Thread by @zei_squirrel

if you were to ask me to give you a definition of evil I would say "the manhattan institute". set up as the cultural wing of the neoliberal institutional apparatus in the 1970s, it has normalized and enacted policies that have led to the deaths of tens if not hundreds of millions

as wacquant notes, updating race-iq pseudo-science via charles murray, which helped legitimize the neoliberal deconstruction of the welfare state while providing ideological cover for the making of the prison-industrial complex, the new jim crow, is just one of its accomplishment

today they are the forefront of pushing propaganda against antifa, black lives matter, "sjw cultural marxists" and the left more generally, while masquerading it under the guise of sensible, reasonable, centrist, progressive liberalism. "classical liberalism", if you will

coleman hughes, heather macdonald, wesley yang, thomas chatterton williams, thomas sowell, dave rubin, ben shapiro, reihan salam (the institute's director), jordan peterson, bari weiss, andrew sullivan: name a cancer in public discourse and they're tied to the manhattan institute

and their talking points are all the same, they all feign this edgy classical liberal pose to further the institute's far right billionaire-funded agenda, which has remained the same since its founding: to destroy the left in all its forms by any means necessary

the manhattan institute is not some reddit group with 5K losers hanging around in it. it's not some marginal niche sub-cultural podcast community. they have literally destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of lives with their propaganda which they are experts at disseminating

you don't typically hear about them. I didn't know much about them until I read that wacquant book I quoted earlier (which you definitely should read too, here's a PDF of it: libcom.org/files/Lo%C3%AF…). you only see their propagandists constantly popping up in "the discourse"

so you're thinking: "who the fuck is this coleman hughes guy who is being invited by republicans to give statements in front of congress arguing racism doesn't exist, reparations is evil and welfare should be abolished?" oh, he's literally employed by the manhattan institute:

one of the founders of the institute was antony fisher. you likely have never heard of his name, and that's intentional. if the manhattan institute is the personification of evil, he is the devil. he was a pivotal figure in creating the neoliberal ideological apparatus

whenever you see a right-wing or "classical liberal" hack on TV or in some paper who appears well-spoken, has had a lot of PR training, and is pushing an agenda aiming to destroy the left, it is guaranteed that the manhattan institute or those other orgs have created them

and unfortunately there are otherwise well-meaning people who fall for their shtick, who think these people are sincere good faith actors, and then boost them, thereby helping to launder the manhattan institute's depraved neoliberal anti-left ideology

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1289293434721730561

as you can see from the manhattan institute guy being boosted there, a lot of the anti-"woke" derangement that's currently occupying the elite media class' hivemind emanates from the manhattan institute. they're all literally following their script:

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1289300980375248898

what I find frustrating is that I hardly ever see anyone pointing to this vast ideological apparatus that lurks behind all these puppets that are dangled before us and drain our energy and attention with their bullshit. yes, they should be exposed, ridiculed, argued against

but as long as this institutional network that creates these ghouls remains firmly in place, taking one of them down, like cutting off a hydra's head, will only give rise to two others to replace it. more focus has to be given to exposing and critiquing this odious network

if you're a socialist/marxist, that should be par for the course. you look at the material conditions underlying ideological movements, you engage in institutional and structural analysis, and then formulate strategies on the basis of that taking aim at these systems

without this vast ideological network that disseminates its propaganda through the entire body politic via all the major institutions in society (the media, the political, cultural, economic, judicial), the socialist left would be the actual dominant, hegemonic force in society

the reason cornel west described obama as he does in the clip below is bc this network was created in the 1970s and massively pushed the entire society to the right, most dramatically in the US but in most other countries too. the "neoliberal revolution"

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1241459892168404992

I'll end with this: there's a lot of scapegoating about who or what is to blame for the defeat of bernie/corbyn, and yes many factors are involved, but the *primary one*, by far, is this vast network and the propaganda it enforces, the ideological apparatus of the ruling class

it's bc it tends to be hidden from view, its power so seemingly overwhelming, its resources unending that we don't talk about it much: after all what can we do? but as kautsky noted systems are made up of individuals, and if they're our main enemies they should be our main target

the manhattan institute, the fraser institute, the atlas network, the adam smith institute, the american enterprise institute: they all have financial backers, key actors who keep the place running, people vital to their functioning. it's time that some light is shed on them.

