Tag: Cultural Cold War

Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Since the election of Donald Trump, a growing body of research has examined the role of digital technologies in new right wing movements (Lewis 2018; Hawley 2017; Neiwert 2017; Nagle 2017). This article will explore a distinct, but related, subject: new right wing tendencies within the tech industry itself. Our point of entry will be an improbable document: a German language dissertation submitted by an American to the faculty of social sciences at J. W. Goethe University of Frankfurt in 2002. Entitled Aggression in the Life-World, the dissertation aims to describe the role that aggression plays in social integration, or the set of processes that lead individuals in a given society to feel bound to one another. To that end, it offers a “systematic” reinterpretation of Theodor Adorno’s Jargon of Authenticity (1973). It is of interest primarily because of its author: Alexander C. Karp.

Moira Weigel — Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

Related:

Read More »

Is the US embassy in China recruiting ‘traitors’?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Is the US embassy in China recruiting ‘traitors’?

Of course they are: Origins of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1949-1950

Give me a hundred million dollars and a thousand dedicated people, and I will guarantee to generate such a wave of democratic unrest among the masses–yes, even among the soldiers–of Stalin’s own empire, that all his problems for a long period of time to come will be internal. I can find the people.

Sidney Hook, 1949

Related:

Congress’s fixation with China’s ‘malign influence’ undermines Americans’ civil liberties and security

Section 136, which also is not included in the McCaul bill, would authorize appropriations totaling $500 million over FY22-26 not only to support U.S. state media such as Radio Free Asia, but also to fund training for “local media” and “independent media,” in efforts to “combat Chinese disinformation.” Funds would target coverage aimed at discrediting Chinese activities such as the Belt and Road Initiative.