Brad’s Reviews > The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism > Status Update
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Brad
is on page 65 of 558
— Oct 07, 2026 11:00AM
"The enormous benefit of having corporate views filtered through academic, or quasi-academic, institutions not only kept the Chicago School flush with donations but, in short order, spawned the global network of right-wing think tanks that would house and feed the counter-revolution's foot soldiers worldwide."
Brad
is on page 42 of 558
This was a rough start, quoting the "Black Book of Communism", claiming capitalist markets aren't inherently violent, and making the standard right-"libertarian" distinction between capitalism and "corporatism" (yet again validating the Comintern's "Social fascism" line). Ugh.
But then the account of MKUltra and that monster Donald Ewen Cameron brought me back to my anti-psych roots, so, points for that.
— Oct 06, 2026 05:35PM
But then the account of MKUltra and that monster Donald Ewen Cameron brought me back to my anti-psych roots, so, points for that.
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rated it 4 stars
10 hours, 52 min ago
Thoughts so far? I just picked up End Times Fascism yesterday!
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That could be interesting...I'm frequently irked by her false distinction between "corporatism" a la Mussolini and, well, capitalism. She seems to let slip that she knows better at times, but wants to avoid the messy implications of how to resist a "shock doctrine" being forced on a society in the first place, so she lauds Keynes to distance herself from a revolutionary alternative because "A free market in consumer products can coexist with free public health care."The rest I've read after that dives into Operation Condor as Friedman's twisted "laboratory" for pushing his model on a previously developmentalist Latin America. The history is well-written and harrowing, but I think Kevin's review was spot on in critiquing her idealism. She focuses on (very real) violence toward civilians and cultural erasure, but as a fanatical crusade by puritan free market ideologues rather than a material, systemic assault on an alternative positive project, rooted in capitalist-imperialism (though she does note how cynical "Chicago boys" profited personally).
Sorry if that was a bit much---didn't want to just repeat my last update.
She’s a soc dem. When you read enough of these critiques of “neoliberalism” you start to understand the vast majority of the writers view it as some sort of unorthodox deviation from capitalism and call for a return to the old keynesian order, rather than a revolutionary alternative to capitalism.These critiques are widespread precisely because by muddying the waters, they can tap into leftwing and moderate audiences without explicitly alienating one or the other.
^ Yep, very true. Which is how it got recommended to the "moderate audience" in my life so...thinking of what's salvageable and how to nudge them toward a more radical critique without alienating.