It is certainly not "shorthand for people I disagree with", nor is neoconservative. In fact neoconservative ideology is a superset of neoliberal. The word is usually used in a derogatory fashion, yes. Stalin, Steve Bannon, Marx, Sanders are all not Neoliberal. Both Clintons, Obama, Reagan, both Bushes are all neoliberal. FDR, Stalin, Marx, were not. Sanders and Steve Bannon are not. Trump is some days depending on his mood (he supports privatization and austerity, he opposes free trade deals). Nearly everyone on HN is, and the extreme type of libertarian we tend to get in tech is the perfect archetype of a neoliberal: they hold the philosophy that everything is and should be a market, all solutions are market solutions, if there's ever a problem it's because the market needs to adjust on its own (conservative neoliberals) or it needs a little help to adjust (liberal neoliberals). To not be a neoliberal is to reject the notion that some thing is or should be a market at all, or to claim that markets inevitably, necessarily collapse upon themselves and fail (which is e.g. Marx's view). To take a recent example, "health care is a universal human right and should be provided to all Americans" -- a quote often repeated from the Sanders stump -- is deeply antithetical to neoliberalism. He claims health care should not be a market. The neoliberal response is: 'that would be nice but the market does not provide for this so it cannot happen; the market is providing the best healthcare that can currently be provided given our economic situation' (Republican) or 'we will do our best to set up regulatory schemes that modify the market so it can provide more' (Democrat)

You don't hear discussion of neoliberalism often for the same reason fish don't often discuss water; it's the prevailing ideology of our time so it is pervasive and "the way things are". Things which are not neoliberal are, by definition, radical and extreme. The only people who talk about it are the people like philosophers who do deep critique of society and our economic and moral system, or those who wish to set themselves apart from it like e.g. communists, nationalists, socialists.