Selling Social Justice: Neoliberal Protest Rhetoric, Corporatized Resistance, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Abstract

In 2008 the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society partnered with the Fortune 100 media conglomerate Discovery Inc. and produced an incredibly efficacious discourse of conservationism. In doing so, they stepped outside the tradition of protest rhetoric and joined forces with corporate capital. As Sea Shepherd’s protests occurred under both the historical and theoretical conditions of neoliberal capitalism, this dissertation contends that Sea Shepherd’s resistance suggests a new category for understanding social protest—neoliberal protest rhetoric. Likewise, this dissertation introduces neoliberal protest rhetoric by marking several of its distinguishing factors and arguing for its relevance in the twenty-first century. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on three key concepts—celebrity individualism, anti-Japanese propaganda, and piracy—in order to illuminate key shifts in the practices of protest that can be parsed through the prevalent topoi of neoliberal capitalism.