The nutballs in tech have always been out of touch.
Now they are killing people.
This article shows how these killings and acts of discord are actually a part of a larger ideology to bring about the end of democracy and western society.
Bonus: Peter Thiel cameo. Because of course anything about dystopian tech assholes has him involved in some fucking way...
Previously, on Hubski: This essay would have a lot less to say if it weren't for the two part series from Frontline/ProPublica. They went and dug up James Mason and interviewed the asshole. They also didn't dig into the chin-stroking posturing of it all - F/PP's take on it all was that skullcrackers are as skullcrackers do and really, "let's fuck shit up and build utopia from the pieces" as an American radical philosophy goes back to the Weather Underground or before. It's basic-bitch escapism: there's no point in trying to make this world work but under a New World Order even Tina Turner can be the queen of Bartertown. It is worth noting that a bunch of Keyboard Kommandoes need more chin-stroking in order to properly engorge their e-peens than petty thugs like Robert Mathews which certainly causes buzzwords like "accelerationism" to fly around. But it's also worth noting that the chin-strokers are so far responsible for (entirely avoidable, entirely regrettable) one-off shooting sprees while the previous no-ubiquitous-internet "accelerationists" brought us Tim McVeigh. So is it that the nutballs are turning into killers? Or is it that killers like the veneer of the nutballs?
From the other side of the accelerationist horse-shoe: More related, Robert Evans' audiobook The War on Everyone is really good and makes similar connections as this article. Edit: Just after commenting, this interview on accelerationism appeared in my feed.It’s important to realise that there are many ‘accelerationisms’.
I'd argue that this is a more nihilistic form of accerationism than has been previously championed, and it bends the "horseshoe theory" into a flat line again. The people championing this form of accelerationism don't actually believe in any of the causes they purport to support; they simply choose the most divisive issue and pick the most radical position, to sow discord.... It's like the punk anarchists of the late 70's and into the 80's; they didn't believe in, or want, anything other than conflict. There was no end goal, just the urge to see things burn. This is where the opportunists like Thiel, Milo, and Bannon come in, because they can weaponize the apathy of these white middle-class boys who believe in this shit, and use them to do the dirty work (shoot people, blow things up, etc.) to destabilize the social infrastructure so far that people look to these charlatans as Solutions To The Problem. The Republicans are already pretty far down this road. EVERY premise they have based their platform on for the last 4 decades has been pissed on by Trump and his cronies, and Republicans continue to drink the piss, smile, and comment on how lovely this champagne is. Where does that end? Around Valentine's Day, when the Senate fails to indict Trump on charges EVERYONE can see are 100% true, we will be deep in the ideal Accelerationist model: An entire party living entirely within a fantasy world where there are no more controls on their behavior or conduct. Everything is possible, because nothing is out of scope any more... Bleh.
I noticed that too. I was familiar with the term from studying Marxism. The point is to promote unfettered capitalism such that the contradictions in the system intensify and eventually create the classless society. I am bothered by people trying to sow discord but I think we're going to be okay. This isn't the Weimar Republic exactly.