What do you think?
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy
AN INSTANT
NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLER
A fearless and urgent exposé of technofascism – and a road map to resistance.
When Silicon Valley ‘moves fast and breaks things’, the world interprets the chaos as a necessary cost of innovation. Gil Durán reveals something far more sinister a decades-long campaign to replace elected governments with corporate rule.
Drawing on insider political experience and new investigations, Durán traces this ideology from its philosophical roots in The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. He introduces its modern apostles – Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan and Elon Musk – and shows how the promise of technological liberation has transformed into a global movement for digital feudalism, powered by cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and algorithmically driven propaganda on social media.
The Nerd Reich explains the origins, strategies and ambitions of Silicon Valley’s war on democracy for the first time. From San Francisco’s weaponised elections and secret billionaire projects to the White House, Durán exposes how the world’s richest men are building a new political order.
The Nerd Reich is more than a hidden history; it’s an urgent democracy is being dismantled, not by coups or tanks but by code, capital and the illusion of innovation. Durán insists there is still time to fight back – if we act now.
Gil Durán, New York Times bestseller, August 2026
A fearless and urgent exposé of technofascism – and a road map to resistance.
When Silicon Valley ‘moves fast and breaks things’, the world interprets the chaos as a necessary cost of innovation. Gil Durán reveals something far more sinister a decades-long campaign to replace elected governments with corporate rule.
Drawing on insider political experience and new investigations, Durán traces this ideology from its philosophical roots in The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. He introduces its modern apostles – Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan and Elon Musk – and shows how the promise of technological liberation has transformed into a global movement for digital feudalism, powered by cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and algorithmically driven propaganda on social media.
The Nerd Reich explains the origins, strategies and ambitions of Silicon Valley’s war on democracy for the first time. From San Francisco’s weaponised elections and secret billionaire projects to the White House, Durán exposes how the world’s richest men are building a new political order.
The Nerd Reich is more than a hidden history; it’s an urgent democracy is being dismantled, not by coups or tanks but by code, capital and the illusion of innovation. Durán insists there is still time to fight back – if we act now.
Gil Durán, New York Times bestseller, August 2026
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2026
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September 12, 2026
I’ve been away on holidays for a week and read this book – that was a mistake. Don’t read this book while you are on holidays. It is deeply depressing and seriously not holiday reading. But you do need to shuffle this one up your to-read pile. I was on holidays with my daughter, her partner and my adorable little granddaughter. Fortunately, the granddaughter is too young to understand what I’m saying – but my daughter and son-in-law had to put up with me reading bits of this book to them, with each reading starting with me saying something like – ‘oh, for god’s sake, listen to this…’
While we were in Fiji, we took a boat trip to the island where they filmed the Tom Hanks film Cast Away and 50 odd seasons of American Survivor. I’ve never seen either the film or even an episode of the series. I didn’t even know who Wilson was. On the way back I sat with a group of Americans. I didn’t really say very much – I was struggling to hear them and also struggling to follow their accents. One said that she had been saving most of her life to be able to afford to send her grandkids to college (or university, as we call it here in Australia), but then both of her children told her that they had no intention of having children and so she is now spending their inheritance. She was going to leave work early – but she was terrified she would lose her health insurance. The other one was a police officer and said she was glad she has lifetime coverage, but her partner didn’t, so, that was still a worry. The police officer said she’d looked up how much money the typical Fijian earns and was outraged by how little it was. Part of the reason I didn’t say very much is that I worry I’m far too leftwing for most Americans. I find myself wanting to say things like, ‘you know, your country has about 4% of the world’s population and yet you control 20% of the world’s resources’… But the problem with saying things like that is that American’s are not well off. Sure, they are much better off than Fijians – but the disproportionate share of the world’s wealth that the US controls isn’t ‘shared’ with the people in the US. The talk of the fear of getting sick they were having made that all too clear. And, in part, that is what this book is about.
