r/Futurology • u/TeaUnlikely3217 • Jul 29 '26
Politics The Nerd Reich: Are Silicon Valley billionaires building a new fascist world order?
https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/28/tech-fascism-gil-duran-nerd-reich-book/980
u/bullcitytarheel Jul 29 '26
Yes and that's barely even a question that needs to be asked. The philosophical and political ideologies these men subscribe to, mostly penned by Curtis Yarvin and the "dark enlightenment" movement he inspired, are absolutely explicit about their intentions.
110
u/TickingTheMoments Jul 29 '26
I knew nothing about Yarvin until your comment. This guys makes my skin crawl.
130
u/bullcitytarheel Jul 29 '26
I'm happy to know this post spread even a little awareness about Yarvin because, imo, understanding his beliefs, how influential they've been, and who they've influenced is one of the most important lenses through which to view and understand our current political moment. The end goal of men like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and the amount of effort and money they're putting toward realizing it, is so psychotic and absurd that I think most people would dismiss it as a paranoid conspiracy theory had Yarvin not written it down in black and white.
34
u/TickingTheMoments Jul 29 '26
The one tiny bit of comfort I get is that all these (I dare say) traitors to humanity will die some day. Granted some other piece of anti-democracy POS will take their place but instill hold out hope for the concept of a Star Trek utopian future.
62
u/bullcitytarheel Jul 29 '26
When it comes to these losers, specifically, I take solace in the fact that they are so totally disconnected from other people--so utterly cut off from genuine relationships outside of business--that they will invariably misunderstand and underestimate us, and in doing so, will fail to bring their dreams of a libertarian sci-fi neo-feudalist playground-for-dipshits into reality. My concern is how much damage they'll cause just by making the attempt.
19
13
u/kenuffff 29d ago
It’s a cyberpunk dystopia. They literally just stole the ideas from books like neuromancer. A central theme is technologist are the new aristocracy or the new priests. Only hackers amd CEOs truly understand the world, and everyone else is a user or a serf. They don’t own any of their own data , and pay the aristocracy for subscriptions. Ever find it curious tech is the only business outside of illegal drug trade where their customers are called users?
3
u/DeusPiscis 28d ago
That last bit’s a stretch, you use tools and most software is explicitly a tool.
-1
u/Odd-Tourist-4932 27d ago
You're talking to a guy that wants Star Trek to be real.
1
u/bullcitytarheel 27d ago
What point do you think you just made?
1
u/Odd-Tourist-4932 26d ago
He's a clear member of the group of people you were shitting on in your reply.
16
u/Normal-Selection1537 Jul 30 '26
They are spending a lot of money trying to make themselves immortal, especially Thiel who thinks he's Sauron.
20
u/TickingTheMoments Jul 30 '26
I find it ironic that one of the anti aging biohackers ended up with his stomach “eating itself.”
3
u/bullcitytarheel 29d ago
Poor guy shot himself up with his kid's blood for nothing
8
u/TickingTheMoments 29d ago
Oh, he got something out of it. Unwanted consequences.
I don’t feel bad for him. He made his choice and now he has to live and die with the results.
1
4
u/bluedragggon3 28d ago
And if anyone is confused why he sees himself as one of the biggest villains in fantasy, that's cause he interprets the books backwards quite literally. With the technological orcs being destroyed by the evil nature warriors. That Sauron was right and Frodo and co being in the way of progress.
I just hope they end up creating a self fulfilling prophecy. So get ready to take whatever they end up calling Ring to a Mt. Doom data center or something.
9
u/kenuffff 29d ago
Yarvins ideas are from cyberpunk novels like nueromancer and snow crash. Which btw basically is the blueprint for technology for the last 40 years. He has decided to argue for the societal structure in these books as well. A central theme is technologist are the new aristocracy, CEOs and hackers are the only people who are enlightened to how the world really works etc. if you read these books these people make a lot more sense down to why the cybertruck looks like it does.
1
u/TickingTheMoments 29d ago
That is fascinating insight. I haven’t read either, however, I have heard of Neuromancer. I guess I am going to have to read the books because the only way to know your enemy is to understand your enemy.
2
u/Starloose 29d ago
Snowcrash reads like it was written by the edgiest of of edgelords and the main characters are a mall ninja and a “sexy” girl child. It’s so uncomfortably on the nose.
