Tech Fascism, American Dynamism, the longed-for war with China

Venture capitalists have declared war on China. War with China is the explicit goal and desire of tech fascism. It is one of the absolutely most critical points, because this new breed of war mongering and imperialism could bring us to world war, and we are now on that path. Not today, not tomorrow, but 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, even 30, this trajectory, if left unchecked, will take us straight there.

Fascists who have couped America are now working overtime to turn its head and fashion its industries towards great power war. This is a key part of fascism, the turning of the industrial capability towards the war machine, war as the propulsion of financial activity, as the transformative force, the way of achieving the destiny of the fascist state… in this case, the Network State.

They are doing this by creating and manufacturing a existential threat and national security emergency. Much of the marketing done by tech fascists about AI has to do, not with some intangible and metaphysical push towards a tech religion as is being irresponsibly forwarded by a number of critics, but with the material push towards all-out militarization in pursuit of China. (Also, they all enjoy cosplaying as Steve Jobs).

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the central figure of tech fascism and its engine, has published yet another in its many-year campaign against China, this time, “Republic Reforged: Democracy and American Dynamism in a New Era of Conflict”. American Dynamism is a16z’s political platform, developed several years in advance of the 2024 election, and we now see this political platform roll out across the highest levels of government, as venture capitalists serve as policy makers in the highest ranks, including key positions in the executive and the military.

To the point of fascism emerging from a crisis of capitalism, the latest text makes a stunning admission: “China currently leads the United States in ‘37 out of 44’ critical technologies, from 5G to electric batteries.”

Capitalists will often tell you the truth with the same mouth that lies to you, shitting where they eat. In this case, we see that venture capital is getting their asses beat, that they have failed to compete with communism, that they are weak and desperate, as the monopolization of the tech industry and venture capital under capitalism is inexorably destroying them.

This is motivating their turn to fascism. Here, the call for a profoundly tighter coupling of the government and industry… primarily for the purposes of venture capitalists getting a large infusion of cash for their political and infrastructure projects, to subject the government and people to its agenda, and gain control of the military apparatus.

We see this dynamic throughout the conspiracy. A proposed Network State site in California which oh so helpfully drafted an executive order to seize the land based on the China threat, stating “A national emergency exists with respect to domestic capacity for next-generation compute paradigms, autonomous humanoid and swarm robotics, next-generation energy paradigms, quantum computing, AI-driven advanced manufacturing, strategic advanced materials, and other critical technologies essential to maintaining technological superiority. All executive departments and agencies shall act consistent with this order to remove delay.”

.. OpenAI basically serving as one big marketing op against China and pumping out a steady beat of existential terror that has been unrelenting for years… the Network State taking up residence in Palau, a strategic military site wrt China… to venture capitalist’s compromising the US military with a blood lust on their lips, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on new-age weapons destined for China.

Let’s walk through some of the points from a16z.

Our rival great power is the People’s Republic of China and, to a lesser extent, its chief authoritarian allies. China’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, has openly stated that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) goal is the end of U.S. primacy and the creation of a new authoritarian-friendly world order with Beijing at its center. As an authoritarian ruler, Xi has marshaled all aspects of national power to achieve this singular purpose. When great powers compete, military might is a necessary but alone insufficient means to prevail. All other aspects of national power — including corporations and other market actors — must be harnessed to this singular purpose. China understands this foundational concept and has for decades incorporated it into their grand strategy. Rather than profits, their companies’ “primary goal is to capture market share and thereby damage advanced economies and pave the way for China to become the world’s pre-eminent superpower.”

In economic warfare, the CCP sees bankrupting an American company as equivalent to destroying a military installation, and collapsing an entire U.S. industry the same as winning a military campaign. The sharpest edge of this campaign is the deployment of China’s national champions like Huawei, ZPMC, and BYD. Like all Chinese companies, state owned or otherwise, they are subject to CCP control. Chinese law mandates cooperation with state security services, while internal Communist Party cells ensure compliance. Defiant executives risk severe consequences, including disappearance. These firms are charged with displacing competitors in every major market. To that end, they receive the full backing of the Chinese state — from subsidies to cyberespionage and lawfare — which in turn allow the companies to engage in predatory pricing, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, and economic coercion... Over the past three decades, American businesses have learned a hard truth: no company can stand against a superpower. When Beijing targets a corporation or industry, the U.S. private sector alone cannot match its scale, staying power, or strategic patience. The result is predictable — market share erodes, capital dries up, and, eventually, a Chinese national champion takes its place.

