network state
Less than one week after American military forces conducted an illegal raid to kidnap the authoritarian president of Venezuela, some want to build a Network State there. Mark Lutter, executive director of the Charter Cities Institute, has issued a public call for Trump to put a “freedom city” in Venezuela:
venture capital
“The rational fear of those who dislike economic inequality is that the rich will convert their economic power into political power: that they’ll tilt elections, or pay bribes for pardons, or buy up the news media to promote their views. I used to be able to claim that tech
peter thiel
Tech billionaires in California are furious. A new proposal for a wealth tax on the super rich has them packing their bags and threatening to leave the Golden State for good. Again. Oligarchs regularly make such threats and fail to follow through, so we must take such antics with a
When venture capitalists start preaching and preachers start talking crypto, you know democracy’s in deep trouble. Silicon Valley extremists and religious extremists are finding plenty of common ground these days. Both groups see themselves as destined to rule, they have similar strategies for taking control, and they are working
tech fascism
New York Times publishes dramatic warning
‘There's also a human-shaped hole in many of their lives.’
network state
The Financial Times is the latest mainstream newspaper to discover the existence of the Network State cult. In a story headlined “Tech elites are starting their own for-profit cities,” FT writer Hannah Murphy outlines the basics of the movement to create new tech-controlled fascist cities all over the world. This
Dark Enlightenment
Silicon Valley radicalization escalates
network state
On Tuesday, Donald Trump pardoned a convicted drug trafficker who happens to be the former president of Honduras. There's a Network State angle. Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of conspiring to smuggle over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, is the right-wing politician who supported
david sacks
David Sacks “has occupied one of the most advantageous moonlighting roles in the federal government, influencing policy for Silicon Valley in Washington while simultaneously working in Silicon Valley as an investor”
The Nerd Reich
Make sure to read this: The New York Times has profiled Paulina Borsook, the tech critic who warned of Silicon Valley’s dark side thirty years ago. (I interviewed her last month on the Nerd Reich podcast.) Writes David Streitfeld of the NYT: Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish” saw the seeds
It’s official: My first book will be released on August 4, 2026 The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy will be published by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster. → Pre-order your copy now Pre-orders are crucial—they determine whether a book succeeds or fails. If