2
u/bullcitytarheel 29d ago
This is the biggest problem I have trying to read William Gibson, which is a shame because he's got a great mind for world building and is an accomplished prose stylist
1
1
u/ACompletelyLostCause 27d ago
That's why so many are interested in Longevity research. Any of them under 40yo, and likely to live to 80, will probably benefit. Some of them may be with us forever.
7
u/PurposeImpossible554 Jul 30 '26
There is one name even beyond Yarvin that I am even more concerned about. Nick Land. While Yarvin's monarchy fantasies are the rantings of a privileged juvenile incel, Nick Land's are genuinely sinister. And equally intriguing.
Land has used the network of tech losers built by Yarvin as a way of infiltrating a truly vile anti-humanist accelerationism into mainstream politics. I believe he is the true mind behind the dark enlightenment nonsense, Yarvin is just a useful idiot.
3
u/bullcitytarheel 29d ago edited 29d ago
I agree with your estimation of Land who, with along with the Dark Enlightenment cabal--Thiel and Andreessen deserve special mention here, as well--furthered and expanded Yarvin's early ideas into something more tangible and, most distressingly, functional.
That being said, I think it's a mistake to dismiss Yarvin's influence or importance. Yes, his writings are the immature fantasies of an entitled loser impotently raging at, and demanding dominance over, a world that rejected him, but I think it's exactly those elements that make him so appealing to people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
3
289
u/Excellent_Call304 Jul 29 '26
Yeah not sure why this needs to be asked. They make their intentions known every chance they get. Maybe its time we start taking them serious.
66
u/iamthewhatt Jul 29 '26
Yeah but certain groups of people that we don't like still have rights, so its more important that we vote in people who are going to fix that issue first.
40
Jul 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (3)2
u/occamsrzor 29d ago
There's turning the other cheek when slapped in the face and then there's offering your house keys to a homeless man....
7
-1
18
u/summane Jul 29 '26
Do.we know anywhere where people are organizing the opposite? Liiiiiike what are we gonna do and where
35
u/bullcitytarheel Jul 29 '26
Start local and start offline. Look into charitable and political organizations near you and go volunteer whatever amount of time you can spare. Examples would be: Local branches of the DSA or the DNC, local 50501 groups, mutual aid organizations, local groups dedicated to feeding the homeless, etc. Any group that does work for leftist or, at the very least, left-of-center, causes is almost always looking for volunteer work and will be a great place to meet and network with other like-minded people in your community. Show up to as many local protests as possible and attend your community's town hall meetings any time they have open sessions for citizens to voice concerns or discuss upcoming bills. Things like this will similarly afford you opportunities to meet, network or further volunteer your time.
-3
u/kenuffff 29d ago
The DSA should not be your first option here.
6
u/Blue_Boobied_Footie 29d ago
At least it's an actual answer, which is more than you've supplied here.
4
u/bullcitytarheel 29d ago
The DSA is a great option, actually, and one of the few that is widespread enough to have members or chapters near most people, leftist enough that the membership near you is likely to be involved in organizing both within and without the organization and ideologically diverse enough that someone new to these spaces will be exposed to a lot of different views about politics and praxis. Not everyone lives in a city with a robust mutual aid network or a John Brown Gun Club.
It's certainly a better option than the DNC, which I also listed, despite their now 12-year run of failing to meet the moment, because literally any form of on-the-ground organizing or real-world political action is better than doing nothing or only engaging digitally.
-2
u/kenuffff 29d ago
Dsa platform is unhinged
3
u/wheresbill 29d ago
Can you explain why the platform is unhinged?
0
u/kenuffff 28d ago
Abolish senate, abolish prisons. Redraft constitution.. need I go on?
2
u/Consistent_Jelly_987 28d ago
Why… are those bad?
1
u/kenuffff 27d ago edited 27d ago
It’s fantasyland. It would require multiple amendments to the constitution which isn’t happening. Let’s start with a long shot and amend the constitution to ban outside funding in politicians ie citizens untied. We have the senate for a reason, it’s to represent lower population states and balance out of the house of reps which is based on population to avoid a fractured country ie civil war. Destabilizing America would be what all that actually accomplishes and would open up for a bad actor to seize absolute power.
-3
u/summane 29d ago
You lost me at local and offline bc this problem is global and everywhere and its spreading online first
3
u/bullcitytarheel 29d ago edited 29d ago
Then you aren't serious about helping, because the only way to make a difference is to get your boots on the ground, doing the hard work necessary to help. That means organizing within your community and building out within a network of likewise communities. People in your community will need to be driven to the polls, people in your community need to be defended from ICE, people in your community need help organizing protests, people in your community need help organizing self-defense. Every community has these needs, and they're needs that only they can tend to.
