The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy by Gil Durán
Many thanks to Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, and
NetGalley for allowing me to read Gil Durán’s urgent, shocking, and timely book
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. I
recently heard about this book from Charles Pierce in one of his columns. While
Pierce didn’t do a deep dive into the book, I really appreciate his incisive
critiques of the current political atmosphere. Durán’s book aligns with Pierce’s
views that often call out the inhumanity, physical and institutional violence,
and grift wafting its stink from the White House. However, Durán examines how
the rise of Silicon Valley has converged with the MAGA extremism that has ideologically
captured the current GOP, allowing a moneyed contingent of disaffected misanthropes
to accelerate the end of democracy in favor of something far more sinister and
self-serving, in the worst-case scenario. However, the tech titans featured in
this book are often portrayed as disruptive innovators and forward-thinking
geniuses whose contributions to technology and calls for limited regulation are
beneficial and necessary for growth and development. Yet, Durán unearths the
dark reality of their goal of disruption is not for the greater good of all,
but rather to hasten the collapse of traditional nation-states, which would
allow those with the means to create their own city-states or nations, as
documented in Davidson and Rees-Mogg’s The Sovereign Individual, a
strange and apocalyptic book from the late 90s that claims that the end of
nation-states is near with the decline of industrial economies giving way to
information economies. This shift will allow a rich elite class to create their
own enclaves in order to protect their wealth. As Durán documents, much of the
predictions from Davidson and Rees-Mogg never came true, yet the book and
others by the authors became a kind of libertarian text, along with Lord of
the Rings. As strange as it is to think that a synthesis of new-age
apocalyptic thinking with sci-fi-fantasy has significantly influenced the most
powerful sector in the most powerful economy, this is the reality that has is continually
foisted upon the public as Silicon Valley continues to eat up areas of government,
politics, media, and entertainment that reaches most of the US population. Durán’s
research and reporting not only documents the invasive reach of these elite
geniuses, but he also explores the influences that have helped to shape and disrupt
much of the traditional information outlets and infrastructure in American
society over the last 25 years. I appreciated his overview of Davidson and
Rees-Mogg, as well as the odd Curtis Yarvin, whose writings I was not aware of
until the 2024 election was over. As Durán documents, Yarvin and Thiel helped
to influence and current vice president JD Vance, and bankroll his post-Yale
law school employment, which Durán documents his mediocre and rather non-existent
accomplishments. What was both interesting and rather terrifying is the way
that Thiel’s reach and money enabled him to engineer Vance from a bland ivy-league
law school grad to a viable GOP candidate, who claimed Trump was “America’s
Hitler”, and eventually to join Trump’s ticket. While Durán doesn’t get into
the analytics of Vance’s transition from Trump critic to fanboy, he does show
how Vance’s language and views shifted to more MAGAfied language and twitter
takes during his Ohio senate campaign, which was incredibly expensive and bankrolled
largely by Thiel.
In addition to examining the influences and politics of
Silicon Valley, what was most reveling in Durán’s book was the profiles of the
Silicon Valley broligarchy. While I’ve
heard of Peter Thiel, largely because of the Gawker trial, and Musk, I
wasn’t as familiar with some of the other names like Balaji Srinivasan, Joe
Lonsdale, and Marc Andreessen, and how their venture capital companies fund
disruptive technologies and companies that largely lead to what Cory Doctorow calls
“enshittification.” I’ve become acquainted with other members of the
broligarchy through their roles in Trump’s second administration, like David Sacks,
who has been a special advisor on topics like crypto and AI. Durán’s reporting
and analysis helps to illuminate the convergence of these two seemingly
disparate groups who share a disdain for most of humanity, government, and
general empathy. In many ways, their views of engineering a world where free
thinking is replaced by efficiency and algorithms was initially documented in
Franklin Foer’s Word Without Mind, but Durán takes these ideas further
to demonstrate how big tech’s insistence on disruption is tied to the esoteric
and fantastical libertarian fever dreams of The Sovereign Individual and
a disdain and resentment towards people. While Elon Musk’s transition from tech
titan to sloppy solipsist has been writ large for all to witness, other
misanthropic trolls like Balaji Srinivasan come off as pretty nihilistic and
nasty in Durán’s book.
