Gwen Snyder is uncivilDec 17, 2022

Elon is dismantling Twitter.

Thiel killed Gawker, and seems to be behind a lot of the funding of the tankie/dirtbag "left" elements that fractured & gaslit the popular left.

Whatever we do next, the left needs better eyes on these longtermist Silicon Valley dingbats.

Aaron Stewart-AhnDec 17, 2022
Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivil

That's really my takeaway on all of this.

Journalists and antifascists got too good at what we were doing, especially accountability and deplatforming.

Thiel in particular figured this out and set out to destroy journalistic and then antifascist platforms and community.

Dec 17, 2022 at 12:51amWeb
Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivilDec 17, 2022
After six years of antifascist research and left organizing work where most "what the fuck, this came out of nowhere and screwed us" curveballs can be traced back to or at least linked to Thiel, I feel like I have clarity on who is doing this stuff and doing it effectively.
Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivilDec 17, 2022

Bannon and Thiel are the best manipulators of information culture I've ever seen.

Bannon's moment at the top may be over, but Thiel is just as dangerous, in other ways.

Elon's the face of these attacks on journalism right now, but it's pretty obvious that Thiel is the brains.

Show threadIt's Going DownDec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder Has there been anything written documenting Thiel's funding of the dirtbag left?
Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivilDec 17, 2022
@igd_news I haven't seen direct documentation of funding, but his relationship with Red Scare is... interesting.
Show threadTHE SEERDec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder @igd_news i've been paying attention to that podcast... v interesting in their alliances (v obvious bannon influence in my view)
Show threadCatgirl ApocalypseDec 17, 2022
@TheSeeR @gwensnyder @igd_news is red scare the one where one of them became a tradcath or something
Show threadTHE SEERDec 17, 2022
@catgirlapocalypse yep and she is a terrible actor and only remembers to play the part here and there
Show threadTHE SEERDec 17, 2022
@catgirlapocalypse @gwensnyder @igd_news
redscare connection to the documentarist behind Alex's war are pretty telling. The score is by Anna Khachiyan's boyfriend. Docu was heavily promoted by glen greenwald too.
Show threadTHE SEERDec 17, 2022
@catgirlapocalypse @gwensnyder @igd_news
anna Khachiyan laughed off accusations of receiving Thiel's money but pretty unconvincingly. All the connections point to it. While back she was interviewed by Eric Weinstein. I don't think they hit it off. Anyway... I am here to learn more. My theory is that they are part of Thiel's attempt at pushing profiles of cultural influencers
Show threadTHE SEERDec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder @igd_news
the connection between david sachs app callin is part of that too https://twitter.com/PostLeftWatch/status/1542369823207804934
Tweet / Twitter

Twitter
Show threaddaniel s.Dec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder @igd_news y'all see this madness https://www.intomore.com/culture/louis-c-k-dasha-red-scare-might-dating-everyone-freaking/
Louis C.K. and Dasha of "Red Scare" Might Be Dating and Everyone is Freaking Out - INTO

Louis CK and the red scare girl? Ok.

INTO
Show threadmary angela perna✅Dec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder @igd_news this is probably the best article on the dirtbag to fascist pipeline. By alexander Reid-Ross: https://medium.com/@areidross/from-exile-to-dirtbag-edgelord-geopolitics-and-the-rise-of-national-bolshevism-in-the-u-s-84822021b0e8
From Exile to Dirtbag: Edgelord geopolitics and the rise of “National Bolshevism” in the U.S.

“It’s nothing,” he said, sitting next to me on the bed. “A gang tried to beat me up on my way from the Metro.” It happened in a central district of Moscow. And then it happened again two weeks later…

Medium
Show threadHegelian PrincessDec 17, 2022
@igd_news @gwensnyder red scare and the whole dimes square scene but they're not really dirt bag left anymore
Show threadKarl(sad trombone enjoyer)Dec 17, 2022
@igd_news @gwensnyder David sacks and a few others are in the orbit. I’m working on something right now that includes the dirtbag left and the technocrat right.
Show threadBadgerDec 17, 2022

@brainnotonyet @igd_news @gwensnyder

Sacks funded the callin podcast platform which hosts well frankly a whos who of dirtbag left folks

https://newrepublic.com/article/168125/david-sacks-elon-musk-peter-thiel

The Quiet Political Rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s Prophet of Urban Doom

Like his pals Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism.

The New Republic
Show threadSamhain NightDec 17, 2022
@goodbadger @brainnotonyet @igd_news @gwensnyder I haven't heard the term Dirtbag Left before this thread. What's it mean?
Show threadBadgerDec 17, 2022

@samhainnight @brainnotonyet @igd_news @gwensnyder

I think there are different definitions, originally I think it was in reference to a style of ostensibly left wing commentary popular on YouTube and podcasts like Chapo Trap House.

