Ep 12: What Influencers DON'T Want You to Know About Neoliberalism feat. Danny Valdes

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Welcome to left on red, where Gen X mom and Game Lenny will do socialism. We've got left wing views on news you can use. My name is Scott. I'm Susan. We got a guest here Hi. My name is Danny Valdez. Nice to be here. Alright.

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So now we're we're here to talk about Tennessee. We're gonna talk about Tennessee. Yeah. Lots lots lots of news you can use. Yeah.

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When I think of Tennessee, because it has the long name, and has the double n and the double e and the double s. It helps me under, you know, think of it as like the long state because it is like a weird little long state. That's my fun fact for you all about Tennessee. So what are we here to talk about Tennessee about recently Tennessee state legislature, which is obvious Republican and Jerry Mander to hell, Republicans voted to expel two Democrats in Tennessee. These two Democrats were both young black men who were part of three Democrats who did an elaborate protest against the state legislature for refusing to take any action on gun violence after a recent horrific mass shooting in the state. And it's notable that, again, those two that were expelled Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were two young black men and the third legislator that had also participated in the protest with them was a older white woman, Gloria Johnson. And I think as of this episode, either one or both of them had a both bag. Right. They both been rear seated. Reinstated. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about no. Probably gun violence is a whole topic on its own, but let's talk about the gun violence incident in ten see the resulting protests and the expulsion of those two legislators and their reinstatement.

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Anyone have any quick thoughts? Well, I have a couple quick thoughts, which is that I actually wrote something. About Tennessee because it had during the general election a, I guess, a ballot initiative or referendum on instituting right to work. Into their constitution. And I have found out through my interviews that Tennessee is one of the fastest growing state in terms of union jobs. But because of the fact that it's a right to work state, the unions don't have the resources they need to be able to basically make it a better state for union workers. And so as a result, they were able to they already had a law that made it a right to work state, but they really had to give it to the unions and make it impossible to change the law if there were democratic maturities in the future, so they put into the constitution. So they really solidified that, like, real, like, middle finger to the unions. The referendum succeeded. Did. But it was written in a way that was, like, super confusing because that's the way right to work. Law's written like Well, you own the name right to work. Right. It's like nobody will be allowed to discriminate against any workers face on, like, union membership. So it made it seem like a like a worker protection thing. Mhmm.

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And that Tennessee only has about four million people in it. And so those of us living in New York it's kinda like Brooklyn Queens and like a part of Manhattan. Right? So it's a totally different scale, but it has geography that makes it difficult to organize four million people. Like, it's multiple media markets. It's very long. So driving from one end to the other takes takes a long time. So that one fact I shared is Right. Yeah.

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And so, like, we don't we don't have we don't understand the kind of challenges of, like, trying to organize a more spread out state. And imagine that it is more difficult when you've got that sort of difficult. I mean, New York's pretty fucking big. No. But New York City has, like, one -- We have one media market. Right? And, like, you know, which Every time I have to go to Albany, we're right. No. It's really tough. Home out being together. Right? We aren't even, like, touching, like, Right? How how long it is? How long it is? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. And so but Tennessee is a place that we it's very easy, like Ryale said in an earlier episode to sort of write off red states, but Tennessee actually has like a lot of potential for left organizing. It's got a lot of unions. It has like potential for a lot of union growth because one of the things I learned was that they're gonna be building in the electronic f one fifty truck. It's called the Blue oval campus in Tennessee. So that's like a ton of industrial production, but it's kind of a little green, I guess. But yeah, we can't write off Tennessee because just because this sort of thing happens, because a place at Tennessee which has, like, black Democrats and, you know, very committed principal people who care about, like, workers' rights and, you know, gun control are there and they're part of our fight too. Yeah. I I didn't get to say this in the rial episode, but whenever I hate the phrase red state or blue state, Like, if you think about With our Red Dead baby right here.

