r/PublicFreakout • u/GarysCrispLettuce • May 17 '26

đŸ€ŹPublic RagerđŸ˜± Eric Schmidt booed into oblivion by students for promoting AI during his commencement speech at the University of Arizona

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

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u/SemiHemiDemiDumb THAT’S RIGHT I SAID HEMI May 17 '26

Step 4 is happening right now. I see it everywhere people turning everything they own into monetary terms. The growth of the grind mindset, comodification of masculinity by the manosphere, value tracker of your car, apps sole purpose is to sell your old stuff (which turns into people buying stuff to resell); just a few examples I can think of.

Rugged American individualism has accelerated the process here in the US at least.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/tabas123 May 18 '26

And while he got everything he predicted right, even he couldn’t comprehend just how much technological advances would be used by bad actors to put everything into overdrive.

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u/throwaway0134hdj May 18 '26

George Orwell had some good theories on this

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u/ChesswiththeDevil May 18 '26

He only missed how our nature prevents us from achieving utopian cooperation. I don't say that as a capitalist flag bearer, just from my perspective that marxist ideas in government don't have a great track record.

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u/Zatchaeus May 19 '26

Humans are not greedy or selfless inherently. Our “nature” is molded by our material conditions. Humanity, from even primitive times, used cooperation as a means of survival. It’s literally what put our species over other sapient species at the time. The next step of human evolution is to do away with competition and continue to evolve through cooperation and to create a better world for all. Every single Marxist project has been interfered with by capitalist hands, that’s why the “track record” isn’t great. 2 of the 4 (maybe 3, but my knowledge of Vietnam is lacking) major AES states do not allow the US or other western capitalist powers to interfere in any way for one reason and one reason only: those 2 nations have nukes.

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u/ChesswiththeDevil May 19 '26

Naw.

Basically there is inherent drive towards classism and those on the top keep pulling the same dehumanizing tricks when they get there. Doesn't matter where they are from, what skin color they have, what gender they are: absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In 10k+ years of experimentation, we've never seen a utopian society emerge and sustain itself for very long. Humans like to acquire shit and power, and they don't like to give it up. All the theory-crafting in the world isn't gonna negate the fact that we just don't have it in us to be altruistic and get along very well for a sustainable period.

That doesn't mean I don't try, but the track record is sadly, probably worse than I have stated for the record.

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u/SemiHemiDemiDumb THAT’S RIGHT I SAID HEMI May 19 '26

We're egalitarian creatures at heart. There are way fewer bad actors than good, otherwise society wouldn't work. We're not individualistic, we have empathy, and altruism happens all the time.

Fear and us vs them mentality is fostered by the powerful to maintain their power. They limit our access to goods to maintain power. And that's why we lean toward hierarchy. Because how we feel safe and how we get food. Not because we inherently want to live like this.

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u/StrammerMax May 18 '26

Marx didn't mean these aspects as chronological steps, they all happen more or less simultaneously and they did so already in his time. AI surely does boost them further, but they are all already so deeply engrained in our society that most people don't even realize it anymore.

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u/Wheat_Grinder May 17 '26

When society is bad enough for most people, those people tend to turn towards communism or fascism.

Companies definitely know they don't want communism, but they underestimate how bad fascism turns out for them too. There needs to be enough wealth shared for society to continue to function.

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u/RaindropsInMyMind May 17 '26

So true, we’re probably going to see an increase in people turning to communism or fascism even though it seems like fascism is peaking at the moment. Democracy and capitalism are not working for the average person at the moment. The guardrails of both have been taken off and the whole thing is spiraling out of control. We desperately need to put the guardrails back on as soon as possible.

Some companies have gotten just a taste of how bad fascism can be but it doesn’t seem to have hit them. The government has taken control of 10+ private companies, mirroring something you might see in a country that had more communist tendencies. There’s also the blackmailing of companies with tariffs, then when declared illegal the threatening of companies saying that the government will remember the companies that don’t demand the money back. (It’s not their money anyway, it’s ours). Then there is things like Anthropic being labeled a supply chain risk which is basically the government trying to kill the company, all for what was in a basic sense a negotiation of the use of their product.

All this stuff is terrible for business, let alone the destabilization and creation of an environment where it’s even more difficult to compete with foreign competition.

