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The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 10mo ago[flagged]
- skrebbel 10mo agoI'm not a big sucker for this kind of un-nuanced "us vs them" rhetoric, but I gotta admit, the title is a stroke of genius.
- scandox 10mo agoClassic example of humour as stop-think
- sach1 10mo agoClassic example of motivated reasoning as stop think. Condescend at your own peril.
- scandox 10mo agoAs far as I knew I was agreeing with the commenter not condescending. The title is a great example of it's kind. It's funny enough to stop one interrogating the proposition it makes.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- skrebbel 10mo agoYou're replying to a single-sentence comment that both calls out the ridiculousness of this book's argument and its funny title. Clearly I can hold two ideas in my head at once and maybe, just maybe, other people can too. I struggle to imagine that anyone not already sympathetic to the high school classic "nerds suck" world view is going to suddenly be swayed by this funny book title.
- jamil7 10mo agoIt's cute but are there any actual nerds left in big tech leadership? Of the magnificent seven we basically only have Jensen Huang left as a technical leader and maybe you can count Zuckerberg.
- wtcactus 10mo agoOne of the reasons I enjoy coming into HN. Is to read comments stating that the guy that created Facebook, alone in his dorm room, could “maybe“ be counted as a tech lead.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- jve 10mo agoElon Musk must be one. Seems enough techy to me: Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink - software being used for the hardware in innovative ways. Edit: Oh, wow, mentioning this guy is surely controversial, sorry. However discussing whether he is a nerd, understands engineering on very deep level/gets his hands dirty OR he only manages people - there must be some psychological aspect related, a form of disagreement to discredit or have a hard time believing it can actually be true. Here is a list of credible persons commenting on Musk whether he understands engineering or not. With all the sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden...
- adev_ 10mo ago> Elon Musk must be one Spoiler: He is not. But he is very good at faking it. Anytime he tries to give a serious opinion on anything related to computers: It is laughably bad and out of touch (SQL, compilers, languages, performance, etc... ). He definitively has a scientific background but definitively not "Tech" as far as computer are concerned.
- tim333 10mo agoHe wrote and sold his first software aged 12. He may not be very good with computers but does have some nerd origin.
- nephihaha 10mo agoThere is a better one. It was about how the far right was trying to take over Furry Fandom... The title was "the Furred Reich".
- sillyfluke 10mo agohah, had to look this up to make sure this was a real thing. But disagree on which is better, the Nerd Reich has a better ring to it. When you say the other one out loud it sounds like "deferred Reich".
- rolandog 10mo agoPerhaps the nuance is in the eye of the beholder? I don't think it's sustainable to go about our lives wearing blinders and averting our gaze from the misuse of technology because one might be afraid of unhappy feelings creeping in. One must not be so cowardly as to deny that materials and technology can be misused or deny that their purpose is of oppression for fear of being attacked by group-thinkers. "The unexamined life is not worth living" as Socrates put it. So, I invite you not play the usual game of narrowly looking at a single if statement and conclude "there's nothing political in this"; but rather look at the bigger picture... the asymmetry in access to information, resources, weapons, and how that impacts everyone's lives... If we don't admit that there's a couple dozen people with immeasurable wealth and resources who have questionable intentions and opinions that affect our day-to-day lives, then we won't be able to prevent worse outcomes in a timely manner.
- tim333 10mo ago>deny that their purpose is of oppression... A lot of the uber-nerds are just regular nerds who got lucky, not part of some evil genius cabal. By all means keep an eye on them but I think for the most part they are regular people.
- array_key_first 10mo agoThey're some of the most powerful people in America and, by extension, the world. Wielding such power required immense restraint, control, and consideration.
- paulryanrogers 10mo agoPeople don't stay 'regular' for long after gaining immense power or money. I imagine it's quite difficult to stay grounded and humble in such situations, especially with legions of sycophants and yes-people hyping them up.