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If you think about a quote unquote red state, sometimes the margins of some those determinations are made just by last presidential election and which party they voted for. And sometimes it's really, like, forty eight to fifty two. Mhmm. That doesn't make it, like, okay, completely red. That's virtually half the population disagreed. Right? What the other way? Or even if the margin is substantial, if it's forty to sixty, forty percent of a state's population voting a certain way, that's still a huge number. There's still enormous amounts of people in these states clearly feel differently. And regardless of how people vote, every single person no matter what deserves the same rights protections everything that we're fighting for. Yeah.

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And I think part of the reason why people think of red states as red states is because, like you mentioned earlier, Republicans have power that is outsized to their actual, like, popularity because they have rigged the electoral system and Jerrymandered all of those districts to be in in their favor in perpetuity. And I think a part of what happened here in Tennessee is, like, the the the Republicans there also kind of rode off Tennessee as like a red state and decided to plow through with this with this expulsion. And I think it's blown up in their face, they lit a fire that really was kind of an ember and catapulted, especially these two these the the distance to, like, national like, notoriety in the matter of, like, a week. There's so much growth and potential there. Yeah. A hundred pounds. And, like, I I love that the Democrats in this red state are, like, voting in fresh young voices. Yeah. That's fantastic because that's always it's not easy to do in a blue state like New York -- Yeah.

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-- where there's a lot of entrenched interests and, like, the party's very powerful and and, like, kinda dinosaurish. It's it's see, it feels like there is like, going from the midterm, even, like, by the twenty twenty election, the midterms, like, part of me wants to start to believe that Republicans are finally starting to pay a little bit of an electoral, like, cost for just like their complete focus on, like, culture war, BS. And people are just sort of I think there's a there's a level of, like, questioning and interrogation about the Republican agenda going on now that I have it really seen until pretty recently. I think that's part of it, but actually we should There are a couple things on the topic I wanted us to get back to. But I think, obviously, one, a big factor in kind of this backlash to Republican that Republicans have clearly, like, gone too far. They Girl bussed too close to the sun, and they focused insanely on this culture war that actually is not appealing to Americans. They got what they wanted -- Yeah. -- with the Supreme Court and try, you know, are doing their best to outlaw abortion everywhere that a lot of abortion practically in several states. And a lot of people are like, actually, I don't support this very radical agenda. But the other thing that's happening that I think doesn't get as much play, although it does get some news, is what we were just talking about.

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The two legislators in Tennessee are both millennials and so they're both sub thirty. And a lot more young people are voting. Coming online. Yeah. They're they've always been larger The biggest voting block in America is Gen Z and Millennials. Yes. They've always been a larger block of voters, but they simply don't vote as often as older folks do, but they're beginning to change that. And obviously, that's because they're growing older. And as you grow older, you become a little bit more likely to vote.

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But two, I think a lot of young people were genuinely mobilized, organized, and mobilized by the Bernie Sanders campaign, resulting social movements a lot of younger people are feeling a lot more left. You know, there's a whole other episode we can do on how naturally right now to be a young person on America is to be somewhat of a leftist. Mhmm. And so that's happening, and that's really, really, really, hurting Republicans, not always benefiting Democrats. A lot of those young people are not always on board with the traditional corporate Democrat agenda. And so they are genuinely interested in more left politics. Check out DSA. But, yeah, it's hurting Republicans.

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And I think what's going on in Tennessee was really really critically important for the nation to witness and hopefully people to get more involved in it because It's also an erosion of democracy -- Yeah. -- that one party simply can decide these people should no longer be in office despite their districts having voted for them. And then two, that all of these people are now fighting to get them back reinstated. They're both back in but that's like a democratic fight. Right? That's a fight between these super majorities that gerimanded their way into power and using non democratic means and people rising up and saying, actually, we reject the sclerotic force of power that's in that's in our state. And this fight will continue to happen. The Supreme Court is a huge component of that too nationally, right, where we see unelected power versus people power. Well, they got in Wisconsin. And the Republicans see the writing on the wall too in terms of how the electorate is changing. And so they're again, like, just pulling out every stop, they can possibly pull out to try to stem stem the bleeding, which is real. And it's it's happening.

