Episode 95: The Hollow Vanity of Libertarian "Choice" Rhetoric

Episode 95: The Hollow Vanity of Libertarian "Choice" Rhetoric

"'Right-to-work' means freedom and choice," a Boston Globe op-ed explains. "As housing costs rise, some people are choosing to live on the road instead," a Fox Business headline states. "If your insurance company isn't doing right by you, you should have another, better choice," reads Joe Biden's campaign platform.
We're told repeatedly that "freedom of choice" is essential to a robust economy and human happiness. Economists, executives, politicians, and pundits insist that, the same way consumers shop for TVs, workers can choose their healthcare plan, parents can choose their kids' school, and gig-economy workers can choose their own schedules and benefits.

While this language is superficially appealing, it's also profoundly deceitful. The notion of "choice" as a gateway to freedom and a sign of societal success isn't a neutral call for people to exercise some abstract civic power; it's free-market capitalist ideology manufactured by libertarian and neoliberal think tanks and their mercenary economists and media messaging nodes. Its purpose: to convince people that they have a choice while obscuring the economic factors that ensure they really don't: People can't "choose" to keep their employer-provided insurance if they're fired from their jobs or "choose" to enroll their kids in private school if they can't afford the tuition.

In this episode, we examine the rise of "choice" rhetoric, how it cravenly appeals to our vanity, and how US media has uncritically adopted the framing--helping the right erode social services while atomizing us all into independent, self-interested collections of "choices."

We are joined by Jessica Stites, executive editor of In These Times.

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Ep 242 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 2: US Empire as Mysterious, Teleological Force

Ep 242 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 2: US Empire as Mysterious, Teleological Force

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Ep 241 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 1: Data Centers and LLM as 'The Future'

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29 Juli 41min

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8 Juli 1h 34min

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In this news brief, we catch up with Dylan Gyauch-Lewis, senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project, to discuss Abundance's PR problems, why this latest neoliberalism rebrand isn't catching on an...

1 Juli 38min

News Brief: The ADL's Bogus Origin Story and Its Rise as Ideological Enforcer for Empire and Israel

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In this News Brief, we talk with Emmaia Gelman, author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, about how––despite posing a civil rights org––the ADL functions as defender of colonialism an...

24 Juni 42min

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17 Juni 1h 20min

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