The self-preservation of empire in the individualThe inclusionary policies of neoliberalism are such that the struggles against empire and the domination of capital are detached from the struggles on sexuality, gender and race. The radical potential of these struggles to resist and overthrow the dominant logics of the state and capital has been neutralized by the emergence of neutralizing discourses and institutional relations both domestically and abroad. The ruse of neoliberal inclusion policies finds its historical basis in the period of classical liberalism, as periods of empire and global hegemony under the domination of capital were characterized by formal freedom at home and acts of repressive violence abroad. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Think here about how Leibniz fled to Holland during the rise of the liberal Dutch empire, or more tellingly about how Karl Marx found intellectual and physical refuge in Britain which also served as the framework for his seminal work on Das Kapital. Over the past 30 years of neoliberal rule in the United States, since the decline of civil rights-era activism, these formal freedoms have been extended to sexualized and gendered people, including some with the aim of exclude others, while racialization continues to be a problem. important element in the biopolitical toolbox of empire. In The Twilight of Equality, Lisa Duggan begins by providing an overview of the individualization of political activity that began with the dismantling of New Deal politics and the introduction of a competitive national and global order (p. ). For Duggan: “The overarching liberal distinction between the economy, the state, civil society, and the family has consistently shaped, and ultimately disabled, progressive left politics by separating class politics – the critique of economic inequality – of identity politics – protest against exclusions from national citizenship or civic participation, and against hierarchies of family life” (p. 7). The separation between class politics and identity politics has led to the commercialization of political action which is increasingly equated with moments of expression. Thus, the continuity of political activity is located in the continuity of the expression of identity, whether through the choice of clothing or the choice of brand, the expression of identity as an inherent politics allows for the continued circulation of capital and maintenance of the status quo. This is what Duggan coined as the new homonormativity – “a politics that does not challenge dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions, but defends and supports them, while promising the possibility of a demobilized gay constituency and a privatized and depoliticized gay culture anchored in domestic life and consumption” (p. 50). While homonormativity shapes the landscape of political action and aspirations at the national level, often with the effect of refracting the actions of empire, Jasbir Puar (2013) introduced the notion of homonationalism as an analytical tool to understand the consequences of consumption. the successes of liberal right-wing LGBT movements in excluding entire populations from the protection of these same rights (p. 25). While homonormativity is crucial for bringing together and directing the modalities of affects and desires at the national level towards a politics of consumption, homonationalism arises from the collusion between racism and liberalism. Racialization is a mechanism of violent exclusion and.