Nick Land's drugs got him there well before everyone else, but I'm talking about the right wing cranks such as Big Yud that have kept up a mask of "grey tribe" pretenses, said stupid stale memes like "politics is the mind killer," and worshipped billionaires as the more radiant energy beings they are, being of the sky while we are of the dirt.
Sure, it seemed inevitable all along, especially when billionaires started outright buying ownership stakes in "futurology" conventions. It got especially creepy when the United States Department of Defense openly peddled contractor wares in such places.
It isn't fun being the Cassandra, seeing it happening in real time, warning people, then getting laughed off about it. I've lost real life friends to this stuff, people that were superficially just open minded and quirky in college but now wear the metaphorical armband and goosestep to wherever Sam Harris or other crypto-bigoted cranks tell them to go.
I'm not so sure Big Yud will truly go communist, even in a superficial way.
I've suffered enough of his tweets where even his flirtation with Marxist ideas seems more like being contrarian for the sake of seeming smart, which is his entire brand, including his Harry Potter fanfiction.
It is meant to be a provocative prediction!
But I read one of his more recent fiction works, and he's very clearly spending a lot of time trying to figure out what capitalism doesn't work, despite markets being so magical and special. And I'm estimating it'll take him about 10-20 years to exhaust every possible idea that isn't "private ownership is a sham."
Has he entertained the idea that maybe his billionaire buddies aren't actually particularly brilliant and radiant and illusions of being so are just the designer drugs and unchecked egomania talking (his and theirs)?