Thread by @17cShyteposter

Sort of but not really. It's true that Trump didn't want to throw a revolution, but he certainly wanted to reform the system

The problem is that neoliberalism is a kind of "complete package," where even moderate reforms do immense damage to its entire ideological edifice

https://twitter.com/LoFiRepublican/status/1391533668959723524

So while it's true that Trump really didn't even want to do anything that outrageous, the reason the system spent five years squealing like it was dying was because even that much would have kneecapped it

Not ended it, not at all—but crippled it, yes

Look, to me, neoliberalism has two core modules: its economic module, and its social module

Leaving the latter aside, its economic module is globalism, there's no arguing that. And two of the core components of globalism are free movement of goods, and free movement of people

Trump ran against *both*. He wanted to restrict both. He was anti-immigration, both illegal *and* legal, and anti-free trade, both in terms of the deals themselves, and in stopping jobs from leaving America, and returning them to the nation

These are not minor issues, either. They are the bedrock of globalism, and in turn the bedrock of neoliberalism

Both are sold to as an unalloyed good. Muh GDP relies on free trade; America is a nation of immigrants; these are the system's core values

So as soon as you say "Hey, we need to reform this, and restrict this," you are saying, "No, these have serious drawbacks. They're hurting our people in real ways"

If these two key planks of globalism *aren't* unalloyed goods, the entire premise of globalism begins to unravel

The social module of neoliberalism, meanwhile, is basically civil rights liberation movements. All groups and identities are the same, so they all deserve the same rights, treatment, respect, *employment*, etc

Sounds nice. Only an asshole would disagree

Since all people are the same, this means all people are interchangeable

Which, huh, weird, dovetails perfectly with globalism's idea of the free movement of people, who are simply an interchangeable economic resource

So when you start plucking on the string of globalism, it eerily resonates in neoliberalism's other module as well... it turns out all these ideas are connected to and reliant on each other

If any start to fray, the others start to vibrate, people start to notice *them* as well

Suddenly you have a president wondering out loud why we don't take more immigrants from Norway instead of shitholes

Obama and Biden, meanwhile, stuff small-town Minnesota and Maine with these "refugees"

But they're all neoliberals, exactly the same! I can't tell them apart!

For these very reasons, trying to build a gigantic techno-medieval wall across the entire southern border would never enter a neoliberal's head. A neoliberal would register this act as something profane, a sacred violation

Hey, remember when that's exactly how they reacted?

Obama didn't deport more illegals than any other president. He juked the stats, he counted people turned away at the border as deportations, he lied *because* neolibs want, and believe, something very different than the citizens they rule

So this isn't just political Walmart vs Target, two outlets selling the same junk (all of it made in China)

These are two competing visions:

One that sees borders as a way to protect the people inside them, and one that sees them as unfair to all the other people outside them.

"Yes but the outcome was all the same, so for all these words, Trump was still in the end a neoliberal."

Again I disagree. For one thing, things *did* change. Not enough, but more than the neoliberals who always lie to you want you to know about, immigration numbers for instance

But more, this is exactly what I meant at the very beginning, that neoliberalism is a "complete package"

You don't get to pick and choose from it. You don't get to reform it, like Trump wanted. Reform would be good for the people, but it throws the system into utter panic, why?

For the very reason that all the parts of this machine rely so much on each other. Not because they're strong, but because they're fragile

So much so that if you try to *improve* a single one of them, all the rest start shaking, jiggling out of place

So much that if you go after a part of its real core—something truly important to the engine of neoliberalism, that would make a visible difference to your life, and those of its citizens—the entire machine will break down.