Re: <nettime> The Meme Wars

[analoguehorizon@gmail.com]

Hello,

I never post here but hey,

I've also been doing a lot of reading over the past month and wanted to
share some of what I've learned. Basically I've been on the internet
forever and somehow never ended up in the libertarian internet. I'm in
Europe too and actual anarchism still has some grounding here. So I mostly
tried to avoid the libertarian stuff until well cant really do that
anymore. I could assume that people know this stuff but then maybe some of
you are like me and prefer the comfort of your own bubble and only now dare
venture beyond wondering wtf is going on. I am definitely among those who
didn't see this coming. I don't mean Trump but the whole cultural turn
towards fascism. If you spend anytime browsing these sites as I have done
over the past months you realise it's huge.

This resurgence of the right is not as some like to portray just a
spontaneous movement of young conservatives having some fun breaking
progressive taboos and speaking their minds. There are elements of that of
course but with some investigation it appears more strategic as the result
of concerted alliance building between extremists both in Europe and the
US. There are movers and shakers they all know each other, read each others
stuff, do some back patting and hang out at the same conferences.

This is essential reading - https://medium.com/return-of-the-reich  I've
returned to it again and again. Read the whole thing. It's mostly focused
on Europe but touches on connections to the US.

For a start in terms of theory and strategy it's fair to point the finger
at an alliance between right libertarians and the far right and to consider
this in terms of the crisis of neoliberalism (Which I will leave to you).
Essentially what they want is the would be NeoLiberal end game if those
sissy Neolibs weren't so socialist. But thankfully there are still a few
pure blooded Aryans with the strength of Odin to do what must be done.

So who has fostered the switch from anti-state libertarianism to an
alliance of libertarianism and fascism that practice entryism.

Hans Hermann Hoppe has explicitly called for libertarians to take power in
order to dismantle democracy and has made efforts over the last 10 years to
build alliances through his Property and Freedom Society. He has also
emphasised the importance of a cultural movement.
http://propertyandfreedom.org/

He is a nasty piece of work to say the least. Really listen to the whole
thing. I mean he really really hates democracy.

What must be done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ybi1MeC3c
https://mises.org/library/what-must-be-done-0

In terms of alliances just as a sample -

Richard Spencer spoke about the Alt-Right at the annual PFS conference as
early as 2010
http://propertyandfreedom.org/wp-content/docs/pfs-2010-program-final.pdf

Jared Taylor of American Renaissance attended in 2013.

This is to name just a few alt-right celebs you can find many more listed
both as past speakers - http://propertyandfreedom.org/past-speakers/ or
here http://propertyandfreedom.org/meetings/

What is notable is not just the guests but the lineage. Hoppe is a fellow
of Mises.org  one of the biggest sites for Libertarian thinking on the
web.  The Ludwig von Mises Institute was founded by Lew Rockwell.

For Hoppe the Neoliberals are too socialist. He explains here how after
attending the Mont Pelerin Society(MPS) meetings he felt the need for a
more radical alternative.

Here are Hoppes reflections on the first 5 years of PFS - Its good for the
lineage.
http://libertarianstandard.com/articles/hans-hermann-hoppe/the-property-and-
freedom-society-reflections-after-5-years/

Lew Rockwell also set up another site LewRockwell.com

Hoppe has had a long association with Rockwell and published on the site
since 1999. Youtuber Stefan Molyneux has been writing for Rockwell back as
far as 2005. He started video blogging on Youtube not long after.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/stefan-molyneux/
https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/hans-hermann-hoppe/

If you don't know Molyneux he has over 500,00 subscribers alone to his
Youtube channel and 144 million views and is a major public advocate for
the alt-right. Though he occasionally gets some flack for not being fascist
enough (life is hard like that sometimes)

Stats - https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/stefbot
https://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot

Now I'm not saying Molyneux is working with Hoppe. I have no evidence for
that. Really what I want to point out is that a lot of these people are
essentially coming from the same intellectual culture in and around, the
Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, PFS and they are all generally aware of each
others work and have broadly shared views. That gives them coherence.

Now these institutes and societies are a bit academic and stuffy so how
does this really connect with the counter culture. This is where people
like Spencer come in but also NRX.