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And I think we're seeing it little by little in in real time, which brings us to something else that's happening in the news recently, which is a federal judge ruled against the FDA approval of Mufapristone, an abortion drug, and it's having some potential reverberations nationwide. Now this court ruling, of course, is going to go to a higher court, and it's probably gonna get cycled through a lot of different complicated legal ways. But a couple of things are happening. One, obviously, this is another radicalizing moment for the pro choice movement. A lot of folks are now beginning to say this is another organizing opportunity for us. This is another way that the right is using the unelected courts to take away a civil right from the American people. But also, we saw Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, our congresswoman here in the People's Republic. Go ahead and say, Biden, should simply not listen to this ruling and should just tell the FDA, ignore them and just continue the approval of Mufepristone. And that got some folks rolled up. Yeah.

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So one of the things that I've learned and it's very hard, first of all, to get the fuck per stone. Sorry. It's you can't just get it, like so a person can't just get it. You might be four at this. Yes. From a regular doctor. Usually, you have to go to like planned parenthood or a certain kind of clinic, like a a lot of gynaecologists won't give it out because they fear being targeted by anti abortion, like activists and terrorists. Right? So there's a real strict line in division. It's not that easy to get, but fifty percent of all abortions in the United States are medical abortions. They're not done through a do and see or like an aspiration of any kind. They're not done in a clinic, although you can take it in a clinic. It's the easiest way to do it. And also it was one of the things activists were going to rely on as access to clinic abortions became harder and harder to get. And so this ruling is potentially very devastating. And it really demonstrates how when you look at the way that abortion is now being restricted across states.

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There is a fundamental lack of understanding of the way that pregnancy works, fertility works. Danny and I as parents probably understand that maybe more than your average Republican lawmaker. Mhmm. But it's It's not that it's not that easy. Not that easy control. It's not it's not something that, you know, that taking away this right will in any way make people's lives and easier. And I think if you're, like, a really dumb Republican who thinks, if I just take away the fuck per stone, then people will have babies. It's not like that at all. Right. Right. It's not how it's gonna It's not gonna how work and we've spoken about in the past how difficult it is to have children, how economically it's almost impossible, how it seems as a luxury. And this will not increase the birth rate at all. I'm sorry, Republicans. You're not gonna lose as long as, like, the economic situation. Remains anywhere near to what it is right now. Like, that's the reason why people are having fewer children. It's not it's not a matter of like, how readily accessible abortion is. Right.

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Or cultures of everybody wanting a girl boss. And not not be a mom. Yeah. We want a girl box very close to the side. But the AOC thing -- Yeah. -- I'm getting back on it. But part of the reason I'm getting back on it is one, a lot of people reacted very negatively and saying that she was advocating against democratic norms. I also then noticed however, someone, like, a much more conservative moderate Democrat, said virtually the same thing on the news show as AOC. Yes. And everyone was like, oh, that's a great idea. So obviously, there was a little bit of, like, bias against the messenger in this instance.

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But I am just I think one of the really critical issues of our time is how we view the United States liberal democracy or bourgeois democracy, a socialist might call it. And what legitimacy we think it has -- Mhmm. -- and where it makes sense to wield power. Because something the Republicans have done extremely effectively is said to hell with norms to hell with being polite and kind. We want power to make things change the way we want them to be changed. And so we will seize power and use it. Especially through their judiciary, which is not the least accountable, like, branch of government. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so now, AOC is suggesting that Democrats do the same thing or that the left does the same thing. The left, the socialists, we seem to have a pretty clear theory of power and understanding that We need to build power by organizing the working class, and then we need to use that power. Democrats, however, seem a lot more allergic to the idea. Yeah.

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And there's this, I think, a new faturation with proceduralism and, like, how it's it's important that the procedures are followed and all of that. And, you know, I think realize you were saying Scott, like, Republicans have dispense with the proceduralism where it's the where they know it will benefit them and they've been then they always come up with a reason for it and it it flies it over the radar and it just happens. And I think I I I do think that a critical difference between, you know, let's just say, Liberals and socialist is the amount of legitimacy you do invest in in the procedure versus what the outcome of the procedure? Like, it means for everyday people. Like, it's possible you can have a very, like, a procedure that has a lot of decorum around it. Or, like, the democratic norms around it. But if the result of that is, you know, more people in poverty or or or or more people who are hurt by this like a judicial ruling, then, yeah, I think there's definitely an argument there that it should be ignored, and it should probably be dispensed with altogether. Right.

