Based on purely anecdotal evidence, I agree. I've seen an increased number of supposed "eat the rich" types voicing support for corporate interests, to an almost laughable degree of irony. For instance, Twitter users who have "#eattherich" in their bio saying that social media should be left unregulated because the owners of the platforms should be able to do whatever they want with it.
The way I see it is that among those, they haven't actually been able to form a leftist worldview free of economic liberalism. It's normal, because modern opposing alternatives are basically completely absent from the mainstream.
> haven't actually been able to form a leftist worldview free of economic liberalism
Very good point! I did not think of this at all. Perhaps the collapse of the Soviet Union discredited the planned economy as means of social equalization and they never quite regained their footing.
There is actually a lot more to non-liberal economics than planned economies, but certainly the collapse of the Soviet Union would play a part in it.
If I had to analyze the root cause of it though, I'd say the proximate cause really is Cultural Hegemony. Pretty much every piece of media and every interaction you have assumes liberal economics so much that it is very hard to even realize that you are working within that framework. An unknown known, kinda.
To this point - Lately I've found myself arguing for Medicare for All from the "right", against e.g. classifying gig workers as employees so they get corporate benefits from the "left".
In a universe where public social programs are impossible; I find many of these corporatist-redistributionist arguments sort of interesting. But in this one; I really do think we should tax corporations more and fund State programs.
If everyone has medicare for all and eviction protections; do we still care whether amazon can fire a worker from a warehouse?
Likewise UBI has both a left-wing and a right-wing appeal.
I think MFA is not entirely antithetical to the right ideology and could be over time incorporated - it improves labor mobility which is in line with core right values (freedom of association and participation provides better free market outcomes and more self-sufficiency). It’s just at any point in time it’s too convenient to crap on it for cheap points. A local optimum of negative variety.
