- I'm not a big sucker for this kind of un-nuanced "us vs them" rhetoric, but I gotta admit, the title is a stroke of genius.
- > "The Sovereign Individual" by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg.
Lord William Rees-Mogg being the father of Jacob Rees-Mogg, of Brexit fame.
Interesting how often you meet the same people if you just start digging a little.
- >democracy is being dismantled not by coups or tanks, but by code, capital, and the illusion of innovation
Not sure "code" belongs here. Even less sure about "illusion".
Take those away and what is left is "dismantled... by capital". Nothing new, really.
- There's a youtube interview with the author here https://youtu.be/FWjR6_qYJAw?t=44
A lot seems about Curtis Yarvin and fans thereof.
by expedition32
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- Nerds who were bullied at school and weren't picked in gym class style themselves the new SS.
by lil-lugger
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- My cousin suddenly has been very captured and obsessed by an area of opinion I didn’t have a name for, fixed money supply, all inflation inherently bad, Elon Musk is badly treated, longer government terms (which sounds reasonable initially until you actually think about just having LESS democracy), no minimum wage. After some research it’s definitely coming from influencers linked to the SV techno feudalists - it’s just such a strong change. But you realise real power is only useful if people can come along with you - if you can build support with the public…
by wolvesechoes
1 subcomments
- Problem is not with nerds or Silicon Valley, even if Thiel is a lunatic.
Problem are, and always were, obscenely wealthy people destroying the society that created them. In the world where greed is not considered sin anymore, or even a character flaw, they don't even need to pretend anymore.
- [delayed]
- I would assume by default that billionaires are politically active and causing a problem. However this link doesn't give a lot of hints about how or wherefore. I assume this is a jab at Thiel; but it is a bit light on in the synopsis department.
There are a huge number of threats to democracy and the biggest one is probably the total lack of principles and common sense possessed by the median voter. It is a real problem and a bigger one than some billionaire or even the consensus of the billionaires. Sometimes voters and capital come into actual conflict and generally the voters tend to win Pyrrhic victories when that happens.
- Is there a HN convention for links to books?
This book appears to be available only for preorder now, not yet published. Nobody here has read it, nobody here can read it, and even if they could, this submission will disappear off the front pages before commenters have a chance to order and read the book. Thus the comments section here is going to be useless (or at least more useless than usual).
- I think it's simpler,money has no Color, no religion.
Silicon valley just happened to reside next to the hippies in the first decades
- I know it's fashionable to say that democracy itself leads to these outcomes that destroy democracy. I think Arendt was right about self-colonization and overproduction of elites being the main thing that leads to totalitarianism. There wouldn't even be such a thing as a silicon valley billionaire if the United States wasn't the most wildly successful political entity for the past 2000 years. Power corrupts, but that's distinct from an argument that the systems which created it in this case should be replaced by systems that funnel power in other ways.
- Is this tinfoil level conspiracy theory or there’s something to the allegations?
- It seems nicer than the Woke Reich
- I really don't like the inflationary use of the term Fascism.
There are multiple definitions of fascism, but this one captures many of them:
> Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy
In those silicon valley movements mentioned, I see no support per se for a dictatorial leader, or for strong regimentation of society (quite the opposite!), to name just a few.
I find it reasonable to disagree with a lot of those movements, but please use proper arguments. To simply call everything you don't like fascism doesn't help the cause at all.
- I would not call these people "nerds", many are entitled bros (gals?) with rather rich parents. If you look at many of their family history, their parents are well into the upper middle class, borderline rich. In most cases, they went to the best schools.
It just so happens, tech is were the real money is now. If this was 40+ years ago, they would have ended up on Wall Street or Madison Avenue.
by skeezyjefferson
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by Am4TIfIsER0ppos
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- [flagged]
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by newsclues
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by nephihaha
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- This is far more similar to Communism than Fascism. Their mentality is that they are a scientific vanguard (like Marxism) and that the ends justify the means. They also share the binary thinking of Marxists. They part company with Fascism because most of them are internationalist.
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