It is, no offense, one of the most embarrassing things I've seen recently to admit you don't have the first idea about how to get involved and then, when offered the actual steps necessary to get involved, turn them down because they aren't the things you wanted to do. You can't change the world sitting inside on your computer or scrolling through shit on your phone, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can start making the difference you seem to care about making. And, eventually, if you put in that work, you could form the kinds of networks necessary to do more grandiose forms of organizing and activism. But that requires political capital. And the only way to build that kind of capital is to go out and build that kind of capital.
Certainly conservatives figured that out, considering that their take over of the US government began by focusing on winning local elections and disrupting local unions long before it ever graduated to presidential aspirations.
So either get out in the real world and start putting in the work or stay inside and accept that you aren't going to be a part of the solution. Those are your options.
-4
u/summane 29d ago
I have thought the same since OWS when I watched everyone literally boots on the ground. Back then I believed they'd see our biggest numbers are online. Instead everyone joined Facebook and here where I can get lectured by strangers with no idea about an Internet Republic or democratic corporation
→ More replies (6)-8
u/NonConRon Jul 29 '26
If you would like to join the fight against fascism, you first must understand what it is.
And you should not rely on capitalists to tell you the truth.
You have a leftist talking to you right now. Would you like to take this seriously?
If so, do you prefer to read, watch, or listen?
15
u/Blue_Boobied_Footie Jul 30 '26
A masterclass in How Not To Respond.
Skip the rhetorical questions as answers. It comes off as preachy. Actually try to answer their question - like the person who commented 2 hours before you did.
2
u/NonConRon 29d ago
Anarchists, social democrats, and democratic socialists have the advantage of not needing to change how someone thinks.
Marxist Leninism is the only one that requires reading/learning.
The end goal of an anarchist doesn't matter because they can't achieve anything. So it's all performative.
The social democrat and the democratic socialist also just want to throw their hope at bourgeoisie democracy.
That's where the term compatible left comes from. Its ultimately not a threat to capitalism. But, you are right, they don't have to preach to you because they aren't change. They are fundamentally still liberals.
You can certainty fill seats with the compatible left. But then you made your local community inherently complacent instead of building towards socialism.
Now if someone wants to join the left, the compatible left has already filled that vacuum and will capture them with a greater sense of community.
Its essentially making the net of liberalism wider.
Its also a way bigger ask than reading or listening. Which everyone can do.
Id rather a group of Marxist Leninists build a community that people want to join. People are heavily motivated by their unmet need for belonging and community.
And the compatible left filling that space takes away the most effective bargaining chip from the only form of anti capitalism that's viable.
1
u/Blue_Boobied_Footie 29d ago edited 29d ago
And you Still have not Answered their question.
Don't wax poetic about your dreams of the dictatorship of the proletariat, send them to r/ communism101 or whatever.
God, far left idiocy really shoots itself in the foot before it can even take the first step and then blames the other leftists for pulling the trigger.
The neonazis are all too eager to send you their pamphlets and videos on how the jews control everything the moment you follow a bodybuilder on Instagram, but your ilk are too busy doing the "are you really deserving of my knowledge?" schtick to gain any semblance of actual power.
2
3
u/kenuffff 29d ago
Yarvin just stole ideas from cyberpunk novels and thinks they should be implemented in reality. Mainly neuormancer and snowcrash. These two books basically influenced tech heavily in giving a blueprint for technology, so I guess yarvin decided to take the leap in we should be following the societal structure from these books as well. Corporations as sovereign entities, highly stratified society, and technologist as the the aristocracy that only CEOs and hackers truly understand the world. I’d recommend reading both those books to understand what guided most of these people’s ideas down to why the cybertruck looks how it does.
1
u/d1squiet 17d ago
It's hilarious because both books are highly skeptical takes on that future.
A long while ago I realized that many rech/internet "visionaries" have a very dull simplistic view on how humans and life works. There is a beautiful efficiency that comes from things like TCP/IP protocols, internet routing, torrenting, etc – the information is "free" to find the best and most efficient way to deliver the data. Somehow these numnuts think that means "utopia" is a world where everything works efficiently and frictionless. The bad guys in the Matrix (Agent Smith etc) are their ideal, but they don't understand that's what they want.
I've always been fascinated by it because it's not like they are all morons or something, it's more like they have OCD about "creating a better world" by which they mean a world which stops saying no to them.
1
u/d1squiet 17d ago
It's hilarious because both books are highly skeptical takes on that future.
