Photo by Stephen Mayes

Neoliberalism’s Embrace of Cruelty and Its Assault on Social Bonds

Neoliberalism has always been more than an economic project; it is a political and educational weapon designed to erode social solidarity and dismantle the foundations of democracy. It does not merely defund public institutions like healthcare, education, and welfare—it delegitimizes them, recasting them as burdens rather than essential public goods. As a pedagogical and ideological assault, neoliberalism has championed unfettered greed, unchecked self-interest, and a notion of government devoid of any sense of social responsibility. It has conditioned people to see mutual care as weakness and competition as the only natural order of society. When individuals are forced into relentless competition for survival, they lose any sense of shared responsibility, making them more susceptible to the cruelty that defines contemporary politics. Neoliberalism is a precursor to fascism, especially at a time when it can no longer defend itself as a force for improving the quality of life. In fact, its promotion of extreme inequality, the concentration of power in few hands, and its view of democracy as a poisonous vehicle for equality and inclusion creates the conditions for both extreme violence and cruelty.

To understand fascist politics, we must reckon with its most visceral expression—a culture of cruelty. This cruelty is not an abstraction; it is inscribed on bodies and minds, destroying lives with calculated precision. As Brad Evansreminds us, violence must never be studied in an “objective and unimpassioned way,” for it demands a reckoning that is both ethical and political. A culture of cruelty exposes not only how systemic injustice is endured but also how the machinery of power turns the so-called American Dream into a dystopian ordeal, where millions struggle simply to survive.

At its core, this culture strips working people, the poor, Black and Brown communities, and the marginalized of dignity, hope, and the right to a decent life. Though cruelty has long been woven into the fabric of American history, Trump’s second administration will wield it as an instrument of governance—hollowing out social bonds, eroding moral compassion, and suffocating collective resistance. In its place, it will stage an endless array of brutal spectacles, a politics of suffering in which fear and violence are both the means and the message.

Trumpism is not an aberration but the logical extension of a neoliberal system that thrives on hierarchy, disposability, and fear. The destruction of public goods accelerates the emergence of what Etienne Balibar calls “the transition from the social state to the penal state”—where repression replaces care, and policing takes the place of welfare. The gutting of federal aid programs, the assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and the defunding of institutions that support the most vulnerable are not incidental; they are central to the neoliberal strategy of dispossession. In the age of Trump, cruelty becomes an organizing principle of violence as is evident in homegrown notions of fascism that define citizenship in racist inclusive terms for white Christians only, sanctions genocide in Gaza, promotes mass poverty, and supports the ecological destruction of the planet. What we are witnessing as Pankaj Mishra notes is the emergence of a culture convulsed in hatred and rancor matched by an ongoing process of dehumanization and a “retreat into grandiose fantasies of omnipotence.” Trump’s presence in American politics appears as the current endpoint in which hate, bigotry, and sanctioned ruthlessness “have reached a new peak of ferocity.”

Trump’s upcoming budget will epitomize this cruelty. There is no question it will slash funding for “health care via the Medicaid program and reduce access to food assistance via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” Moreover, there will be further cuts to Medicaid, low-income housing, job training, and safety net programs for children to fund $4.5 million tax breaks for billionaires and the largest military buildup since the 1980s. As Robert Reich has pointed out, this is not a question of fiscal responsibility but of priorities: the poor and working class are sacrificed on the altar of militarism and corporate welfare. The ideology of hardness, as Adam Serwer notes, runs through American culture like an electric current, ensuring that suffering is not just tolerated but celebrated. Under the grip of gangster capitalism, especially as Trump’s second administration unfolds, the essence of politics is not merely diminished but obliterated, erasing the fundamental possibility of human community and the emancipatory power of the social, public goods, and the global commons.

Trumpism and the Politicization of Cruelty

Trumpism is not simply a reaction to neoliberal decay; it is the explicit performance of cruelty as an ideological principle.........

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