Strong agreement with your implication that our ascendent tech-bros problem has been brewing from at least as far back as Plato. I think that Socrates' weak answer to Thrasymachus in The Republic - from which his winning the argument only through Plato being the narrator - left open a dangerous question that we have been pussy-footing around with ever since.
To update it to our current situation, let me drop in a little 650 word 'essay' that I baked earlier:
THRASYMACHUS MEETS EVOLUTION AND ZERO-SUM THINKING:
There is only so much of X (money, food, oil, water, arable land, etc.), so for me to get more of X the rest of you must take less; and through that imbalance my genes will be able to evolutionarily dominate yours. I will outcompete you for sexual access, and so have more offspring, and will be able to give my additional offspring competitive advantages – in diet, education and so on – that will ensure their ability to dominate your offspring; from which the cycle will then repeat, and so on.
This is basic and inescapable reality; ‘the way of the world’ as imposed on us – so, intrinsically, not my fault – by the competitive mechanism of evolution. Resistance to it is self-defeating, in that it can lead only to competitive disadvantage, and thereby ultimately to genetic elimination for the resisters. Its logical corollary is dominance as our only honest directive. If – through my failure to lie, cheat, steal, betray, etc. – I miss some competitive advantage that is not missed by my less scrupulous adversary then, and to my cost, he will gain in dominance.
So there is finally nothing but dominance. Reason, fairness, honesty, altruism and empathy are merely naïve comforters for the weak and foolish. There are many more of them than of me, so – as recommended by Machiavelli – I must be able to convincing fake these weaknesses as required to increase my dominance. But I’m way too smart and wise to fall for them.
I offer this as a statement of the Trump/Vance/Musk/Putin/Theil/Orban position in the unlikely event that they were to suddenly become willing to express it with honesty and precision. It is of course a large and stinking pile of garbage. It ignores everything good, noble and rational that our species has learned through and since the European Enlightenment. But until and unless our side can sufficiently recover its intellectual mojo for honest articulation of the powerful arguments which show it to be such a pile then our world will continue in its present downward spiral.
In every state by law any registered voter can challenge the validity of another registered voter’s right to cast a qualified vote in an election This has been termed a vigilante challenge
The Nazi Republicans are hard at work to get at states’ registered voter data so they can make this a nationwide project The Georgia Nazi Republicans beta tested vigilante challenges to registered voters in 2024 and were successful so they want to take the process nationwide but they need registered voter data to do it This is why the voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act which the Nazis are trying to get through the Senate has the specific demand that the states turn over their registered voter information And Peter Theil and Palantir are ready to create a database
This was initially reported by investigative journalist Greg Palast in the lead up to the 2024 election in a documentary Vigilante Challenge(bit.ly/41UelTx) and he then felt based on its success the Nazi Republicans would try to pull off this voter suppression tactic nationally in the next election, midterms 2026 Democracy Docket also covered this in 2022(https://bit.ly/4uc9E4c)
And no state election will be immune from such registered voter challenges Here’s an NCSL(National Conference of State Legislatures) link(bit.ly/41QB17R) as to how you can look up what laws your local state legislature has on the books And how you can be affected by vigilante Republicans who having all the data on voters will to try to disenfranchise Democratic and Independent voters with “legal challenges” as to the legitimacy of the voters challenged BTW the provisional ballots solution mentioned are not often counted
The solution: VOTE EARLY and make sure your vote is counted
Two South Africans Musk/SpaceX and Theil/Palantir who grew up together in apartheid/inequality South Africa and collaborated at PayPal have gone on to figure out how to tap into the immense taxpayer slush fund of the US But with it comes wealth/power which tends to corrupt and absolute power/wealth corrupts absolutely
Democrats and Republicans are responsible for these fucking punks having influence. We as people have to learn we do NOT need them. The world has been turning a hell of a long time. Without shit like Palantir.
Palantir is a metastasizing nightmare, and these people in charge as well as their favorite pseudo philosopher and sociopath Curtis Yarvin need to be removed from power immediately. They have no authority or accountability to this nation or its citizens.
Hello Don,
Strong agreement with your implication that our ascendent tech-bros problem has been brewing from at least as far back as Plato. I think that Socrates' weak answer to Thrasymachus in The Republic - from which his winning the argument only through Plato being the narrator - left open a dangerous question that we have been pussy-footing around with ever since.
