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The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

simonandschuster.com

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Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#121

Post by WickyNilliams »

pjc50 wrote: post #92
xg15 wrote: post #69

> "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.

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.

I 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

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#122

Post by jmclnx »

I 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.

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#123

Post by WickyNilliams »

misja111 wrote: post #94

[flagged]

Are 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...

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#124

Post by sidibe »

mikkupikku wrote: post #113
adev_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[11][28] At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual.[29] At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for…

He definitely has talked about a lot of nerdy books. Don't know about his attention span and not sure how to square what he likes with his values. He brings up the Culture all the time but I have my doubts that he's actually read them

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#125

Post by tim333 »

irthomasthomas wrote: post #115
imtringued wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk is probably one of the most cutthroat businessmen on the planet. His skills don't lie in technological implementation whatsoever. Martin Eberhard was the technical co-founder of Tesla and Elon Musk is trying his best to erase his contributions to Tesla.

Eberhard and Tarpenning where the co-founders. Musk was an early investor, became the third CEO, and then sued to claim co-founder status.

Yeah there's an interesting interview with Eberhard https://youtu.be/88KHfX_kPIY?t=88

Eberhard wasn't that technical and was the CEO in the early years.

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#126

Post by 5555624 »

furyofantares wrote: post #55
brabel wrote: post #4

[flagged]

I think it's both. For sure Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and others all have some extremely out there beliefs, lots of power, a desire to wield it, and connections to POTUS and the vice president who both seem to be about gaining and wielding as much power as possible. I haven't read the book but I've read some stuff on a website of the same name, and the way it ties it all together felt very tinfoil hat to…

>I haven't read the book

Has anyone? It's got an August 2026 publication date. Is there even a first draft?

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#127

Post by seydor »

sach1 wrote: post #116
seydor wrote: post #15

I think it's simpler,money has no Color, no religion. Silicon valley just happened to reside next to the hippies in the first decades

So 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.

It 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

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#128

Post by pjmlp »

newsclues wrote: post #78
pjmlp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything 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.

I 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).

There 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.

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#129

Post by tim333 »

adev_ wrote: post #56
jve wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon 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…

> 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.

He wrote and sold his first software aged 12. He may not be very good with computers but does have some nerd origin.

Re: The Nerd Reich – Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy

#130

Post by seydor »

podgorniy wrote: post #53
seydor wrote: post #15

I think it's simpler,money has no Color, no religion. Silicon valley just happened to reside next to the hippies in the first decades

Now 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.

I don't think those pass the sniff test, but grand narratives help to fuel the stocks and invesment bubble
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