Exploring AI and American Fascism

Really appreciate @mikerugnetta.com’s audio essay on Neverpo.st about the aesthetics of US Fascism and AI slopaganda/agit slop. He asks: “Is there something inherently fascistic about these technologies as many of these takes and headlines seem to suggest?” and takes a deep dive into media theory, coming away with a nuanced understanding of AI, its usage, and its relationship to a hollow power.

Some choice quotes (with my emphasis):

[Walter Benjamin] declared famously that fascism seeks to give the masses expression, but nothing else, thus compacting those masses into a frenzied block. No rights, no change in property relations, just feelings of power and feelings of dominance through available imagery. No actual political agency is granted. No self determination is awarded.

Talking about the Trump administration:

They are knowledgeable about, maybe even obsessed with, the media. How it’s made, how it’s useful, the social and economic position it occupies, and the power it commands. Slop, sludge, slopaganda, and agit slop included. They are posters at heart more so than they are leaders. They would appear to put more effort, effort into creating the appearance of a fascist state, a state itself all about appearances, than anything beyond that.

And finally the kicker:

artificial intelligence is not a tool of this administration, but a crutch for a group of people who otherwise don’t really know how to do much of anything… what happens when you find a way to take away that crutch? Would they not stumble?

We cannot afford cede this technological ground, we must seize the means of compute.

Give the whole thing a listen.. It is thought-provoking, plus the funky interstitials are banging this week. 🥁