Brett Zehner
(The University of Exeter)
Adam Kingsmith
(Independent Researcher)
Abstract:
Instead of critiquing the far right as simply weird, we need to look behind its conceptual apparatus to its ideological and financial backers. For instance, in a bad, un-ironic ripoff of Deleuze’s Control Society, Balaji Srinivasan in his Network State, writes that –
“Tech loyalists (“Grays”) will don Gray shirts, and carry Gray ID cards (for swiping into the Gray sectors of town). Everyone would be welcome at the Gray Pride march—everyone, that is, except the Blues. Blues (liberals) will be banned from the Gray-controlled zones, unlike the Republicans (“Reds”).”
Here it seems gray is the new white. In this remarkable passage, Srinivasen re-racializes white supremacy while calling for the ethnic cleansing of liberals. But despite the violence of the passage, the term Gray evades the woke callouts toward yt subjects. Gray also invokes exposed brutalist functionalism merging the self-interest of the white citizen subject, the white invested worker who identifies up toward their founder gods, and the gray middle manager cog.
Now the gray race has not taken hold yet. However, Project 2025 does propose to abolish racial categories in future census reports. So, this isn’t just about coercion or turning the individual consciousness towards fascism or hailing white subjects. It is instead the class unconsciousness of the moderates, the ironic bros, and the dopamine-infused behavioral habits that link liberals, libertarians, fascists, and even social democrats together in ways that are uncomfortable to acknowledge.
This essay aims to unpack these dynamics, exploring how the greying of society is symptomatic of the broader collapse of clear ideological boundaries. Through the lens of media and political theory, we will delve into the paranoia, political angst, and anomie that define our current moment, where both sides of the spectrum are, perhaps unknowingly, in the words of Felix Guattari – part of the same brutal machine of subjection.
Bios:
Brett Zehner is a writer working on a book called Capital and White Anxiety Volume 1: The Automation of White Anxiety. His research spans digital culture and cultural politics. He is also an experimental language artist working across media. Brett received his MFA from UCSD and his PhD from Brown University. He is currently a Lecturer in Media Theory and Artificial Intelligence at The University of Exeter.
Adam Kingsmith works on the politics of mental health and the development of emotion-AI systems to improve social and economic outcomes. He has a Ph.D. from York University, where his dissertation focused on the political economy of anxiety and the rise of biomedical industry. He is also co-founder and managing director of EiQ Technologies Inc., an emotion-AI startup previously incubated at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Creative Innovation Studio.