Years ago I read a book by Bauman called Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All? It isn’t exactly a spoiler of that book to tell you that his answer is an emphatic no. But in it he says that the very rich don’t even pretend now that they ‘earn’ their wealth. This book disagrees with him on that point. Not only do the obscenely wealthy believe they earn their wealth – they actually believe they deserve more – much, much more.
If I had written this book, I’d have put much more emphasis on eugenics. I believe eugenics is the fundamental belief system of capitalism. Capitalism is premised on the idea that it is a meritocracy – that anyone can become a billionaire. But for that to be true and for the world to be, in the words of my dead mother, so ill-divid, merit must be also poorly divided amongst people. Some people must be truly exceptional, while the rest of us must be, as Nietzsche would say, the botched and bungled. Anything that goes to the rest of us is resources wasted. We botched and bungled are not merely lacking in merit – but we are genetically inferior. Old style fascism grouped the inferior according to race. I’m certainly not saying that the current fascists are no longer white supremacists, but they are not only that. They believe that the vast majority of humanity – of any race – are equally botched and bungled. They need to be led by the superior amongst us, themselves. If you want an example of what they believe you could read Atlas Shrugged. There are a few great men – almost always men – and there are the hoy polloi who need to be both shaped by the great men and kept in check by them in case they get uppity. The ‘scientific’ explanation for this is eugenics.
As the author points out – one of the first acts of Musk’s DOGE was to defund USAID. This will mean the social murder of millions of the poorest people on the planet. This murder won’t even have the compassion of being quick – he is condemning them to slow, agonising deaths. This is not merely a matter of callous disregard – but is justified by a belief that these people are less than human and that shifting any money that would otherwise go to them into the pockets of people like Musk is actually for the greater good. This piece of sophistry is justified by the ‘moral’ theory of effective altruism. The logic of which says that we need to provide the greatest good for the greatest number and do this on the basis of the cold application of reason. Now, you might think that providing the basics of life to millions of people, rather than adding a few billion to the pockets of people like Musk would be an obvious way of providing the greatest good to the greatest number of people – but effective altruism would say you were wrong. You are only looking at people alive today. But if we count all of the people in the future who are not yet born, then finding ways to populate the universe is actually helping more people than providing health care and food to a few million people alive in the impoverished world today.
Of course, this would require you to believe that those hoarding wealth today are somehow going to share that wealth at some stage in the future. And this isn’t quite what they are saying they are planning to do. What they are saying is that technology will produce so much abundance that everyone will soon be living like kings. The solution then is to accelerate towards this future – regardless of current costs – since the brave new world that is being promised will provide a better life for more people than we can even imagine today. The sacrifices we make today will pay off in the long run and for the greatest possible number in the future.
The best part of this book is where the author compares these beliefs to religion. I’m going to quote this now. He refers to this new religion as TESCEAL – Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. These added together (or accepted in part) amount to the new religion.
“TESCEAL remakes religion for the age of AI. It requires faith in an all-powerful being (superintelligence) that will engineer immortality (eternal life) and enable a perfect abundance in the stars (heaven), providing a promise of transcendence that contradicts known science” Page 119.
A large part of this book details the batshit crazy ideas that people like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk have. Musk is quoted at one point as saying that we have to stop the left or we will never become an interplanetary species. Thiel is at least equally stupid. It is very hard to read this book and not despise these morons. If the book convinces you of anything – it is the truth of that old saying that these people have more dollars than sense. My favourite of Thiel’s ideas is that we should seed the oceans with cities.
The author repeats something from the book Crack Up Capitalism, that the tech bros want to breakup countries and replace them with essentially city states that are aligned with various corporations. These will be more or less feudal in character. They certainly will not be democratic – if there is one thing these people are certain of, it is that democracy has failed and needs to be replaced.