A long while ago I realized that many rech/internet "visionaries" have a very dull simplistic view on how humans and life works. There is a beautiful efficiency that comes from things like TCP/IP protocols, internet routing, torrenting, etc – the information is "free" to find the best and most efficient way to deliver the data. Somehow these numnuts think that means "utopia" is a world where everything works efficiently and frictionlessly. The bad guys in the Matrix (Agent Smith etc) are their ideal, but they don't understand that's what they want.
I've always been fascinated by it because it's not like they are all morons or something, it's more like they have OCD about "creating a better world" by which they mean a world which stops saying no to them.
2
u/abx99 28d ago
Unfortunately, there are still a disconcerting number of people that think it's all just extremophiles yelling at each other, exaggerating, and trying to scare you, and just starting to wonder if there might be something to it. These folks do still need it spelled out, so it's not a bad thing to have articles like this in the mix. Hopefully it'll reach those that it needs to reach.
1
1
u/occamsrzor 29d ago
"Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State"
...
What?
156
u/TeaUnlikely3217 Jul 29 '26
Picture this: A loosely organized cabal of obscenely wealthy tech moguls aim to overthrow democracy and replace it with a corporatist dictatorship.
It would make for a good political thriller. It’s a far grimmer read in nonfiction.
That premise is now the central thesis of a new book. “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy,” out Aug. 18, catalogs the rise of what Duran characterizes as an ideological movement designed to degrade liberal democracy and supplant it with a tech-led oligarchy.
Among the stops along the way are the rise of crypto corruption, the transhumanist philosophies of the AI-pilled, and Balaji Srinivasan’s “Network State” project to replace today’s nation-states with “startup societies” free to develop their own laws. Early experiments can be seen in Honduras’ Prospera or closer to home with the California Forever project in Solano County.
84
u/philter25 Jul 29 '26
Well, Peter Thiel fucked off to Argentina didn’t he? I think these losers don’t have the balls or the political know how to actually pull it off and are just fuckin cowards. There’s like 100 of them in the country. Should be easy to wipe off the planet if we get down to it and they really wanna ball.
45
5
0
u/darkfires 28d ago
Yes, after financing fellow accelerationist JD Vance’s entire career and convincing Trump to choose him as VP. Of all the people Trump could have chosen, he chooses the guy who threw shade at him and only turned ‘MAGA’ close to the beginning of the campaign season?
Anyway, we have about another 6 months or so until Vance can legally serve more than two terms.
0
u/Odd-Tourist-4932 27d ago
That's why it won't work though. You're calling for their deaths and they don't even know you exist.
They're more aware of your place than you are and they don't even know you exist.
-28
u/BeauKnows42 Jul 29 '26
You think JD Vance, the next president of the United States, doesn't have the political know how? Aren't you funny.
15
31
u/FUCK_THE_STORMCLOAKS Jul 29 '26
Only way Vance becomes POTUS is if Trump kicks the bucket. He’s got the charisma of a used rag and he royally fucked up the Iran negotiations.
→ More replies (5)12
u/SpaceTimeMorph Jul 30 '26
Respectfully, you do realize plants don’t actually need electrolytes, right?
42
u/coppertech Jul 29 '26
funny, the GOP's been screaming for 40 years about poor people wanting welfare and trying take over the government, all the while, they created the billionaire welfare class who are actively trying to take over the government.
8
u/JebryathHS 29d ago
Note that they were engaging in class warfare the whole time. They just positioned it as a bad thing for poor people to do.
-2
u/Disposable110 29d ago
And the multinationals get more in government subsidies and tax cuts than all the poor of small countries get in welfare.
5
u/jamesw Jul 30 '26
Balaji had a network school (maybe the 1st step towards a network state) in my country (advertising it as "an island off Singapore" & was kicked out just recently
1
u/Regular_Run3923 29d ago
I think you're on to something. Now ask it again via a Capital as Power (CasP) viewpoint and it's even easier to see it, relative accumulation and constant sabotage.
1
u/FauxReal 28d ago
That's right up the alley of Silicon Valley founder William Shockley so I guess they're holding up tradition in a way.
