There's a small chance I could have ended up like one of the fashy STEM dudes. If things had broken differently when I was at Caltech, there's some chance I could have become captive to the starchy (and racist) science-nerd culture that flourished there. Good thing I was such a terrible student, huh? 😬

That was so long ago, and I've done and seen so much else in the meantime, that it's now quite difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to look up at Elon Musk and think, genuinely, that this is a great hero of science and engineering, a man who will take mankind to the stars. Even if most of his fandom sticks to Musk for cynical reasons—to enrich themselves in the wake of Musk's fame, for social posturing, or because they're into Musk's fascist politics—in some of them anyway there's a spark of genuine hope. They really want to believe in flying TSLA cars that pilot themselves, and SpaceX-branded Martian palaces.

I stopped believing in that stuff ever so long ago.

we've had a very uncomfortable and rocky road on the way to the sense of identity we now have. we weren't even aware that we were trans or plural before we happened to find ourselves suddenly among otherkin friends, partly thanks to a torrid love affair that I...don't feel equal to talking about in more detail right now. we rebounded hard from that experience into an awkwardly renewed determination to be the best possible human being(s) we could figure out how to be.

I suppose I was myself reminded of past collisions with reality. my RL mother despaired at my extreme tendency to flightiness and fantasizing, because she (and my older sibling) were so much more serious than I could make myself be, and they were better educated on serious matters. after the events of 2016-17 I suppose I felt like I'd forgotten the better half of my family heritage while I was getting lost in sensual pleasures and lotos-eating daydreams. I'd forgotten that there was a world in danger all round me.

so we wanted to be human—but only a video-game human would do, as it turned out. only that made sense. or so it seemed.

(shrugs) it's a bit too late to turn back now, isn't it?

~Chara of Pnictogen

Just me and a couple very normal people here, having some normal political discourse ~Chara

I don't want to jinx anything or talk too soon, but I have a feeling that the 2024 election isn't likely to go well for the Republican Party, and when that happens, they're going to want some revenge. That's bound to take a multitude of forms, but in particular...I think they might blame the Internet for their problems.

Corporate social media have become vital to the U.S. right-wing propaganda machine—perhaps TOO vital, in fact. The fashy techlords became intoxicated with the power they thought they had. Elon Musk, especially, really seemed to start thinking himself (just like all his fans, whom he closely resembles) that Xitter had become the news cycle. The overconfidence of the Silicon Valley execs can be seen in their influence over J. D. Vance, the deeply unpleasant and profoundly unpopular Republican candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 2024. (For now.) Only Christian extremists and technology CEOs seem to love Vance and now his selection has backfired spectacularly. Vance has become symbolic of everything that the people hate about right-wing entrepreneurial culture.

We're still more than three months out from the Fifth of November but I think the damage has been done—at the very least, the GOP can't any longer believe that they're masters of viral Internet marketing who can use the power of technology to make anyone believe in anything, however repulsive. Once that realization sinks in, will they attempt to claim a consolation prize by trying to wreck the Internet for everyone? I have a feeling they'll be blaming the Internet for betraying them and possibly demanding the head of Elon Musk, who is already attempting to find some sort of middle ground between his X fandom and the Trump fandom...I can't imagine that's likely to end well.

~Chara of Pnictogen