It seems to me that you’re misstating the article and zooming off on a rant. The author’s main thesis I parsed as “hey, we seem to be shifting towards very religious or pseduo-religious behavior in tech…maybe we should double-check that?”.
Also, as a point of order:
1000 times more right-wing terrorism in the West
Citation needed. In the 60s and 70s there was vastly more lefty terrorism.
Your source talks about all of the left-wing terrorism of the 60’s and 70’s and fails to mention the incredibly common anti-black and anti-left terrorism prevalent during that time (so common as to be simply ignored: how many burning crosses do you think there were in the 1960’s? How many black men were beaten by white mobs only to have no one found guilty?) 33 prominent civil rights leaders were murdered between 1960 and 1968 alone, and countless more were terrorized with burning crosses, bricks through windows, arson, and so on.
This is, of course, terrible. But to say this is dwarfed by the suffering and death caused by left-wing extremism in the 1960s would be a gross understatement. Perhaps you have forgotten what your country was fighting a war over at the time?
I also think you’ve misinterpreted the author as some kind of apologist for right-wing extremism. As I hinted to earlier, it’s unlikely Wittens is sympathetic toward any proponent of any right-wing ideology given that he is a gay man. Let’s not forget that to criticise left-wing extremism does not make one politically right-wing.
The point I believe the author is driving at, is that while the tech industry rightly rejects some forms of dangerous ideology, the industry seems to give a pass to other forms of dangerous ideology; proponents of which we have on this very forum.
I remain hopeful that I don’t have to fill in the gaps further.
I thought this was a really well-written, restrained, sincere article. I think everybody should read it and reflect on it.
That said, it is explicitly political in nature, and so I kinda feel compelled to flag it off-topic.
Pro: He’s right about the secular priesthood forming around our own bullshit.
Con: Dude is clearly a culture warrior of one stripe or another. The message is only going to get through to people on the same wavelength.
[Comment removed by author]
It seems to me that you’re misstating the article and zooming off on a rant. The author’s main thesis I parsed as “hey, we seem to be shifting towards very religious or pseduo-religious behavior in tech…maybe we should double-check that?”.
Also, as a point of order:
Citation needed. In the 60s and 70s there was vastly more lefty terrorism.
[Comment removed by author]
This is, of course, terrible. But to say this is dwarfed by the suffering and death caused by left-wing extremism in the 1960s would be a gross understatement. Perhaps you have forgotten what your country was fighting a war over at the time?
I also think you’ve misinterpreted the author as some kind of apologist for right-wing extremism. As I hinted to earlier, it’s unlikely Wittens is sympathetic toward any proponent of any right-wing ideology given that he is a gay man. Let’s not forget that to criticise left-wing extremism does not make one politically right-wing.
The point I believe the author is driving at, is that while the tech industry rightly rejects some forms of dangerous ideology, the industry seems to give a pass to other forms of dangerous ideology; proponents of which we have on this very forum.
I remain hopeful that I don’t have to fill in the gaps further.
[Comment removed by author]