Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All
"LOVE LOVE LOVE your futorological brickbats! Love them! You are in fine company with Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary with these." -- Paulina Borsook
"Devoted to highly rhetorical nitpicking, but it is fun to read." -- Chris Mooney
"Rather close but correct reading." -- Evgeny Morozov
"Mean, but true." -- Annalee Newitz
"Dale Carrico's skewering of the salvific pretensions of Silicon Valley's soi disant savior/founders never disappoints." -- Frank Pasquale
"Pretty breathless, but I guess it had to be said." -- Bruce Sterling
"An essential reality check for those who are too entranced by transhumanism to notice the sordid reality behind the curtain." -- Charlie Stross
4 comments:
Yeah, I got a little pissed when a bunch of Latinos burned the
American flag and raised the Mexican flag, the name calling and fights
by both sides in San Jose. All that kind of shit does is inflame
people more to vote for Trump. Rhetorical discussions of common
ideals between people works better if you want to convince people to
your ideology. Beating up on people is like a bunch of brown shirts
in 1936 Germany.
-- Katie L.
Worth pointing out that Trump's literally racist and unconstitutional attacks are provocations that make such violence utterly predictable and understandable (which isn't the same thing as making it non-problematic or uncritically condonable of course) and in that context his campaign also seems to be siting his rallies in suspicious proximity to communities directly under attack by his rhetoric, perhaps on the calculation that these provocations make for effective propaganda and white-supremacist Base mobilization. I do hope political organizers and news organizations take these things into consideration as they protest and cover these events as is their right and duty.
It wouldn't surprise me if in say 50 years declassified law enforcement documents proved the so-called "violence of the regressive left" was nothing but the work of agent provocateurs in the employ of Drumpf or libertarian plutocrats like Thiel to show democracy has failed. With the South Park chants of "both sides are bad, BOTH SIDES" already filling the Internet, chances are good for the latter.
Nobody who has been an activist for long in this country would rule out what you say. I suspect that perennial societal scourge the testosterone-soaked adrenaline-junky is a big part of this picture (if I were your benevolent dictator you can be sure they would all be set to work planting trees or making porn), but in the grotesque context of Trumpian white-supremacist provocation it is hard to believe agents provocateurs wouldn't see an opportunity for their usual mischief.
Post a Comment