“It harvests our data in order to sell us stuff.
We are already living inside the architecture of totalitarianism.”
“We now are in techno-authoritarianism.
We have to learn how to digitally disobey.
That can be as simple as the dropdown box. Don't accept the cookies, don't give your real name”
More on the "do something" front (I'm referring here to /3):
Marcy Wheeler notes how town-hall meetings have Republican legislators back on their heels now, and demonstrate that we can, indeed, do something to push back. She says,
"This kind of politics is not sufficient to reverse the fascist trend in America, but it is an irreplaceable part of any effort to try."
#Musk #Trump #broligarchy #SiliconValley #technoauthoritarianism #surveillance #fascism
/4
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/02/23/no-kings-around-the-partisan-bend-on-doge-sic-and-ukraine/
"This week represents a hinge of history. Everything has changed. America and Russia are now allies. Ukraine has been thrown to the dogs. Europe’s security hangs in the balance. On the one hand, there’s nothing any of us can do. On the other, we have to do something."
On the "do something" front, see Cadwalladr's valuable suggestions from Nov. 2017, republished here — and listen to her podcast.
#Musk #Trump #broligarchy #SiliconValley #technoauthoritarianism #surveillance #fascism
/3
"This is technoauthoritarianism. It’s tyranny + surveillance tools. It’s the merger of Silicon Valley companies with state power. It’s the ‘broligarchy’, a concept I coined in July last year though I’ve been contemplating it for a lot longer."
#Musk #Trump #broligarchy #SiliconValley #technoauthoritarianism #surveillance #fascism
/2
"It is true that Silicon Valley is home to a horde of reactionaries that pine for a modernity free of liberalism, as well as gripped by a delusion that society would be best served under their dominion. But why? If we are going to offer a theory such as techno-authoritarianism, we have to have some theory about why there is such a break. LaFrance offers us a tautology: these individuals accelerating the pace of our innovation and the triumph of digital technologies owe it to ideas that prioritize accelerating our innovation and the triumph of digital technologies.
The sad truth is this: Silicon Valley and its reactionaries are chickens coming home to roost. Silicon Valley is not some Promethean flame we smuggled from Olympos. Technology is not some primordial force corrupted by libertarian nerds with too much money. It's of the real world, it's material, it's influenced by the forces of history as much as anything else. Those forces come out of choosing to prioritize technology that helps us undertake surveillance for commerce, advertising, imperial adventure, speculation, and political suppression. The existential threat posed by today's tech capitalist overlords will get much worse. The funny ideas they have about their divine right to rule, their suspicion of competition and democracy, and other people who do not look like them—well, that's how we got here in the first place."
https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/ai-slavery-surveillance-and-capitalism
