while before the time of neoliberalism, argued the notion of totality in the West, while quantitatively not as bad as the regimes you name, was still more pernicious in the fact that we don't consider them totalitarian. Orwell was somewhat of a break in this style of thinking, but now we conceive of totalitarianism as Orwellian rather than otherwise. I have a comment here[0] with more about this. In short, we tend to start from the assumption that are own societies are not totalitarian because the totalitarianism is natural to us. But it's also a mistake to assume that there is a "view from nowhere" which can tell us which societies are tolatitarian and which are not. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20187622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20187622

tonyedgecombe 7y ago

I'm not sure I'd call China far left, autocratic certainly but they have embraced capitalism.