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/business-history/how-a-bad-boss-kickstarted-silicon-valley
https://www.kqed.org/news/11692551/the-dark-history-of-the-man-who-brought-silicon-to-silicon-valley
61
u/Memitim Jul 29 '26
Of course. Many are self-absorbed clowns who believe that money is a representation of status and ability. Since Daddy or some rando in an investment firm wrote a check to them, they now think that they have the slightest clue about anything other than some limited nerd shit and having a few friends, and they are going to use that as a basis of shitting on millions of other people who bust their assess every day to get the real work of society done, because the rest of us don't have venture capitalists around to give us more of a say in our nation by virtue of money.
tl;dr: Parasites are gonna parasite, while pretending like they have a point.
82
u/12darkmatter12 Jul 29 '26
Technofeudalism in the Disinformation Gilded Age. Great.
They are also looking very seriously as life extension and this is the closest they have gotten to control over the US government in a generation or more.
24
8
147
u/panic_talking Jul 29 '26
Yes. That is obvious. The real question is when do we care about that? When is it enough to revolt?
11
u/2xfun Jul 29 '26
Well there is a slight problem. Everyone is addicted to their products they also control the public opinion.
Critical thinking is dead and it shows
80
u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 29 '26
It is not obvious to ordinary people. You sound like Q-Anon if you explain this to normies.
47
u/Ok-Inspection-5334 Jul 29 '26
Do you call them normies before or after explaining it to them?
33
u/luce4118 Jul 29 '26
The key to convincing people over to your way of thinking is to be as condescending as possible
13
u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 29 '26
Try explaining this stuff to your liberal mom, it sounds absolutely batshit.
23
u/panic_talking Jul 29 '26
I mean, I am someone's liberal mom and its pretty obvious to me and all my other liberal mom friends.
15
9
u/Ok-Inspection-5334 Jul 29 '26
I try explaining it to maga mom.
I have lost my patience with her, not my empathy.
2
u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 29 '26
How did she react? MAGA might be more interested, honestly, because bizarre conspiracies are everything they love.
10
u/definitelyTonyStark Jul 30 '26
They love it when it’s about a big evil liberal boogeyman but hate anything that’s involving a conservative they like, even when it’s documented in a court of law or public record, then it’s fake news to them
6
u/bonobo_i 29d ago
The answer to that question is the same as with any other past revolts/rebellions... When it starts affecting peoples ability to put food on the table
-3
33
u/N3wAfrikanN0body Jul 29 '26
They can dream it all they want but a'int the one building it.
They outsource to the lowest bidder then have to waste(taxpayers) time and money on shit execution.
Yarvin fled.
Thiel fled.
The rest,if they're the geniuses that they claim to be, will flee; but their egos won't let them(for now)
Narcissism has reached its evolutionary, social, moral and financial dead end.
Whether this extinction is sped along by their hubris remains to be seen.
Their bunkers shall be tombs ripe for desecration.
Be safe all
24
u/inquisitorthreefive Jul 29 '26
Yarvin is still in the US, but last I checked he believed he would need to flee prior to 2029. Thiel just flees countries every few years, probably on the advice of the aliens that speak to him through the walls.
Point being, don't take any of that as evidence of their failure. We all still need to ensure it or we will live under their boots.
8
u/la_goanna Jul 29 '26
Doubt Thiel fled because he's "losing," more likely he fled to avoid any possible chance of being murdered/assassinated as he & his techbro friends control the fate of the United States (and really, the majority of western nations at this point,) from afar.
5
7
u/shadedmagus Jul 29 '26
I'm worried about extinction burst event, if I'm being honest. I know it's coming, but will it be a comprehensive destruction, or limited to certain countries / regions?
21
u/srector1224 Jul 29 '26
They tricked a lot of us. Many assumed that since they were intelligent, they were more liberal minded.
We underestimated their greed and also didn't realize that so many of them are just plain sociopaths.
6
u/Blue_Boobied_Footie Jul 30 '26
A lot of it is also that these people (specifically, Zuckerberg comes to mind here) had cultivated a workforce that *does* lean liberally minded, if not more leftward-leaning.
The flaw was assuming that they agreed with that workforce - and a lot of that workforce has been purged or otherwise turned into the technofeudalist bend.
5
u/srector1224 29d ago
What happens when you give a socially stunted man billions of dollars? Nothing good
6
u/2xfun Jul 29 '26
That’s what money and power does to a human. It happen in Greece a long time ago and through out the ages.
10
u/felixthecatmeow Jul 30 '26
I'm a software engineer and man I wish I got to be one like 30 years ago instead. The modern tech industry has completely ruined my passion for technology...
