(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Accelerationism: Why You Need to Know About It [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-18
Accelerationism: Why You Need to Know About It
In recent years, a once-obscure philosophical movement has started casting a long and sometimes sinister shadow over global politics, technology, and governance. Known as accelerationism, this ideology has found its way from academic seminars and cyberpunk forums into the minds of Silicon Valley technocrats, transhumanist thinkers, and even certain factions within the Trump administration.
If you’ve noticed the increasing speed of technological disruption, the erosion of democratic norms, and political movements that seem to thrive on chaos and breakdown rather than consensus and stability, then you’ve seen the effects—direct or indirect—of accelerationist thinking.
Accelerationism: The Basic Idea
At its core, accelerationism is the belief that the best way to change society isn’t by slowing down or resisting harmful systems (like capitalism or liberal democracy), but by speeding them up to their limits—thereby exposing their contradictions and ultimately breaking them apart. To an accelerationist, trying to restrain or reform capitalism is futile. Instead, they argue, we should amplify it to such a degree that it implodes, or evolves into something entirely new.
This approach turns traditional political logic on its head. Instead of resisting dangerous trends, accelerationists push for them to intensify. They view crisis not as something to be avoided but as a necessary engine of transformation.
Accelerationism Today: Technocrats and Trumpists
Among certain Silicon Valley elites, accelerationist ideas have taken hold in the form of techno-optimism and libertarian futurism. Elon Musk’s dreams of AI-run societies, brain-machine interfaces, and interplanetary colonization all share an implicit assumption: the faster we move into the future, the better. Venture capital firms often invest in technologies that destabilize existing markets and social arrangements—not despite the disruption, but because of it.
Accelerationist logic also lurks in the actions of the contemporary far-right. In his second term campaign and through allies in think tanks and Plan 2025, Donald Trump has embraced strategies that appear designed to accelerate institutional collapse. These include undermining the rule of law, dismantling the federal bureaucracy, and using militarized force against domestic dissent. His administration's posture isn’t just authoritarian; it also reflects an accelerationist impulse to destroy the "deep state" and rebuild society from the ashes, on new ideological lines.
Accelerationism in the Trump Administration
The influence of accelerationist thinking in the Trump administration can be observed in several key policies and strategic behaviors:
Deregulation Blitz : By removing constraints on industries ranging from energy to finance, the administration hoped to unleash economic forces without regard for long-term sustainability or oversight. The underlying logic mirrored right-accelerationist thought—let capitalism rip through every barrier, regardless of the fallout.
Deconstruction of the Administrative State : Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon famously called for the destruction of the federal bureaucracy. This strategy aligns with neoreactionary goals of undermining democratic governance structures and accelerating institutional decay to clear the path for authoritarian alternatives.
Militarization of Domestic Policy : The deployment of federal agents to suppress protests and intimidate political opposition—most notably during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests—reflected an accelerationist tendency to provoke crisis and conflict in order to justify further centralization of power.
Information Warfare and Chaos Tactics: The Trump White House often embraced contradictory messaging, conspiracy amplification, and institutional discrediting not as failures of coherence but as deliberate methods of destabilization. By undermining public trust in elections, the press, and the judiciary, the administration advanced a politics of disruption and entropy.
These examples illustrate how accelerationism is not just a fringe theory but a practical, if dangerous, guidebook for a certain strand of radical governance. The danger lies in how it exploits legitimate frustrations with bureaucracy and inequality, only to channel that frustration into dismantling the very mechanisms that might produce equitable reform.
Related Currents: Dark Enlightenment and Neoreaction
Accelerationism often operates under different names or in parallel with other radical ideologies. One of the most prominent related movements is the Dark Enlightenment, a term coined by British philosopher Nick Land. The Dark Enlightenment is a form of right-wing, anti-democratic theory that claims the Enlightenment principles of egalitarianism and liberal democracy have failed. It calls for a return to hierarchical, authoritarian rule—often in the form of corporate governance, monarchy, or technocracy.
Neoreactionary (NRx) thinkers like Curtis Yarvin (a.k.a. Mencius Moldbug) share this view, advocating for the replacement of democratic governance with CEO-style or monarchic leadership. While not all Dark Enlightenment or NRx thinkers identify as accelerationists, their strategies often overlap—particularly the desire to speed up the decline of liberal systems to enable something new and stronger to take their place.
What distinguishes Dark Enlightenment from mainstream accelerationism is its explicit embrace of political hierarchy, traditionalism, and even ethno-nationalism in some circles. Accelerationism, especially in its left or unconditional variants, may embrace chaos or post-human futures, but it is not inherently nostalgic or monarchist. In contrast, the Dark Enlightenment views the past—particularly pre-modern or feudal societies—as a model to return to, albeit via high-tech means.
