CounterVortex [14] editor and ranter Bill Weinberg [15] faces imminent cancelation of his landline service [16] by corporate opressor [17] Verizon. As fiber-optic is not available in his building, this makes cable the only alternative—which means drilling through exterior walls, threatening the structural integrity [18] of the 19th century tenement. This as the Countervortex website remains debilitated [19] following an attack by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. With this dissident voice in danger of being silenced, the system of corporate rule is increasingly replaced by worse-still actual robot rule. Trump and the fascist tech bros are putting in place [20] the architecture [21] for direct robot control over the military-security apparatus [22], and even of imperial decision-making [23]. Robo-propaganda has already thoroughly colonized [24] the political process, both in the US and elsewhere [25]. All this as the ecological impacts of the technology contiue to propel the apocalypse [26]. In Episode 348 of the CounterVortex podcast [27], Weinberg looks for glimmers of hope in municipal pushback [28], and popular refusal [29] of aritifical intelligence [30] and the entire digital leviathan [31].
Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon [33].
Books discussed:
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy [34] by Gil Durán, Simon & Schuster, 2026
On the Eve of the Cybercultural Revolution: Black Power and Capitalism in the 1960s [35] by Brian Bartell, University of Minnesota Press, 2025
Production by Chris Rywalt [36]
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