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- cross-posted to:
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An influential Silicon Valley publication runs a cover story lamenting the āpussificationā of tech. A major tech CEO lambasts a Black civil rights leaderās calls for diversifying the tech workforce. Technologists rage against the āPC policeā.
No, this isnāt Silicon Valley in the age of Maga. Itās the tech industry of the 1990s, when observers first raised concerns about the rightwing bend of Silicon Valley and the potential for ātechnofascismā. Despite the industryās (often undeserved) reputation for liberalism, its reactionary foundations were baked in almost from the beginning. As Silicon Valley enters a second Trump administration, the gendered roots of its original reactionary movement offer insight into todayās rightward turn.
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This rising ātechnofascismā, as critics of the time had called it, was temporarily staved off by the dotcom stock market crash of 2000. George Gilderās reputation was badly damaged after he failed to predict the crash. And much of the hype around digital tech was temporarily tempered after hundreds of startups went bust. But a younger generation of aspiring tech hopefuls had already come to the valley, seeking fame, riches, and power. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and others had absorbed the lessons of the 90s. At the start of the new millennium, they were ready to put their stamp on the future, guided by reactionary dreams of the past.
The Silicon Valley titans of 2025 are following the same blueprint. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was ending its DEI programs and changing its platform policies to allow more discriminatory and harassing posts. On Joe Roganās podcast, Zuckerberg made his motivations clear: he claimed that corporate culture had moved away from āmasculine energyā and needed to reinstate it after getting āneuteredā. Elon Musk has reshaped Twitter into X, a platform in large part operating as a response to claims of a āwoke mind virusāā the newest iteration of āpolitical correctnessā. And Marc Andreessen himself, the āboy geniusā of the 1990s, has increasingly drawn inspiration from the Italian futurists, a movement of fascist artists in the early 20th century who glorified technology while seeking to ādemolishā feminism.
But the history of the valley suggests this isnāt a blip or an anomaly. Itās a crescendo of forces central to the tech industry, and the current wave of rightwing tech titans are building on Silicon Valleyās foundations.
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This goes back to the Crypto Markets of the pre-COVID era and the libertarian dream of an entirely privatized form of techno-segregation. Peter Thielās vision for the future involves a fully automated apartheid regime the likes of which even Israel has yet to achieve. Guys like Zuck and Musk are ultimately just along for the ride.
The most recent news-media engineered screaming fit over DEI is just one more assault on the liberal barricades, as these parasites infiltrate the upper echalons of the bureaucratic world and weed out anyone who isnāt fully pilled on a techno-feudal white supremacy.
One side-effect of the movement is guys like Luigi who come out of the cult-like social atmosphere with very revolutionary ideas for change rooted in very reactionary understandings of the status quo. Killing Brian Thompson as an act of Longtermism touched a libidinal urge within the public at-large to throw down the scholoratic old dynasty of corrupt administrators. But it came out of Luigiās time basting in an ideology that venerated strict hierarchies only to convince himself that the wrong people were in charge.
Jokes aside
This is serious shit.
Just finished the article. It was a great read and I appreciate you sharing it.
Behind the bastards host Rober Evans does a great job of outlining how this is happening in his book, āThe War on Everyone.ā Itās available for free all over the Internet (Including SoundCloud).
Iām more of a TrashFuture and TrueAnon head because I canāt stand ads.
TrueAnonās The Blue Light Killer takes a deep dive into Mangioneās political beliefs. I know TrashFuture has a bunch on Thielās TPOT/Grey Tribe bullshit, but Iāll be damned if I can find it.
People should also read about Curtis Yarvin while theyāre at it.
The article they linked goes into great detail about him and really, truly, ties all these ends together.
While it most likely started way before, the sale of Twitter was the turning point. Twitter was (albeit is NeoNazis allowed to flourish under Jackās ownership for engagement) the digital public square, much moreso than Facebook, or anything else that had come before, in that Politicians, Entertainment figures, World leaders, News orginizations, Federal and State agencies the world over, joined regular joe schmoe internet user, in releasing pertinent up to date information, new, and engaged in conversation. It was a miracle. It was babel before the fall.
Twitter was bought by Musk at the behest of Saudi royals who never again wanted to be raked over the coals globally for doing something like butchering Kashoggi, the blowback cost them face which they were not prepared for spending billions on things like soccer leagues and stadium to curry favor with the west, and Elon wanted Saudi markets open for his rocket ships and electric cars, they invested, he invested, but mostly he took out loans from sucker banks which had made money from Tesla and Space x. I donāt think he intended to become the nazi poster child when he bought twitter, but water finds itās own level, and this was always his. Musk has used his position as owner of SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter to sway the US election, and install himself at the very highest level of actual government.
Canāt believe they didnāt mention Yarvin as inspiration for these shitheads.
And Nick Land, as well as the wider Dark Enlightenment.