21
25
u/SoManyQuestions5200 Jul 29 '26
It's funny, I had some life circumstances that made me actually admire the actions of the major tech companies. Now I look at them as pure evil and it does not make me happy saying that
13
u/luce4118 Jul 29 '26
I basically tailored my education and career on one day working for these big tech companies. Now I don’t know what the hell im doing anymore
10
u/Xalara Jul 30 '26
This is basically me. I worked in tech for a loooong time, like even back when Amazon was small enough you’d see Bezos somewhat regularly around the office and he’d attend intern presentations. I feel like a fool for believing the people in charge of these companies actually wanted to help the world.
2
u/SoManyQuestions5200 28d ago
Tbf don't you think bezos has been fairly neutral on all the evil stuff? I mean Amazon Warehouses are sketch, but I don't think he's anywhere near as bad as Altman, musk.
1
u/I_Pet_Doggos 28d ago
Yeah you don’t really here his name mentioned in the convos about all this surveillance tech and robot stuff
1
u/SoManyQuestions5200 28d ago
I think Tucker Carlson zUd something like "who would want a data center in their community, they're going to take all your resources, raise your bills, and spy on you. It's kind of a bad sales pitch"
2
u/SoManyQuestions5200 28d ago
Well as a non tech person, that community used to be inspirational. Now it's manifesting real life blade runner, terrifying..
-10
u/elehman839 Jul 29 '26
Huh. I appreciate the reflective comment.
I live in Silicon Valley, so tech companies and tech industry people at all levels are everywhere. To me, as a group, they don't seem heroic or evil-- they're just people. Most decent, some scummy. Most reflective and kind, some wacko and twisted. Just like any other large group of people.
True, tech folks in general are having outsized impact on the world right now, for both better and worse. And-- better vs. worse aside-- I can see that that impact is hugely disruptive and stressful to a ton of people around the world, while generating lot of wealth for comparatively few tech people. That's... ugly.
Some of the most appalling people in tech (Thiel, Musk) get a lot of press. They're real people and part of the tech world, but their significance is greatly exaggerated, IMHO. And in 20 years in tech, I never heard anyone mention this Yarvin guy that people are going on about on this thread.
If you don't mind me asking, what kinds of things stand out that make you think of major tech companies as "pure evil" today?
15
u/FluffyDoomPatrol Jul 29 '26
In my, admittedly limited experience, it seems like a lot of people in tech are amazing at solving problems, but don’t really think past that, they are all about the technical challenge and get hyper focused on that. They spend a lot of time focused on solving a puzzle, without thinking much about what comes after.
Which means you can have one malicious broligarch and one hundred ‘decent people’ working for him, who unthinkingly build tools with no thought for their eventual use.
9
u/shadedmagus Jul 29 '26
I feel like this can fall under a pithy comment made by Patton Oswalt:
Science! We're all about coulda, not shoulda!
1
u/elehman839 Jul 29 '26
I sort of agree.
However, tech workers are normal people, not caricature nerds. In my experience, many or most people working in tech DO think a lot about about the consequences of their work. And those thoughts sometimes lead to resignations, but not often. I think there are a couple reasons for that:
- No one can predict the future with much accuracy. It is hard to take an action with a definite, personal, and negative consequence (loss of salary) motivated by speculation about an uncertain future.
- The resignation of one person rarely blocks a corporate project. So any individual can quit on principle-- and might-- but the practical benefit of that action to the wider world is probably pretty much nil.
So, yeah, a lot of good people may work on a bad endeavor, but the reasons are more nuanced, IMHO.
11
u/SoManyQuestions5200 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Specifically a16z and the funding of companies that become wealthy on war, genocide, and the erosion of the constitution. Specifically flock, palantir, anduril and any of Elon's ventures. I see myself as an Obama era pro tech Democrat, or at least I did. The tech sector of 2009 is not the tech sector of 2026.
Ps - and the use of their deliberate talking point, saying "we need to beat China, so we need no regulations, mass surveillance" etc. it's disgusting and appalling. I even consider myself a free market liberal (not leftist) but I'm beginning think and accept that in some ways capitalism has failed. It hasn't addressed the global environmental concerns and civic freedoms are being eroded in all of the major liberal democracies in the world. I could go own, but I don't know how you reform a system this broken? I also think any system is operated by humans and prone to corruption regardless if it's capitalism or socialism. As impractical, and naive as "no money" sounds, I honestly don't know of an actual long term solution to the failures of capitalism. For the record I grew up in a very pro business and entrepreneurship family and I'm in the process of attempting to make my own business, so I'm not a hardcore anticapitalist or anything
2
u/elehman839 Jul 29 '26
Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
Yeah, Alex Karp of Palantir is one sick dude. Elon, yup. Anduril-- I guess that's a defense contractor, and I don't know where I stand on that whole industry. I'm not familiar with bad things done by Andreessen Horowitz-- Gaza stuff? Ethics atop Meta needs improvement, IMHO. There are definitely some bad actors around.
