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   NeonSnake (neonsnake@kolektiva.social)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Oct-2023 00:55:58 JST NeonSnake

   So, uh, I did the Thing and read the Techno-Optimist Manifesto.

   It's awful, which should go without saying.

   But it does serve a purpose for more specifically, which is to remind me just how *close* some of the anarchist ideals skirt towards that kind of thing. In particular, in this context, solarpunk, cypherpunk, decentralisation, Hayekian Knowledge Problem, and others (not an exhaustive list).

   Now, I don't know of the bloke who wrote it. Never heard of him before. But let's be charitable and assume that it's written in good faith and with full belief in what he says.

   It's pretty compelling, actually.

   Don't fuck about, it is.

   If you were 15, or 18, or something, wouldn't you be convinced, or at least open to it?

   He uses technology in the same way as, say, Kropotkin does - as a force multiplier, as a net benefit to society, and is *very clear* that the goal is to benefit *all* of society. I'm not gonna fisk the whole thing, but:

   "We believe that if we make both intelligence and energy “too cheap to meter”, the ultimate result will be that all physical goods become as cheap as pencils."

   As a cherry-picked example, who could argue with that? No-one worth their anarchist salt.

   The whole thing is full of examples like that.

   Now. Hold up. Hold those horses.

   There's lots of other dog-whistles in there (eg):

   "Victim mentality is a curse in every domain of life, including in our relationship with technology"

   In *amongst* all of the libertarian-anarchist stuff that would get us all nodding along, are the dog-whistles.

   In amongst all of it, is the standard right-lib fallacy: today's economy is a result of natural forces that just happen to favour capitalism, and any and all interventions in favour of "victims" are state-overreach that could be otherwise resolved by the state just...not doing them! Because we're all rational humans blah blah blah.

   We're trained, or educated, as such, to recognise those dog-whistles.

   But not everyone is. And it's an object lesson in how *persuasive* right-lib wankery can be.

   And something we need to be prepped to fight back against.