Vance's vision of acceleration

First hailed as an excellent choice for the successor to the Magus movement, James David Vance soon proved to be a burden to the Trump campaign: the Democrats successfully branded him as a creepy specimen of the manosphere; his views on abortion, IVF and childless women have rightly put him at the center of criticism of the right-wing obsession with controlling women's bodies. And then there's the question of whether he's the right man to explain rural Appalachia to everyone, since he's a city kid from Ohio.

However, one narrative about the junior senator continues to be taken for granted: that Vance is a champion of a "new" right-wing populism that supposedly puts the working class first. There are still no political proposals on offer to justify the show; moreover, Vance's career is financed by a sinister combination of right-wing techno cronies and the fossil fuel industry: those who are happy to pollute the public sphere with misinformation and those who profit from polluting the atmosphere. Both groups are the main promoters of the libertarianism that the "new" right-wing populists supposedly renounce.

Vance says he will cut ties with corporate donors who are only interested in cheap labor from the continued influx of migrants. There's no doubt that the GOP's promise to cut immigration is realistic, as is its cruel plan for mass deportations — whether that will result in higher wages is anyone's guess. One thing is certain, though: raising tariffs on cheap imports - another allegedly populist policy - will create problems for those who are already up to their necks in trouble.

Meanwhile, there is no mention of raising taxes on the rich, or closing the notorious loopholes that allow hedge fund and private equity managers to have lower tax rates than their secretaries. On the contrary, Trump promises to cut the corporate tax rate even further.

Vance often praises the Hungarian prime minister as his role model, while Viktor Orbán is the epitome of the shameless use of state power to impose public morality (there is no same-sex marriage in Hungary) and industrial policies in the national interest. On the other hand, Orbán introduced a single rate of personal income tax and the highest value-added tax in the world - which, of course, disproportionately affects poorer Hungarians. If that's a model, America's billionaires will have no problem with Vance's supposed "labor conservatism."

Trump's elect talks about the separation of the American right from libertarianism; but if we follow where the money comes from, we will see a different picture. His career is bankrolled by reactionary venture capitalists like Peter Thiel, as well as the fossil fuel industry, whose shared desire for deregulation is wrapped in "American freedom" propaganda. Vance himself has worked as a venture capitalist and is now part of a Republican slate dedicated to deregulation of social networks, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence. The party platform calls for the repeal of Biden's executive order on responsible and, just as importantly, worker-oriented development of artificial intelligence.

The irony is that big proponents of freedom and the unleashing of technological power are also supporters of monopoly power: they really don't like Biden's strong antitrust approach. They are also often highly dependent on government contracts. There's no doubt that Palantir, Til's "big data analytics" firm, whose core offering is effective surveillance, will want to be of help in mass deportations.

Okay, maybe Silicon Valley's new tramps aren't just driven by a raw lust for taxpayer dollars; perhaps they are guided by some philosophical vision. That doesn't make things any better, of course. Venture capitalist Mark Andriesen, a recent convert to Trumpism, is the author of the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto", which proclaims faith in "accelerationism - the conscious and deliberate acceleration of technological development". Many pompous statements about human evolution are actually reduced to a simple demand: the abolition of restrictions on the development of artificial intelligence, as well as a complete commitment to nuclear energy, with a twisted celebration of population growth because, according to Andriesen, "our planet is dramatically underpopulated."

Without citing his source, Andriesen actually quotes the manifesto of the Futurists - artists who in the early 20th century worshiped technology as well as a kind of purification of the world through war - and who eventually became the main promoters of Mussolini's fascism. Proclaiming himself a conqueror, not a victim, Andriesen strongly opposes the "campaign of mass demoralization [being] waged against technology and against life" that has allegedly lasted "six decades" and "under various names such as 'sustainability' and ' social responsibility'".

The self-proclaimed elites want to step on the gas - and expect us to simply believe the accelerationist visionaries.

Vance could become the first promoter of accelerationism in the White House — while also being an old-fashioned fossil fuel lobbyist, using climate change as a weapon in the right-wing culture war. For him, renewable energy and electric vehicles are associated with China - his (failed) proposal to repeal tax credits for electric vehicles (Drive America Act) suggests that buying gas and diesel cars is the only way to be a good patriot. Passively receiving wind and sun is obviously not for real men; drilling for oil constitutes what researchers have called "petromasculinity."

Vance is simultaneously a nationalist natalist ("give birth, baby, give birth!" for the nation), a promoter of the fossil fuel industry ("drill, baby, drill!") and a proponent of accelerationism ("break it, baby, break it!"). Given how unpopular he is in the polls, Americans don't seem interested in that vision. It also does not make a break with libertarianism, as claimed by commentators who praise the Republicans' supposed turn toward the working class. But that vision is backed by a hell of a lot of money.

(The Guardian; Peščanik.net, translation: M. Jovanović)