Talks about the BOY GENIUS affliction of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area — which reminds me of the video about “COMPETENCY PORN,” which I will probably add my online video section. The article author, Liz, relates this to other phenomena like Eric Garland’s (or other technocratic neoliberals) infamous GAME THEORY rant — a historical pivot in political consciousness that soothed all the Democrat normies who absolutely could not see the election of Trump coming (despite the writing being all over the walls).
This obsession with extreme competency was an overreaction to the inability to observe the more mundane realities around them — “Never mind that their systems are built with no real understanding of power dynamics that exist within society or how systemic oppression manifests itself. Never mind that their systems dehumanize and alienate people.”
I’m reminded why reading this article back in 2017 was particularly critical. Against a backdrop of political hysteria about the rise of the alt right was a rather simple explanation that this system is borne of another — in the hollow infrastructure of the technocrat is an inability to touch the contradictions of society. Which leaves a gaping hole for the co-optation of those moods and feelings.
Now this isn’t to say these actors are Boy Geniuses themselves. Just power hungry opportunists who are in the right place at the right time. This is inevitable to a certain degree. Not a conspiracy.
Liz also looks back at her commentary on GamerGate — an internet Event that was obviously catalytic, but often totally misunderstood by those who weren’t there. While she documented the targeted harassment. Rather than naming GamerGate as this Event where the alt right took hold, she actually defines it as the moment when a method of Victimization-as-Anointment became a defining trait of gathering attention and support online.
The problem with this is that it was a method of trying to force OUT the conversation that was needed about hypermasculine fantasies of power. But the inability to host this conversation demonstrates how out of hand the issue is.
Made with Bullet