I probably should have been more clear in describing the type of folks I'm talking about because they might fall more on the tankie, culture war, genocide denial, covid conspiracy theory end of things. Jimmy Dore is a good example of someone fitting this descrip.

Show threadSamhain NightDec 17, 2022
@goodbadger Ah! I think I get it. So it’s kind of people
who’ve gone so extreme that they’ve kinda looped back around to conservative.
I think I’ve met the type.
Show threadBadgerDec 17, 2022

@samhainnight thanks for asking for clarification. I can recommend checking out the podcast @therightpodcast and also the podcast called I Don't Speak German co-hosted by @TimesCarcass has done a few episodes on these type folks, in fact I'm realizing they now did a combo episode that covers this topic - https://muckrack.com/podcast/idontspeakgerman/episodes/113-the-peoples-party-etc-with-rob-from-the-right/

Excellent and important work coming from them.

Show threadSamhain NightDec 17, 2022
@goodbadger Thank you!
Show threadThe Right PodcastDec 19, 2022
@samhainnight @goodbadger I’d like to look more into Callin in the future
Show threadtoolbear#🪧Dec 17, 2022

@goodbadger
I don't want to diminish this excellent article while I point out that amazing illustration by Michelle Rohn!

I had that article in an open tab for several days. My eye was always drawn to the thumbnail. I spent minutes studying it once. I lack the artistic vocabulary to describe why I find it so captivating. It's caricature but isn't. It's uncanny valley but isn't. Each portrait unflattering in its own way.

I love it.

I eventually closed the tab to escape it.

Show threadhipopenerDec 18, 2022

@brainnotonyet @igd_news @gwensnyder

On a side note, could you tell me more about who constitutes the technocrat right nowadays?

Show threadKarl(sad trombone enjoyer)Dec 18, 2022
@katiecavanagh @igd_news @gwensnyder musk, thiel, sacks, the longtermism and effective altruism crowd.
Show threadhipopenerDec 18, 2022
@brainnotonyet @igd_news @gwensnyder Ah thanks, I think I may have been using an older definition—this makes more sense.
Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivilDec 18, 2022
@katiecavanagh @brainnotonyet @igd_news I think people are calling them technocrats as a play on words. They definitely aren't technocrats the traditional sense.
Show threadKarl(sad trombone enjoyer)Dec 18, 2022
@gwensnyder @katiecavanagh @igd_news they are the same as the techno crats around putin and Orban. It’s all just flavors of technocratic fascism.
Show threadhipopenerDec 18, 2022
@gwensnyder @brainnotonyet @igd_news Really that should have been obvious to me but 
Show threaddaveDec 17, 2022
@igd_news @gwensnyder it's more people that were apparently left and now call themselves post-left.

https://washingtonbabylon.com/which-side-are-you-on-the-answer-is-clear-for-todays-useful-idiots-for-the-right/
Which Side Are You On? The Answer is Clear for Today's Useful Idiots for the Right - Washington Babylon

[Note: This is the second part of a weeklong series. Read Part I here.] In 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, was a viable candidate for the presidency of the United States. In a country where the left was systematically persecuted and whose intelligence services systematically persecute it abroad, such a development […]

Washington Babylon
Show threadParanoid FactoidDec 17, 2022

@gwensnyder

Did you read Chris Wylie's book Mindf*ck? This was about Cambridge Analytica.

Great story in there how he and Bannon found people who just didn't fit into their personality type models. For example, a Christian conservative woman who was into Yoga and also believed in New Age spirituality. So Wylie went and met her just to see if she was for real.

Then, they used Kimberle Crenshaw's intersectionality theory to categorize the woman for targeted political ads.

Show threadZorro Notorious MEB 😡Dec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder Yep ... brains and cash. Their plan is to weaponize Twitter, not destroy it.
Show threadSpongefileDec 17, 2022

@gwensnyder one additional shitty thing about Thiel is he stoked political flames in the US and then bought himself a chunk of land and citizenship in New Zealand.

Which allows him to stir up shit from afar with zero direct consequences.

Show threadGwen Snyder is uncivilDec 17, 2022

@spongefile oh I think about this ALL the time.

His plan is to burn this place down and watch the fire from overseas.

Show threadsquarepeigDec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else saying this before but that has been my working assumption for a while now - Moldbug playbook, Musk as frontman, but Thiel as the ultimate puppet master and beneficiary. Imagine thinking Musk is the cool and charismatic one they’ll put out front as a pied piper for the plebs, though.
Show threadmary angela perna✅Dec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder I study and watch bannon’s show daily & have since its inception. Know the circle around him. He’s a major driver in the fascist horror and disinformation we’re experiencing
Show threadZorro Notorious MEB 😡Dec 17, 2022
@gwensnyder Thiel hasn't been particularly quiet about it either - he's proud of his destructive power.