Seeing the changes in America the past half year and in some other places has shown me accelerationism is right and reformism in the short term at least is a fantasy. I tried to resist this idea for a long time because it seems lazy and counter intuitive to believe things will fix themselves, but I think a clear and present example of a widening gap between the rich and the poor needs to happen in order for people to wake up from their lethargy and topple this capitalist cancer. I'm not sure how much worse things can get than past famines and Dickensian conditions, but I think some modern series of tragedies like this is necessary to break the spectacle of ideology unfortunately.
Now before you applaud and give me a few back slaps. I think there is a fly in the ointment of accelerationism and that fly is the sustainability of life on this planet. I'm not sure we're going to survive the extent to which the climate is already been negatively effected up top this point let alone allowing industrialists and resource barons to hit the gas pedal at full speed and get the profits they want before depletion gives way to extinction of fossil fuels and coal. Further even with climate change aside, drinking water is going to become a scarce commodity by design due to pollution from fracking, oil pipeline spills, overuse of agricultural pesticides and chemicals etc. This is already happening. These two issues are also only one of many that give me pause to letting capitalists get their full run before paradise but I think you get the point.
I don't see a way we can survive this without reform in some major environmental areas, but ironically what it would take to get people to make those reforms necessary to society in order to save ourselves would be rapid accelerationism towards our extinction and I'm not sure their dumb asses will even realize the environmental changes fast enough to not hit the literal iceberg. I think about this situation near constantly at this point and I don't really see a way out. I want to believe the opposite of this in a lot of ways, but… God just tell me there is some hope some how us kids will make it through this mess.
Calm down, buddy. If you want a real form of accelerationism, then go for automation. The more we can push for automation, the more difficult it will be for labour to create value. This will screw over capitalists. If governments (due to lobbyists) start to resist, it becomes painfully clear, for anyone with half a brain cell that capitalism doesn't naturally create efficiency or better living conditions. However, only exists for the reproduction of capital.
Adam Gomez
I'm not sure that can be done fast enough at this point or that capitalism wont simply adapt around the tools of automation, while screwing over everyone else. Yes the screwing over everyone else might galvanize the workforce into revolt, but it could also simply make them more powerless and lethargic, past and precedent don't really say which and we never know what will gas light the end of capitalism, in the intervening time if that doesn't work it could also make things much worse environmentally, capitalists are inefficient polluters now and with an even more high speed automation economy they could just be sinking us into extinction at the blink of an eye.
Nathaniel Collins
This is all in a fast growing region mind you I can't imagine what it's like in the middle of the country where it's just a snake pit of addiction and closed factories
Josiah Rodriguez
Educate and agitate as much as you can and let the system accelerate itself. It has to, thats how Capitalism works.
Anthony Gonzalez
it is a dystopia
Bentley Torres
At this point in our technological development, accelerationism would just mean auto-genocide until our population is significantly reduced. Which frankly might be necessary.
William Russell
I'd like to know why you think the population needs to be reduced.
Ian Fisher
What changes are talking about specifically?
Thomas Sanders
With a small dose of Trump and given the Dore Zizek hypothesis of that event and the accelerationism that would entail we have seen quite a few people wake up politically. A Hillary presidency where we duck walk backwards into oblivion would have been too slow and gradual for everyday schlubs to care or notice, but the threat that "Trump" the spectacle holds in people minds was sufficient enough to get them to start caring. It follows that even worse right wing or free market measures resulting in a growing divide between the rich and poor would be enough to get them to push even harder against these people.
Justin Collins
The perfect conditions for the far left and far right to rise are during an economic depression. Like during the 30's and 40's, people legit thought capitalism was dying and fascism, or communism or other isms would replace it.
People who arent political, they lead simple lives, they admire the rich, one day they will be like that too. So what happens when everything crashes and there are bread lines and you have no future, not even the false conscious of a future
You look for answers.
Communism, anarchism, fascism, ism ism.
One of these has to be better than the crap we are doing…
Ayden Perez
And i have known for a while, if you want to destroy the neoliberals you have to put pressure on them, you have to make them lose over and over again. This is a Faustian bargain, because it means trump and the right wing win. But at the same time it makes the neolibs look like failures who are urgin for a purgin.
In a way the neoliberals are more sinister, at least the republicans tell you to your face what they want, the neo libs pretend they are saving the world and doing it for your own good, then turn around and bail out banks or some other neolib bullshit
Think about it, if the democrats keep losing to trump, then they will be forced to change, but they cant go to the right again, because the democratic base are becoming more left wing.
So this really puts them in a pickle, they have to toss their base or the donors.
The trump win was a novel event that might eventually lead to a socialist democratic party if they can get their shit slapped hared enough
Overpopulation is an overstated "problem" the real problem is still overall sustainability of the planet. A large amount of humans doesn't help that, but it also isn't that big of a factor.Pic related debunks a lot of myths about over population issues, if you ever feel interested enough to look.
Sebastian Diaz
Accelerationism is a fucking religion, you people will be waiting for class consciousness to emerge for the next 2000 years just like the Protestants with Christ.
Zachary Richardson
this
Jonathan Wilson
What do you find untrue about it? Please tell me, I want to believe reform can work but I just cant see that making a difference anymore.
Samuel Wilson
I never said it was "untrue" I just said spontaneous class consciousness from capitalist oppression is just about as likely as christ reviving himself for the 3rd time or whatever. The porkers control the media and even use shills, people listen to that shit whether it's skewed or not. The fact that we live in the "information era" just means ideology will be stronger and easier to spread than ever. Accelerationism is no realistic way to revert this.
Cooper Ross
It might be unlikely. I wouldn't say it's as unlikely as Christ returning, but I get the analogous similarities of waiting and fate. I really don't like the idea of hands off political maneuvers, I like doing things and being able to be pro-active and I hate people who want us to sit back and bide our time until "automation" or the "dialectic" takes flight. Reformism and activism feel very natural to me, but the only things I have seen wake people up in my life are accelerationism at least to the extent that a major sea change in opinion happens. I don't think this is the be all end all either, but I do think it's true that a negative shock to the system would spurn more people into revolutionary action than other methods and ways have shown.
William Parker
Someone said once here that that's not what accelerationism means and everyone in Holla Forums gets it wrong. Unfortunately I don't remember his explanation.
Jace Roberts
You can make meme magic out of every term and harken back to some earlier obscure definition, so it's not surprising. Capitalism is the free market my friend.
Caleb Ortiz
Modern China is the most accelerationist country in the world and their people just accept it.
Joshua Price
China is a very bizarre country that has areas of it where people are relatively more free and well off and are futuristic beyond are wildest dreams and other areas that are sub-gulag tier and across the street is a village that wouldn't look out of place 1000 years ago. There is also a lot of subgroups and internal conflict and other problems that stop it from achieving class conciousness and homogeneity. The biggest problem for them is that the US has the country under constant threat with containment bases and client states surrounding it. They also lack a lot of resources necessary for their large population and need to rely on the comparative advantage and investments of other countries to achieve almost anything economically. Which is true for most countries but far more true for them since their man resource is man power and not something tangible.
