Neoliberalism, the Far Right, and the Disparaging of “Social Justice Warriors”

This paper examines the cultural politics of a conjunctural moment where the terms of neoliberal hegemony have been destabilized and the far right has been reinvigorated. Instead of simply assuming the “end” of neoliberalism, I explore the potential ideological and communicative affinities between neoliberal political rationality and online media practices that exemplify the emboldening of racist, misogynistic, and authoritarian discourses. I ground the argument by examining how the notion of social justice has been articulated in two distinct contexts: in disparaging representations of “social justice warriors” that originally circulated in “alt-right” sub-cultures, but which have since been increasingly mainstreamed, and in the critique of social justice formulated by the neoliberal theorist Friedrich Hayek. After clarifying my core argument about neoliberalism and the far right, I end by reflecting on how the figure of the social justice warrior has also been a site of intra-left antagonisms.