The book makes it clear that we need to take back our democracy from these people if we are to have any hope of surviving. That they already have a head start and that saving the planet from them is going to be a mammoth task – but it is quite literally our only hope. This really will be a mammoth task – and unfortunately, I don’t see the movement that is currently going to be capable of achieving this task. That said, it looks like the world is heading towards a series of catastrophes. From global boiling, to genocide, to hyper-surveillance, to fascism, to the oil and fertiliser ‘shocks’ the war on Iran is causing, to the popping of the AI bubble, to the crash of the world financial system – any one of these has the potential to shift our current paradigm and perhaps mobilise people to take back control from the Epstein billionaire class. I’m not particularly good at optimism – but we don’t need optimism at the moment, we need hope. And we need to find ways to stand together against the overwhelming force and wealth of this death cult. Our lives literally depend on it.
While we were in Fiji, we took a boat trip to the island where they filmed the Tom Hanks film Cast Away and 50 odd seasons of American Survivor. I’ve never seen either the film or even an episode of the series. I didn’t even know who Wilson was. On the way back I sat with a group of Americans. I didn’t really say very much – I was struggling to hear them and also struggling to follow their accents. One said that she had been saving most of her life to be able to afford to send her grandkids to college (or university, as we call it here in Australia), but then both of her children told her that they had no intention of having children and so she is now spending their inheritance. She was going to leave work early – but she was terrified she would lose her health insurance. The other one was a police officer and said she was glad she has lifetime coverage, but her partner didn’t, so, that was still a worry. The police officer said she’d looked up how much money the typical Fijian earns and was outraged by how little it was. Part of the reason I didn’t say very much is that I worry I’m far too leftwing for most Americans. I find myself wanting to say things like, ‘you know, your country has about 4% of the world’s population and yet you control 20% of the world’s resources’… But the problem with saying things like that is that American’s are not well off. Sure, they are much better off than Fijians – but the disproportionate share of the world’s wealth that the US controls isn’t ‘shared’ with the people in the US. The talk of the fear of getting sick they were having made that all too clear. And, in part, that is what this book is about.
Years ago I read a book by Bauman called Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All? It isn’t exactly a spoiler of that book to tell you that his answer is an emphatic no. But in it he says that the very rich don’t even pretend now that they ‘earn’ their wealth. This book disagrees with him on that point. Not only do the obscenely wealthy believe they earn their wealth – they actually believe they deserve more – much, much more.
If I had written this book, I’d have put much more emphasis on eugenics. I believe eugenics is the fundamental belief system of capitalism. Capitalism is premised on the idea that it is a meritocracy – that anyone can become a billionaire. But for that to be true and for the world to be, in the words of my dead mother, so ill-divid, merit must be also poorly divided amongst people. Some people must be truly exceptional, while the rest of us must be, as Nietzsche would say, the botched and bungled. Anything that goes to the rest of us is resources wasted. We botched and bungled are not merely lacking in merit – but we are genetically inferior. Old style fascism grouped the inferior according to race. I’m certainly not saying that the current fascists are no longer white supremacists, but they are not only that. They believe that the vast majority of humanity – of any race – are equally botched and bungled. They need to be led by the superior amongst us, themselves. If you want an example of what they believe you could read Atlas Shrugged. There are a few great men – almost always men – and there are the hoy polloi who need to be both shaped by the great men and kept in check by them in case they get uppity. The ‘scientific’ explanation for this is eugenics.
As the author points out – one of the first acts of Musk’s DOGE was to defund USAID. This will mean the social murder of millions of the poorest people on the planet. This murder won’t even have the compassion of being quick – he is condemning them to slow, agonising deaths. This is not merely a matter of callous disregard – but is justified by a belief that these people are less than human and that shifting any money that would otherwise go to them into the pockets of people like Musk is actually for the greater good. This piece of sophistry is justified by the ‘moral’ theory of effective altruism. The logic of which says that we need to provide the greatest good for the greatest number and do this on the basis of the cold application of reason. Now, you might think that providing the basics of life to millions of people, rather than adding a few billion to the pockets of people like Musk would be an obvious way of providing the greatest good to the greatest number of people – but effective altruism would say you were wrong. You are only looking at people alive today. But if we count all of the people in the future who are not yet born, then finding ways to populate the universe is actually helping more people than providing health care and food to a few million people alive in the impoverished world today.
