The Republican Party's High Tech, Low IQ Crisis
The algorithm is incentivizing the lowest common denominator.
Donald Trump’s response to being indicted on dozens of counts of federal charges this week was to go party and launch a fundraiser.
On the surface and several layers deep, this is delusional behavior. These charges are serious and not another Russia or impeachment-style hoax. Donald Trump lied to his own lawyers and now cannot find adequate replacements for them.
Yet, the indictment serves a political purpose. Trump and his team remembered the polling bump he got from when he was indicted in New York on other charges in April. They believe this second indictment will help in the same way.
Such a belief reveals the depraved state of the Republican Party and the foundation of its problem - the low IQ crisis within its ranks, which is what we will discuss this week.
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Contents
I. Low Life in the Republican Party
II. High Tech’s Negative Impact on Politics
III. The Normal Person’s Predicament
I. Low Life in the Republican Party
High tech, low life is the one abiding theme in cyberpunk. Some stories, like Blade Runner and Armitage III focus most prominently on where the lines between humanity and artificial life forms get blurred. Others, like Bubblegum Crisis and the works of William Gibson like Neuromancer, have a heavy focus on corporate power. Still others, like Minority Report and Psycho-Pass, focus on technology and government totalitarianism. But some kind of high tech, low life pervades everything in the genre.
It is not a stretch to say that under Magadonian rule, the Republican Party has become a cyberpunk dystopia.
At the top of the ladder, presiding over the party sprawl, an increasingly manic and isolated Donald Trump sits in his tower. He benefits from cult-like veneration from a loud minority. He also benefits from the sheer cowardice of other figures in the party who are too afraid to represent the Trump-fatigued majority of the country. They will not lift a finger against him despite his being a paper tiger.
This situation has given rise to a privileged class of apostles and “influencers” whose job is to spread Trump worship on the airwaves and in cyberspace while smothering alternative views.
Case in point, the demands of Charlie Kirk:
Every “Republican” running for President should suspend their campaign and go to Miami as a show of support. If you don’t, you are part of the problem. Either we have an opposition party or we don’t. GO to Miami on Tuesday and show solidarity or we will mark you as part of the opposition.
Fortunately, only one candidate complied (kind of).
Vivek Ramaswamy indeed went to Miami, wore a Truth Social hat, and did an event with Laura Loomer (another of Donald Trump’s most devoted apostles) where he demanded that other candidates sign a pledge with him to pardon Trump if elected.
Ramaswamy, who initially made a small name for himself in politics by talking about the dangers of ESG in corporate America on the cable news circuit, has run his campaign as something of an audition for the dancing clown role in Trump’s court. This demonstration lifted any remaining doubts about his purpose.
But why? Ramaswamy clearly does not have any moral rectitutde, but he isn’t a stupid man. So why would he gleefully show such a lack of integrity? Why eagerly become a dancing clown? Why would someone like him seek such a position?
Unfortunately, the answer is that high tech now incentivizes such low life in the Republican Party.
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II. High Tech’s Negative Impact on Politics
We went over the impact of high technology on contemporary politics in our intro post, so I need not do it again. The impact has been particularly negative on the Republican Party, however.
This is an irony, as the Republican base is comparatively less technologically adept and connected than the Democratic base. Let’s just say that Magadonians usually don’t make up the ranks of tech companies or fill jobs that require high tech know-how. However, it is this lack of social connection and technological competency that makes them more vulnerable to the Magadonian apostle class.
Social media algorithms and cable news ratings incentivize the spread of “System 1” messages as opposed to “System 2.” Daniel Kahneman defined these things, although he is not the source of the quote below:
System 1 Thinking: Our brains’ fast, automatic, unconscious, and emotional response to situations and stimuli. This can be in the form of absentmindedly reading text on a billboard, knowing how to tie your shoelaces without a second thought, or instinctively hopping over a puddle on the sidewalk.
System 2 Thinking: The slow, effortful, and logical mode in which our brains operate when solving more complicated problems. For example, System 2 thinking is used when looking for a friend in a crowd, parking your vehicle in a tight space, or determining the quality-to-value ratio of your take-out lunch.
So when Vivek Ramaswamy volunteers to be the lead clown in a Trump-worshiping circus show, social media algorithms and cable news lineups reward him with attention. It is closer to System 1 thinking.
In contrast, Ron DeSantis’ proposals on actually defanging the so-called “deep state” are closer to System 2 thinking. They do not get as much traction because they require slower thought and therefore spread more slowly.
End result: The demands of worship and submission made by apostles like Charlie Kirk and Laura Loomer get more attention (and therefore, perceived importance) than more careful, longer-term considerations.
In this way, the high tech priestly class dominates the Republican Party’s agenda. Meanwhile, Republican voters who do not command technological power all too eagerly prefer the show made by these “conservative influencers” to actually winning elections. When Ron DeSantis spoke of running to win rather than being a star on social media, this is what he meant.
Since the Republican base is disproportionately low-educated and lacks social connection with the outside world, it finds itself increasingly trapped within the walls of Magadonia, where no other message beyond the elevation of Trump and his grievances can penetrate the information silo. Certain social media “influencers” get rich off the practice that the algorithm rewards them for, while cable news pundits get ratings and Republican politicians either actively assist or surrender rather than assault the fortification around the cult of Trump with contrary information.
In this way, we see the high tech, low life phenomenon in action. High tech “influencers” serve Trump at the top and carry their message to the low life masses in the Magadonian slums beneath them, who do not and refuse to know any better.
Such is the Republican Party under Magadonian rule.
III. The Normal Person’s Predicament
Despite all the ritual and bluster, Magadonia is surrounded and is certain to fall next year. The question is only over who will conquer it.
Will it be some other force on the right - a rebellion that topples the Trump monarchy and his cybernetic apostles and brings new and wiser leadership to the Republican Party for the next phase in the war with Wokeistan?
Or will Magadonia continue to rule the right and lead all those opposed to Wokeistan to total annihilation in a Machine War scenario like that presented in The Second Renaissance from The Animatrix?
The answer to these questions will depend entirely on the Republican base’s collective intelligence and the courage of would-be alternative leaders to actually tell the truth that the Emperor of Magadonia has no clothes and that no matter how much the “influencers” bully others, they cannot hold back the tide of reality.
So far for Republicans, the answers are not encouraging. High technology has incentivized people to try to become Magadonian apostles. It has encouraged fear in those who should know better. Instead of telling the truth, they try to orbit Trump like a servant class, operating in his unreality, believing this will assist them in getting traction in cyberspace and on TV. It has also encouraged the Republican base to retreat into a silo of ignorance about what the outside world really thinks of Trump and his movement in 2023. To them, 2016 was the beginning and endpoint of history. It is almost reminiscient of North Korea.
If the Republican Party does not overcome this predicament, Wokeistan’s final triumph over public and private life is certain. It will use its political trifecta to enact its will, and electoral consequences will not be able to reverse the changes done in the minimum two years that they have it.
But high tech algorithms, low social capital, and low IQ mean that the Republican base is finding this grim future difficult to foresee. It often seems physically incapable of engaging the required “System 2”thought needed to do so.
The consequence will be their doom.
And also the doom of the politically homeless who don’t want a Biden vs. Trump rematch or very much like woke ideology. Once again, they will be the civilian collateral damage of high technology’s drag on politics down to the lowest IQ denominators.
A cyberpunk reality if there ever was one.
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