- lo_zamoyski 10mo agoPeople live mostly by convention, not reason (including those who think they don’t). When social sensibilities change, people move with them regardless of whether they are good or bad, because people in general are cowards. They fear life outside the crowd. For most, majority opinion - whether manufactured or not - is God. Most float downstream (including those who think they don’t); few swim upstream.
- sillyfluke 10mo ago>I'm not a big sucker for this kind of un-nuanced "us vs them" rhetoric Everyone usually has this stance by default until they think some batshit crazy redlines have been crossed regardless of what end of the political spectrum they reside in and decide to adopt an "us vs them, hope for peace, prepare for war" approach. I'm sure you have some "if they actually do <xyz> then I'll adopt a more alarmed stance" line in the sand, it's just drawn at a different point probably. That's why it's best to talk specifics of the case instead of declaring an abstract high-road stance.
- skrebbel 10mo agoYou misunderstand my point. I made no remark about whether big tech bosses behave harmfully or not (and in fact I believe that many do). My point is about blaming “nerds” or “Silicon Valley” for power grabs by a few asshole billionaires. As a nerd running a startup, I dislike the tendency of many journalists to blanket blame “nerds” for the behavior of nutjobs like Musk. It’s pure “us vs them” thinking, blaming the group for the behavior of a few.
- sillyfluke 10mo agoFair enough, but you have to admit it's virtually impossible to infer your two paragraphs here from that one sentence above. The calling out of "us vs them" rhetoric is what's stated clearly (as well as the fondness for the title).
- skrebbel 10mo agoFair! I traded clarity for internet points. Though then again, who could the “them” be if not “nerds” and “Silicon Valley”? That’s who the book calls the enemy.
- zrn900 10mo agoThe uncomfortable reality is that there does exist an 'us vs them' situation in every other aspect of society today, and those who ignore it end up on the losing side.
- tremon 10mo agoIt's not new. Quoth one of the best lyricists of the past century: > There is a war between those who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't - Leonard Cohen, 1974
- dialup_sounds 10mo agoA statement so vague and ominous it could have been uttered at any point in human history by persons of any ideology without loss of meaning.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- kgwxd 10mo agoNot really, the "nerds" aren't in control any more. It's just typical assholes, cosplaying as "nerds", ruing everything.
- brabel 10mo ago[flagged]
- mschuster91 10mo agoLook at who was and is consulting the President or paying for his vanity projects, judge for yourself.
- philipallstar 10mo ago[flagged]
- kgarten 10mo agoMy heart goes out to you.
- pbiggar 10mo agoThis is real. Gil Duran is extremely well respected among those of us who are against the fascist takeover of Silicon Valley, which has been well-documented for quite some time.
- konart 10mo agoNot trying to say that you or Gil Duran is wrong, but any anti vaxxer or flat earther can say the same about their "theory" and their well respected writers.
- pbiggar 10mo agoFair point so let me qualify that. Among the fairly mainstream US left, who have put significant work into documenting and pushing back against the rise of tech oligarchs, Gil Duran is well respected.
- polotics 10mo agoLMGTFO: ...singling out ennemies of the Reich... https://www.google.com/search?q=thiel+antichrist https://www.google.com/search?q=thiel+antichrist ...democracy aiming to be a fair competition of ideas... https://www.google.com/search?q=thiel+competition+is+for+losers https://www.google.com/search?q=thiel+competition+is+for+los...
- konart 10mo ago>democracy is being dismantled not by coups or tanks, but by code, capital, and the illusion of innovation Not sure "code" belongs here. Even less sure about "illusion". Take those away and what is left is "dismantled... by capital". Nothing new, really.
- arthurofbabylon 10mo agoIt sounds like this book would be a good candidate for your reading list.
- konart 10mo agoIt would be great if you have tried to express yourself other than some weird implications.
