"Physical Embodiment Of A Dystopian Ideology"

 

In Substack, Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman looks at the Cybertruck's welcome demise, and the meaning to the rule of the Nerd Reich overall.  Excerpt, but the whole article is well worth the read:

"Now Tesla is finally pulling the plug on the vehicle, which one person quoted in a New York Times report describes as looking like a mechanical cockroach — an image one can’t unsee.

So what’s the big deal? Businesses make bum investments all the time. It’s true that the Cybertruck’s failure was spectacular — Dave Phillips, the author of the piece, who was clearly having fun, pointed out that it’s unfair to compare the Cybertruck to the Edsel, which had much bigger sales.

Beyond that, however, the Cybertruck was, as the article says, 'a culture war on wheels.' The 7-year arc of the Cybertruck coincided with the transformation of Musk’s public image from that of a planet-friendly innovator to that of a racist, conspiracy-theorizing, African-children-killing oligarch. Once upon a time driving a Tesla was a way to signal that you were rich but environmentally conscious. But driving a Cybertruck became a signal of MAGA fealty.

Yet there is an even wider cultural context here. The Cybertruck was the physical embodiment of a dystopian ideology that has become dominant among billionaire tech bros — an ideology that draws heavily from cyberpunk novels and movies." (our emphasis)

As Krugman notes, the tech bros of today were raised on the dystopian works of William Gibson and watching Blade Runner, but took the wrong lessons from them and imagined themselves as the superior beings that would rule the ultimate dystopian world.   That outlook is being challenged like never before as the political culture begins to rein them in, and punish them for their arrogant transgressions.

(image: Chris Johnson / Torque News)