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Ultimately, a Democratic society is not just about, like, we're following the rules, but rather that we get to decide what's legitimate and what's not. Like, it's it's a continuous conversation. It's not just like we're listening to a particular authority who happened to be appointed by, like, probably a Republican president. But rather that we're saying, okay, certain things are legitimate, certain things are not, and we know we're able to Like, the the executive branch, which the FDA is under, can make its rules. Right. Right? And, like, the judiciary has its own particular powers, but these are all contested and, like, you know, what appropriate procedure is always in the process of being made. The Republicans aren't afraid to make those processes. The Democrats are like, oh, no. Must be polite. Yeah.

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And I think ultimately what we believe as socialists has been born out in the story of what happened in Tennessee and now what AOC is saying, which is literally none of these institutions matter. None of these procedures matter. It's the will of the people that decides everything. So in Tennessee, when the institution said, oh, we have the votes and we get to decide who gets to stay in our body, said that these two legislators are out. The people responded and said, no screw you. These are our legislators. They've led unprecedented demonstrations and they got those folks back in. Likewise, AOC is now saying, if the majority of the American people, the vast majority of the American people want to preserve the civil right, then we don't have to give a shit what a random court believes the will of the people is what should be deciding what doesn't happen in this country.

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When we talk about democracy, bourgeois democracy, proceduralism, all of his concepts, one sort of appropriate, like, umbrella term for all of these things is what we might call neolibertism. And I feel like if you've been online in the last five to ten years, you've probably heard that term a lot. You may have googled it like I did and then read the Wikipedia. And kind of thought this doesn't mean anything or been really confused about what it meant. It took me a long time talking to a lot of socialists and other folks in TSA to begin to get my own understanding and definition of the term. What is neolibertism? Who wants to take it? I'll I'll start. Okay. So and just as a like a self criticism moment, I married the first guy who talks to me about new liberalism as out of classroom. So this is, you know, hits home.

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So to me, neal liberalism is this idea that kind of emerges and, like, really kind of takes off in the nineteen eighties, like sort of under Thatcher and Reagan, but doesn't originate. There. But the idea is that it's a pushback against sort of the social compromise of the post war period in which you both had to have like economic, market capitalism, but also some kind of social safety net to deal with the fact that it's actually very hard to be a person under capitalism. And so, whether or not you want to call it, the the social experiment or the post war prosperity or you wanna call it like the new deal or great society, it starts to unravel. A lot of the reason why it unravels is because the stagflation and economic crisis in the nineteen seventies. And it really kind of like the the sort of laboratory for this is Chile under Pinocay and sort of the ideology of economic, liberalization coming from Univer Chicago and being spread through violence. And then it really sort of travels back up to its origins, the United States, and the UK.

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And the idea is that all the social supports all the socialization, collectivization of risk under capitalism that had been set up as a, like, a compromise between workers and capitalists, like things like state pensions, or the National Health Service or even like protections against the most difficult kinds of trade. That would protect manufacturing jobs would be stripped away and that this new economy would emerge from the ashes of the old, like a Phoenix. And by allowing for globalization, free trade, the the liberalization of finance across borders and, like, basically, more market digitization in all the aspects of our lives, whether it be in a public school or, you know, where we have school choice or through, like, all kinds of consumer products. We would truly be like reaching this pinnacle of human freedom and flourishing. Right? So it has both the utopia aspect that a better world as possible if only you allow the market to free you. As well as, you know, like a class component in which capitalists are taking back political power from the workers. So it sounds like almost to me like a brand of capitalism or like a version of capitalism. You could maybe call it like late capitalism. Mhmm. But it's like it's all about, like, a like a new kind of the new liberalism or rise post just regular liberalism. Is about like economic policies that seek to create more competition in, like, every facet of life.

