@akjcv i think this explains their neoliberalism, but it’s also important to realize that American “socialists” have always been kind of liberal. the D·S·A was founded to be anticommunist; “free speech” and accusations of “political correctness” were tools of the radical left long before they were adopted by the right. the Internet was the way it was for the first few decades of its existence because American leftists and libertarians agreed on a platform of open distribution of knowledge without censorship (but then the libertarians capitalized on that to make tonnes of money while the leftists grew disillusioned).

THEN after the 80s and 90s the socialists did all give up and embrace neoliberalism, but that shift was possible in part because they were largely liberal/libertarian socialists to begin with