- arthurofbabylon 10mo agoThe comment is sincere. You appear to disagree with the book’s argument prior to having heard it — a great candidate for a mind-opening read. If the book (once published) proves its premise, you’ll disproportionately benefit from the read. (I personally like it when a book stretches my existing conceptions.)
- konart 10mo agoI thing you might have misunderstood me. I do not disagree with the book's argument. I'm just pointing out (or rather expressing my doubt) that the word "code" brings no additional context to the sentence. As others (and I) rightfully noted - code and modern tech does make things cheaper and easier, but this can be said about all advances. The "nerd reich" is not possible without code, code is not possible without computers, computers are not possible without abacus etc. As I see it the word "code" sells this book better than, say, "taxes". Because taxes are boring and obvious.
- fakedang 10mo agoAnd why not code? Are facial recognition models, AI LLMs to spew out spam and addictive social media algorithms not backed by code? The kings and dictators of the past had a lot more capital than Silicon Valley, but could only dream of building such surveillance and propaganda capabilities, as is the case even in a number of tinpot dictatorships in the developing world.
- roenxi 10mo agoI would assume by default that billionaires are politically active and causing a problem. However this link doesn't give a lot of hints about how or wherefore. I assume this is a jab at Thiel; but it is a bit light on in the synopsis department. There are a huge number of threats to democracy and the biggest one is probably the total lack of principles and common sense possessed by the median voter. It is a real problem and a bigger one than some billionaire or even the consensus of the billionaires. Sometimes voters and capital come into actual conflict and generally the voters tend to win Pyrrhic victories when that happens.
- GJim 10mo ago> the biggest one is probably the total lack of principles and common sense possessed by the median voter. Hard disagree. The biggest problem is a misinformed electorate. An accurate, honest and truthful press is vital for democracy; how else do people know whom to vote for! The fact this is being dismantled (often supplying deliberate misinformation) is truly worrying. After all, the electorate is entitled to have a lack of principles and no common sense; nobody ever said democracy was perfect. However the electorate needs to be provided with an honest set facts on which they can base their decisions without cries of "fake news". Whatever their political leanings.
- _heimdall 10mo agoI don't know if you will find a time in US history where the press was accurate, honest, and truthful. I agree with GP that a primary missing feature is a principled public - without principles people swing wildly in opinion depending on the topic and popular rhetoric. I see this with much of my own family. They mostly consider themselves conservatives and Republicans of the small government and balanced budget era. Those presumed values go out the window though and when a particular political topic of the day comes up they seem to completely contradict it. The most egregious example in my family is a Ron Paul libertarian that somehow still holds those opinions while supporting virtually everything Trump does.
- GJim 10mo ago
- seydor 10mo agoI think it's simpler,money has no Color, no religion. Silicon valley just happened to reside next to the hippies in the first decades
- podgorniy 10mo agoNow it goes beyond money: they are aiming at shaping societies. From mars colonies (imagine musks tantrums when they vote him out) to project 2025 type of political works. When you have too much money, it's kinda boring to keep making more of them. You want self-expression to the max extent the society will allow you.
- seydor 10mo agoI don't think those pass the sniff test, but grand narratives help to fuel the stocks and invesment bubble
- sach1 10mo agoSo why would it take off there instead of in a larger city with more resources? I'm not disagreeing with you completely, but I would like to know more about what other factors you would consider to have been more impactful. I don't know that you really need hippies around to get that kind of 'california capitalist' mentality either tbf.
- seydor 10mo agoIt won the transistor lottery, then the money oiled the machine. Recent events prove that there was nothing ideological about it. Once a positive feedback loop is established, it's difficult to break
- sach1 10mo agoThe money would follow ideology, so it depends on where you think that taxonomical line lies.
- flag_fagger 10mo ago
- skeezyjefferson 10mo ago[dead]
- noduerme 10mo agoI know it's fashionable to say that democracy itself leads to these outcomes that destroy democracy. I think Arendt was right about self-colonization and overproduction of elites being the main thing that leads to totalitarianism. There wouldn't even be such a thing as a silicon valley billionaire if the United States wasn't the most wildly successful political entity for the past 2000 years. Power corrupts, but that's distinct from an argument that the systems which created it in this case should be replaced by systems that funnel power in other ways.