What was even more surprising to learn beyond the
misanthropy and nihilism of big tech’s desire for destruction was their co-opting
and perversion of religion. While Thiel’s recent pivot to apocalyptic preaching
has received some credit, Durán cites other instances of a kind of syncretic
tech-addled Christianity that evangelizes that the first shall be first. Big
tech has developed their own sermon in the valley where the message is blessed
are the selfish, for they shall purchase the land. Durán explores not only this
pivot to a distorted view of Christianity, but also big tech’s attempts to
build their own cities and enclaves, often under the premise of zones of economic
opportunity, designated lands that avoid certain regulations and restrictions
in order to speed up economic development. While Durán details failed attempts
by big tech to purchase massive land packages and develop new cities, he also
notes other instances of experiments abroad, such as a Próspera in Roatán, a
small island off the coast of Honduras. I was stunned to learn about this, as I
visited Roatán a few years ago, but I do remember a tour guide pointing out the
private air strips. Próspera was championed by then president Juan Orlando Hernández,
a convicted drug trafficker who was recently pardoned by President Trump. Durán
documents the incredible reach of big tech and its entanglements with the
second Trump administration to not only upend democratic institutions and
enrich the president, but also to continue to facilitate these kinds of
experimental cities that will ultimately benefit the broligarchy and most
likely deepen inequality, especially in developing nations like Honduras. Durán
notes that Trump’s proposal for “Freedom Cities”, a vague and nebulous plan to
erect new cities on undeveloped federal ground, aligns with these sovereign
cities like Próspera and other attempts big tech has engaged in to develop their
own exclusive enclaves. In fact, Durán details Balaji Srinivasan’s Network
State, which calls for a tech takeover of the city, dividing it between the
Gray tribe (tech) and Blue tribe (democrats), where the Grays are able to buy
out police and other enforcement through providing food and shelter. Although
light on details, Trump’s “Freedom Cities” suggests that investors would
develop new cities on federal land (rather than redevelop existing cities and
properties), allowing a kind of exit and potential for a feudalism and autonomy
that Durán claims big tech desires. Although Trump’s plan hasn’t really
materialized, Durán draws the connections between big tech and Trump to identify
the ways in which both have sought to disrupt and dismantle traditional
nation-states and democracy to usher in an age of fight and feudalism. Durán
further untangles the sordid entanglements of big tech and Trump through the
latter’s pivot to crypto, which is another marker of big tech’s attempts to
disrupt traditional economies. Durán’s explanation of how crypto and bitcoin have
evolved over the years to emerge as the president’s favorite scam is clear. He
explores the ways that early online payment processors like paypal, where Musk
and Thiel made their mark in tech, likely developed as a means to provide an alternative
to traditional currency, another element that was discussed in The Sovereign
Individual that would likely hasten the demise of democracy and nation
states. Although crypto was touted as a means for decentralization and possibly
avoidance of financial regulations and taxes, the president has recognized its
power as a means to make money from his followers, and Durán’s reporting
explores the intersection of big tech, crypto cons like FTX, and the president’s
increasing wealth and deregulation and pardoning that has benefitted and awarded
crypto-criminals who have gone on to become major contributors to Trump’s World
Liberty Financial. It’s a shocking network that, according to Durán’s
reporting, has largely been facilitated by the libertarian fever dreams started
in chat rooms and group texts, that eventually morphed into the Network State
Conferences and other gatherings to promote the ideas from The Sovereign
Individual.
Although big tech has taken considerable action to
accelerate the end of the nation-state, Durán’s book ends with some important
reminders and assurances that the end is not guaranteed. He reminds readers
about the strength in numbers and how rejection of the pessimism and nihilism
of big tech and the broligarchy can prevent their final solution for American
society. He cites instances of failed Network States in California and other regions
to show how towns and communities can band together to reject this kind of
takeover, while also offering some additional practical advice for individuals
and groups to be cautious and concerned about the overreach of big tech in our lives.
While this book is both eye-opening and disheartening at times, it’s also an
important reminder to recognize the tradeoffs we sometimes make when we welcome
in efficiency and convenience that technology and social media provide. Durán’s
The Nerd Reich is an important and urgent book to read to not only learn
about the intersection of big tech and politics, but also their nihilistic and
misanthropic views of society, and their goals of creating a kind of
tech-feudalism that would arise after the collapse of democracy. It’s a shocking
revelation, but also important to learn more about as big tech continues to insert
its reach into our lives. Highly recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment