@kcarruthers
Finally, someone's connecting the dots. This is a crucial piece of journalism that explains why, for decades, it's felt like we're fighting the same uphill battle against privatisation, deregulation, and climate inaction—no matter which major party is in power.
The ABC is right to expose the Atlas Network and its roots in Hayek's Mont Pelerin Society. This isn't just academic history; it's the playbook. It shows how a small, well-funded group of ideologues made it their mission to shift the Overton Window—to make radical free-market ideas seem "common sense" and public ownership seem naive.
They succeeded brilliantly here. Think about it: the relentless push to sell off our public assets, the demonisation of unions, the framing of tax cuts for the wealthy as economic reform, and the decades of delay and doubt sown around climate science. These aren't random events. As this article lays out, they're the outcomes of a disciplined, long-term project to reshape society to serve private profit, dressed up in the language of freedom.
The fact that a federal parliamentary inquiry is now looking into how this network fuels climate disinformation is telling. It's the same playbook: target the "intellectuals" and media to manufacture doubt and protect fossil fuel interests, while ordinary Australians pay the price through worse fires, higher costs, and a degraded public sphere.
This is the architecture behind the hollowing out of our shared prosperity. It explains why inequality has soared while corporate profits break records. It’s not an accident; it's by design. Understanding this network is the first step to dismantling its influence and fighting for an economy that works for people, not just plutocrats.

#AusPol #Neoliberalism #AtlasNetwork