Observe men working in tech rationalise and defend their decisions to support and fund the far-right and fascists.
The first announced he wanted to reconnect his blogging service to X. Bad enough, worse when you consider this involves paying X a fee.
The second — a respected tech company’s co-owner — bankrolls Sweden’s far-right Örebro political party.
Manton Reece on setting up micro.blog to syndicate to X:
…every major social platform asks users to trust how it uses their data and the decisions of the company’s leadership… X’s leadership is also erratic and divisive.
The Mullvad “community” — I’m willing to bet this is actually Fredrik Strömberg, the other of the company’s two shareholders — on co-founder Daniel Bertsson bankrolling the Örebro Party:
…We would like to address the recent controversy about one of the owners of Mullvad making a donation to a Swedish political party… We have nurtured a culture of radical tolerance… Some will say and do things using Mullvad that others think are despicable.
What these statements share is an unwillingness to name things.
Firstly, Manton has an aversion to naming Elon Musk himself, instead hiding him behind the term “leadership”. This is a peculiar choice as it implies plurality at X, and I think that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Elon Musk is a fascist. He seig heils and funds the UK’s most infamous fascist agitator, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who goes by the false name of Tommy Robinson).
How does Manton characterise the X “leadership”’s behavour?
“Erratic” and “divisive”. Not racist, not dangerous, not fascist.
Similarly, Fredrik Strömberg won’t name the Örebro Party, or even outline its policies. It’s just a(nother) “Swedish political party” that says and does things that others think are despicable.
Again, the objection seems to be on the grounds of upsetting people, rather than, say, advocating the mass deportation of swathes of the Swedish population.
Clearly, not naming fascists or even avoiding the less direct term “far-right” allows Manton and Fredrick to play down the effects their decisions have on the real world. You couldn’t in good conscience say you were planning to wire your service up to X if…
…X asks users to trust how it uses their data and the decisions of Elon Musk… Elon Musk is a dangerous fascist who materially supports the violent leaders of the UK’s far-right.
But there’s also a fundamental tech perspective at play here. In the tech world, its high priests exist free from all bothersome real world problems, the grubiness of things like fascism. Instead, like English colonisers, they can only be guilty of irrationality, a sort of bad form. Not the done thing to needlessly upset the masses, or make a show, it’s just not cricket.