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Looking at institutions across the West I can't say he's wrong. I forget who's law it is but "Any institution that isn't explicitly right wing will become left

by mhh__ 2y ago

Looking at institutions across the West I can't say he's wrong. I forget who's law it is but "Any institution that isn't explicitly right wing will become left wing". I don't think it's a real drive to destroy, but the outcome of people identifying that the left cannot succeed democratically, so the form of leftism that ends up prevalent is one that is very enticing to progressives inside powerful extrapolitical organisations. You could argue that tech was just caught in the tsunami but it was an enormous social revolution — Google are still running Pixel ads of men/amab in dresses iirc

foldr 2y ago
I don’t understand the claim that the left can’t succeed democratically. If the ‘left’ is the Democrats then the country is split roughly 50/50. The Democrats sometimes win and sometimes lose, just like the Republicans. If the ‘left’ are people who broadly support LGBTQ rights then they’re a fairly clear majority in the US, and absolutely have the potential to succeed democratically (as indeed they have many times). There is currently somewhat of a moral panic around trans people specifically, which is not so very different to the resurgence of homophobia in the 1980s. As for the Google ad: society is (slowly) making progress on trans rights and that’s reflected in advertising. You’re of course right that that has nothing specifically to do with tech, or with anything that Andressen is preoccupied with. You may not like it that trans people are gaining increased acceptance, but it’s not threatening Andressen’s bottom line or forcing him to vote for Trump.
- mhh__ 2y ago
  By the left I don't mean democrats (they aren't left wing other than when convenient socially), I mean the theory-reading new leftists of a few decades ago i.e. a relatively tiny group of post-marxists that came up with new terminology and became quite dominant in most academic departments of that nature. No one will openly vote for this stuff, so they gave up and ended up in institutions (amongst other things). I'm writing from a British perspective, so the joke that comes to mind is "I'm old enough to remember when judges were right-wing". I had to attend lectures about decolonizing the physics curriculum for example, in a university founded almost in the 70s (i.e. after the revolution). This is late Soviet or antiquity levels of bizarre rituals and practices. The ad I'm thinking of I don't think featured any trans people, or at least if it was they don't pass. I don't really want to dwell on this other than it stuck out like a sore thumb as something from 2021 or '22. The point is just that it's clearly evidence of some massive cultural shift inside Google. Anyway, back to Andreesen, the east Coast declared war on the west, and lost. Tough shit IMO.
  - foldr 2y ago
    I’m also British. I can’t say that your perspective makes any sense to me. Andreessen is talking about why he voted Republican instead of Democrat. If the Democrats aren’t particularly left wing then the ‘left’ in your sense isn’t relevant here. I certainly don’t think lectures in British universities have any connection to his voting choices. >The point is just that it's clearly evidence of some massive cultural shift inside Google. I haven’t seen the ads, so sorry if I got the wrong idea about them featuring trans people. But if they just show men wearing dresses, who could really take issue with this? Are there really people who believe that men should not be permitted to wear dresses and that tech companies need to take a strong stance on what men should or shouldn’t wear? And if you’re British, would you not have seen a man in a dress every time you went to see the Christmas panto? It’s hardly a brand new cultural phenomenon, nor a harbinger of the end of days.
    - mhh__ 2y ago
      > I certainly don’t think lectures in British universities have any connection to his voting choices. To me this reads like you either cannot reason abductively at all or you're being deliberately obtuse. I was giving an example of the cultural revolution he referred to. There are two strands here: One is tech drifting away from the left and/or actively being attacked by the form that popular leftism takes. The other is the Democratic insiders declaring war on tech / the east coast in general. The latter is what really drove someone like Andreesen towards Trump, but the former tee-ed it up. Macro: This isn't really about voting, it's about the different parts of the US establishment putting the brakes on the way the executive was going for the last few years. They wanted Trump to win, Kamala was a just there to see it out. As for Panto, I have indeed and this is completely different. I think you know it, at least if you don't you're a frog being boiled. You might think it's just the next chapter of progress; you have every right to do so, but to say it's not at least in some way novel is just strange. It really is a new cultural phenomenon. This type of marketing would be an anachronism in even in the first Trump term let alone 2012 or so, the recent election was basically a referendum on it, and they lost, badly. Trump post-assassination is a unity candidate to take some power back, make the federal gov less activist, undo woke etc.