Of course, this would require you to believe that those hoarding wealth today are somehow going to share that wealth at some stage in the future. And this isn’t quite what they are saying they are planning to do. What they are saying is that technology will produce so much abundance that everyone will soon be living like kings. The solution then is to accelerate towards this future – regardless of current costs – since the brave new world that is being promised will provide a better life for more people than we can even imagine today. The sacrifices we make today will pay off in the long run and for the greatest possible number in the future.
The best part of this book is where the author compares these beliefs to religion. I’m going to quote this now. He refers to this new religion as TESCEAL – Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. These added together (or accepted in part) amount to the new religion.
“TESCEAL remakes religion for the age of AI. It requires faith in an all-powerful being (superintelligence) that will engineer immortality (eternal life) and enable a perfect abundance in the stars (heaven), providing a promise of transcendence that contradicts known science” Page 119.
A large part of this book details the batshit crazy ideas that people like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk have. Musk is quoted at one point as saying that we have to stop the left or we will never become an interplanetary species. Thiel is at least equally stupid. It is very hard to read this book and not despise these morons. If the book convinces you of anything – it is the truth of that old saying that these people have more dollars than sense. My favourite of Thiel’s ideas is that we should seed the oceans with cities.
The author repeats something from the book Crack Up Capitalism, that the tech bros want to breakup countries and replace them with essentially city states that are aligned with various corporations. These will be more or less feudal in character. They certainly will not be democratic – if there is one thing these people are certain of, it is that democracy has failed and needs to be replaced.
The book makes it clear that we need to take back our democracy from these people if we are to have any hope of surviving. That they already have a head start and that saving the planet from them is going to be a mammoth task – but it is quite literally our only hope. This really will be a mammoth task – and unfortunately, I don’t see the movement that is currently going to be capable of achieving this task. That said, it looks like the world is heading towards a series of catastrophes. From global boiling, to genocide, to hyper-surveillance, to fascism, to the oil and fertiliser ‘shocks’ the war on Iran is causing, to the popping of the AI bubble, to the crash of the world financial system – any one of these has the potential to shift our current paradigm and perhaps mobilise people to take back control from the Epstein billionaire class. I’m not particularly good at optimism – but we don’t need optimism at the moment, we need hope. And we need to find ways to stand together against the overwhelming force and wealth of this death cult. Our lives literally depend on it.
August 14, 2026
This book gave me a rage migraine.
August 20, 2026
The Nerd Reich was released August 18. I read it by August 19. It's important. Read it. Know your enemies. These are the enemies of the people. We all sense it. That is why across political boundaries, we are against AI data centers, Flock and Axon cameras, and so much of their technocracy devilry from the core of our beings and on an instinctual level. This is a great reel supporting the book. Thank you for it. I may show it to my dual enrollment Critical Thinking classes on Monday along with the assignment I made on Duran's excellent interview on Democracy Now! We need to keep this education going.
I will return for a more thorough review later, Inshaa'Allah.
I will return for a more thorough review later, Inshaa'Allah.
July 4, 2026
Probably 4.5
This book is extremely enlightening for me, someone who knew a decent amount about the figures it discusses, but not a ton about what they believe.
American Democracy has had a tough go for the past 15 ish years at least, and this book sheds some light on why that is.
High powered tech monopolies, money (as always), influence, and of course - Peter Thiel. Don’t get me started on this guy.
Overall, i recommend this book.
My one complaint - the author needs to work on trimming chapters to stay focused, the material can be a bit scattered.
This book is extremely enlightening for me, someone who knew a decent amount about the figures it discusses, but not a ton about what they believe.
American Democracy has had a tough go for the past 15 ish years at least, and this book sheds some light on why that is.
High powered tech monopolies, money (as always), influence, and of course - Peter Thiel. Don’t get me started on this guy.
Overall, i recommend this book.
My one complaint - the author needs to work on trimming chapters to stay focused, the material can be a bit scattered.
