"The worse the better" doesn't have an ideological valance. Zizek supported Trump, for example, because he believed it would reinvigorate the American left.
This essay makes a lot of questionable leaps, like a Glenn Beck chalkboard lecture on Obama, Marxism and Bill Ayers.
This essay makes a lot of questionable leaps, like a Glenn Beck chalkboard lecture on Obama, Marxism and Bill Ayers.
There is no doubt an accelerationist strain of the alt-right, that wants to embrace white nationalism to "accelerate" American racial tensions and spark some kind of race war or secessionist movement.
But that doesn't mean anyone who uses that term belongs to the same strain...
But that doesn't mean anyone who uses that term belongs to the same strain...
The cyber-punk / libertarian strain of accelerationism really is quite distinct.
It wants to "accelerate" the erosion of legacy institutions through technological agorism, eg. crypto-currency, Silk Road, smart contracts, p2p encrypted internet protocols, tax evasion, sea steads
It wants to "accelerate" the erosion of legacy institutions through technological agorism, eg. crypto-currency, Silk Road, smart contracts, p2p encrypted internet protocols, tax evasion, sea steads
There are of course contemporary left-variants of accelerationism, too. They see worsening climate change and financial crises as eventually motivating in a total economic restructuring, and therefore reject center-left "tweaks" to the system designed to sustain capitalism.
Some accelerationists are fundamentally religious and anti-modernist. They see industrial-era institutions as akin to the flagging Roman Empire. They hope for them to fail catastrophically in order to inspire a kind of localist, religious reawakening.
There's obviously some overlap between the left and primitive variants of accelerationism with eco-fascists and Kaczynski-ites.
Conversely, the Nick Landian / techno-variants are not so much anti-modern as hyper-modern. Cover the planet in mega cities.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczy…
Conversely, the Nick Landian / techno-variants are not so much anti-modern as hyper-modern. Cover the planet in mega cities.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczy…
In sum, it's a mistake to conflate accelerationism, per se, with the alt-right.
There's superficial overlap between anyone cheering on collapse. But few agree on what we're accelerating towards.
There's superficial overlap between anyone cheering on collapse. But few agree on what we're accelerating towards.
In particular, neoreactionaries tend to be cyperpunk, hyper-capitalists drenched in ironic detachment.
American white nationalists, meanwhile, tend to be nostalgia-mongers, skeptical of tech and global capitalism, and, if anything, far, far too earnest.
American white nationalists, meanwhile, tend to be nostalgia-mongers, skeptical of tech and global capitalism, and, if anything, far, far too earnest.
I wrote some of my other thoughts on Nrx here: medium.com/soapbox-dc/pet…
