The callous immorality of American authoritarian radical right billionaires

A NYT opinion opines about what authoritarian radical right billionaires want for the rest of us:

It takes a certain kind of person to write grandiose manifestoes for public consumption, unafflicted by self-doubt or denuded of self-interest. The latest example is Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of the top-tier venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and best known, to those of us who came of age before TikTok, as a co-founder of the pioneering internet browser Netscape. In “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” a recent 5,000-plus-word post on the Andreessen Horowitz website, Mr. Andreessen outlines a vision of technologists as the authors of a future in which the “techno-capital machine” produces everything that is good in the world.

In this vision, wealthy technologists are not just leaders of their business but keepers of the social order, unencumbered by what Mr. Andreessen labels “enemies”: social responsibility, trust and safety, tech ethics, to name a few. As for the rest of us — the unwashed masses, people who have either “unskilled” jobs or useless liberal arts degrees or both — we exist mostly as automatons whose entire value is measured in productivity.

The vision has attracted a good deal of controversy. But the real problem with Mr. Andreessen’s manifesto may be not that it’s too outlandish, but that it’s too on-the-nose. Because in a very real and consequential sense, this view is already enshrined in our culture. Major tent-poles of public policy support it. You can see it in the work requirements associated with public assistance, which imply that people’s primary value is their labor and that refusal or inability to contribute is fundamentally antisocial. You can see it in the way we valorize the C.E.O.s of “unicorn” companies who have expanded their wealth far beyond what could possibly be justified by their individual contributions. And the way we regard that wealth as a product of good decision-making and righteous hard work, no matter how many billions of dollars of investors’ money they may have vaporized, how many other people contributed to their success or how much government money subsidized it. In the case of ordinary individuals, however, debt is regarded as not just a financial failure but a moral one. (If you are successful and have paid your student loans off, taking them out in the first place was a good decision. If you haven’t and can’t, you were irresponsible and the government should not enable your freeloading.)

As a piece of writing, the rambling and often contradictory manifesto has the pathos of the Unabomber manifesto but lacks the ideological coherency. It rails against centralized systems of government (communism in particular, though it’s unclear where Mr. Andreessen may have ever encountered communism in his decades of living and working in Silicon Valley) while advocating that technologists do the central planning and govern the future of humanity. Its very first line is “We are being lied to,” followed by a litany of grievances, but further on it expresses disdain for “victim mentality.”  

It would be easy to dismiss this kind of thing as just Mr. Andreessen’s predictable self-interest, but it’s more than that. He articulates (albeit in a refrigerator magnet poetry kind of way) a strain of nihilism that has gained traction among tech elites, and reveals much of how they think about their few remaining responsibilities to society.  

There’s probably a German word to describe the unique combination of horrifying and silly that this vision evokes, but it is taken seriously by people who imagine themselves potential Chief Executive Authoritarians, or at the very least proxies. This includes another Silicon Valley billionaire, Peter Thiel, who has funded some of Mr. Yarvin’s work and once wrote that he believed democracy and freedom were incompatible.

It’s easy enough to see how this vision might appeal to people like Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Thiel. But how did they sell so many other people on it? By pretending that for all their wealth and influence, they are not the real elites.

The heartlessness, cynicism and arrogance in Andreessen’s cruel plutocratic vision for America is clear. Corrupt, unregulated brass knuckles capitalism is what the corrupt, modern Republican Party stands and fights for.

Cynical plutocrat Marc Andreessen

(Motto: I've got mine, fuck you)

What America's authoritarian radical right elites want to do

In 2022, the group Documented obtained a 38 minute video that describes what ARR (authoritarian radical right) elites have planned for America. Our future will ugly, unpleasant and constrained if they get their way. The Guardian writes about what the billionaires intend:

‘Get the right cases to the supreme court’: 

inside Charles Koch’s network

Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to court that could undermine core functionings of the US government

At least two of the biggest cases to be considered by the justices this term have been spurred by groups bankrolled and coordinated within the Koch universe.

Footage of an internal panel discussion between senior operatives from Koch entities held in the summer of 2022 reveals that the network has been quietly planning the current assault on the “administrative state”. The groups are seeking to exploit the supreme court’s new six-to-three rightwing majority secured by Donald Trump to dismantle vital executive powers.

Regulatory controls in their sights include environmental standards to combat pollution and the climate crisis, consumer protections against predatory lenders, and safeguards for workers’ rights. At stake is what the Strict Scrutiny podcast has called “the future of government as we know it”.

