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I'm probably delusional, but
I'm going to say something weird, but I want to try to articulate a suspicion I've been harboring since around this time last year.
I feel like there have been a lot of articles and books and podcasts about how people got blackpilled into what used to be the alt right and is now the mainstream Republican party. For anyone who's been paying attention to American politics since 2016, it's become accepted as common knowledge that a certain intersection of internet subcultures was oddly influential in the rise of the cult of Donald Trump.
At the beginning of this was Gamergate. Gamergate was its own discrete movement, but there were a lot of Less Wrong / Rational Wiki people in the background. Now that Elon Musk has become more of a prominent public figure, I think the Less Wrong connection has become much more apparent.
I learned about this in 2014/15 while reading Nick Bostrom's work for (of all things) an academic paper about the 2012 PS3 game Tokyo Jungle, which is a ludic exploration of human extinction. The Less Wrong / Rational Wiki subculture people, of whom Nick Bostrom was briefly a member, have a distinct way of writing and presenting themselves, and it was easy for me to see that there was a clear overlap between them and Gamergate. Because Peter Thiel has been putting obscene amounts of money into giving the Less Wrong people jobs at actual think tanks that influence public policy, it seems that mainstream journalists are finally starting to report on this subculture and their activities.
Which is good, but I feel like the story that's being told about the political influence of online subcultures is missing major parts of the puzzle.
Namely, having watched all of this unfold online while also learning more than I ever wanted to about QAnon, which is also mainstream politics at this point, I'm starting to get the feeling that the movement toward sexual (and ethnic) purity that began around 2015 in fandom cultures has an uncomfortable number of parallels.
I'll need to develop this more as I begin to consider it seriously, but I'm starting to think that the Proship DNI movement(?) is the other end of the political horseshoe for QAnon.
I feel like there have been a lot of articles and books and podcasts about how people got blackpilled into what used to be the alt right and is now the mainstream Republican party. For anyone who's been paying attention to American politics since 2016, it's become accepted as common knowledge that a certain intersection of internet subcultures was oddly influential in the rise of the cult of Donald Trump.
At the beginning of this was Gamergate. Gamergate was its own discrete movement, but there were a lot of Less Wrong / Rational Wiki people in the background. Now that Elon Musk has become more of a prominent public figure, I think the Less Wrong connection has become much more apparent.
I learned about this in 2014/15 while reading Nick Bostrom's work for (of all things) an academic paper about the 2012 PS3 game Tokyo Jungle, which is a ludic exploration of human extinction. The Less Wrong / Rational Wiki subculture people, of whom Nick Bostrom was briefly a member, have a distinct way of writing and presenting themselves, and it was easy for me to see that there was a clear overlap between them and Gamergate. Because Peter Thiel has been putting obscene amounts of money into giving the Less Wrong people jobs at actual think tanks that influence public policy, it seems that mainstream journalists are finally starting to report on this subculture and their activities.
Which is good, but I feel like the story that's being told about the political influence of online subcultures is missing major parts of the puzzle.
Namely, having watched all of this unfold online while also learning more than I ever wanted to about QAnon, which is also mainstream politics at this point, I'm starting to get the feeling that the movement toward sexual (and ethnic) purity that began around 2015 in fandom cultures has an uncomfortable number of parallels.
I'll need to develop this more as I begin to consider it seriously, but I'm starting to think that the Proship DNI movement(?) is the other end of the political horseshoe for QAnon.
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A few weeks ago, I chatted with some friends about a fic I found that had the tag "Healthy Relationships" and it gave me pause. Bc on the surface, there's nothing wrong with that. Having a healthy relationship is an admirable goal. That said, I never thought to ever tag any of my fics with this. And on the other hand, I couldn't help but get the sense of was used as code to say "nothing problematic ever happens, nothing but wholesome pure vibes", which doesn't sit well with me. And then I read the fic and I realized people on Tumblr weren't joking when they mentioned "fics that read like the characters are trying to get a good grade in therapy".
Anyhow, all this to say that it's extremely concerning and I would not be shocked at all if it does tie in with some alt right fuckery. That's more incentive for me (and all of us, really) to write more fucked up shit. As a treat. If it would please Willem DaFoe's character in Nosferatu, then all the better.
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Omg it's true.
Ellen: Dr. Albin can I talk to you for a second, in private.
Ellen: I have a confession. This is difficult to say, but...
Ellen: I'm going to fuck the vampire.
Willem DaFoe: YAASSSSSS GIRRLL SLAY! I SUPPORT YOU QUEEN! GEDDIT!!
He is precious, and I love him.
It's been crazy to watch as Republican-dominated state legislatures started introducing bills criminalizing "indecent literature" over the past two weeks. Is this where we are now? That it will be illegal to own a copy of Twilight? Jesus wept.
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Damn, past!me never thought they'd be defending Twilight, but boy oh boy I will now if it means stopping or hindering this bullshit! Fuck me it hasn't even been a month yet 😠WE NEED TO OUTLIVE THESE ASS CLOWNS, FRIEND
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I don't spend much time exploring fandom tags on AO3 these days, but I've noticed a recent wave Character/Reader stories since November. Most of these stories are clearly machine-generated text. Regardless, they have tons of kudos and comments and bookmarks.
I'm worried that, precisely because of the fandom purity movement, readers are starting to prefer AI-written stories.
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