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Comment by kdwikzncba | Hacker News Reader

A pet fantasy that I have is to coin a phrase. Now I don't know if this is a coincidence, but since I started using the phrase "free market fundamentalism" a couple of years ago I've seen other people use it. For example, its used in the subtitle in this article.

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Was it the other way around that you read “free market fundamentalism” or something similar and co-opted it into your daily usage, and now you’re seeing it everywhere?

There’s even a name for this bias - Baader Meinhoff effect

It's wasn't that. If it had been that I wouldn't be suggesting that I came up with it.

You almost certainly didn’t come up with it. I’ve heard it being used in the 90s at least and its usage was rampant in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Here’s a Google trend: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=f...

It shows the usage of the term peaked in 2004 (Google only has data past 2004).

People can invent things independently and multiple times. Please, don't tell people what they did or not because there's a bias.

I think the point is that you can't attribute the coining of the phrase to the gp for that exact reason though

I'm with you that independent invention happens pretty frequently (which makes sense, because figuring things out 'which makes sense' tautologically makes sense), but that also means you gotta humble yourself when making claims of 'first!'

Noam Chomsky used the phrase in the 1990s...

I couldn't find that, but googling I've found there's even a Wikipedia page [1]. Oh well... Not sure saying I "re-invented" it is even worth bragging about.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_fundamentalism

> When I was five, I imagined that there was such a thing as a unicorn. And this was before I had even heard of one, or seen one. I just drew a picture, of a horse, that could fly over rainbows, and a had a huge spike in its head. I was five! Five-years-old. Couldn't even talk yet. [1]

It's a common phenomenon

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkeAOtn6OLs

You might be interested in capital realism. Rather than the fundamentalism of free market being the correct or best way among other options, realism forecloses on alternatives. Free market capitalism is the only way that exists, a product of the natural laws of the universe, and reality itself.

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