Accelerationism

Accelerationism is a range of ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It is an ideological spectrum divided into mutually contradictory left-wing and right-wing variants, both of which support aspects of capitalism such as societal change and technological progress.^[6][7][8]

Accelerationism was preceded by ideas from philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.^[7] From these ideas, some University of Warwick staff formed a philosophy collective known as the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), led by Nick Land.^[1] Land and the CCRU drew further upon ideas in posthumanism and 1990s cyber-culture, such as cyberpunk and jungle music, to become the driving force behind accelerationism.^[6][7] After the dissolution of the CCRU, the movement was termed accelerationism by Benjamin Noys in a critical work.^[9][1] Different interpretations emerged: whereas Land's right-wing thought promotes capitalism as the driver of progress, technology, and knowledge, left-wing thinkers such as Mark Fisher, Nick Srnicek, and Alex Williams utilized similar ideas to promote the use of capitalist technology and infrastructure to achieve socialism.^[6]

The term has also been used in ways unrelated to capitalism and technology. One such use is by right-wing extremists such as neo-fascists, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and white supremacists to increasingly refer to an acceleration of racial conflict through assassinations, murders and terrorist attacks as a means to violently achieve a white ethnostate.^{[10][11][12][13]}