Thinking About What Hurts Them the Most

Erriguel Adriano. Pensar lo que más les duele. 

Homo Legens, 2020. 

(Thinking About What Hurts Them the Most)

1. Social Movements and Their Co-optation

Adriano carefully examines how social movements, 

which initially emerged as an authentic response to the 

injustices of the neoliberal system, often end up being 

co-opted by the very system they aim to challenge. In 

this sense, he argues that capitalism and neoliberalism 

have developed a remarkable ability to absorb critiques 

and use them to their advantage. This co-optation, 

according to Adriano, manifests in several ways:

Neutralization of conflict: Social movements that start 

as disruptive forces are often softened and turned into 

parts of the system, thus losing their transformative 

potential. For example, struggles that begin to defend 

social or labor rights are reduced to demands that the 

capitalist system can incorporate without threatening 

its structure.

Fragmentation of resistance: One of the most effective 

strategies of co-optation, according to Adriano, is the 

fragmentation of struggles. The neoliberal system 

promotes an atomization of social struggles, dividing 

movements into increasingly specific sectors (feminism, 

environmentalism, LGBTQ rights, etc.). While these causes 

are legitimate, fragmentation prevents the formation of a 

unified struggle against neoliberalism. For Adriano, class 

struggle is diluted and disjointed when social movements 

are fragmented into identity-based demands, weakening 

their ability to question the economic structure.

Superficial support: Furthermore, he criticizes how some 

organizations and institutions, including multinational 

corporations, publicly support the demands of certain 

social movements, such as feminism or LGBTQ rights, 

without truly committing to structural change. This turns 

the demands of these movements into marketing tools, 

neutralizing their revolutionary capacity.

Adriano suggests that this co-optation is related to a 

transformation of the concept of "progress," 

which has become functional to neoliberalism. 

Movements that were once revolutionary can be 

tamed if they fail to maintain a critical perspective 

on the economic structures that perpetuate inequality.

2. Criticism of Progressive Ideologies and Intellectual 

Elitism

Erriguel Adriano is particularly incisive in pointing out the 

dangers of what he perceives as an intellectual elitism 

within progressivism, which, in his view, risks becoming 

disconnected from the realities of the working classes. 

In his analysis, contemporary progressive thought, in its 

fight to vindicate causes such as gender rights, sexual 

diversity, or environmentalism, sometimes forgets the 

more pressing concerns of the working class.

In summary, Erriguel Adriano argues that while progressivism 

has made important achievements, its deviations towards 

intellectual elitism, moralism, and identity fragmentation have 

weakened its ability to generate effective resistance to the 

capitalist system. For him, a new critical thinking is necessary 

to redirect struggles towards a deep critique of economic 

structures and class struggle.