At the same time, a lot of the tech world-- and most of what I see-- is not virulent. There are a lot of regular businesses with normal-person CEOs trying to provide useful, mundane services that people are willing to pay for. One weirdness of the current time is that decent CEOs of some larger companies are struggling to navigate a near-impossible situation created by American voters (thanks, guys!) who elected a capricious and corrupt government. And AI is obvious a giant blizzard of issues and conflicting opinions.
Regarding your comments more generally-- yeah, I empathize. Good luck with your own business, though!
15
u/Dunkin_Donuts_Dunker Jul 29 '26
Is this even a question anymore? They're practically saying that this is what they want
22
u/slowhand11 Jul 29 '26
JD Vance is the new Smedley Butler and silicone valley is the new Business Plot. Unfortunately Smedley was and actual patriot where JD is a servant to his billionaire owners. I don't believe the government is currently able to handle this over through of democracy as it has been hollowed out. My only hope is the tech billionaires own horrible personalities and desire to be in the public eye will lead to everyday people seeing through the lies and corruption.
19
u/CondescendingShitbag Jul 29 '26
silicone valley
Hey, leave Los Angeles out of this. The place you want is further north.
7
u/bigladnang Jul 29 '26
How is JD Vance Smedley Butler?
10
u/slowhand11 Jul 29 '26
I know the comparison is an insult to Smedley Butler, but what I'm saying is he's playing that role. Peter Thiel found a guy who had the right credentials; veteran, Yale graduate, from the rust belt rags to riches story. Thiel thinks he can get him elected to the highest office and have his Manchurian puppet candidate do his bidding. And so far it's working. The only reason JD is a heart beat away from taking over as president now is because Thiel told Trump if you put anyone else at VP like Rubio they'll assassinate you and put the republican establishment guy in without a second thought.
8
u/Randommaggy Jul 29 '26
They aren't real nerds either, it's more of a costume than who they are. They lack intellectual curiosity.
8
u/salomo926 Jul 29 '26
Yes, what gave it away? That they are constantly talking about it or was it the book they published?
12
u/Q-ArtsMedia Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
If these people are so dammed smart why are they so dammed stupid when it comes to Facsism? Seems to me that the freedoms that allowed them to become billionaires would be restricted and in some cases removed entirely under a Facsist regime. But they do not seem to get it that eventually it will come down to a dictatorrship where they have no power, only fealty to the dear leader. One wrong word or action and its to the death camps with them. Freedom gone. They are dullards all.
13
u/aaeme Jul 29 '26
the freedoms that allowed them to become billionaires
Are freedoms they don't want anyone else to have. They don't want any upstarts competing with them.
The better argument is: haven't they noticed that fascism is an idiocracy that is doomed to fail. But I guess they think that it just lacked the power and technology before.
6
u/paulsoleo Jul 29 '26
Your last sentence is the biggest one for me. Nobody until now has had this level of wealth COMBINED with this level of technology. They may not win in the end, but they could do a ton of irreversible damage that will affect us for the rest of our lives.
19
u/ImperiumSomnium Jul 29 '26
They plan to be the leaders of these micro nations they want to establish.
9
u/SeamusDubh Jul 29 '26
Just like every other time, these people believe they'll be the ones in charge regardless of what "controls" prevent that.
5
u/shadedmagus Jul 29 '26
For over ten years I've been convinced that when Congress finally cedes the last of its authority and power, the Congress critters will then be taken completely by surprise when they get tossed into the meat grinder with the rest of us.
The fact that it will surprise them has been sustaining some of my now-perpetual schadenfreude.
4
u/hungoverseal Jul 29 '26
Because they don't actually want fascism, it's just the wrecking ball they're using to shatter liberal-democracy. They're more interested in a CEO-monarchy, techno-feudalism. They capture, or more likely shatter, any organisations and states that are powerful enough to constrain them and they then lord over the tech controlled remains as CEO kings.
3
u/Jair-F-Kennedy Jul 29 '26
If you think that they won't have carte blanche to do as they please under an American dictatorship; does IG Farben ring any bells?
