Nesrine Malik nailed it in his Guardian article “Feel smug about western democracy? The G20 summit should make us reconsider” when he wrote how “the everyday sort of liberalism” we see being bandied around by “activists” is “probably better described as cosmopolitanism”.
The kind that makes you look around your diverse locality, the quiet tolerance of the majority and think that all is well. Not the kind of liberalism that is borne out by polls showing that there is increased acceptance of immigration or LGBT people. Or the liberalism of technical democracy, where we still elect leaders in free and fair(ish) elections. This is corporate campaign liberalism, new Arsenal kit launch, urban fist-bumping liberalism.
An even more spot-on term right there: “corporate campaign liberalism”. Reminds us of that ill-thought-out Gillette ad circus that was nothing short of an epic embarassment to the industry.
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