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Comment by mindslight

2 days ago

Money is just a metric. I'd say their real ideology is power. It's the classic authoritarian delusion that has fueled every "web 2.0" startup, now writ large - it's okay if we centralize power, because we will only ever use the power for good. Of course this completely ignores how power agglomerates in the real world, especially in the presence of the strong Moloch attractor accelerator that is state-orchestrated capitalism (why it's tempting to focus critiques on money).

And ironically (or not), this overarching dynamic is exactly the core lesson of the One Ring! It's like their main takeaway from the books was "having that ring would be awesome!!1!".

Maybe the facile fascination with Tolkien comes from having read them too early in life, before they were able to understand adult concepts like burden ? If you think of Frodo as merely having to do some chore that The Adults are making him do, then at least he gets to play with some pretty awesome toys and see some pretty cool stuff. And this would seem to be the level of moral development underpinning the contemporary neofascist movement (or "autocratic authoritarian", for those who are triggered by the F-word).

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mindslight

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pstuart  1 day ago

Here are some key quotes from the linked article:

   But Karp, Steinberger told me, needed “to find a reason beyond just opportunism and necessity” to embrace Trumpism. His reasoning, however, is so incoherent it seems pretextual.

   Toward the end of the book, Steinberger quotes Karp lambasting the left for failing to adequately address antisemitism, chaos at the border and the threat of Iran. “I’m sick and tired of left-wing people fostering right-wing populist movements because they won’t be adults about these issues,” said Karp. That is perfectly cogent as a centrist critique of progressives. As a justification for aligning with a right-wing populist movement, it’s bizarre.

"Woke" was originally about waking up to the fact that America was built on systemic racism (which is absolutely the case), but was then artfully redefined by the Right as "shrill liberal nonsense" that is designed to be completely vague and amorphous so that it satisfies the desire for "librul tears" and cannot be defended because there's no specific points to defend.

So by stating they are "anti-woke" they just mean "New! Improved! 100% Librul Tears!". It's intellectually fraudulent and just spiteful.

  • mindslight  14 hours ago

    I haven't been able to discern any motive to the grassroots maggot movement that isn't spite, or more charitably, wanting to make themselves heard actual results be damned.

    Even when you put on your hat of thinking "what policies are they upset about here, and how can they actually be solved?", the actions of the regime are just performative. There was a political mandate with control of Congress, and yet all of these changes are being made by executive fiat ?

    Put aside your personal policy desires for a minute. "Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48454210). This should never have happened with any halfway competent administration that bothered to put the appropriate legislation through Congress, right? It's almost like the goal is for these pushes to eventually fail, so they can go right back to blaming "liberals".

    As far as Karp, this is just basic rationalization. You can see the same dynamic play out in many HN comments. They absolve themselves of agency to remain blameless for supporting wanton destruction.

    • pstuart  14 hours ago

      It's mind-blowing, isn't it? I've tracked Presidential politics since Watergate and these times feel like we've entered another universe.

      I have two associates who are MAGA, and they are both devout Christians. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think that many or even most Christians are so in name only, and the only part they care about is the authoritarian part. The irony of them literally worshipping a man who fits the description of the AntiChrist to a T would be hilarious if we didn't have to suffer through it.

      And one of the biggest pain points of all is that a lot of otherwise intelligent people have been brainwashed into this and are literally incapable of recognizing that or more importantly, to be able to discuss policy in a rational and fact-based matter.

      I'll say it again here loudly: I've yet to encounter a Trump supporter who isn't an intellectual coward when it comes to evaluating the policies and actions of this and the prior admins. They cannot face reality. It saddens me -- I take no pleasure in this.