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Notes -
The new book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism And The War On Democracy has been making the rounds. In lieu of reading it, here's an NPR interview.
At the core of this is a middle-school-cafeteria psychodrama that remains unresolved. The lived-experience of "computer nerds" is that of being instrumentally valuable to many, terminally valuable to none. As a result, anti-capitalist rhetoric that disparages money as a source of moral value is received by them as a personal attack. The computer nerd feels deep down that his earning-potential is the only thing he brings to the table in the status game; as far as he's concerned, his value on all other axes might as well be rounded off to zero.
Therefore, the computer nerds wants nothing more than to get away from all those teeming masses with their grabby hands who want to take all his stuff and leave him with nothing. If it takes moving to one of Balaji Srinivasan's seasteads, or to Elon Musk's space colony, then so be it.
Huh? Is it a zone, or the whole world? There's a big difference - but hold on. That comic is the story of nerds simpliciter, not just computer nerds. And the people most outspoken against "The Nerd Reich" are also nerds - "theater nerds" to be precise. To continue the cafeteria picture, the theater nerds are (if anything) even more autistic, more put-upon, and more bullyable than the computer nerds, while the bullies themselves (the "jocks" and "popular kids") don't even figure in to the dialectic at all. So what's going on?
I guess it comes down to the different coping mechanisms each group employs. The theater nerds find solidarity with each other at least, whereas the computer nerds have no need for each other because they have their toys to play with, which can incidentally eke them out a living independent of anyone else. But the theater nerds have no such refuge, and so, being poor in both financial and social capital, have been forced over generations to build up an elaborate alternative system of social capital which is a lot more off-putting to outsiders but seems to form much deeper personal relationships within itself than any within the computer club. This, at least, levels the playing field between the two nerd factions somewhat.
But then, if some computer nerds start getting uppity and decide to form alternative solidarity groups of their own, now this upsets the balance. I suppose the theater nerds believe there's only so much space for nerds in this world, and so any ascendancy of computer nerds will leave less for them.
Honestly, I'm really just spinning a yarn at this point. There are a lot of holes in this story that I don't know how to patch up. In particular:
But I can't shake the feeling that all of this debate about "techno-fascism" (or whatever) is operating at a high simulacrum level, concealing the true reasons why people get so animated about this and why they choose the sides that they do. But what are those true reasons?
There's something to this and I've toyed around with it before. Socialists want to get rid of one hierarchy, based on the ability to create things of value, and believe that without it all hierarchies will be gone and we'll all be equals. But they ignore the social hierarchy. These two hierarchies are even fungible in some ways. You can pay Oprah to use her enormous position in the social hierarchy to sell your product and Oprah can use her social position to get people to pay to listen to her speak. Socialists are often people who are rich in the social hierarchy and poor in the material hierarchy. I think this also applies to hatred of like citizen's united and money in politics. If it's unfair that the Koch brothers can have many times the influence of an average American through funding ad campaigns then surely it's not fair that Oprah can have many times the influence of an average American because of her popularity? How can you justify muzzling the Koch's but not Oprah?
If you believe in mistake theory, sure.
If you don't, you'll find a lot of this is on purpose- because at the limit, the fact that they even exist in the first place (once nobody can create, or when all who may create are enslaved) will become their sole source of value. The value of actually doing anything is rightfully redistributed.
"Enslave any who creates, for a safe human existence- never threatened, never changed- is end unto itself."
Sounds like Hell to me.
I think mistake theory is the correct lens 99.99% of the time, although the author the OP is referencing may have seen past the veil and decided cynically if they indeed came to the calculation the OP is claiming. I subscribe to a Rawls veil of ignorance view to deserts but as I am better at producing than charming I have no intention of unilaterally disarming. I don't think the charmers are aware enough to even know what's going on.
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