by mhh__ 2y ago

foldr 2y ago

I don’t understand the claim that the left can’t succeed democratically. If the ‘left’ is the Democrats then the country is split roughly 50/50. The Democrats sometimes win and sometimes lose, just like the Republicans. If the ‘left’ are people who broadly support LGBTQ rights then they’re a fairly clear majority in the US, and absolutely have the potential to succeed democratically (as indeed they have many times). There is currently somewhat of a moral panic around trans people specifically, which is not so very different to the resurgence of homophobia in the 1980s. As for the Google ad: society is (slowly) making progress on trans rights and that’s reflected in advertising. You’re of course right that that has nothing specifically to do with tech, or with anything that Andressen is preoccupied with. You may not like it that trans people are gaining increased acceptance, but it’s not threatening Andressen’s bottom line or forcing him to vote for Trump.

mhh__ 2y ago
By the left I don't mean democrats (they aren't left wing other than when convenient socially), I mean the theory-reading new leftists of a few decades ago i.e. a relatively tiny group of post-marxists that came up with new terminology and became quite dominant in most academic departments of that nature. No one will openly vote for this stuff, so they gave up and ended up in institutions (amongst other things). I'm writing from a British perspective, so the joke that comes to mind is "I'm old enough to remember when judges were right-wing". I had to attend lectures about decolonizing the physics curriculum for example, in a university founded almost in the 70s (i.e. after the revolution). This is late Soviet or antiquity levels of bizarre rituals and practices. The ad I'm thinking of I don't think featured any trans people, or at least if it was they don't pass. I don't really want to dwell on this other than it stuck out like a sore thumb as something from 2021 or '22. The point is just that it's clearly evidence of some massive cultural shift inside Google. Anyway, back to Andreesen, the east Coast declared war on the west, and lost. Tough shit IMO.
- foldr 2y ago
  I’m also British. I can’t say that your perspective makes any sense to me. Andreessen is talking about why he voted Republican instead of Democrat. If the Democrats aren’t particularly left wing then the ‘left’ in your sense isn’t relevant here. I certainly don’t think lectures in British universities have any connection to his voting choices. >The point is just that it's clearly evidence of some massive cultural shift inside Google. I haven’t seen the ads, so sorry if I got the wrong idea about them featuring trans people. But if they just show men wearing dresses, who could really take issue with this? Are there really people who believe that men should not be permitted to wear dresses and that tech companies need to take a strong stance on what men should or shouldn’t wear? And if you’re British, would you not have seen a man in a dress every time you went to see the Christmas panto? It’s hardly a brand new cultural phenomenon, nor a harbinger of the end of days.
  - mhh__ 2y ago
    > I certainly don’t think lectures in British universities have any connection to his voting choices. To me this reads like you either cannot reason abductively at all or you're being deliberately obtuse. I was giving an example of the cultural revolution he referred to. There are two strands here: One is tech drifting away from the left and/or actively being attacked by the form that popular leftism takes. The other is the Democratic insiders declaring war on tech / the east coast in general. The latter is what really drove someone like Andreesen towards Trump, but the former tee-ed it up. Macro: This isn't really about voting, it's about the different parts of the US establishment putting the brakes on the way the executive was going for the last few years. They wanted Trump to win, Kamala was a just there to see it out. As for Panto, I have indeed and this is completely different. I think you know it, at least if you don't you're a frog being boiled. You might think it's just the next chapter of progress; you have every right to do so, but to say it's not at least in some way novel is just strange. It really is a new cultural phenomenon. This type of marketing would be an anachronism in even in the first Trump term let alone 2012 or so, the recent election was basically a referendum on it, and they lost, badly. Trump post-assassination is a unity candidate to take some power back, make the federal gov less activist, undo woke etc.