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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

#151

Post by petra »

Treegarden wrote: post #81
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.

I don’t see how “tech” is limited to software. While your case might be made for software, according to many accounts Musk is a strong driver on the hardware side. For instance, I’ve read the Tesla and SpaceX books by Eric Berger, which are much more focused on technical things compared to the more mainstream books. And while Musk is not in the trenches with a screwdriver, he’s not faking it either. To be honest, I’m…

There was a podcast with Mark Andreesen, the VC, and he said that Elon has deep understanding and involvement in the technical side in his companies.

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

#152

Post by amiga386 »

WickyNilliams wrote: post #121
pjc50 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Indeed. You are literally likely to be in a better social class today if your ancestors were Normans conquerors rather than the Anglo-Saxon conquered.

https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60593/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRAR...

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

#153

Post by rolandog »

skrebbel wrote: post #2

I'm not a big sucker for this kind of un-nuanced "us vs them" rhetoric, but I gotta admit, the title is a stroke of genius.

Perhaps the nuance is in the eye of the beholder? I don't think it's sustainable to go about our lives wearing blinders and averting our gaze from the misuse of technology because one might be afraid of unhappy feelings creeping in.

One must not be so cowardly as to deny that materials and technology can be misused or deny that their purpose is of oppression for fear of being attacked by group-thinkers.

"The unexamined life is not worth living" as Socrates put it. So, I invite you not play the usual game of narrowly looking at a single if statement and conclude "there's nothing political in this"; but rather look at the bigger picture... the asymmetry in access to information, resources, weapons, and how that impacts everyone's lives...

If we don't admit that there's a couple dozen people with immeasurable wealth and resources who have questionable intentions and opinions that affect our day-to-day lives, then we won't be able to prevent worse outcomes in a timely manner.

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

#154

Post by pcrh »

lapcat wrote: post #25

Is there a HN convention for links to books? This book appears to be available only for preorder now, not yet published. Nobody here has read it, nobody here can read it, and even if they could, this submission will disappear off the front pages before commenters have a chance to order and read the book. Thus the comments section here is going to be useless (or at least more useless than usual).

Perhaps a link to the author's website and podcast would be more appropriate?

https://www.thenerdreich.com/

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

#155

Post by beAbU »

tim333 wrote: post #138
happymellon wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that he didn't invent any of it. Just a savvy investor, and as far as I understand, hasn't really worked on any of it. His contributions were rants until he just took ketamine. His work was making a yelp clone.

He invented the very successful hyperloop.

Did you forget your /s ?

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

#156

Post by WickyNilliams »

amiga386 wrote: post #152
WickyNilliams wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Indeed. You are literally likely to be in a better social class today if your ancestors were Normans conquerors rather than the Anglo-Saxon conquered. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60593/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRAR...

Thanks that sounds fascinating. Will take a look

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

#158

Post by misja111 »

frm88 wrote: post #148
misja111 wrote: post #94

[flagged]

Have you read Umberto Eco's essay on Ur-fascism per chance? The dictator bit comes later, if it comes at all. Eco made 14 points that let you detect fascism - the higher the score, the higher the chance of a fascist regime being established. It makes for a stunning read https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the... . Brett Deveraux (historian) once tried to match US society to those 14 points with t…

Well this is exactly what I mean with inflation of the term fascism. Surely there are lots of things wrong in US society, and surely some of them can be seen as part of a fascist society. But really this is nothing compared to self declared fascist regimes such as Franco, Mussolini or Hitler.

Yes the current Trump regime is trying to suppress other opinions, sometimes quite openly. But luckily there is still plenty of room in the US to criticize the sitting president. What do you think would have happened to someone like Seth Meyer under Franco or Hitler?

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

#159

Post by misja111 »

WickyNilliams wrote: post #123
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...

I'm not saying that none of the Silicon Valley oligarchs have some fascist sympathies. But this book is generalizing over all of Silicon Valley.

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

#160

Post by lagniappe »

orzig wrote: post #91
lagniappe wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you new? PHP was the standard for that type of app at the time.

Your point is 100% correct, but for the sake of our discourse please strive to be more polite!

I'd prefer you focus your attention elsewhere
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