Ad-tech is fascist tech • Hacker News Board

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#11

Post by inquirerGeneral » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC

__alexs wrote: post #8

guywithahat wrote: post #2

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The only interest the Nazi's had in socialism was eliminating it. They invented privatisation and crushed unions.

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Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#12

Post by krunck » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #2

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While the author is using the term "fascist" in a more pejorative way than in a strictly descriptive way, it is not wrong to say many trends in big tech are pointed in a fascist direction.

"Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."

Source: Wikipedia(Emphasis mine)

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#13

Post by inquirerGeneral » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #9

guywithahat wrote: post #2

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You’re forgetting that a key aspect to fascist systems is tracking and identifying individuals and removing any privacy barriers so they can be classified and prosecuted.

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Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#14

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

ragall wrote: post #10

guywithahat wrote: post #2

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> Fascism, at least as the Nazi's defined and implemented it, is the belief that a socialist economy will work when the people have a similar genetic likeness. Wrong. You can read Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism" to have a more informed view.

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Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#15

Post by Herring » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

You’d still be having fascism here even if the internet didn’t exist. The most reliable way to prevent the rise of the far right is to implement robust safety nets and low inequality, to reduce status anxiety and grievance. Support for such measures (welfare, healthcare, unionization, high taxes etc) is usually low among Americans. Eventually rents/healthcare/tuitions outpace income, so people become desperate and start voting for strongmen.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/welfare-cuts...

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#16

Post by baal80spam » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #2

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In social media at least it's akin to "this thing I don't like".

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#17

Post by pigeons » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

Remember those sci-fi books and movies about the dystopian totalitarian futures where advertisements were constantly targeted at you?

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#18

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

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Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#19

Post by lo_zamoyski » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

sharkjacobs wrote: post #5

nickff wrote: post #4

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Would you be assuaged if it was titled "Ad-tech is police state tech"?

Word use is important. We have allowed thumos (and epithumia) to rule over nous.

It has become acceptable to misuse words, like "fascist" or "communist" in political contexts, to the detriment of rational and fruitful discourse. Often a false equivalence is drawn between denying something is "fascist" or "communist" and denying something is bad. This is false. Something can be bad without being fascist or communist.

There is plenty to be critical about in American politics and in tech, but calling everything you don't like "fascist" or "communist" isn't helpful. These seem to be go-to words used by those "defending" what is now a crumbling postwar liberal democratic order, i.e., anything that seems at odds with this order is reflexively called one of these two terms, depending on which faction of the American uniparty you align with.

Re: Ad-tech is fascist tech

#20

Post by bobtheborg » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

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I found many points interesting. Here's one:

Policymakers supposedly work for us/the people and they could have made surveillance ad tech expensive and thereby severely limited it, but

> "Policymakers failed us because cops and spies hate privacy laws and lobby like hell against them. Cops and spies love commercial surveillance, because the private sector's massive surveillance dossiers are an off-the-books trove of warrantless surveillance data that the government can't legally collect."