- delichon 10mo ago> There wouldn't even be such a thing as a silicon valley billionaire if the United States wasn't the most wildly successful political entity for the past 2000 years. It's less wildly successful as a political entity than Christianity or Islam.
- noduerme 10mo agoI'm not talking about the number of impoverished converts or believers. In terms of prosperity and global power, no religion or former empire has come close.
- pjc50 10mo agoThere's some complaints about this book not being out, but Arendt's book has been out since 1963 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem#Banality_of_evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem#Banality... and is highly regarded reading on this subject.
- wolvesechoes 10mo ago> Power corrupts It doesn't, although they would like you to believe so, so you avoid obtaining it. But it definitely attracts those corrupted.
- im3w1l 10mo agoWhenever I heard that expression I have never perceived people to mean "so don't obtain power". More like, "if you do get power be careful". Or "even if he seems like a nice guy, we should maintain a separation of powers". Like it's more a force than a destiny. Gravity pulls the moon down every day yet it doesn't fall on our heads.
- LAC-Tech 10mo ago[flagged]
- owisd 10mo agoFor a more rigorous definition than “things I don’t like”, there’s Umberto Eco’s core characteristics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism
- bluecalm 10mo ago[flagged]
- lpcvoid 10mo ago>The word "fascist" now has positive connotations for me Spoken like somebody who never had to endure real fascism. >I realise a lot of you will want to call me fascist for this comment, or more likely something a bit snider and less direct. Just know that I genuinely don't care. It's just a word now. No, you may not be a fascist, but it's opinions like yours that helped make it possible. Mitläufer.
- LAC-Tech 10mo agoMitläufer The English phrase you are looking for would be "fellow traveller".
- chickensong 10mo agoFascism is a well defined ideology. RIP to your bizarre comment.
- podgorniy 10mo agoFascism is a form of ultranationalism based on a myth of national rebirth (“we must purge decadence and be born again”), which seeks to create a new, regimented society through authoritarian power and mass mobilization, often embracing violence. == Facism is a very appealing form of organizing society, so no surprise that people would like to have it. The same way many europeans though that facism is an answer to many problems of those times. But wait, why, beyond shallow demonisation, such seemingly great idea could be considered undesired? Thoughts?
- lapcat 10mo agoIs there a HN convention for links to books? This book appears to be available only for preorder now, not yet published. Nobody here has read it, nobody here can read it, and even if they could, this submission will disappear off the front pages before commenters have a chance to order and read the book. Thus the comments section here is going to be useless (or at least more useless than usual).
- brunohaid 10mo agoVery good question - posted it for awareness / sparking hopefully nuanced “are we the baddies here?” reflection in the community, and curious folks to preorder.
- adamors 10mo agoI wanted to disagree then checked the release date. It’s August of 2026. Really early to be discussing this.
- arthurofbabylon 10mo agoThe comments section here is a phenomenal expository of biases, for the very reason you cite.
- ManlyBread 10mo agoI don't know what happened to this website but stuff like this keeps hitting the front page more and more often despite having close to zero value. It feels like SEO spam to me.
- lapcat 10mo ago"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html The person who submitted the link already explained the submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46068363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46068363
- newsclues 10mo ago[flagged]
- pjmlp 10mo agoAnything that is a millimeter to the left in US politics, which happens to still be considered right in the rest of the world, gets immediately coined as left wing activists.
- newsclues 10mo agoI use the term progressive as a slur for the idiots who think communism is good and capitalism is evil (posted from their iPhones at Starbucks).
- pjmlp 10mo agoThere is a middleground between communism and late stage capitalism. One of them being, not end on the street because one cannot afford to pay their healthcare. Which from US politics point of view makes the rest of the world communist.
