And yes exactly what you wrote in your second paragraph.
You can be pedantic all you want. But 90%+ of America’s won’t follow what you’re saying if you’re saying at best NYT is center right.
You also likely won’t be able to have the conversation without seeming smug (or insert other related adjectives) either. Likely hurting any discussion you have.
It is, however, a classic rhetorical technique. If you call a moderate liberal a conservative, then it “normalizes” more extreme left-wing views. The same works left to right. In the parlance of Classical Greek rhetoric, it is called a “douchebag maneuver”.
We can all agree that “Shining Path” Maoist rebels view the NYT as to the right of center...
Neoliberalism isn't a left view in America, either. While it's true that only since Trump it's been somewhat displaced by vague mix of kleptocracy and protectionism as the economic policy of the dominant faction of the Republican Party, it remains widely shared between both parties, there's nothing left, even in American terms, about neoliberalism.
> But 90% of people in America will have no clue what you mean when you say things like that.
If I rephrased neoliberalism as “corporate capitalism”, they'd understand it perfectly.