Critical geographical studies of neoliberalism have emphasised how local spatialities complicate the implementation and theorisation of top‐down, idealised versions of the ideology. The central assumption is that local circumstances autonomously contradict or disrupt such deployments of neoliberalism. This paper explores the deployment of ‘defiant neoliberalism’, and the use of Detroit as a vehicle to promote and ‘prove’ its veracity. Some geographers have suggested that such defiant ideologies are unworthy of serious critique because they are so self‐evidently contradicted by local circumstances. The case calls into question the assumption that local circumstance naturally challenges ideological framings such as neoliberalism. Many local details contradict the veracity of idealised neoliberalism, yet its promoters are able to actively morph them (or elide them) into a narrative that supports the wider ideology.