{"id":523977,"date":"2024-06-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=523977"},"modified":"2024-08-20T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T06:46:44","slug":"reply-to-julia-steinberger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/company\/media\/reply-to-julia-steinberger\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Regard Libre \u00abneoliberal\u00bb? Reply to Julia Steinberger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supposedly ultra-liberal, this magazine is also hostile to \u00abqueer rights\u00bb, at least according to the latest article by this Lausanne University professor and star of environmental activism. An opportunity to remind ourselves of our values.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

You have to pinch yourself to believe it. In a recent publication<\/a>, Julia Steinberger, Professor at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne and lead author of Group 3 of the famous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, sets out to show that the fight against climate change will require more democracy... and presents a new way of looking at it. Le Regard Libre<\/em> as its enemy. According to the ecological economics researcher and political activist, our media is part of the \u00abneo-liberal think-tank\u00bb movement, which puts the market above everything else, especially the state and democracy, but also ecology and human rights. Take a look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00ab[These think tanks] include [...] discussions on feminism, women's and queer rights, and migration. It's important to note that neoliberal think tanks often clash on these issues, some being more conservative, others more liberal. The common thread, if there is one, will be opposition to democratically mandated state intervention. For example, in the image above, we see the Swiss neoliberal magazine \u201cRegard Libre\u201d arguing for women's rights (left) and against queer rights (right). Consistency is not so hard to find: women's rights are only valid because they are supposed to derive from industrial capitalism, i.e. the producer-dominated economy. Queer rights are fought for because they demand collective, democratically mandated protection through state recognition.\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

An absurd summary of our work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the face of this heap of approximations, the first response is obvious: Julia Steinberger doesn't seem to know the difference between an interview and an editorial. In the interview quoted<\/a>, one of our editors talks at length with V\u00e9ra Nikolski about her book arguing that women's emancipation owes more to industrial capitalism than we think. This high-ranking civil servant has some solid arguments; our editor asks her several critical questions. And that's where we come to the funniest part: V\u00e9ra Nikolski has a left-wing sensibility, and in fact adopts a Marxist reading grid in her book - hailed by a certain Jean-Marc Jancovici.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From its inception in 2014, Le Regard Libre<\/em> has featured socialist personalities on several occasions, including Valais politician St\u00e9phane Rossini and former French minister Vincent Peillon. In our hundredth issue, published in October, we dedicated ten pages<\/a> to Pierre-Yves Maillard, member of the Council of States of the Canton of Vaud and President of the Swiss Union of Trade Unions, who is not exactly a \u00abneoliberal\u00bb. And our editor who interviewed him is not a reader of Hayek, but rather of Mich\u00e9a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n