The footage, which is made public here for the first time, was obtained by the investigative watchdog Documented and shared with the Guardian. During the 37-minute panel discussion, legal strategists with several Koch-related groups expressed excitement that the new hard-right supreme court supermajority had created the potential for a concerted attack on the functions of federal agencies.  

Casey Mattox, a legal strategist at the main Koch advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, argued that the supreme court was now “primed for a real change in the law” on federal regulations which he said amounted to a “paradigm shift”. Mattox said: “That’s why we are partnering with organizations that can get the right cases to the supreme court.”

The effort appears to have borne fruit. Two of the most significant cases before the court in the 2023-24 term, brought with the backing of Koch-linked organizations, attempt to rein back the government’s power to impose regulations on corporations.

The prominence of the cases underlines how the libertarian empire created by the Kochs is still a force to be reckoned with within US politics.

Warning 1: This is just another warning about what wealthy authoritarian radicals intend for us, regardless of their denials, deflections, distractions, lies and slanders. The USSC alone has the power to destroy democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law. That is what the billionaires want. The rule of law will be changed to protect special interests at the expense of the public interest, including the environment, honest government and civil liberties. We will have a kleptocracy where vast corruption is legalized and honest citizens have few or no protections from rape and oppression by unregulated, rapacious corporate, plutocrat and theocrat power.

Warning 2: Always keep eyes on the flow of power. When government regulations are gutted, as the ARR elites want, power flows from government and the people to wealthy special interests, dictators, plutocrats, theocrats and kleptocrats. Anyone who believes that corporations, billionaires libertarian ideologues or Christian nationalist zealots will look out for us is completely mistaken. They look out for themselves and only themselves.

News bits: The bad new speaker; American radicalization update; Etc.

New House speaker Mike Johnson is a radical right authoritarian, a traitor who voted to stop the 2020 election and a deeply corrupt climate crackpot: 

New House Speaker Champions Fossil Fuels 

and Dismisses Climate Concerns

Representative Mike Johnson comes from Louisiana oil country and has said he does not believe burning fossil fuels is changing the climate

Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year.  

Since 2018, Mr. Johnson has received about $240,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog.

The vote for Johnson was reported to be unanimous. That's evidence that there are no moderates left in the radical right authoritarian GOP. All that's left is radical right authoritarians and extremely radical right authoritarians.

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This year’s Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) annual American Values Survey indicate that the MAGA movement has radicalized millions of Americans. The WaPo comments in an opinion piece:

The survey’s great value comes as a warning about the radicalization and alienation of a segment of the major parties’ followers. “Today, nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that ‘because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,’ up from 15% in 2021,” the survey found. “PRRI has asked this question in eight separate surveys since March 2021. This is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%.” A full third of Republicans believe this, compared with 13 percent of Democrats. Meanwhile, QAnon believers have jumped from 14 percent of Americans to 23 percent, with Republicans twice as likely as Democrats to buy into the extreme conspiracy theory.

Clearly, authoritarianism has made greater inroads among Republicans than other groups. “About half of Republicans (48%) agree with the need for a leader who is willing to break some rules, compared with four in ten independents (38%) and three in ten Democrats (29%).”  

Most frightening is how many Republicans buy into white Christian nationalism, a racist ideology that rejects the basic premise of our democracy: “All men are created equal.” One-third of Americans but 52 percent of Republicans agree that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.” The number is even higher among White evangelical Protestants (54 percent). Americans who subscribe to white Christian nationalism are more than twice as likely as other Americans to say true patriots might have to resort to violence to save the country.  

When a sizable portion of one of the major political parties, aided by a right-wing propaganda machine and infused with religious fervor, rejects the basis for multiracial, multicultural democracy, we face a severe crisis. Even if Trump does not return to the White House, this radicalized segment will not disappear. How we reintegrate millions of Americans into reality-based, pro-democracy politics in a diverse country remains the great challenge of our time.

On the encouraging side, an overwhelming majority of Americans support teaching the good and the bad of American history, trust public school teachers to select appropriate curriculum, and strongly oppose banning books that discuss slavery or banning Advanced Placement African American History. A solid majority of Americans opposes banning social and emotional learning programs in public schools. The poll data indicates that Republican “anti-wokeism” messaging is deeply unpopular. 

Even more encouraging, public sympathy for radical right authoritarianism, denials of racism and abortion bans, especially among the GOP’s main base of White evangelical Christians, are opposed by a solid majority of Americans.