- hagbard_c 10mo agoThis may have been true in the 80's but it is no longer the case. Left wing politics and whatever nutty ideas this faction produces is now more extreme than its counterpart in Europe. It is as if US lefties have taken the 'everything is bigger in the USA' mantra and applied it to their utopian ideologies. State-run grocery stores? The whole 'DEI/DIE' bureaucra[c/z]y? The aggressive way in which gender ideology is being forced upon those too young to realise they're being bamboozled? Only in the U.S.A...
- brazukadev 10mo agoGender ideology has nothing to do with left wing (outside of the US). The gender pay gap has tho
- jmye 10mo ago
- xg15 10mo ago> "The Sovereign Individual" by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. Lord William Rees-Mogg being the father of Jacob Rees-Mogg, of Brexit fame. Interesting how often you meet the same people if you just start digging a little.
- pjc50 10mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_Individual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_Individual : 1997, since I had to check. > Interesting how often you meet the same people if you just start digging a little. Endemic problem in UK politics, and a lot of other countries.
- WickyNilliams 10mo agoI think it's lost on people outside of the UK - perhaps even to many inside the UK - just how strongly there is a class divide and a ruling elite. The old money is very old indeed
- amiga386 10mo agoIndeed. You are literally likely to be in a better social class today if your ancestors were Normans conquerors rather than the Anglo-Saxon conquered. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60593/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Cummins%2C%20N_Surnames_Cummins_Surnames_2015.pdf https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60593/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRAR...
- WickyNilliams 10mo agoThanks that sounds fascinating. Will take a look
- nkmnz 10mo agoActually, that 0.7 intergenerational correlation only tracks surnames—i.e., the male line. It completely ignores the fact that ~50% of the population changes status by marriage, which is invisible in surname analysis. Think about it: when a blacksmith’s daughter marries a baron, her social mobility doesn’t show up anywhere in the data. She just becomes part of the baron’s lineage going forward. So Clark has discovered that patrilineal dynasties persist with 0.7 correlation, and then presented this as if it were a measure of social mobility. It’s not. It’s a measure of surname mobility. If assortative mating across 500 years averaged something like 0.5 (plausible—people married outside their exact status all the time), the actual population-wide status persistence might be closer to 0.4 than 0.7. That’s… a completely different story about how stratified society actually was. But sure, “elites persist for centuries” makes for better book sales than “we measured half the mobility and ignored the other half.”
- nephihaha 10mo agoThis is far more similar to Communism than Fascism. Their mentality is that they are a scientific vanguard (like Marxism) and that the ends justify the means. They also share the binary thinking of Marxists. They part company with Fascism because most of them are internationalist.
- wolvesechoes 10mo agoGo read some books first.
- nephihaha 10mo agoI've probably read more books than you have. I used to read twenty a month at one point.
- wolvesechoes 10mo agoYet you didn't get to actually read books relevant to the topic.
- nephihaha 10mo agoI've read plenty, thanks. The difference is that while I have read plenty of works by Marxists and their apologists, I don't just read books by such people. Maybe you should do the same. Any ideology which says "the ends justify the means", or that it alone is scientific, is going to end up with a high body count.
- drcongo 10mo agoAs Marx so famously wrote, all the wealth earned by the people should be concentrated into the hands of a few chosen elites.
- brettermeier 10mo agoMAGA spam bot?
- misja111 10mo ago[flagged]
- pjc50 10mo ago> I see no support per se for a dictatorial leader, or for strong regimentation of society Everyone who donated to the Trump inauguration knew what they were buying into, and it has definitely delivered troops-on-the-streets fascism.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- WickyNilliams 10mo agoAre you familiar with Curtis Yarvin, and his influence with Thiel, JD Vance etc? He absolutely advocates for monarchy and dismantling democracy. He's also, if we are to judge his extensive writing, very much a racist https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right...
