Ali Rıza Taşkale
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alirizataskale.bsky.social
Ali Rıza Taşkale
@alirizataskale.bsky.social
https://alirizataskale.com
External Lecturer at Roskilde University
@distinktionjournal.bsky.social special issue editor
Recent pb: Reactionary futurism in Silicon Valley https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21624887.2025.2474781
Pinned
Excited to see my article "The affective politics of reactionary futurism in Silicon Valley" has now been officially assigned a volume and issue in Critical Studies on Security (Vol. 13, Issue 3)! I have 50 free copies; let me know if you need one. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4H3KM...
Love seeing Paulina Borsook’s 25-year-old warning about Silicon Valley’s techno-libertarianism putting money over empathy finally getting its due. Cyberselfish was ignored back then, but now it’s eerily spot-on.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...
The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Let me promote my first book, Post-Politics in Context (2016)!

Evolving from, and expanding upon, my PhD thesis, it examines the cultural strategies and mechanisms of “post-politics” that govern conflict and antagonism within contemporary neoliberal governance.

www.routledge.com/Post-Politic...
November 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Just got interviewed by a sharp group of Danish high school students about Palantir, military & AI ethics, and the power tech puts in the hands of a few. Energizing to see my work reach beyond academia, and even more exciting to see students exploring how Silicon Valley shapes society and politics!
November 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
"Capitalism today legitimizes itself by promising we can all become hackers & creative workers".

Evgeny Morozov calls this "organic capitalism". Cédric Durand counters this, arguing Big Tech's power represents a shift toward "technofeudalism".

Brilliant clash of ideas!
jacobin.com/2025/11/tech...
How Big Tech Became Part of the State
Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI wield tremendous influence over our politics, but does this mean we are entering an era of technofeudalism? In a wide-ranging discussion, Evgeny Morozov and Cedric Durand ask ...
jacobin.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Famously highlighted in the "Select Bibliography of Recent Marxist Research from Denmark" in "Danish Marxism"
November 24, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Excited to see my article "The affective politics of reactionary futurism in Silicon Valley" has now been officially assigned a volume and issue in Critical Studies on Security (Vol. 13, Issue 3)! I have 50 free copies; let me know if you need one. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4H3KM...
November 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Durand, C. (2024). How silicon valley unleashed techno-feudalism: the making of the digital economy. Verso Books. And Taşkale, A. R. (2025). The affective politics of reactionary futurism in Silicon Valley. Critical Studies on Security, 1-5.
October 14, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
After more than 10 years of “the Danish Model”, nativism is hegemonic in the country, the far right polls near level highs again, and the Social Democrats lost Copenhagen and poll at historic low.

European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths!

Me in @theguardian.com
The ‘Danish model’ is the darling of centre-left parties like Labour. The problem is, it doesn’t even work in Denmark | Cas Mudde
This week’s local elections are the latest reminder that when social democrats move rightwards, they’re making a mistake, says academic and author Cas Mudde
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Excited to see my article "The affective politics of reactionary futurism in Silicon Valley" has now been officially assigned a volume and issue in Critical Studies on Security (Vol. 13, Issue 3)! I have 50 free copies; let me know if you need one. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4H3KM...
November 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
This is, of course, a stark betrayal of the New School’s storied history and animating spirit. It demonstrates something many of us know intellectually but have trouble grasping: many university leaders *do not care* about, even *actively despise*, the basic values that bring us to work every day.
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
November 19, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
A society that was doing well culturally, politically, intellectually would show zero interest in Curtis Yarvin
November 19, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Benjamin Noys on the rise, evolution and apparent decline of accelerationism:

Accelerationism is not gone; it’s mutated. From online manifestos to AI debates, tech optimism, Nietzschean myths, & radical ambitions still shape culture, politics, and corporate visions. www.e-flux.com/notes/678341...
The Corpse of Accelerationism - Notes - e-flux
Benjamin Noys reflects on accelerationism ten years after the peak of its cultural influence.
www.e-flux.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Great to see that one of the papers from the special issue I’m currently editing on Silicon Valley has been featured!

Like the other papers in the issue, Matthew’s paper is a brilliant read and is still open access.
The push to revive American industry is an ideological project fusing techno-libertarian ambitions with conservative frontier mythology. Our open-access article of the week dissects the "Silicon Prairie."