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The Hill writes about how one House member sees the election of the authoritarian radical Mike Johnson:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) held up newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a shining example of the strength of the “MAGA movement,” after every GOP member of Congress voted for him to be Speaker on Wednesday, ending three weeks of chaos in the House.

That jives with how the WaPo opinion describes the effect of the MAGA movement on the now fully radicalized, authoritarian GOP in the House.

Amnesty International Finds "Damning Evidence of War Crimes" by Israel as Gaza Death Toll Tops 6,500

Below is a 15 minute interview with Amnesty International reporter and analyst, Budour Hassan, which goes beyond  and behind the staggering numbers of dead and dying Palestinians to humanize the hell on earth that is Gaza now-- as well as discussing ever increasing murders of Palestinians in the West Bank at the hands of settler colonists, many of whom were given arms by the Israeli government. We don't hear much about any of these horrific stories-- the waking nightmares endured by Palestinian in US media. But as the world becomes increasingly fed up with  the unacceptable hypocrisy of talking about Israel's compliance with "the rule of law," while heartbreaking atrocities are being documented by several human rights groups, Biden, Blinken and others are trying to maintain the moral high ground even as they increasingly come under fire.  There is an increasingly pronounced resentment in much of the world --especially the global south-- of Israel and the US.  As Ian Bremmer recently said, we have come to seem  out of touch with most of the world, and especially the global south, where we are seen as defending the last advanced, democratic power that perpetuates apartheid  and the dehumanization of an ethnic population . The sense of US  complicity looms large, and understandably as we enable  the deliberate mistreatment of an entire group  on the basis of ethnicity -- even as our leaders speak loudly and proudly about our role as champions of the "Rules Based International Order of the Free World," which justifies our military and economic warfare all over the world.  The fact is, though, that the US was the ONLY member of the UN Security Council to veto a UN Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire last week. We were the only of 15 nation-states that prevented the Resolution from passing as it did not factor in "the Israeli right to defend itself." France,Switzerland, Japan were among the 12 states that voted for a humanitarian ceasefire. Only 2 powers abstained (Russia and UK). But only ONE country opposed the idea of a humanitarian pause in this devastating and wanton destruction of the 25 by 5 mile strip of overcrowded land that has become an urban killing zone.

The following interview provides both an update on the conditions in Gaza (and also to a lesser degree in the West Bank, where settlers armed by the government round up and kill innocent Palestinians, taking advantage of the chaos to further eliminate them to seize and build on their land). It 's a tough watch, but we should not bury our heads in the sand. Facts and figures; statistics and abstract overview statements-- these cannot convey the extent and utter barbarity of the collective punishment-- torture-- of a population slowly dying of thirst, hunger, rampant disease and a collapsed health system at the hands of the country that long ago made Gaza a dependent concentration camp. Some say it is an open-air prison. The distinction of relevance is that none of those born in Gaza (the majority there are children) ever did anything indicating consent including voting. Gaza is not a prison, because prisons house people accused and convicted of crimes, not newborn babies and random civilians whose sin is their ethnicity. That is, like the US Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 19th and early 20th century, a *concentration camp.* It is punishment enough to be stuck there without any charges brought against you. But in this case, the wardens have decided to starve the captives, deprive them of food, fuel needed to power the last of the functioning hospitals (12 out of 35 hospitals have stopped functioning, and the 23 barely functional ones left are filled beyond capacity according to Doctors Without Borders and other sources . Rather than going on, I am posting 2 videos below. The first is the 15 minute interview with Amnesty International reserarcher, Budour Hassan, followed by a much shorter but very informative video by  a human rights lawyer from the region, Noura Ekarat. Hopefully, these fill in a much needed gap of humane and factual reporting on these things  in MSM.

Below is a video in which human rights lawyer , Noura Erakat, indicts mainstream media for failing to report the many credible findings of human rights and international law organizations that have documented evidence for both genocidal intent and action on the part of Israel's government in its response to the Hamas attacks of 10/7/23. In about 3 minute she summarizes some of the main genocidal war crimes that have simply been ignored by mainstream media. In a future post, I plan to discuss the deliberate and systematic jailing and silencing of Palestinians (including Israeli citizens) in a crackdown and chilling intimidation campaign designed to sideline their voices in the coverage of unfolding events. But for now, this 3 minute video is an important one for those who have only seen MSM and US/UK accounts of the Israeli prosecution of this war.