Why tech billionaires want a ‘corporate dictatorship
https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/707010/gil-duran-the-nerd-reich-tech-billionaires-authoritarianism-dictator
Why tech billionaires want a ‘corporate dictatorship
https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/707010/gil-duran-the-nerd-reich-tech-billionaires-authoritarianism-dictator
22 Comments
The “Nerd Reich,” as Gil sees it, is a web of powerful, ultrawealthy tech billionaires. People like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and others, whose politics and influence now see them pushing the country further and further away from democracy and toward something resembling a kind of cross between unrestrained capitalism and monarchy.
This idea has been kicking around for quite a while now. You’ll hear Gil refer to it as the Dark Enlightenment, or as some refer to it, the neo-reactionary movement. Some central characters here include Curtis Yarvin — an influential, anti-democracy blogger whose ideas once stood far outside mainstream acceptability, but who recently has captured the attention of politicians like Vice President JD Vance.
And that’s Gil’s central thesis: while these ideas are not new, their embrace by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet is a relatively recent phenomenon — one that’s been supercharged by President Donald Trump’s reelection.
Now that these ideas have entered the White House by way of the MAGA movement, Gil argues that it has created a dangerous coalition between the far right and the stewards of the biggest, most popular tech platforms and products. After all, as we’ve seen with Elon Musk and DOGE, these tech billionaires aren’t just sitting in the shadows; they want to tear down and rebuild the government from the ground up.
When I studied such things there was the concept of “anarcho-capitalism,” which was largely viewed as a worst-case scenario. I fear that we’ve arrived there, with the added horror of a religious cult aspect thrown in for good measure.
Cause they are already rich techbros who can dictate terms and pull the ladders back up after them. Hell, I would want a dictatorship if i was the guy in charge. Its good to be the king.
Seems like people would let Internet corporations take over democracy before y’all considered bringing democracy to the Internet corporations
This is a great discussion that isn’t solely on the topic, but covers it quite well: https://youtu.be/SiBJeLrIoes?si=xYxxJW1xikS3jyog
This is nothing new. Shortly before and during the “gilded age” (when robber barons like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgen, and Vanderbilt amassed unheard-of wealth at the expense of everyone else) companies used to have their own towns with their own corporation laws, and they paid workers with company money that wasn’t worth anything anywhere else. Amazon and Facebook are already trying to bring this back into vogue, and the rest of the “tech billionaires” are all for it, too.
Repussicans like Trump are doing everything they can to bring back corporate dictatorship.
Is the answer: because it gives them power? Because I’m pretty sure that’s the answer behind everyone who wants some form of autocratic rule. No one raises their hand votes for someone else or some other party to be the dictator. Always their group.
How do libertarians and market fundamentalists reconcile with this fact that corporations want dictatorship?
Anyone who has read the original fascist (corporatist) manifestos knows exactly why capitalists want corporatocracy (fascism) in times of crisis. They literally spelled it out for us in the early 1900s.
Why is it that we get all the corporate corruption of a cyberpunk dystopia but none of the actual cool stuff?
What do you mean want one? They pretty much got what they want already.
Unpopular opinion maybe: a lot of these tech elitists are on the spectrum. And if there is one thing I’ve learned as someone on the spectrum, its that autistic men with dysfunctional social learning will become power hungry bastards. Its not even malicious sometimes. Hell i still remember my brother (who is deeper on the spectrum than me) talking about how he wanted to rule the world after he read Ender’s Game at 15. Luckily he only talked about it to me and wasn’t pummeled by kids at school for crazy shit like that. But its the desire of ordered world around them and the hubris of never having someone realistically tell them their crazy. Its no surprise someone like Musk and Thiel see themselves as saviors of the dumb people that are just “not smart enough to lead.”
I’m skeptical. A lot of what Trump does is classic populism, which seems like the opposite of “unrestrained capitalism and monarchy.”
Immigration policy is a pretty good example. I don’t really see why ultrawealthy tech billionaires would be opposed to immigration. That’s very much a nationalist/populist stance through history.
This doesn’t cover the half of it.
There are fringe players working alongside the people this article is talking about who are funding astroturf/cults to create a culture war, and chaos. They have conferences about taking over the world. They dump massive amounts of money into controlling local elections, and there’s a loop of groups like YIMBY and thei politicians their funders also support, to try and consolidate land control and create conditions to put it into the hands of corporations. When that wasn’t moving quick enough, they started openly talking about using AI to break the system, and insulate themselves in their own cities, or create worker cities.
The sad truth is that corporate boards are probably a lot more responsible than voters who elected the Trumpen dingleberry or Boris Johnson.
How many times does Bernie gotta tell yall about Oligarchy until you believe it?
They are the House of Ordos. Once you have enough influence and money, what else do you do to overcome boredom? Go for the power and more money and influence!
He told the world what he would do if he was elected, yet many still voted for him.
Because they’re greedy fucks. Nothing more to say about it.
These people have a lot of faith that throwing out the current social contract will work out for them in the end.
if there is one thing that makes me feel some hope is the knowledge that all these guys are hideously unsuited to actually running society and always tend to burn the very system they depend on for power.
the western half of rome didnt fall because of barbarian invasions, in fact according to reports many roman citizens willingly joined in because the vast majority were poor and literally stuck in proto feudalism. they had literally no reason to care even if rome fell and several reasons to support it. All because at that point the rich had drained the empire of any worth or reason to care for it.
these assholes destroy themselves.
not that there wont be horrible consequences for several others but damn we can at least hope only these assholes suffer
You get tech billionaires when the gov doesn’t enforce anti monopoly laws. Who has been in charge for most of the time over the last 20 years? Democrats.