Unfortunately, some people have started calling everyone they disagree with a fascist. Elon Musk is a fascist. Peter Thiel is a fascist. Marc Andreessen is a fascist. And list goes on..
But these people (and many other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs), are better described as libertarians (perhaps techno-libertarians?). I am not saying that ideology is good or bad, but it is not the same as fascism.
Using the word “fascist” so loosely weakens the argument and makes the entire discussion intellectually dishonest. It also trivialize the historical horrors of the Holocaust.
Come on. Which one of the accused in the article (CEOs of Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and OpenAI, Thiel, Andreessen, Musk, etc.) are guilty of slavery?
Fascism is no exaggeration, Durán asserts. He researched multiple definitions – by Umberto Eco, Robert Paxton, Jason Stanley – and decided that Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement ticks all the boxes.
and latter:
By extension, he says, Silicon Valley is fascist “because they have wholly aligned with a fascist movement. That’s their vehicle for gaining power.” Few could dispute this alignment after seeing the bosses of Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and OpenAI line up behind Trump at his second inauguration...
Your disagreement would be more effective if you engage with the content of the article.
For example Eco's fourteen check boxes:
The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
whole title (since HN has so low title character limit...):
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
Andreessen and Thiel - what a strange looking pair they are. Have they had procedures done on their skulls?
This guy only gets brainwashed by beautiful men.
Good interview with him on Monocle Radio's The Foreign Desk on August 1.
I have one broader point.
Unfortunately, some people have started calling everyone they disagree with a fascist. Elon Musk is a fascist. Peter Thiel is a fascist. Marc Andreessen is a fascist. And list goes on..
But these people (and many other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs), are better described as libertarians (perhaps techno-libertarians?). I am not saying that ideology is good or bad, but it is not the same as fascism.
Using the word “fascist” so loosely weakens the argument and makes the entire discussion intellectually dishonest. It also trivialize the historical horrors of the Holocaust.
Does it? Many of those same persons are sponsoring the horrors of the 21st century as well.
> Many of those same persons are sponsoring the horrors of the 21st century as well.
What? Which horrors of the 21st century are you thinking of when you say this?
A few ongoing wars come to mind, and techno feudalism with offshoring slaves.
> slaves
Come on. Which one of the accused in the article (CEOs of Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and OpenAI, Thiel, Andreessen, Musk, etc.) are guilty of slavery?
Depends on how they treat the working conditions of their offshoring teams in poor countries, replacing US workers.
From the article:
Fascism is no exaggeration, Durán asserts. He researched multiple definitions – by Umberto Eco, Robert Paxton, Jason Stanley – and decided that Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement ticks all the boxes.
and latter:
By extension, he says, Silicon Valley is fascist “because they have wholly aligned with a fascist movement. That’s their vehicle for gaining power.” Few could dispute this alignment after seeing the bosses of Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and OpenAI line up behind Trump at his second inauguration...
Your disagreement would be more effective if you engage with the content of the article.
For example Eco's fourteen check boxes:
The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
whole title (since HN has so low title character limit...): ‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
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