Tech - Accelerationism, Dark Enlightenment & Techno-fascism

Dangerous, abhorrent or plainly ludicrous ideas have no place in the public discourse. While they
can be uttered, they can not claim the right to be heard and to be taken seriously. After all
foolish ideas are plentiful, not at all scarce these days and painstakingly dissecting them would be
Sisyphean task. Yet as a reader you have unknowingly embarked in a journey with the writer who as
decided to disregard their own sound advice and plunge towards the abyss which without proper care
would lead to madness. Exception has been made due to special circumstances; some once marginal and
fringe ideas have escaped the outbounds of acceptable speech, discreetly positioned themselves as
ideological underpinning harnessed by the powerful while remaining unnoticed to the broader
public. At which point ignoring them is no longer a safe option, only by shining lights on them will
they revert to the shadows from whence they came.

Before analyzing the current state of affair, it is of great importance to provide the context and
set of ideologies which have birthed techno-fascism, mainly accelerationism and the dark
enlightenment.

Ideas are often theorized by numerous ideologues. While looking at specific figures can provide a
useful illustration of the zeitgeist. Too much emphasis on them incurs the risk of presenting them
as powerful whisperers and puppeteers. A colorful depiction giving them the undeserved credits that
they so desperately crave. A more careful approach is required; firstly introducing the ideology and
its surrounding context, secondly presenting some influential ideologues not as architect of beliefs
systems built ex nihilo but as heightened embodiment of pre-existing views, amalgamation of
disparate ones with the occasional addition of some original thoughts. Ideas are certainly created
by internal processes of individuals but exist as a response or anticipation of external events.

From the early days of the web these ideas have propagated themselves, posted on blogs where they
gained authority, were shared on newsgroups as early memes and shitpost to gain the trust and
credibility of this milieu. Despite or perhaps because of the cryptic and turgid prose of some and
the logorrheic and highfalutin one of others, they have garnered a substantial but discrete
following. People from the tech sector who have enriched themselves to a nauseating degree during
the late 90's and early aughts found legitimacy in ideas depicting them as naturally superior and
rightful heirs to the throne. While the right found validity in the pro-capitalist and racist
elements to further their own project.

Influential circles espousing theses ideas now include tech moguls from silicon valley, venture
capital backing them, the political right sympathetic to their worldview as well as their propaganda
machine from the more discrete think tanks, the more established right wing news media to their more
chaotic and less polish counterparts the agitators. Although not fully aligned they share a core
disdain of humanity, a propensity toward and relish of violence targeting their political enemies,
minorities and marginalized groups, a quasi religious devotion to capitalism and its excess, a
forceful and gleeful use of technology to advance their ideas and suppress any dissidence.

Accelerationism main premise is to unleash an unrestricted form of capitalism freed from politics
and regulations viewed as agents of the status quo. Solely accountable to itself and following the
ruthlessness of the free market at full speed and at any cost, its natural property as driver of
modernity would bring the world to a post-human techno-capitalist utopia.

Central to the development of this idea is Nick Land, who during his time as a professor the
university of Warwick in 1995 created the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) with his
colleagues, most notably Sadie Plant and Mark Fisher until their disbandment in the early
2000s. With interests that can only be described as an endless litany: cinema, complexity,
currencies, dance music, e-cash, encryption, feminism, fiction, images, inorganic life, jungle,
markets, matrices, microbiotics, multimedia, networks, numbers, perception, replication, sex,
simulation, sound, telecommunications, textiles, texts, trade, video, virtuality, war. At that time
his thinking was shaped by the works of French philosophers mainly Capitalism and Schizophrenia:
Anti-Oedipus (1972) / A Thousand Plateaus (1980) by Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari and Libidinal
Economy (1974) by Jean-François Lyotard. As well as other thinkers like Georges Bataille, Nietzsche,
Norbert Wiener, William S. Burroughsand H.P. Lovecraft.

The neo-reactionary movement (NRx) or Dark Enlightenment (a term coined by Nick Land) argues
inequality as natural and democracy as antithetical to freedom. Arguments about inequality among
humans are nothing more that recycled unscientific and purely racist eugenics theory to create a
hierarchy between people and justify the subjugation of those deemed inferior. Hence their obsession
with IQ as the most important personal trait and their approbation of slavery. From this follows the
case against democracy where people should not be allowed to govern themselves. As example they take
women's right to vote and civil rights movement to abolish the segregation, discrimination and
disenfranchisement of African Americans as a way for minorities and marginalized groups to become
the new tyrants. A point of viewed taken directly from the writings of the authoritarian Scottish
philosopher and massive bigot Thomas Carlyle. Instead, democratic institutions should be replaced by
neocameralism a monarchical system where tech companies would run government with their CEO as
king. Ideas reminiscent of the anarcho-capitalism theory of Murray Rothbard who advocated who the
dissolution of the state with no higher power than individuals and corporations and Hans-Hermann
Hoppe who favored monarchy a privately owned government as opposed to democracy a publicly owned
one.

The transition from monarchy to democracy during 20th century is viewed as the root cause of
civilization decline. Their collapse attributed not to a flawed system rather to the numerous
democratic concessions made. A monarch invested with absolute power would have long-term thinking,
maximize the profit of a society and no desire to destroy their property contrary to democratically
elected officials with time-limited mandates. Monarch would govern city states instead of countries
with fully obedient subjects who could choose to exit and live under a different one. A laughable
idea for anyone who has ever glanced at a history book or just has a sense of reality.

While they profess that such changes could happen with little violence they are not oppose to it,
denouncing it only when ineffective but praising it otherwise.

Many ideas from the neo-reactionary movement come from the software engineer Curtis Yarvin, who
wrote extensively on his former blog Unqualified Reservations under the pen name Mencious Moldbug
and continue to do so on his current one Gray Mirror under his real name. With clear influences by
libetarianism, anarcho-capitalistism and the Austrian school of economics. And people like Ludwig
von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

These ideas are not contained anymore but have permeated American society and ipso facto the broader
world from the anti-establishment sentiment against the news media, democracy and academia; the
privatization of public goods; the techno-solutionism of Silicon Valley exemplified by the
Techno-Optimist manifesto of Marc Andreessen or The Technological Republic of Alex Karp; the
dismantlement of government by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by Elon Musk a rebrand
of Retire all government employee (RAGE) to the advancement of conservatism by Peter Thiel and his
protege now vice-president of the United State JD Vance and the now infamous Project 2025 of Russell
Vought a political blueprint for conservative policies spearheaded by the right wing think tank The
Heritage Foundation.

Techno-Fascism is the evolution and realization of accelerationism and the dark enlightenment where
the tyrannical rule of the technological elite has replaced every facet of government in the name of
efficiency and progress. A ongoing project not fully realized. Institutions have not completely
collapse yet, but their constant onslaught aided by the complicity, willful ignorance or criminal
negligence of politicians have definitely weaken them and brought a more authoritarian type of
governance.