I don't know if I'll be able to find the time to conduct the research necessary to do this at all, or if I can do it just occasionally, but it is something I hope to pursue further. I believe it's much more meaningful in impact than this endless "woke war" discourse bullshit

oh and I will be linking to work by others on this that I'll come across, like I did with wacquant. again, I'm sure there are good journalists on this beat. here's one I know who exposed the whole "free speech" industry:

alternet.org/2016/09/what-c…
prospect.org/education/cons…

and philip mirowski is the leading scholar on the creation of this neoliberal institutional apparatus. here are some great works by him tracing its history and current forms:

uberty.org/wp-content/upl…
ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers…
ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers…

and just to give you a taste of what I mean by focusing on and exposing this institutional apparatus, here's one example showing quillette to be but a node in this neoliberal network. hi bella d'abrera, nice to meet you! any australians must know her from TV

what do you know, quillette is the same outfit that played a key role in the making of the aforementioned coleman hughes who's at the manhattan institute. other products of theirs include jordan peterson and debrah soh, who just appeared on rogan spouting transphobic bilge

naturally the transphobia is accompanied with the standard manhattan institute package: "sjw cultural marxists are the actual threat to western civilization who must be destroyed...oh btw minimum wage is evil, fuck unions, we need to get rid of welfare, imperialism is awesome"

holy shit, I hadn't looked into the other founder of the manhattan institute alongside the aforementioned antony fisher. it's william j. casey. you know what his former jobs are? chair of the SEC, under secretary of state for economic affairs, campaign manager for reagan. oh and:

william j. casey headed the CIA during reagan's admin. he is the one who led what chomsky describes in this clip: "you had a massive enterprise to control the public mind, one official said it's the kind of operation you carry out in enemy territory"

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1207079198541668353

chomsky notes that this effort was "partially exposed during the iran-contra hearings". guess what? william j. casey was a key player in iran-contra! he suddenly died just as his personal ties to it were about to be revealed in congress

the highest echelons of power in the US and UK, political, economic, military, intelligence and cultural, are directly involved in the making of this vast neoliberal ideological apparatus, wherein the manhatten institute is a central, foundational node. this is epstein-level shit

LOL

jordan peterson being a CIA op is the least surprising thing ever

remember during the primary when the line was repeated throughout the entire establishment media, fox to cnn, about how bernie's plans had this huge cost, 97 TRILLION!!!, that he hadn't properly accounted for and would destroy the economy? it originated in the manhattan institute

I'm telling you, the manhattan institute is the personification of evil. it is the left's primary, most powerful and potent enemy. it is the most sophisticated propaganda network with its teeth in every major institution in society. it must be exposed and utterly destroyed

and anyone who's in any way associated with the manhattan institute or legitimizes their puppets that they send out to do pitches about how "woke antifa sjw cultural marxists" are destroying the world, and help boost its propaganda, is also an enemy of the left. damn them to hell

of course alongside a whole host of far right billionaires and corporations like exxon the manhattan institute is also funded by the koch brothers (h/t @mwdb17)

see also this thread, though some of the stuff I've also noted here

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1292661537509974016

update: some more information on the manhattan institute's role in manufacturing and disseminating neoliberal propaganda in this thread, including the fact that they WROTE TONY BLAIRS MANIFESTO

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1294014452522770435

see also this thread for another case study of an anti-"woke" liberal boosting manhattan institute propaganda, and it takes a tragi-comic turn bc they love jack dorsey's criticisms of prop C and cite it favorably in their journal

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1296730867746975749