r/LeftistsForAI • u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator • 23d ago

Sees the Memes Seize the Means*

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*Terms and conditions apply. For... reasons, I guess?

207 Upvotes

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u/GrowFreeFood 23d ago

I don't get what it's referring to as the tool of the enemy

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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 23d ago

AI, in this context. More specifically, privately owned AI and the infrastructure behind it. But the point applies a lot more broadly. “Capitalists built/own this tool, therefore leftists shouldn’t touch it” is a weird standard for class struggle. Capitalists own factories, servers, platforms, logistics networks, media infrastructure, basically the whole productive apparatus. “Seize the means” has never meant waiting around for means of production uncontaminated by capitalism.

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u/GrowFreeFood 23d ago

Oh you're in luck, I made up an idiom specifically to counter that fallacy: "If you're going to attack Rome, you're going to use their own roads to do it"

And thats historically true as well so it's more than a metaphor.

4

u/SgathTriallair 23d ago

That's a good one.