Idk if this is it. Most of their horrible traits are things actively encouraged and selected for by capitalism. It’s not like this attitude is unique to this age, their power is remarkable but we’ve had similar shit at least since industrialisation.
Pathologising political failures seems unhelpful? In a different environment they’d just be kinda annoying braggarts or something.
ehhh I hear you, but pathologising them seems to run the risk of like the femicide and rape conversations where people use the idea of certain men being “monsters” to avoid critically examining their friends and loved ones.
Yeah, there’s absolutely a place for arguments that aren’t full-bore “capitalism is evil, forward the revolution!” Some people need to be eased into that space, and articles like this, that show how fundamentally stupid and terrible Musk and company are, are a great way to get people to start asking HOW dingbats like that got power. And it’s not the longest journey from there to questioning whether something is wrong with the system itself.
(There are failure states, of course- namely, reinforcing the neoliberal idea that if you just put better people in charge of a system, it will work better. But that’s a question of execution, not of tactical validity.)
Idk if this is it. Most of their horrible traits are things actively encouraged and selected for by capitalism. It’s not like this attitude is unique to this age, their power is remarkable but we’ve had similar shit at least since industrialisation.
Pathologising political failures seems unhelpful? In a different environment they’d just be kinda annoying braggarts or something.
Absolutely agree. Blaming individual ideology implies we need new individuals. What we actually need is structural change.
The issue is capitalism. SV ideology is just capitalism. Capitalism doesn’t go away by getting rid of a few people at the top.
Counterpoint to all this is: at the very least this might help move the needle on some folks who don’t see things this way yet.
ehhh I hear you, but pathologising them seems to run the risk of like the femicide and rape conversations where people use the idea of certain men being “monsters” to avoid critically examining their friends and loved ones.
Yeah, there’s absolutely a place for arguments that aren’t full-bore “capitalism is evil, forward the revolution!” Some people need to be eased into that space, and articles like this, that show how fundamentally stupid and terrible Musk and company are, are a great way to get people to start asking HOW dingbats like that got power. And it’s not the longest journey from there to questioning whether something is wrong with the system itself.
(There are failure states, of course- namely, reinforcing the neoliberal idea that if you just put better people in charge of a system, it will work better. But that’s a question of execution, not of tactical validity.)
Haha yes “execution”
Goddamnit I wish I’d intended that pun