Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

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

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MO Republicans reenact Fahrenheit 451 [with cardboard boxes]

MO State Senators Eigel (R) and Schroer (R) burned the “liberal agenda” with flamethrowers in effigy this weekend. Today, Eigel, who is running for governor, vowed to burn books: “Those woke pornographic books … I’ll burn those too – on the front lawn of the gov’s mansion.”

These Republicans weren’t burning books with their flamethrowers

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GOP lawmakers hold symbolic book burning with flamethrowers

Senators Warren & Graham Want To Create New Online Speech Police Commission

The regulation will continue until internet freedom improves, apparently. Last year we wrote about Senator Michael Bennet pushing a terrible “Digital Platform Commission” to be the new internet speech police, and now we have the bipartisan free speech hating duo of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham with their proposal for a Digital Consumer Protection Commission.

Senators Warren & Graham Want To Create New Online Speech Police Commission

‘Judy Blume Forever’ directors say the beloved author is ‘furious’ about book banning

Judy Blume threw the gauntlet down earlier this year when she declared Kelly Fremon Craig’s upcoming film version of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to be better than her seminal 1970 novel that’s been a must-read for multiple generations of teenagers. And filmmakers Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok can confirm that the author’s reaction is 100% genuine. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival — where their new documentary, Judy Blume Forever, had its world premiere — the directors reveal that they were in the audience the first time Craig screened the film for Blume, now 84.

‘Judy Blume Forever’ directors say the beloved author is ‘furious’ about book banning