By Matthew Darmour-Paul in @distinktionjournal.bsky.social

buff.ly/lALtc6d
November 15, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Norway’s Labour government just put its $2.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund’s ethical divestments on hold—under Trump 2.0 pressure and in the shadow of Gaza. My take:
The Trillion-Dollar Vassal
How Trump 2.0, Israel’s Gaza war, and Norway's two-trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund converged in a firestorm of finance, geopolitics, and genocide.
open.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
🚨new publication🚨

𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗷𝘂𝗿𝘆

in: Understanding Social Struggles: Relating Recognition Theories and Epistemic Injustice (eds. H. Hänel and F. Schuppert), Transcript. pp. 49-64. 2025.

Open Access: philpapers.org/archive/BLUC...
November 14, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Great piece on how Silicon Valley profits from apocalypse. Thiel and other VCs hype dystopia, turning fear and societal collapse into a business model, using hype, memes, and ideology to make crises, and themselves, inevitable.
Why are tech billionaires fixated on doomsday?

Because "apocalypse capitalism" is the business model— existential threats as trillion-dollar opportunities.

New at the Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Apocalypse Capitalism

www.thenerdreich.com/silicon-vall...
Silicon Valley Apocalypse Capitalism
“Maybe if you aren’t trying to destroy the world, you’re not trying hard enough.”
www.thenerdreich.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Andreas Malm writes beautifully on the politics of life: from Valencia’s floods to Colombia’s fossil phaseout to Palestine’s ecocide: only a politics of life can confront capital’s death drive. salvage.zone/the-politics...
The Politics of Life - Salvage
In early November 2024, something historic happened in Spain. The story starts with the violence of climate change. We all saw the scenes of sudden apocalyptic inundation in Valencia: the streets turn...
salvage.zone
November 12, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Paolo Virno 1952-2025
November 8, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
My new piece is up: Silicon Valley billionaires use science fiction to justify dystopia, AI overlords, space colonies, escape plans. I call this “science fiction materialized”. But radical science fiction offers blueprints for resistance + rebuilding and new worlds. untoldmag.org/silicon-vall...
How Silicon Valley Billionaires Use Sci-Fi to Rule – and How We Can Resist - Untold
Tech billionaires use science fiction to justify a dystopian future of AI rule and space colonization – but radical sci-fi still gives us tools to resist and rebuild.
untoldmag.org
August 27, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Another seminal essay by Fred Turner, this time on "The Texan Ideology": While the Californian Ideology fused 1960s counterculture with tech entrepreneurship to imagine a connected digital utopia, the Texan Ideology combines neoliberal economics, Christian nationalism, and resource extraction.
November 7, 2025 at 1:43 PM
This is a great special issue that explores capitalism and its visual representation, revealing how exploitative production is masked as free, equal exchange, with images serving as the key tool of this concealment and inversion.
it's here!

FILMING CAPITAL

special issue of SAQ

"Visual and film studies provide a distinctive lens through which to unravel and confront the complexities of capitalism’s elusive appearance."

read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlant...
Volume 124 Issue 4 | South Atlantic Quarterly | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
it's here!

FILMING CAPITAL

special issue of SAQ

"Visual and film studies provide a distinctive lens through which to unravel and confront the complexities of capitalism’s elusive appearance."

read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlant...
Volume 124 Issue 4 | South Atlantic Quarterly | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 2, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think.

There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵
October 31, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
The West has decided coastal Bangladesh will drown. Bangladeshis disagree. @amitav.bsky.social on apocalyptic thinking, disastrous "climate solutions," and who gets to imagine the future. With photos by
Dayanita Singh www.equator.org/articles/bey...
Beyond the Apocalypse • Articles • EQUATOR
How visions of catastrophe shape the ‘climate solutions’ imposed by aid agencies
www.equator.org
October 29, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Ali Rıza Taşkale
Copenhagen looks to be swinging significantly to the left in local election. Social democrats (currently leading a centrist government nationally) are collapsing in the polls. Parties to the left of SD could gain a majority for the first time in the city (and probably any Danish municipality)
Denmark, Epinion poll:

Copenhagen Municipal election

Ø (LEFT): 27% (+2)
F (Greens/EFA): 22% (+11)
A (S&D): 10% (-7)
C (EPP): 8% (-5)
B (RE): 8% (-4)
I (EPP): 7% (+4)
V (RE): 6% (-2)
...

Fieldwork: 04 September - 13 October 2025
Sample size: 1,314

➤ europeelects.eu/denmark
October 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM