What is Deleuze?

line b

line b

Well-known member
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
vimothy said:
accelerationism has a number of qualities that ppl associate with fascism - it's nihilistic, it's anti-humanist, it's on the side of capital, of social-darwinism
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idk accelerationism super well. mostly what I've gleaned from other people writing about it, and the patently self-evident.

but I do know something about scholarly definitions of fascism

that seems mostly right - Social Darwinism, anti-humanism - anti-individual certainly, and nihilism tho w/o the fascist cult of heroic death

("on the side of capital" is complicated. the tldr answer I think would be "yes - but...")

but some things about accelerationism - which I may be getting wrong - seem antithetical to fascism

fascism is anti-rational, accelerationism seems hyperrational - the maximization of rationality

on a related note, it seems to lack the usual, and fiercely irrational, fascist obsession with plots and conspiracies

it's concept of the break with the past also seems very different

rather than the fascist rebirth and return to a mythical past, it's a digital version of the left's Year Zero, singularity in place of guillotine/killing fields

which is unsurprising given Land's background

vimothy, craner, or anyone else who can give an educated response, what say you?

I get the "libertarian cyberpunk" vibe but it seems actually thoroughly authoritarian, sublimation of the individual to singularity rather than state
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
what would a committed accelerationist say to someone who doesn't believe singularity is desirable, or that human agency is false/irrelevant?

assuming they gave a considered answer, rather than just scoffing
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
one thing accelerationism very much reminds me is the obsession of the Italian Futurists with speed, violence, change, and thus war

I assume many people have made that observation, including accelerationists themselves

I reckon Land would've done OK in Italy, a much fuzzier totalitarianism that was able to embrace all kinds of contradictions, including the Futurists

but under a real totalitarian regime he'd be liquidated post-haste as a degenerate intellectual
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
it also reminds me of the attitude you get with hardline Maoism

deliberately murdering aid workers, teachers, union leaders, anyone who improves the lives of the peasants

in order to accelerate the revolutionary process

i.e. Sendero Luminoso
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
padraig (u.s.) said:
idk accelerationism super well. mostly what I've gleaned from other people writing about it, and the patently self-evident.
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Im not saying those things are necessarily constitutive of fascism or anything, just that ppl associate them with fascism and so thats why they might describe accelerationism as fascist, or cryptofascist, or cryptofascist cosmic libertarian

while there are overlaps, accelerationism of all stripes (left, liberal and RW) is obviously different from fascism in some marked ways, and so it doesnt really make sense to describe it as fascist IMO. it's its own thing
 
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