- misja111 10mo agoI'm not saying that none of the Silicon Valley oligarchs have some fascist sympathies. But this book is generalizing over all of Silicon Valley.
- WickyNilliams 10mo agoFair. Though Thiel has outsized influence in that sphere, so it is significant even if not universal
- frm88 10mo agoHave you read Umberto Eco's essay on Ur-fascism per chance? The dictator bit comes later, if it comes at all. Eco made 14 points that let you detect fascism - the higher the score, the higher the chance of a fascist regime being established. It makes for a stunning read https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the.... Brett Deveraux (historian) once tried to match US society to those 14 points with the expected result: the US matches all 14. He wrote on his blog about it here: https://acoup.blog/2024/10/25/new-acquisitions-1933-and-the-definition-of-fascism/ https://acoup.blog/2024/10/25/new-acquisitions-1933-and-the-...
- wolvesechoes 10mo agoProblem is not with nerds or Silicon Valley, even if Thiel is a lunatic. Problem are, and always were, obscenely wealthy people destroying the society that created them. In the world where greed is not considered sin anymore, or even a character flaw, they don't even need to pretend anymore.
- _DeadFred_ 10mo agoCrazy to live in a time less moral than the robber baron age. That said, our society made a joke of children making our shoes in miserable conditions, so we have been conditioning ourselves to be ok with this on our own and for a long time.
- jmclnx 10mo agoI would not call these people "nerds", many are entitled bros (gals?) with rather rich parents. If you look at many of their family history, their parents are well into the upper middle class, borderline rich. In most cases, they went to the best schools. It just so happens, tech is were the real money is now. If this was 40+ years ago, they would have ended up on Wall Street or Madison Avenue.
- tim333 10mo agoThere's a youtube interview with the author here https://youtu.be/FWjR6_qYJAw?t=44 https://youtu.be/FWjR6_qYJAw?t=44 A lot seems about Curtis Yarvin and fans thereof.
- grigio 10mo agoIt seems nicer than the Woke Reich
- bigyabai 10mo agoIt's been 10 years, and I have still yet to hear any two people define "woke" the same.
- wtcactus 10mo agoIt’s been 10 years and I have still yet to ear anyone on the far left defining what is a woman without using the very word “woman”. Meaning: if you think the majority of people will be coerced to normalize this all insanity being pushed by a bunch of mindless Marxists living under the prosperity of capitalism, you will be sorely disappointed. The USA just elected 2 communists for mayors (they don’t even hide it anymore) but here people are trying to tell us the real issue with present society is fascism. I’ve seen how that game plays out: and it’s not pretty.
- bigyabai 10mo ago> The USA just elected 2 communists for mayors (they don’t even hide it anymore) but here people are trying to tell us the real issue with present society is fascism. Italy had elected dozens of communist and socialist leaders, including mayors, in the 1940s. History does indeed blame the fascists for cooperating with the Nazis, not the minority parties. If you think the historians framed the wrong guy, that's news to me. Show me some evidence that fascism is a smaller threat to America, I love a good argument.
- wtcactus 10mo agoYou've misinterpreted my point. But, I'll start by addressing your statement that fascism is so much worse than communism: It's not, all numbers from the 20th century show us that communism is even worse than fascism... and that's a very though target to beat. But about my point. My point is not preferring fascism to communism: any kind of collectivism is equally bad and only brings pain and misery to the people. My point is that presently, communism is a much bigger threat since you have a lot more communists in positions of power than fascists. Sure, it's fancy to now call fascist to anyone that defends basic common sense measures that were accepted by any Democrat as obvious under Clinton (you know, things like meritocracy, praising hard work, incarcerating violent offenders, keeping borders secure and expecting people to work in order to get money... all big red fascist flags nowadays), but you don't have single person in any real position of power of public exposure telling you proudly they are fascists. But boy, you do have a bunch of them telling you they are "socialists", or "Marxists"... and now, you even have some telling you outright they are communists. Let's get this straight, the amount of propaganda reached such a degree of insanity in the USA, that you now have people, openly admitting they are communists without any repercussions. They are even getting elected for public office.
