Alex Pretti

Instead of going in circles and repeating the same thing, let’s look at this from a different angle. People want neoliberalism so badly that they are willing to lay down their lives for it. They are willing to accept the most terrible forms of torture for it. Here is an example:

Being gang raped for 6 hours is something that a neoliberal subject uses to develop her personal brand and to monetize. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. You’ll have to tear the gang rapists, the Somali “learing centers” and all the rest of it from her cold dead hands. She loves all of it and she won’t let it go. She’s not experiencing “suicidal empathy.” This woman’s world has no empathy in it at all. She’s in the business of monetizing the emotions we leak as we recoil from the story in horror.

When we see welfare become a criminalized free-for-all, when cities turn into shantytown dumps, when the middle class remains a distant memory and child-bearing is enthroned as class privilege, let’s remember that this came about because people passionately wanted it. Let’s remember that they wanted it so badly that some of them went into the streets and laid down their lives for it. And they wouldn’t do it if alongside with everything it takes away it didn’t give them something so big, so enjoyable that no sacrifice would be too small.