Critical Hedonism(s): The Sexual Cultural Politics of Techno-Authoritarianism

​In this discussion, Laurel Rogers will help us to explore the role of technologically-mediated sexual grievance and gender politics in the ascendance of far-right movements, ranging from the manosphere and neo-masculinity to trad-wives, reactionary feminism and the resurgence of xenophobic pronatalism. We will probe the so-called “marriage of convenience” between Silicon Valley and the Trump presidency, and the shocking political influence of the world’s wealthiest tech billionaires, and consider how sexual and romantic grievance, paired with ideological influences ranging from Dark Enlightenment / Neoreactionary thinkers, “techno-optimism”, and Effective Altruism’s “longtermism” have fueled a frenzy of “reprotech”, “revenge of the nerds” misogyny, auto-eroticism, and sexuality without intimacy.