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Including you opened it talking about the social services, social welfare, social safety net, I feel like that's important because If you walk around the United States today, you probably will know any number of nonprofits. You might even work for one, I do. That essentially does what the state should be doing. I mean, my workplace is entirely funded by the state. But for some reason, there seemed to be decided that there should be a private intermediary. And That competes Yeah. For contracts. When I think of our lives are better.

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A thing I always think about in the context of of talking about neo liberalism is Margaret Thatcher, who's, like, one of the, you know The girl boss of Did the girl boss of neo liberalism? One of the her the thing she's famous for saying is that society does not exist, that there's no such thing as a collective society were all just a bunch of individuals. And I when I think of, you know, liberalism, I really think of it as the cult of individualism. Let loose into the economic forum, you know. In in the sense of, like, I think Susan's right, like, dichotomizing that with the new deal and how there was acknowledgment that, oh, we should all work together and we should, you know, have these, like, collective public goods that we all pay into and all benefit from at some point. This is like the antithesis of that. Right?

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And the breaking up of of that, which was a project that was engaged in almost as soon as the new deal became a thing, the capitalist class, like, engaged in a decades long project to undo it as much as possible because it did cost them political power. And they didn't like that very much, and they spent a lot of time and energy and money most importantly, to claw back that political power by unraveling this idea of a society like in and of itself, like, that is such a mind boggling statement to me that that there's no society. That to me is, like, the And maybe it's like a little bit of an exaggerated ep epitome of of what neo liberalism sort of embodies, but I always go back to that to that quote. And, like, think of that worldview imposed on, like, every single facet of our lives. Everything's about individual solutions. And the individual and, like, the idea of, like, a collective body of people. And, like, this whole, like, anti government, anti big government, small government, all of that is related to that. Too. Yeah.

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I mean, at least in the west, that's clearly how we're all grown up and culturally, like, accrued to I feel like I'm glad you mentioned the individualism stuff because I feel like that's how everyone kind of feels in a negative way. I feel like a lot of people in the United States, young people especially feel like everyone's up for themselves, including themselves, that makes them feel very lonely. There is less and less of a society. We are separated more by cars, by highways, by having to work in different places and different jobs, and that separates us from each other. We don't have as many social clubs. We don't go to as many things Other spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Third spaces. Third spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The thing on Twitter, we don't have enough third space that aren't home or work. Or like a place that you have to spend money, like a restaurant or a bar. Right? And so neo liberalism or there's another term.

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And I feel like these are all actual terms for this kind of, like we said, this, like, late stage capitalism, whatever, capitalist realism, which I know we've talked about in the show before, basically the idea that, like, The way the world currently exists is the default. This is how it is on its own. Naturally, this kind of reinforces in all of us a self fulfilling loop. We're like, oh, we have to compete with each other. Oh, the government is inefficient. Oh, we should make sure we do things a certain way because that is the right way to do. We have to be individualists. We have to do all of this stuff.

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Because people are very lonely. Look out for yourself. Like, do you self care? Like, all all these things are so related. Like, therapy, culture, and therapy talk. Going down into every component of our lives is a result of you feel bad under capitalism. You gotta work on you. You gotta you gotta do the work. And, of course, I have a therapist who am I to talk? But I've had many. But Well, I I don't have a therapy. Right. But the point is that we feel atomized and alienated and anxious and lonely. Also because of our circumstances, not just because of trauma and like a failure to do self care. Mhmm. And that's something that you know, I don't wanna do self care. I wanna do collective care. Yeah. Right? And when I've gone through troubles, people in the DSA help me in a group, not not just like me taking bubble baths. Right? I don't take bubble baths. I take bubble baths. And I can recommend to you, I found recent lea bubbled that. So I love. Very bubbled.

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And consumerism ends up becoming whatever replaces the social connections that we once had. Right? And it's it's and that's the thing is that it was actually a literal trade off by our political leaders. They're like, shall we protect manufacturing jobs or shall we protect the American consumer? Because they were like, do we wanna protect the value of our dollars and its ability to buy things from abroad? Or do we wanna protect our industrial capacity and they just host to protect the dollar so I can buy all this stuff from China like a bubble bath that smells good. And, you know, various products on a BuzzFeed looks listicle about how to clean my house. Okay. Well, I think my bubble bath is made in this time. Okay. Fine. Thank you, Susan. The bottle is not Right. But the point is You can build bubble that. But nonetheless, for the point is that we Right? We don't have industrial capacity anymore, and that's put us not just our working class at a disadvantage, but also our country when trade shuts down because of COVID, and COVID was a period in which that atomization kind of fell away -- Yeah.

