Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream Of A Silicon Reich
thebaffler.com
thebaffler.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/us/silicon-valley-roused-b...
I do think that what passes 'the so-called left' is in a situation where a couple of people are becoming very fearful. Because everything regarding feminism has been WAY overdone. And now actually borders on autocratic behavior.
Feminism and its very successful movement shows more and more how it is rotten to its very core. It has become an ideology that:
- dehumanizes men
- abuses and twists taboos for political gain of a few
- created a new power hierarchy that is aptly described by the term 'oppression olympics'
And I think the end of feminism is a major shift that's going to happen very soon.
If you are not completely closed to reasonable arguments, I would recommend checking websites such as 'avoiceformen.com'. Again in my opinion, they have very reasonable positions on a core, if not the core issue of society - the relation between the male and female gender.
In some sense, I believe that people who go crazy nut rightwing might overcompensate for an ideology that turns out to be as destructive as their ideas - feminism.
edit: formatting
No power struggle?! Feminism is arguably the most successful (bullshit) religion in the west.
For those interested in the roots of MRA craziness, there's a great book called, "Why Does He Do That?" It's written by a guy who has run a program for abusive men for 15 years and is a great examination of the attitudes and behaviors that underlie abusive behavior. He doesn't mention the Internet in it at all, but over and over I was struck by the parallels between that and various aspects of Internet culture, including the MRAs and the anonymous trolls.
Regardless of your thoughts on feminism, describing the content on avoiceformen as being 'very reasonable' is absurd.
They even reposted the same text on AVFM:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/domestic-violence-in...
Given that, I can't place much stock in the rest of his assertions.
If you're going to ask to borrow money from your neighbor, you should at least be polite to him.
Apple alone has more cash on hand than Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, and Raytheon are worth combined. They have plenty of money; what they lack is the knowledge and motivation to use it effectively for political purposes. The attitudes expressed on this site a few weeks ago about refusing to play the game with respect to state and national politics is the reason oil and defense have far more influence in Washington than tech.
Really? Here in the UK Apple and Google are notorious for tax dodging and sleaze.
My thesis above is somewhat diminished by today's very loose campaign finance restrictions.
http://www.vocativ.com/culture/uncategorized/dark-enlightenm...
Both the vocativ article and the baffler article are extremely superficial. Neither highlights the importance of much more serious writers than Moldbug, e.g. Steve Sailer.
F that, I say. Schmidt would be colluding with Merkel, Cameron, and Abe to keep income taxes high.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/technology/engineers-alleg...
"Welcome to the latest political fashion among the California Confederacy: total corporate despotism."
Well, we're two paragraphs in and you already went from critical analysis to full-blown agenda reporting.
"Some are atheists, while others affect obscure orthodox beliefs, but most are youngish white males embittered by “political correctness.”"
We've moved on to sweeping generalizations.
"As best I can tell, their ideal society best resembles Blade Runner, but without all those Asian people cluttering up the streets. Neoreactionaries like to see themselves as the heroes of another sci-fi movie, in fact, sometimes boasting that they have been “redpilled,” like Keanu Reeves’s character in The Matrix—a movie Moldbug regards as “genius.”"
And now we're in the territory of implied racism, straw-manning and caricature.
"By so doing, Moldbug has been able to an attract an audience that welcomes the usual teeth-gnashing white supremacists who haunt the web while also leaving room for a more socially acceptable assortment of “men’s rights” advocates, gun nuts, transhumanist libertarians, disillusioned Occupiers and well-credentialed Silicon Valley entrepreneurs."
By the time we get here the sweeping generalizations have become the entire article and it's no longer about the material in question but an excuse for the author to broadbrush everyone he personally dislikes into a neat little category. Seems more like he was using 4chan's /pol/ section than Moldbug's blog. Please note that I'm not a Moldbug fan and I loathe Justine Tunney, for the record; but this article reeks of other issues and definitely of straw-manning those who critique mainstream journalism:
"Apart from their reverence for old-timey tyrants, they espouse a belief in “human biodiversity,” which is basically racism in a lab coat. This scientific-sounding euphemism invariably refers to supposed differences in intelligence across races. It is so spurious that the Wikipedia article on human biodiversity was deleted because, in the words of one editor, it is “purely an Internet theory.” Censored once again by The Cathedral, alas."
The problem here is again, the broadbrush of 'racism' - Again, not an HBD believer - but to instantly use that label is bigoted reporting and confirmation bias and shows a lack of journalistic ethics.
Furthermore, Wikipedia draws its primary credibility from mainstream news, which primary draws its stories from small outlets or other large outlets (Reuters) and reprints them. Essentially; this is a journalist thumbing his nose and saying 'aha, behold, I'm the man, I am sponsored'.
"“If you ask me to condemn [mass murderer] Anders Breivik, but adore Nelson Mandela, perhaps you have a mother you’d like to fuck,” Yarvin writes."
Note that the paraphrase adds "mass murderer" to Breivik who killed 77, but not to Nelson Mandela who killed tens of thousands as part of the MK and their bombing campaigns.
"Yet the conservative press remains generally dismissive." This is an outright lie and fabrication; the conservative publications which reviewed Moldbug's work loved it.
"If the Koch brothers have proved anything, it’s that no matter how crazy your ideas are, if you put serious money behind those ideas, you can seize key positions of authority and power and eventually bring large numbers of people around to your way of thinking. Moreover, the radicalism may intensify with each generation. Yesterday’s Republicans and Independents are today’s Libertarians. Today’s Libertarians may be tomorrow’s neoreactionaries, whose views flatter the prejudices of the new Silicon Valley elite."
And now we've gone to Koch and assumed insanity - this from the supposedly trustworthy folks over at The Baffler - nothing less than a farce at this point. For every Koch there is a Soros. The money pool is bipartisan.
"The formulation mirrored Moldbug’s “Cathedral.” Srinivasan’s central theme was the notion of “exit”—as in, exit from democratic society, and entry into any number of corporate mini-states whose arrival will leave the world looking like a patchwork map of feudal Europe."
Now everyone is Moldbug; straw man complete.
This article is a great example of how supposed anti-racism quickly turns into an equally vapid form of bigotry against skeptics and that 'anti-racism' includes, like any collective, some of the most bigoted individuals in the world.
Please note that the author of all these knee-jerk reactions to supposed 'racism' is a well-dressed middle-upper class male in Corey Pein. Do we really need successful white male journalists to fight racism and hierarchy in print and label everyone who does not as 'Moldbug' or a potential member of Stormfront?
I cannot help but mourn the future of journalism as the liberal outlets take over with massive contributions and yet continually straw man Koch industries while they receive billions from Soros, Bloomberg, et al.
Why must the supposed opposition be labeled as racist, insane, etc.? Why aren't the ideas analyzed in an academic, scientific manner? Have we passed the age of rational discussion in favor of writing those who disagree with us off as lunatics, 'sympathizers' and 'oppressors' in the age of the oppression olympics?
But now I see that in fact, it is meant to be this way. In fact, generations of technologists have been raised to believe that their way is the most righteous (in the full sense of the word) - simply because it is supported by technological prowess. A kind of power which governs the willing and the unwilling equally.
So now I think that technology is not the answer. Social revolution is the answer, but of course all the good, old tools of social revolution have been usurped. The new Facebook religion rules us all.
So now I resolve even harder to teach the kids the old ways: freedom, liberty, equality for all.