Cyberlibertarians' Digital Deletion of the Left

[Alex Payne]

This is maybe more along the lines of “political philosophy in a time of software”, but I found it a provocative read: http://jacobinmag.com/2013/12/cyberlibertarians-digital-deletion-of-the-left/ 

Excerpt: 

“Open” and “free” are used as marketing labels that, once attached to one way of looking at a problem, serve to shut down substantive debate: once one side of the debate is labeled “open” or “free,” both corporatist and leftist thinkers tend to presume that that side must be the hospitable one. “Innovation” and “efficiency,” especially when used outside of directly economic contexts, function in a different way: leftist thinkers appear to take them to point vaguely to some form of political vanguardism, while rightist thinkers hear in them assurance that their main goals, the accumulation of wealth and power, can continue unabated. 

[Peat Bakke]

Not to resort to the same kind of breathless hyperbole as the author, but this article is an unfocused orgy of name dropping and cherry picked assertions that strain credulity for anyone who's actually had discussions with groups like the EFF, Code for America, etc about their mission, purpose, and activities.

Sure, there are quite a few Internet Utopians with grand and unrealistic ideals -- but they're all over the political map, left and right. The lack of nuance or attention span in that article is a distinct disservice to whatever points he's trying to make.

</cranky>

--

Peat Bakke

503.701.4135

@peat

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Philosophy in a time of Software" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to philosophy-in-a-time-o...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.