this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Tbf, what we think of as neoliberalism (in this case, referring to post-Reagan/Thatcher US/UK) is closer in practice to fascism than anarchocapitalism. Anarchocapitalism at least doesn't have the government picking winners, working with tech companies to spy on its citizens, and corporate welfare. Not to say that anarchocapitalism is viable, but Neoliberalism (which is supposed to be like diet anarchocapitalism), is definitely not what we have in the US and Russia. There's far, far, far too much intermingling of power between government and big corporations for that. So, yeah, in pure economic terms, both Russia and the US are fascist economies, and that should be a pretty uncontroversial statement.
When did capitalist states practice anarcho-capitalism?
That's only because anarcho-capitalism is only possible in fantasy
Or even bring up "anarcho"-capitalism at all lol
I'm not saying they did, but the neoliberals fashion themselves as sort of diet anarchocapitalists. At least, that's how they present their policies. In practice, I wouldn't be amazed if Ronald "less government" Reagan put more people in jail than Stalin.
I think you're pretty much right and the only reason the upvote ratio doesn't reflect that is that you seem not to understand that capitalism necessitates "the government picking winners, working with tech companies to spy on its citizens, and corporate welfare." You will never have capitalism without those things, and that's why people are pointing out that anarchocapitalism is a nonsense fantasy, because it is. So using that as a point to counter something (and I'm not sure what) in the comment you responded to above makes no sense.
Neoliberalism does like to paint itself as a more "pure" capitalism, so I don't think calling it "diet anarchocapitalism" is wrong, but that's just their branding. There never was or ever will be a non-diet version of capitalism in that sense, where the bourgeoisie and government don't collaborate and reinforce each other. If anything, fascism is the non-diet version. That is to say, you're also correct that neoliberalism does incorporate some fascist elements. Maoo's response to ChrisLicht in this very thread explains that better than I could hope to, so refer to that.