I find it similar to how UK newspaper columnists are suddenly revealing to everyone that actually Boris Johnson may be neither competent nor a very nice person.
As they break the news with their serious face on, an achingly slow clap emerges from the distance with a mutter of "fer fucks sake..."
Absolutely
And if incidentally anybody is on twitter and *not* following @brokenbottleboy AKA Mic Wright, you’ve made a mistake, because he runs himself ragged talking about UK columnists every single day and does it very well
I’m a paid subscriber to him and honestly I will say I read his posts less and less every month because it’s the same right wing bullshit he comments on (from a left wing perspective) because it just gets worse and less credible from the Tories and worse
It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Still, techno-utopianism was so incredibly appealing for so long that I don't think there was a through line to the general public realizing it was bunk until now. Regardless of any given "smart" white guys' political views the whole "let's not do politics and let smart white guys solve the problems with their cool inventions" idea is catnip to smart white guys.
Still, wherever wealth and power exist in great concentrations there are going to be people flocking there to find a niche defending the status quo. Sub "Founder/CEO" for "Warlord" and "Thought Leader" for "Priest" and the Bay Area and ancient Mesopotamia don't look that different.
I mean…I personally tried to get this out in public with *Dominic’s Basilisk* only two years ago, but that was hamstrung by a combination of COVID and my own inability to successfully navigate media pitches
What I find more irritating here is partly personal, in that I get annoyed when people have these critiques published which are less detailed than I have been able to get published, and partly that god fucking damnit if you have an internet connection you should be able to figure this out without needing some asshole like me explaining it to you
>Dominic’s Basilisk
I don't know if you're the author of Dominic's Basilisk or not, but I looked it up and read it and learned a lot. I'm an American (from the West Coast, so I lived and breathed techno-utopian ideology as a young adult) so I didn't know Cummings had such strong ties to the rationalist movement. I thought he was more of a Steve Bannon type - an articulate reactionary but ultimately a drunken, disorganized idiot.
Btw I appreciate the appreciation it’s just it’s nearly 6am here and I woke up to theee appreciative reply while I desperately needed to pick up cigarette papers
*From Counterculture to Cyberculture* is a great read about how countercultural figures shaped public perception of tech as well. Stewart Brand was (at best) a complete dupe for capital.
San Francisco, nominally a ‘liberal’ city, in reality houses the
leading edge Frederick William IV, King of Prussia fanclub and
burgeoning revolutionary movement in my basement.
Honestly this reminds me of all the articles about the Koch brothers,
and how they just keep doing the same things and nothing can be done to
prevent it.
Funnily enough my research project which began with studying
neoreaction and its relationship to tech culture has ended up with me
delving deep into the foundations of capital L ‘Liberalism’. As far as I
can see, Liberalism’s foundational racism, misogyny, fascination with
eugenics and its cognitive dissonance of partitioning away complex
truths for nice simple ‘first -principles’ argumentation makes NRx a
perfect expression of Liberalism.
In the end both leftists and reactionaries just want people to see the quiet part of liberalism out loud. Just, leftists hope people will be disgusted, reactionaries hope that people will be pleased
I’ll probably be banned for this NSFW comment but I hope you’ll
indulge me:
Eric Weinstein is most interesting to me because of his comments
about meeting Jeffery Epstein.
When discussing conspiracy theory, too often the debate is over if
there is some massive cabal or cabals controlling things OR if there are
just stupid selfish humans. My position is that there are both networks
of highly organized criminal syndicates AND there are stupid selfish
humans who sometimes serve agendas of cabals unwittingly.
I am frustrated with both academic/media types and the vast majority
of conspiracy purveyors who both must play to their consumer’s
biases.
From Eric Weinstein’s comments about his meeting with Epstein, he
described Epstein as seeming to be a front for an intelligence
operation. One could take this to mean that he wasn’t involved or
entrapped by Epstein and that he has provided the public useful
information. I personally interpret his comments as possibly validating
my theory that Epstein worked for Ghislane whose Mossad father means he
was working for Israeli intelligence as a honeypot. But this raises
issues with how connected Mossad is to US/UK intelligence
operations.
We know there are deep connections between the CIA/ In-Q-Tel and Big
Tech. Often times this is assumed to be done only for US national
security reasons in service to Constitutional objectives. Or just to
preserve the Neoliberal status quo.