The Four Faces of Accelerationism
Accelerationism is not a single ideology. It has multiple branches, ranging from techno-utopian to techno-fascist. Here’s a look at the four primary types:
1. Left Accelerationism
Goal: Use capitalism’s technological infrastructure (AI, automation, networks) to transition into a post-capitalist, egalitarian society.
Key Thinkers: Nick Srnicek, Alex Williams, Antonio Negri
Main Ideas: In books like Inventing the Future, left accelerationists argue that we should harness automation and digital technologies to reduce the need for human labor, expand social freedom, and move toward a universal basic income and post-scarcity economy. Their vision is not about chaos but about steering the momentum of capitalism toward collective emancipation.
Criticism: Critics argue this is a naïve techno-utopianism that overestimates control over global capital and underestimates political resistance.
2. Right Accelerationism
Goal: Push liberal democratic capitalism to its breaking point in order to make way for a new authoritarian or hierarchical order.
Key Thinkers: Nick Land, Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug)
Main Ideas: Right accelerationists are anti-egalitarian. They often argue that liberal democracy has outlived its usefulness and that accelerating capitalism will reveal the need for a return to monarchic or CEO-style rule. Nick Land, a British philosopher, famously proclaimed: "Democracy is cancer."
Connection to Trump: Curtis Yarvin’s ideas have influenced Peter Thiel and members of Trump’s inner ideological circle. Trump’s attacks on democratic norms often reflect this style of collapse-and-rebuild logic.
3. Unconditional Accelerationism (U/Acc)
Goal: Let the process unfold without imposing political aims; embrace runaway systems.
Key Thinkers: Post-CCRU Nick Land, anonymous theorists
Main Ideas: U/Acc treats acceleration as a process that can’t and shouldn’t be steered by humans. They accept the rise of artificial intelligence, global capitalism, and ecological disruption as unstoppable forces. For them, the future is unknowable and posthuman—beyond human comprehension and control.
Criticism: Critics argue this is nihilism disguised as philosophy, abdicating moral and political responsibility.
4. Extremist or White Nationalist Accelerationism
Goal: Bring about societal collapse through terrorism and chaos to usher in a new racial order.
Key Thinkers/Groups: James Mason (Siege), Atomwaffen Division, The Base
Main Ideas: This form of accelerationism takes the idea of collapse literally. It advocates for mass violence to destabilize society and trigger a civil war or race war. The 2019 El Paso shooter, among others, cited accelerationist manifestos.
Law Enforcement Response: U.S. and European intelligence agencies have labeled this variant of accelerationism as a domestic terror threat.
Why It Matters
Accelerationism is no longer just an academic curio. Its logic is shaping real-world decisions, from corporate investments to government policies to extremist manifestos. The belief that faster is always better, that chaos leads to rebirth, and that systems must collapse to evolve has implications that are already being felt—in elections, in the streets, and in your social media feed.
If these ideas remain unexamined, they could shape the 21st century in profoundly dangerous ways. Accelerationism often presents itself as a visionary philosophy, but it can serve as a convenient justification for destabilization, repression, and authoritarianism.
So Who Is Driving—and Where Are We Going?
Today, a troubling coalition of tech oligarchs, reactionary politicians, nihilistic theorists, and disaffected youth are behind the wheel of accelerationist thinking. Some push forward in the name of innovation. Others, more darkly, are willing to gamble with collapse to seize power or remake the world in their image.
Where we are going depends largely on whether society remains passive or actively reclaims the steering wheel. Acceleration does not guarantee progress. Without ethical direction, it can easily lead us off a cliff. But with thoughtful intervention, the same forces that drive acceleration—technology, disruption, imagination—can be redirected toward a more just, stable, and sustainable future.
Acceleration is happening. The challenge is no longer whether to speed up or slow down, but whether we have the wisdom to steer.
Further Reading: The Dangers of Accelerationist Thought
Andy Beckett, “Accelerationism: how a fringe philosophy predicted the future we live in,” The Guardian, 2017.
George Dvorsky, “The Horrifying Rise of Accelerationism,” Gizmodo, 2020.
Alex Ross, “The Frankfurt School Knew Trump Was Coming,” The New Yorker, 2018.
National Counterterrorism Center, “White Supremacist Extremism and Accelerationist Threats,” U.S. Government Report, 2021.
Benjamin Noys (ed.), Malign Velocities: Accelerationism and Capitalism, Zero Books, 2014.
Elizabeth Sandifer, “Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right,” Eruditorum Press, 2017.
These works help trace the philosophical, political, and real-world implications of accelerationism, as well as its growing appeal among dangerous political actors.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/18/2328830/-Accelerationism-Why-You-Need-to-Know-About-It?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