- lil-lugger 10mo agoMy cousin suddenly has been very captured and obsessed by an area of opinion I didn’t have a name for, fixed money supply, all inflation inherently bad, Elon Musk is badly treated, longer government terms (which sounds reasonable initially until you actually think about just having LESS democracy), no minimum wage. After some research it’s definitely coming from influencers linked to the SV techno feudalists - it’s just such a strong change. But you realise real power is only useful if people can come along with you - if you can build support with the public…
- cloverich 10mo agoSounds loosely libertarian, but the longer terms one is new. Its long appealed to technical folks because of its simplicity and ability to address a wide swath of policy issues. It took me a long time to break myself out of it. I think key was getting into the deep details of passing actual policies that would have enough popular support to be sustainable, to realize its ultimately just naive/simplistic thinking, thats another impractical ideology under the hood, dressed up as something more meaningful.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- expedition32 10mo agoNerds who were bullied at school and weren't picked in gym class style themselves the new SS.
- keernan 10mo agoI'm no historian, but has there ever been a society in world history that wasn't dominated by a 'privileged few'? Weren't the 'rules' of the United States of America written by wealthy white males who excluded women, non-whites, and the non-wealthy (eg non-land owning) from participating in the new nation? As much as the worldwide turn to fascism worries me, I don't see the lives of most people in the world changing very drastically from any other time in history. Maybe the openness by which the privileged exercise their power is a bit higher on the historical scale, but the lives of the non-privileged, world wide, really don't change much over history. Sure, the invention of fire, electricity, etc benefitted all of mankind, but the distinctions of 'how life is lived' between the privileged and the non-privileged has always been dramatic.
- lunar-whitey 10mo agoThe United States from 1945 to about 1970 made a fair amount of noise about broadening the scope of the franchise. This certainly was not the norm historically, but contemporary ambivalence about that project is what leads us to this article today.
- cadamsdotcom 10mo agoUnfettered capitalism is great under certain conditions. Amazing things get invented & rolled out to the world. When conditions change, cracks appear.. For many reasons we appear to be in an era of slower growth, but shareholders used to growth are still demanding it. That’s sticking business leaders in a really tough place. The incentives need to change - whether through legislation, or market demands. Until then it’ll be less leg room on flights, more “offers” when you just opened your banking app to pay a bill, and more sanctioned spam in your inbox. I truly believe plenty of folks are fed up and a backlash is coming that’ll be a mix of legislation and companies emerging that cater to informed customers. I’m optimistic!
- lm28469 10mo ago> Unfettered capitalism is great under certain conditions. Amazing things get invented & rolled out to the world. That's a really naive take, for you to enjoy this "ideal capitalism" there are hundred thousands of people who've been seeing and feeling these cracks for decades if not centuries, it's just slowly reaching your neck of the woods
- rufusdali 10mo ago[flagged]
- sershe 10mo agoIn less than a page, they call it feudalism, fascism, and capital(ism) / corporate rule. Mussolini in his manifesto explicitly defined the 2nd in opposition to the 3rd among other things, and even Marx considered the 1st and the 3rd to be very distinct. Of course the 1st and the 2nd are also quite different. So which one is it? Oh wait, it's a modern progressive, "calling everything I don't like every bad name I remember from high school history"! Are they also nativist globalists and authoritarian libertarians? I bet they are!
- angelfangs 10mo agoWhat's the actual factual accusation here? That monied interests converge on the ruling power? How is this different when the 'opposition' is in control? As conditions for the middle class continue to deteriorate, isn't it normal that companies that depend on middle class purchasing power try to adjust government buttons and levers to assure their continuation and position in the market? The 'holier than thou' is showing.
- cindyllm 10mo ago[dead]
- fithisux 10mo agoNot only in Silicon Valley.