So this article raises some questions to me about the nature of
neo-reaction. Is this entirely an organic philosophy being pushed by a
few weirdo spoiled ‘winners’ and if so, does that have any conflict with
other state interests? Or are they just the front men for other people’s
agendas? Or both?
What is Eric Weinstein’s connection to both neo-reactionaries and the
intelligence world? Are neo-reactionaries upsetting the interests of a
CIA that seeks to be seen as a diverse institution as the leading edge
of thought?
The question becomes is Thiel an actual ideological enemy of Gates
and Zuckerberg? Or are there meaningful differences between Big Tech
oligarchs?
Given the significance of technology in today's world, it makes sense that a brothel-keeping entrepreneur-spy would try to entrap scientists as well as politicians, and Epstein liaised with both. Weinstein has been promoting new theories in economics and physics for decades, in various well-heeled para-academic salons, so it also makes sense that they would run into each other.
As for Weinstein's politics, my guess is that he is basically an eccentric liberal who is dissatisfied with actually existing liberalism, and who doesn't see progressivism or neoreaction as the answer. He's an economic nationalist who thinks the Democratic elite are incompetent, corrupt, and shortsighted. He has political differences with Thiel, but not enough to refuse to work for him (whatever that job actually entails).
Not mentioned here, but isn't it rumored that Thiel and Musk don't really like each other that much anymore? No idea on everything else, I certainly dont have enough information about all of this.
I get that these egomaniacs have banal personality disputes fit for reality TV, but I'm not interested in their fraternal rivalries and who isn't dining with whom. That kind of court intrigue doesn't seem to really tell me anything about what their class is up to.
[deleted]
Pretty good overview / effort to stitch together a tapestry.
FWIW, Barbrook and Cameron outlined the broad strokes of this decades ago.
San Francisco, nominally a ‘liberal’ city, in reality houses the leading edge Frederick William IV, King of Prussia fanclub and burgeoning revolutionary movement in my basement.
NSFW tag?
Honestly this reminds me of all the articles about the Koch brothers, and how they just keep doing the same things and nothing can be done to prevent it.
Funnily enough my research project which began with studying neoreaction and its relationship to tech culture has ended up with me delving deep into the foundations of capital L ‘Liberalism’. As far as I can see, Liberalism’s foundational racism, misogyny, fascination with eugenics and its cognitive dissonance of partitioning away complex truths for nice simple ‘first -principles’ argumentation makes NRx a perfect expression of Liberalism.
I’ll probably be banned for this NSFW comment but I hope you’ll indulge me:
Eric Weinstein is most interesting to me because of his comments about meeting Jeffery Epstein.
When discussing conspiracy theory, too often the debate is over if there is some massive cabal or cabals controlling things OR if there are just stupid selfish humans. My position is that there are both networks of highly organized criminal syndicates AND there are stupid selfish humans who sometimes serve agendas of cabals unwittingly.
I am frustrated with both academic/media types and the vast majority of conspiracy purveyors who both must play to their consumer’s biases.
From Eric Weinstein’s comments about his meeting with Epstein, he described Epstein as seeming to be a front for an intelligence operation. One could take this to mean that he wasn’t involved or entrapped by Epstein and that he has provided the public useful information. I personally interpret his comments as possibly validating my theory that Epstein worked for Ghislane whose Mossad father means he was working for Israeli intelligence as a honeypot. But this raises issues with how connected Mossad is to US/UK intelligence operations.
We know there are deep connections between the CIA/ In-Q-Tel and Big Tech. Often times this is assumed to be done only for US national security reasons in service to Constitutional objectives. Or just to preserve the Neoliberal status quo.
So this article raises some questions to me about the nature of neo-reaction. Is this entirely an organic philosophy being pushed by a few weirdo spoiled ‘winners’ and if so, does that have any conflict with other state interests? Or are they just the front men for other people’s agendas? Or both?
What is Eric Weinstein’s connection to both neo-reactionaries and the intelligence world? Are neo-reactionaries upsetting the interests of a CIA that seeks to be seen as a diverse institution as the leading edge of thought?
The question becomes is Thiel an actual ideological enemy of Gates and Zuckerberg? Or are there meaningful differences between Big Tech oligarchs?