Benjamin Boyce Reaches the Same Conclusion

Benjamin Boyce, Evergreen alum who has been chronicling the college’s trials and tribulations, examines current events through the lens of an Evergreen public statement.

The last five minutes (linked to appropriate time below) arrives at the same conclusion found in my previous post – that the January 6 riot is being used as an excuse for oligarchic forces to take control of the flow of information.

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Welcome to Cyberpunk

When I wrote ‘The Atlantic Looks Forward to Americas Next Great Authoritarian‘ I did not know that Glenn Greenwald would shortly write a very similar article.  He too considered Trump’s supposed legacy as an authoritarian and found the evidence wanting on much the same grounds as I did.  He too followed up this initial ‘legacy’ section with a suggestion on the nature of the actual problem.  He was, to his very great credit, more explicit on the exact path this danger looked ready to travel.  At the time, I still framed the problem in terms of polarization and cleavage, under which perspective Parler’s right wing bias was as much of a problem as Twitter’s left wing bias.  That Twitter’s policies necessitated the creation of Parler means Twitter had more of the blame, but in my argument it was the cleavage that was the problem.  Glenn Greenwald boldly claimed greater certainty, and he seems to have been correct.  I shall quote at length from his Dec. 28 2020 article, “The Threat of Authoritarianism in the U.S. is Very Real, and Has Nothing To Do With Trump” with my own added emphasis.

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On Lovecraft and Contemporary History [Updated]

Continue reading On Lovecraft and Contemporary History [Updated]

The Atlantic Looks Forward to America’s Next Authoritarian

This post is a discussion on and response to Tufekci’s “America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be Much More Competent”.

I said four almost exactly four years ago that it wasn’t Trump people needed to worry about but what came after.  On this Tufekci and I agree – but not much more.  I shall begin with a distinction the author does make, consider the Trump presidency using a couple of distinctions she does not make, and go from there.

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The Last Word Part 6 – Legacy

Continue reading The Last Word Part 6 – Legacy

The Last Word Part 5 – The Cave

Continue reading The Last Word Part 5 – The Cave

The Last Word Part 4 – Philosophy of the Force

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The Last Word Part 3 – The Last Jedi

Continue reading The Last Word Part 3 – The Last Jedi

The Last Word Part 2 – Mutiny on the Raddis

Continue reading The Last Word Part 2 – Mutiny on the Raddis

The Last Word Part 1- The Problem With Rose

Continue reading The Last Word Part 1- The Problem With Rose