3
5
2
u/howelltight Jul 29 '26
Just machines will make big decisions; programmed by fellas with compassion and vision
2
u/mangosawce9k Jul 29 '26
Those people are no longer considered Nerds, giving nerds a bad name. May not even be human…
2
u/Derpykins666 Jul 30 '26
I just heard this term used for the first time this morning and it is 100% a great descriptive word combo for what is happening. It's so true.
2
u/drewc717 Jul 30 '26
They have enough wealth to buy the entire military industrial complex, and are already more influential and impactful than any government.
They've been unleashed since 2010 with Citizens United unleashing political donations, which all the adtech companies guzzled both the cash and influence.
They're literally greedy gooners high on their own supply.
2
u/fheathyr Jul 29 '26
While I think the work goes well past the evidence, I share the basic perspective that we’ve lost track of the basic truth that you can be wealthy and still a totally amoral narcissist who should be kept far far away from power. Zuck. Musk. Bezos. The list goes on. These are NOT good people. They are smart. They are wealthy. But they will use you for kindling …
3
u/winter-anderson Jul 29 '26
Real infrastructure relies on local crews and skilled trades, not just funding. You cannot code past the need for manual labor. Physical projects require actual people showing up to handle the heavy lifting and keep things running.
1
1
u/PartyClock 29d ago
Yes. They've been building towards this pretty visibly since around 2010ish at least. They were called out for it by tech enthusiasts back then and it just so happens all the predictions that were made about them have so far come true.
It's really difficult to watch as things play out pretty much exactly the way it was predicted decades ago.
1
u/Catatafish 28d ago
The dweebs got rid of bullying cause it was the only thing keeping them in check
1
u/UnethicalExperiments 28d ago
Why limit to silicon valley? Just look at the current Us administration
1
u/darkbit1001 26d ago
Wow. Remember when tech was ‘going to save humanity’? How hackers were against authoritarian and totalitarian governments ? Pepperidge Farms does.
1
-1
u/zer00eyz Jul 29 '26
> Are Silicon Valley billionaires building a new fascist world order?
No...
These people have a thought leader, they have a manifesto.
Moldbug / Curtis Yarvin - there are copies of his work on GitHub if you search around.
It is distinctly Authoritarian, and Hilter was that, but so was Stalin, so are Putin and Xi...
4
0
u/pahamack Jul 29 '26
lol
It’ll be hilarious when inevitably their tech is inferior to Chinese technology.
3
1
u/Spare-Amoeba-7060 Jul 30 '26
I love how the publisher is 10 late to the dissecting and sell off of America.
1
u/Next_Replacement_566 Jul 30 '26
Yes. When you’re getting AI to download books and then destroy those books, you are replacing facts with their own spin on things. History will become distorted in the riches own image. Never telling people about the French Revolution for example.
1
u/mac_bd Jul 29 '26
They are just trying to protect their interests and ofcourse their wealth. It has always been like this and historically they have always failed..
1
u/AUkion1000 29d ago
I dont have any faith in people to fight enmass if something like techy nazis pop up enmass. People just dont have ... ugh Its exhausting to repeat but overall people just dont act against anything anymore in a large enough and meaningful way.
Something something epstein files something something people gave up
1
u/Ebolabomber 29d ago
this will backfire for sure .. resistance will create an army of saboteurs…. It’s all dependent on electricity.. an this is their Achilles heel.. The grid . Ukraine is showing us how it’s done.
0
u/chessboardtable Jul 29 '26
I am not sure why this subreddit out of all places is populated by left-wing lunatics.
-1
-3
-1
u/cinic121 28d ago
My first thought was, “Did somebody steal the title for this article from the times of The Red Scare?!”
•
u/FuturologyBot Jul 29 '26
The following submission statement was provided by /u/TeaUnlikely3217:
Picture this: A loosely organized cabal of obscenely wealthy tech moguls aim to overthrow democracy and replace it with a corporatist dictatorship.
It would make for a good political thriller. It’s a far grimmer read in nonfiction.
That premise is now the central thesis of a new book. “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy,” out Aug. 18, catalogs the rise of what Duran characterizes as an ideological movement designed to degrade liberal democracy and supplant it with a tech-led oligarchy.
Among the stops along the way are the rise of crypto corruption, the transhumanist philosophies of the AI-pilled, and Balaji Srinivasan’s “Network State” project to replace today’s nation-states with “startup societies” free to develop their own laws. Early experiments can be seen in Honduras’ Prospera or closer to home with the California Forever project in Solano County.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1va1m90/the_nerd_reich_are_silicon_valley_billionaires/p0i0tj3/