Part of what they’re trying to do is divert attention away from the deteriorating economic conditions, like most ruling-class psyops seek to accomplish; the psyop’s other main purpose, though, is to save capitalism from being unraveled by these technologies. Because if AI becomes advanced enough, the logical conclusion is for capitalism to no longer be workable, and for the system to collapse.
I don’t mean this in the sense of the technocratic dogma, which posits a kind of “evolutionary socialist” viewpoint where we’ll automatically transition to the next productive stage. This transformation can only happen through an actual working-class revolution, which will require combating the passive reformism of today’s prevailing “socialist” politics.
It’s this politics, embodied by the same DSA camp that propagates anti-AI demagoguery, which Lenin repudiated in his clarification of what a workers party should do: “The basic role of the party, the first commandment of every trade union movement should be: ‘Do not rely upon the state,’ rely only upon the power of your class. The state is an organization of the class in power. Do not rely upon promises, rely upon the power of union and upon the consciousness of your class.” We need to prevent the workers struggle from being recaptured by the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party, which has now directly teamed up with the right-wing movement’s Bannonite wing in demonizing AI.
These reformists point to Trump’s pro-AI stance as supposed proof that they’re taking a dissident position. But the conflict between them and Trump is over how best to preserve capital; there is no good side in this fight. What’s happening is a rift within our ruling class on AI, one that’s going to bring inter-elite conflicts in which the people will be the main casualties. This is what we must prepare the political struggle for as we see AI reshape the alliances inside bourgeois politics, and accelerate the outmoding of the old economic arrangement. The different wings of our enemies are sensing the urgency of their situation, and scrambling to crush all of the forces challenging them.
We have an unprecedented opportunity to make gains in the class war, if we can withstand the next blows from the repressive apparatus. This will require the building of collectives, on a local level, that have mastered secret work and can fall back on an underground structure. This is the lesson we should take from these ominous recent behaviors from our foes: it’s time to redouble our projects at building dual power, and at fortifying this power against scenarios of extreme repression.
A sign of how close we are to a major crackdown is that Sanders and Bannon are now working together on combating AI. Communists have long been anticipating a development like this; the entire history of class war in the modern age shows that social democrats will side with the fascists when confronted with an existential threat to the bourgeois order. Stalin pointed out how the fascists wouldn’t be able to gain power without the assistance of the bourgeois reformist “socialists”:
Fascism is not only a military-technical category. Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism. There is no ground for assuming that the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of Social-Democracy. There is just as little ground for thinking that Social-Democracy can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie. These organisations do not negate, but supplement each other. They are not antipodes, they are twins. Fascism is an informal political bloc of these two chief organisations; a bloc, which arose in the circumstances of the post-war crisis of imperialism, and which is intended for combating the proletarian revolution. The bourgeoisie cannot retain power without such a bloc. It would therefore be a mistake to think that “pacifism” signifies the liquidation of fascism. In the present situation, “pacifism” is the strengthening of fascism with its moderate, Social-Democratic wing pushed into the forefront.
Because right now we’re in a phase where the imperialists are ramping up their wars, the socdems are pushing not for pacifism but for escalation. Restricting China’s AI advancements is the primary motivator behind what Sanders is doing, consistent with how the Democratic Party has been pushing the hardest for Trump to refocus around combating China. But the pro-AI wing that Trump represents is increasingly in conflict with the socdem-right wing alliance, both on geopolitical strategy and on how to wage the class war.
The socdems want to stop AI because they’re a movement of petty-bourgeois professionals whose careers are threatened by civilizational progress. This reactionary impulse aligns with the view of George Soros on how best to combat China, which is the main reason behind why Soros has put Open Society’s money machine behind the Zohran movement. It’s also why Bannon has partnered with the socdems. The Trump wing’s unreserved embrace of AI comes from the Peter Thiel accelerationist philosophy, which seeks to dismantle the bulk of the professional fields—as well as plunge the bulk of the people into deep poverty—while AI lets the ruling class clamp down through advanced repression.
Which side will win out? At this point, it’s looking like the Thiel wing will lose, but not without inter-elite rivalries escalating to the point of civil war. The two main factions in this conflict will carry out ever-greater provocations, potentially using cyberattacks, assassinations, or fed-orchestrated riots to destabilize their opponents. We’ve been in the era of hybrid warfare for a long time now, and this applies to the fights that the different capitalists have between each other. There is real potential for us to use these conflicts to our advantage, and make the working-class side win out as the bourgeoisie are focused on inter-elite battles. But this can only happen if we, as organizers, redirect more of our own focus towards actually building the structures the workers will need to win.
Talking about psyops and inter-elite conflicts is necessary, but should be secondary to putting in the practical work. As more people become burnt out from these hysterical narratives on AI, and come to the realization that our class enemies are scrambling, this is the primary message we need to bring to them.
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