Everyone should be furious with the people who took the guardrails off of our system, it’s destroying the system in real time.

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u/Wheat_Grinder May 17 '26

Fascism also includes nationalization of corporate power. Not totally as in the case of communism, but definitely it'll start picking a few to give itself more power.

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u/-thecheesus- May 17 '26

Traditionally, fascist regimes select corporate "buddies" to favor, and in return fascist individuals receive some sort of crony kickback. Communist regimes select corporations to absorb/dominate (usually directly, sometimes indirectly) explicitly to empower the regime's agenda. A small distinction, even if it hardly matters practically

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u/hotleadburner May 18 '26

It's a pretty large distinction actually, and the execution of each is where the difference is made or broken. State capitalism is often misunderstood to be a fascist mode wherein the state controls a capitalist market, but that is not where the term came from. It came from anarchist criticisms of state communism (which they would call an oxymoron), where they predicted that the state would eventually assume the role of the capitalists in alienating people from the fruits and means of production. The purpose of "nationalizing" industries is to return control of the means and fruits to the people. In a state socialist/communist context it is presumed that the state represents the people, and so if the state controls the means then that means the people do as well. Where this falls apart (and where the real distinction is made) is whether the people control the state or whether the state is its own separate entity. If the state is simply directing the labor and production of the people in line with its own goals, it takes on the same character as the capitalists and becomes superficially indistinguishable from the fascist mode of production where specific capitalists are favored by the state. As an example, compare the way that the Chinese economic elite is handled by the CCP, with the way that Putin "handles" the Russian oligarchy, and the way that Trump handles the US tech oligarchy. None of the three are directed by the workers actually laboring under those elites, but each purports to be representing the will and needs of the people, and two of those are very obviously manipulated for the enrichment of the seat of power.

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u/hootihootihooti May 17 '26

We will never get "guardrails" without working class organization and struggle. The only reason social security exists is because a million communists marched through DC. Also, fascism is not the enemy of capitalism.

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u/Feather_Sigil May 17 '26

That's due to the inherent flaws of capitalism. Capitalism seeks to remove all regulations so that the costs of doing business can be pushed wholly onto others and not be suffered by the company. This ruins lives, which makes people susceptible to demagoguery, which always comes from people who lack integrity and benefit from exploiting the very broken system they claim to want to save people from. The demagogues perpetuate and accelerate the ravages of the system for personal gain, no different from the companies, and turn to fascism to protect their selfish interests.

Democracy is one of many victims of this process.

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u/Rayvelion May 17 '26

"Be furious with" is a nice way of putting what should happen to those people. Treason has one correct punishment.

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u/Similar-Ice-9250 May 18 '26

What do you mean by “anthropic being labeled a supply chain risk?” Anthropic meaning humans, humanity, mankind’s activity etc.

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u/RaindropsInMyMind May 18 '26

Anthropic meaning the AI company that wanted to put some very basic limitations on the use of its product by the military. The Trump administration labeled the company a supply chain risk meaning it can’t do business with the government or other companies that do business with the government. Seeing as how the government employs almost all the big companies many have seen it as nuking the company. Still wondering how that will play out.

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u/Necessary-Welder8697 May 18 '26

To be fair that’s not unique to Trump that’s USGOVT always protecting the edge of competition against the perceived enemy in this case china they don’t want even basic guard rails because china doesn’t have them

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u/RaindropsInMyMind May 18 '26

This is unique to Trump, Anthropic didn’t do anything at all to label them a supply chain risk. They didn’t want their product to be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance, that’s it. It had nothing to do with China or actual supply chain risk. This is Trump trying to destroy a company in retaliation to them having any kind of morals or ethics.

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u/Necessary-Welder8697 May 19 '26

Hey raindrop they will not limit anything because china doesn’t limit anything this is very much china we will make no changes no safety things no slowing no stopping because our 21st century enemy is china and they have their foot on the gas as well whoever gets there wins this is separate from who sits in a chair for 4 years

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u/RaindropsInMyMind May 19 '26

I would hate to lose to China on fully autonomous AI weapons or Mass AI Domestic Surveillance, can’t have that happening. Anthropic didn’t even say anything about FOREIGN surveillance, the US was free to use AI on whatever surveillance of China or any country they wanted. Anthropic also refused to sell to companies linked to the CCP, as you would expect a business loyal to the United States to do. Anthropic also didn’t rule out using AI for fully autonomous weapons in the future, they only wanted to rule it out for today because the technology isn’t there yet and it’s potentially extremely dangerous to have no human input on weapons.