To update it to our current situation, let me drop in a little 650 word 'essay' that I baked earlier:
THRASYMACHUS MEETS EVOLUTION AND ZERO-SUM THINKING:
There is only so much of X (money, food, oil, water, arable land, etc.), so for me to get more of X the rest of you must take less; and through that imbalance my genes will be able to evolutionarily dominate yours. I will outcompete you for sexual access, and so have more offspring, and will be able to give my additional offspring competitive advantages – in diet, education and so on – that will ensure their ability to dominate your offspring; from which the cycle will then repeat, and so on.
This is basic and inescapable reality; ‘the way of the world’ as imposed on us – so, intrinsically, not my fault – by the competitive mechanism of evolution. Resistance to it is self-defeating, in that it can lead only to competitive disadvantage, and thereby ultimately to genetic elimination for the resisters. Its logical corollary is dominance as our only honest directive. If – through my failure to lie, cheat, steal, betray, etc. – I miss some competitive advantage that is not missed by my less scrupulous adversary then, and to my cost, he will gain in dominance.
So there is finally nothing but dominance. Reason, fairness, honesty, altruism and empathy are merely naïve comforters for the weak and foolish. There are many more of them than of me, so – as recommended by Machiavelli – I must be able to convincing fake these weaknesses as required to increase my dominance. But I’m way too smart and wise to fall for them.
I offer this as a statement of the Trump/Vance/Musk/Putin/Theil/Orban position in the unlikely event that they were to suddenly become willing to express it with honesty and precision. It is of course a large and stinking pile of garbage. It ignores everything good, noble and rational that our species has learned through and since the European Enlightenment. But until and unless our side can sufficiently recover its intellectual mojo for honest articulation of the powerful arguments which show it to be such a pile then our world will continue in its present downward spiral.
Remember, these Tech-Bros survive only because WE THE PEOPLE allow it and even encourage it.
Cheeto’s Vigilante Voter Challenge: Voter Suppression
In every state by law any registered voter can challenge the validity of another registered voter’s right to cast a qualified vote in an election This has been termed a vigilante challenge
The Nazi Republicans are hard at work to get at states’ registered voter data so they can make this a nationwide project The Georgia Nazi Republicans beta tested vigilante challenges to registered voters in 2024 and were successful so they want to take the process nationwide but they need registered voter data to do it This is why the voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act which the Nazis are trying to get through the Senate has the specific demand that the states turn over their registered voter information And Peter Theil and Palantir are ready to create a database
This was initially reported by investigative journalist Greg Palast in the lead up to the 2024 election in a documentary Vigilante Challenge(bit.ly/41UelTx) and he then felt based on its success the Nazi Republicans would try to pull off this voter suppression tactic nationally in the next election, midterms 2026 Democracy Docket also covered this in 2022(https://bit.ly/4uc9E4c)
And no state election will be immune from such registered voter challenges Here’s an NCSL(National Conference of State Legislatures) link(bit.ly/41QB17R) as to how you can look up what laws your local state legislature has on the books And how you can be affected by vigilante Republicans who having all the data on voters will to try to disenfranchise Democratic and Independent voters with “legal challenges” as to the legitimacy of the voters challenged BTW the provisional ballots solution mentioned are not often counted
The solution: VOTE EARLY and make sure your vote is counted
Two South Africans Musk/SpaceX and Theil/Palantir who grew up together in apartheid/inequality South Africa and collaborated at PayPal have gone on to figure out how to tap into the immense taxpayer slush fund of the US But with it comes wealth/power which tends to corrupt and absolute power/wealth corrupts absolutely
Excellent piece. Thank you
Democrats and Republicans are responsible for these fucking punks having influence. We as people have to learn we do NOT need them. The world has been turning a hell of a long time. Without shit like Palantir.
Palantir is a metastasizing nightmare, and these people in charge as well as their favorite pseudo philosopher and sociopath Curtis Yarvin need to be removed from power immediately. They have no authority or accountability to this nation or its citizens.
Heard Technocracy on it’s the end of the week/lincoln square. Love your contributions.
thank you