The hashtag #deathcult is a charged but precise characterisation of #neoliberalism – the political and economic ideology that has dominated the last four decades, fetishising free markets, deregulation, privatisation, and minimal government intervention while relentlessly prioritising short-term profit over collective and ecological well-being.
The term was coined by Hamish Campbell (hamishcampbell.com) out of long experience in protest movements, crystallising at the founding of Extinction Rebellion (XR) – the global environmental movement known for nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience in response to the climate and biodiversity crisis.
#XR gave the idea a public face, but the underlying diagnosis is older. What the hashtag names is a system that knowingly drives ecosystems toward collapse, accelerates mass extinction, and courts food and water shortages, displacement, and conflict – all while calling this “economic growth.” That is not negligence. That is a cult logic: sacrifice the living world on the altar of quarterly returns. Neoliberalism’s defenders argue it delivers prosperity and individual freedom. Its record tells a different story: widening inequality, gutted public services, eroded workers’ rights, and a culture of greed that subordinates the common good to narrow private gain. The #deathcult hashtag story names what that trajectory actually leads to, not as hyperbole, but as a straightforward description of the destination.
The hashtag is for those who recognise that an ideology placing profit above the survival of communities and ecosystems isn’t just mistaken, it’s dangerous.
See also: The West’s climate catastrophe is native to the mess we are in
It’s a part of the https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=hashtag+story