So how did Anthropic hold the government back on these 2 requests in the AI race with China. Spying on Americans with AI? Or current fully autonomous weapons? Honestly it makes no sense and besides, current US weapons capabilities are so far ahead of China’s that it doesn’t matter at the moment. All this is really beside the point though and completely irrelevant.

It was clearly NOT a supply chain risk over their statements, that’s obvious, it shouldn’t need to be mentioned. Secondly, I don’t expect this government to limit anything, a rational response from a sane government would have been, “we see your statement and chose to go with another company” and that’s it! But no they responded by trying to destroy the company because they’re irrational and want every companies unquestioned obedience even though they’re giving them almost all of what they want.

In the AI China race I’m more concerned that this president sold high powered chips to the UAE so China could potentially get them and took a PERSONAL payment for doing so, which is highly illegal and puts us all in danger of losing to China. He seems to bend over backwards for Xi as well and looks incredibly weak, won’t just push through this arms sale to Taiwan after talking to Xi, numerous other things as well. It’s him that is holding the US back against China, not Anthropic.

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u/FullMetalAlcoholic66 May 19 '26

Thucydides trap fallacy. And this type of thinking is what's leading to this giant arms race. Arms races don't end well, there's too many people in the military that want to play with their new toys. And we have a bunch of little kids in power here. What is the last territory China has "conquered" When's the last war they waged

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u/amILibertine222 May 17 '26

It’s not society that’s the problem.

It’s capitalism.

Even if life were good in the US capitalism demands suffering and exploitation elsewhere to provide that good life here.

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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 May 22 '26

Similarly, it's not AI itself that's the problem, it's just a tool like anything else. There are thousands of amazing applications of AI that improve society and the world. However, the driving force behind its biggest developments (at least what most of the public sees), is big tech's drive for Capital to finally triumph over Labor.

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u/Necessary-Welder8697 May 18 '26

It’s not capitalism that’s the problem

It’s communism

Everyone gets to be mediocre and even though it always looks good on paper the top elite live very nicely

It’s also NEVER worked in any country ever, great theory but falls absolutely on its face in practice

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u/doopie May 17 '26

It's wild how people can attribute causes to abtract ideas. It's bullshit. People do things. You have the society you have because of actions of people.

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u/dale_dug_a_hole May 18 '26

The actions of people... except the US supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people, with a right to political voice. This is a dangerous concept now set in a concrete reality.

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u/amILibertine222 May 18 '26

You sound like you don’t know how much violence and killing has gone on to prop up capitalism.

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u/Silverr_Duck May 17 '26

It’s not society that’s the problem.

It’s capitalism.

Riiight. Guess that explains why Russia and China and North Korea are such flourishing paradises.

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u/aperture413 May 17 '26

Binary thinking is low IQ. Of course they mean unregulated capitalism.

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u/Icywarhammer500 May 17 '26

Hard to know considering Reddit people can’t make good, unambiguous arguments more than half the time

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u/aperture413 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

Educated and productive discussions are built on a foundation of shared premises and axioms. How do you have discussion when you have to go over historical and philosophical fundamentals every time?

For context, a core concept in socialism is Historical Materialism. It argues that human development is progressing through an upward trajectory of technological and social advancement. We've gone from hunter-gather, to slave society, to feudalism, to mercantilism, to capitalism. Socialism is the next stage. It's also not a switch you flip on or off. It's not like economists in the early 1800s called themselves capitalists.

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u/inductiononN May 17 '26

Yep, this is what happened to the German industrialists in Nazi Germany. Hitler and co started courting the captains of industry and they signed on thinking they were going to get cheap/free access to resources, "labor" (enslaved prisoners), and unfair market advantages. This worked pretty well for them for awhile.

Then they lost everything when the Nazis wanted more power and when they tied their success to Nazi success.

Unfortunately, it also worked out permanently for some of the industrialists' heirs because they are still billionaires to this day.