Richard Spencer is really an important person in this whole network and
seems a bridge between Euro, Russian and American Far Right.
In part this may come from his time as an editor for http://takimag.com/
but also his ex wife Nina Spencer has translated books for Russian right
wing Nationalist Alexander Dugin. http://uk.businessinsider.com/
russia-connections-to-the-alt-right-2016-11?
The SPLC run down on Spencer is pretty good -
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/richard-bertrand-spencer-0

NeoReaction(NRX) and the DarkEnlightenment

Mencius Moldbug is a big big fan of Hoppe and through his blog really puts
the red pill, matrix, rabbit hole thing to work. He also discussed strategy
and developed some important conceptual framing for the alt-right.

He is a self styled heretic. Revealing the 'The Cathedral' that is the
media, academia, government nexus that indoctrinates everyone into the
'universalist religion of equality'. He provides some examples of heretical
ideas and scientific proof. Namely delightful subjects Race IQ differences
which means we can't all live together anymore, culturally incompatible
apparently and Human Biodiversity which even the most renowned biologists
such as Dawkins are clearly in denial of huh and that guy calls himself a
scientist and an atheist. Moldbugs blog is going since 2007
https://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com

One particularly useful review of Moldbugs writing is by Nick Land and it's
worth a read.

www.thedarkenlightenment.com/the-dark-enlightenment-by-nick-land/

Moldbug seems to have gone quiet to focus on his tech projects for hhrrrmmm
Peter Thiel who in the article above Nick Land suggests is on board with
these ideas since in 2009 when Thiel announced on the Cato Institute blog
 “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” The
Southern Poverty Law Center also said Thiel was due to speak the Property
and Freedom Society Conference last year. Though I'm not sure of their
source because I couldnt find it on the PFS website.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/09/paypal-
co-founder-peter-thiel-address-white-nationalist-friendly-%E2%80%9Cproperty-
and-freedom

I suspect if there are ideas that appeal to Thiel and his Seasteading crew
it is Hoppes idea of a Patchwork also adopted by Moldbug who develops the
concept of NeoCameralism. Which is a vision of technocratic city states
that are privately owned corporations with no democracy just the clean
efficiency of libertarian free markets with an engine driven by rational
self interest. Cities compete for citizens in a market. All exit, No voice.
It might not be so bad, maybe like working for Google or more like Facebook
or nothing like that.

If you are into weird dark sci-fi this would be interesting but if people
take this stuff seriously which they do then its scary.

Nick Land is also interesting because of how all of this all relates to
Right Accelerationism. Here is his blog http://www.xenosystems.net/

His reviews of the Accelerationist manifesto is informative -

Nick Land, "Annotated #Accelerate", Urban Futures blog, 14-17 Feb 2014.

http://www.ufblog.net/annotated-accelerate-1/
http://www.ufblog.net/annotated-accelerate-2/
http://www.ufblog.net/annotated-accelerate-3/

Nick Land, "On #Accelerate" Urban Futures blog, 5-11 Mar 2014.
http://www.ufblog.net/on-accelerate-1/
http://www.ufblog.net/on-accelerate-2a/
http://www.ufblog.net/on-accelerate-2b/
http://www.ufblog.net/on-accelerate-2c/


As for the memes.

The bait and switch tactics where by they say something offensive and then
turn the tables and play victim by crying free speech as soon as anyone
actually takes offense is trolling 101 and they are very effectively
culture jamming the liberal center.

The aim is to divide and drive more of the general public to extreme them
and us positions. More media attention, positive or negative it doesn't
matter as long as they are front and center its free advertising.

The reality is that these people are extremists, they are not interested in
democracy or free speech, and from all the rhetoric it should be clear that
they see themselves as being in some kind of war. Their list of enemies is
long. You can count on it that most people on nettime would be candidates
for such lists.
They are paranoid and this is their weakness. It is dirty business but the
left should take take advantage of that. Take inspiration from the
Situationists and practice some detournement.

Hoppe and his like literally suggest making such a mess of democracy that
people will be crying out for order (Which they of course offer) having
proven themselves worthy of leadership.

If you know what you want you have something to aim for. The right know
what they want.

Knowing what you don't want is not good enough.

The (neo)liberal center is collapsing in Europe and US and the right are
lining up to fill the void. This is happening now and it requires a
coherent political response from the left now. So what is the lefts
response to this?

Fascism is here. I find it hard to believe that this is where we are. But
there you have it.

The left has work to do to recapture the political imaginary with dare I
say a revolutionary vision for the future because that's what's needed and
it certainly doesn't look like liberals are going to secure that future for
us, they've had their time and they fucked it up.

The right are going to keep pushing and the left need to get organised.

I hope some of this is useful

Solidarity



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