… in moments of existential danger, free enterprise and government must function symbiotically. What the government requires of industry is a commitment to a shared mission: a recognition that enduring profit depends on America not only surviving but thriving. What industry requires of government is an alignment of incentives so that those who share this mission at least have an opportunity for greater profit than those who do not. Both must remain vigilant against corruption and self-dealing…. During the Space Race, Washington harnessed the full power of government, industry, and academia to surpass Soviet capabilities. The result was not just a moon landing, but a wave of innovation that secured American technological leadership. In each case, the United States triumphed not by dividing capitalism from democracy, but by aligning both toward a common cause.

This argument amounts to: China is authoritarian and thus we must be authoritarian. I don’t accept any part of this logic. It is telling that there is no acknowledgement of the United State’s behavior towards China, either in military action over the decades, interference in China’s affairs, CIA activity and espionage, the trade wars, the closing off of collaboration and exchange between the two peoples, the creation of toxic tensions between US and China in the technology field, the exploitation of Chinese labor and manufacturing.

Venture capital is engaging in acts of escalation that have no place in the delicate matter of relations between super powers. They want us to return to a time of extreme global tension like the disastrous Cold War era, and glorify these standoffs as the recipe to technological development, no matter what the cost. Because they don’t care about killing people. Their participation and profiteering in the genocide of Palestinians proves this beyond a reasonable doubt.

Something that I think about a lot is that China definitely knows this is going on. They are seeing a new age of war mongering emerge from the United States and are watching the government, the industry, the war machine, the technological development adopt a new extremism, backed by a massive funding of weapons startups specifically designed for war with China. This is a recipe for disaster.

The a16z post lays out steps:

America must rebuild its industrial base by investing strategically in sectors vital to national power and prosperity…. Second, the United States must defend its markets from predatory practices by rival powers… the United States must reintroduce market principles into its defense industrial base… the United States must adopt a diplomatic strategy that reinforces alignment of capitalism and democracy abroad…. we must understand that, far from being an aberration, collaboration between democracy and capitalism in pursuit of national objectives is deeply embedded in the American tradition…. Periods of national peril demand virtuous coordination between the stewards of state and industry…. Our history shows that when capitalism and democracy work in concert, America achieves extraordinary feats. It is time to do so again, summoning the full strength of a united republic to meet the defining challenges of our time

It is interesting of course to see venture capital’s coup of America be portrayed — by them — as a glorious collaboration for the benefit of America, when it is really, a bail-out for a crisis of capitalism in venture capital that is so severe that only fascism and world war can save them.

The causes of why China is outcompeting United States venture capitalists are many. Capitalism sucks ass, for one. The venture capitalists contented themselves for way too long on the cheap easy money of e-commerce and social media. They were greedy and stupid and lazy and cheap. They formed cartels that cut out reasonable competition OR collaboration. Their talent pool is incestuous and increasingly deranged by ideological radicalization. The corruption and cronyism in tech is so severe that it strangles innovation. Venture capitalists colluded against open source, they colluded against an independent tech industry, they treated huge numbers of people in the field like shit, raped all the women, conspired to fix pay and suppress worker organization, sheltered themselves and their companies from critique, built technologies for decades that exploited their users, made everyone hate Silicon Valley for it, committed human rights abuses, surveillance and stifled global progressive moments, gave children eating disorders and subjected them to pedophiles. They have been unrepentant racists, they have destroyed cities and communities, housing markets, schools and technological education. The only place for them to find the cause is in the mirror.

But instead they look to China.

It is essential for particularly Americans to work to counter the steady beat towards World War III, by pushing back against venture capital aggression, by educating themselves on China and its people, recognizing that they are not our enemies, and that we shouldn’t let fascists tell us how to think or what to do. We cannot fall for the self-serving war mongering of the tech elite. We should push for technological collaboration globally, and work to de-escalate tension between these nations, to spread a new era of peace and not one of world war.

World War III is not here yet but it is on the horizon, and venture capitalists are pushing us there. The Italian fascists had their wars, the Nazis as well. And the new fascists have picked their war too, and they are telling us their plans for it, doing so openly. Now is the time to intervene.