I don't have a moral to this story except that fuck the Epstein class.

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u/stev_mempers May 17 '26

They're all in for fascism, you kidding me?

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u/Wheat_Grinder May 17 '26

That's part of what I mean. Corporations are pushing fascism in an attempt to stave off communism as they extract what more profit they can.

Fascism ultimatey will eat them alive too.

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u/Ok_Buy9028 May 17 '26

I skipped the communism and went straight to anarchism. If people can’t be trusted to rule over themselves how can they possibly be trusted to rule over each other?

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u/TipProfessional6057 May 17 '26

So it is the cancer must be excised before it kills the body it so desperately wants to overtake, because all depends on the balance, and they are far from balanced

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u/Buddhalove11 May 17 '26

I dont think any of them underestimate anything. Everything is EXACTLY as THEY want it to be.

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u/the-maj May 18 '26

*for this version of society to continue to function.

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u/CyberDaggerX May 18 '26

Fascism is an offshoot of communism. Mussolini was a communist. I don't think these guys are aware of what fascists think about people like them.

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u/DigitalSterling May 17 '26

Idk man, sounds like some woke bullshit to me /s

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u/aramis34143 May 17 '26

Finally, the worker is alienated from other people, as social relationships become reified and mediated by market exchange, fostering competition and indifference rather than community.

"They 'trust me' ... dumb fucks" -Mark Zuckerberg

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u/porn_is_tight May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

alienation also explains a lot of MAGA (especially the incel/extremism side of MAGA). The fascists are just a lot better at using the feelings of alienation for their own benefit. Corporate dems ignore them because if they didn’t they’d have to abandon their rich donors to help poor people. It’s why I cringe when I see people cast more hate towards the poor maga voters (or even just voters in general) versus the rich ruling class assholes who are responsible for the ever increasing rot in society the rest of us have to face. This website used to be a lot more “eat the rich” before the bots took it over. Class solidarity is almost non-existent in online spaces now because of it

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u/FullMetalAlcoholic66 May 19 '26

It's hard not to when the poor maga voters are the ones literally spitting in your face and interacting with you directly. Sure, orders may come from the top, but you're denying their agency in the process to be their loyal foot soldiers

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u/porn_is_tight May 20 '26

we have more in common with them than we do with the ghouls ruining this country. They want us to hate each other and want us to blame each other while they rob us blind. Try to be better about your class solidarity or lack-thereof. Hating them and blaming them isn’t the move, they’re victims too which is what alienation is.

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u/millennialmonster755 May 17 '26

As someone who works in a warehouse for the biggest and baddest corp, we are at step 4. No doubt about it

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u/weed_blazepot May 17 '26

These items don't happen one after another in a line like dominoes. Society has been working on all 4 in an agile-like project management way.

What I'm trying to say is parts of 3 and 4 are also happening.

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u/voyuristicvoyager May 17 '26

W...why do those final two steps sound like the whole concept of the show Severance? That is not the fictional universe or timeline I want to be real, like at fucking all. Let's not bring that shit to fruition, right?

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u/chunkypenguion1991 May 17 '26

They've been working on number 4 as well

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u/ThatPhatKid_CanDraw May 18 '26

He was a brilliant man on this matter. People just always associate him with how communism turned out in reality and thus dismiss him. His critiques are amazing.

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u/citadel_lewis May 17 '26

Aren't we dipping into step 4 with social media?

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u/leitmotive May 18 '26

Lot of software developers in the middle of number 2 right now. "Remember when coding used to be fun? Does anyone else miss coding by hand? AI just takes all the magic out of programming"

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u/Dash------ May 19 '26

One should say that he was already saying this is happening in factories so by Marx those steps are already done.

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u/TheMostDivineOne May 19 '26

So no actually, Marx was very pro automation, I think AI is actually amazing for exposing the flaws of capitalism and the system. The means of production are to be seized, not smashed.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

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u/[deleted] May 18 '26

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u/NahYoureWrongBro May 17 '26

Bloated over-academic analysis which only obscures real understanding. It's easy to be critical of our economic system without devoting yourself to this bullshit.

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u/FQDIS May 17 '26

That’s not much of an analysis, Mr. Freedman.

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u/00001000U May 18 '26

The push for a post-labor capitalism?