0:28:53

-- for a little bit of time, but then ironically, right? Post COVID, it came roaring back. Right? And so these are things that we right. New liberalism is bad, but, like, we've all the other thing that Margaret Thatcher said My favorite problematic robots is that there is no alternative. Like, t I n a, like, there is no other world except for this you have to freaking accept it. Right? Which is why we go that's why we go to therapy. Right? To accept the world the way it is. But we as socialist say this is not the way the world is. It's not natural. Right? It's a result of political choices. And if humans made this world as unfair and unkind as it is, then humans can change that world. Wow. Yes. We can reject capitalist realism and undo this new liberal world and make changes. And part of the way that we do that, by the way, is through certain nonreformist reforms.

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And you mentioned COVID, I just wanted to say at the height of the COVID pandemic, the United States briefly enacted what looked like a welfare state -- Mhmm. -- and that under neutral Trump -- Always. -- something close to Medicare for all. Right. Something close to Medicare. Remember the really big deal he made about signing the checks himself. That was universal, basically He's not smart of him. He knew. And I think that substantially contributed to people feeling a little bit more like they wanted to be with each other, a little bit more collectively. Probably also contributed to him making electoral gains in twenty twenty. Yeah. Good for him. At least someone in this country figured out that you should give people things in the low for you. Yeah. But as part of wanting to feel a little bit closer to others Less alienated under dual liberalism. That's alienated.

0:30:40

We also seek each other out in romantic ways. And you, dear listener, might be dating under neo liberalism. You might be seeking to undo the atomization of your individualist life under capitalism by seeking romantic and or sexual partner. Right. But the answer is not to lose hope. We're gonna do a call in show as soon as we get enough messages from you the listener. And Scott's gonna tell you how we're gonna do this. Yes. We're looking to get some messages from you about your dating life, your dating troubles, Maybe not even dating. Maybe we're in a relationship and you're having problems there.

0:31:18

Turns out, we also give really good relationship and dating advice. You can check out on the podcast description. If you just scroll down, you'll see a little URL for like a Google site. It's like sites dot Google. Left on red, go to that website. And in big text, it's gonna tell you use the widget below. And that's where you go ahead and you record a thirty second to one minute sound bite of you letting us know your name, your location, and what your relationship question or dating question or problem or quandary is. And we will do our best to think through very critically, very socialistly, about helping you through your problem dating under neo liberalism.

0:32:06

Oh, feel free to be anonymous Don't give your name if you don't want to. Use a fake name. Use AI to speak for you. Whatever whatever you need. We can do a voice changer or you can do what I prefer and, like, do a funny voice. Do, like, you know, change it. Alright. My name is So definitely do a funny northern English accent if you want. We'd prefer it.

0:32:32

In the meantime, let's say you're not just looking for a romance. You're looking to build a better world in which new Liberals are not grinding you down, and the answer is not just accepting the world as it is and going to a lot of therapy and taking bubble baths, but you want to make the world a better place. What should we do? Now, you can still do all those things if you remember, but in order to organize collectively to become a part of the mass movement of working class people in the United States making a change, throwing off this neo liberal dystopia you can join the Democratic socialists of America, the DSA. There is probably a chapter near you You can email us if you have any questions about it.

0:33:16

We would love love love to hear from you. And we would love to see you join with other working class folks and start organizing. Check us out. Join DSA. I'm Susan. And I'm Scott, and I'm Danny. Thank you so much solidarity forever. Left on red is recorded live at left on red studios international in beautiful historic Astoria Queens, the most filmed neighborhood in all New York City. It's hosted by Susan Kang and Scott Karolidis. It's produced with original music by No Aticci, and Julian Amyra manages our comms. Thanks for listening, solidarity forever.