Towards techno-fascism

Italian Futurism was an art movement led by the charismatic poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. It was known for futurists’ love for disruption.

- BY ASH NARAIN ROY

It rejected the past and celebrated speed. The movement called for the destruction of museums, libraries and feminism. It became associated with fascism. Marinetti’s Futurist Political Party was actually absorbed into Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party. The big tech industry and the Silicon Valley moguls are ushering in techno-fascism which stands for conformity in thought and values and loss of historical memory.

They also harbour a patriarchal outlook which is reminiscent of the early celebrants of Eurofascism from the 1930s. What is worrying is how technology, today, is being treated with messianic reverence. And big-tech czars have become natural allies of authoritarian leaders. The Silicon Valley moguls, traditionally perceived as liberal strongholds, have surged into MAGA's orbit. American journalist Michael Malone invented the term “techno-fascism”.

He warned in the 1990s, “forget digital utopia. We could be headed for technofascism.” Variously described as “Silicon Valley techno-libertarians”,

They believe Trump is an agent who will reverse American decline. After 100 days of Trump’s second stint in power, Americans have begun to realise that they are in the belly of the beast. A world in which eccentric billionaires control their public spheres is a very dangerous world to live in. The left criticizes the big tech bros as ‘alt-right’ who are bent on undoing the efforts of egalitarian liberal humanism. Some see then as a version of what Karl Polanyi called the “double movement.” Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, 1Q and the Capitalism of the Far Right, describes the conservative movement as “new fusionism”.