September 29, 2026
This paired with More Everything Forever is basically a perfect one- two-punch for understanding everything about the history and ideology of the techno-dystopia we live in
September 21, 2026
Those who saw my recent post on David Sirota (and Jared Jacang Maher)'s 'Master Plan':
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
might recall two points I made: I called it the best book I'd read this year, and I mentioned that, while reading, I was very generous in my use of post-it notes (to recall important info).
Those two things hold true for Gil Durán's 'The Nerd Reich' as well. In stating that it's also the best book I've read this year, that's to say that, together, the two books basically form one book. You really can't have one without the other; 'The Nerd Reich' serves as an urgent (if unintended) companion piece.
As for the post-its, I may have used even more for 'The Nerd Reich'. In fact, I probably could have just wrapped up the entire book in one giant-size post-it, since there's not a single thing in it that I wanted to forget.
The two books are two angles of the same problem: corruption in our government. However, whereas 'Master Plan' has its focus more squarely on the government at its core (and those closer to actual, concrete legislation), 'TNR' exposes the interlopers from Silicon Valley - who, until more recently, have been generally viewed as 'eccentric'.
'Eccentric', as it turns out, is a quaint word for 'insane'. 'Insane' as in 'Bonkers'. 'Insane' as in 'Toys in the Attic'. 'Looney Tunes' works as well ~esp. for 'grand poobah' / grand wacko Peter Thiel. (One perhaps need only take note - aside from *everything* else - of Thiel's extensive speaking tours, consisting of 4-hour (!) lecture-warnings on the antichrist (!); a more-than-curious undertaking for someone not at all interested in religion but whose activities bear a resemblance to said antichrist.)
You might be saying to yourself, 'Aren't there already books about these guys? Doesn't the public already know what it needs to know about them?' ... Yes and no. In interviews, the author has conceded that a number of *academics* have written about them - and he references some of their works in his book - but he didn't feel the word was getting out to average people.
Academic books can be a bit esoteric (and easily overlooked), so Durán wanted to bring about something more accessible for the average reader (and *voter*, considering the massive influence the Silicon Valley gang now has in DC). To a degree, he consolidated what was already out there, while adding more-than-considerable personal research.
(Almost overnight after being published, the book hit the bestseller list at #3; a rare thing for an unknown author / journalist.)
So, what are we talking about primarily here? We're talking about AI; we're talking about cryptocurrency; we're talking about billionaires with incel personalities - guys whose interests include crushing democracy at any cost; conquering death (with the help of cryonics); living where they can't be touched (even if that means under water or on Mars); achieving world domination (for no reason, except ego)... essentially, making sure that anyone who *isn't* a billionaire (and one of *them*) is a slave.
Sound fun? They're positive it can all be done; it may see setbacks in its exhausting work, but what are mere setbacks to men with money that doesn't end?
Though it's written in a very engaging (and, thankfully, occasionally humorous) way, what Durán has produced for us reduces to rubble just about every horror movie you've ever seen. Zombies can't really happen; crazy billionaires can.
The author says near the end:
So, yes, Sirota's book is necessary - but Durán's may very well have the edge since it feels more apocalyptic. These nutjobs in California are as serious as a heart attack - and they don't get tired (except in our brains). But don't take my word for it: take Durán's. You'll thank him for the heartfelt heads-up (esp. his *excellent* concluding chapter).
'Fun' fact: 'The Nerd Reich' - according to the author - is not a title he takes credit for since he didn't come up with the designation. He has said that workers inside Silicon Valley had already been referring to Thiel and his ilk in that way.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
might recall two points I made: I called it the best book I'd read this year, and I mentioned that, while reading, I was very generous in my use of post-it notes (to recall important info).
Those two things hold true for Gil Durán's 'The Nerd Reich' as well. In stating that it's also the best book I've read this year, that's to say that, together, the two books basically form one book. You really can't have one without the other; 'The Nerd Reich' serves as an urgent (if unintended) companion piece.
As for the post-its, I may have used even more for 'The Nerd Reich'. In fact, I probably could have just wrapped up the entire book in one giant-size post-it, since there's not a single thing in it that I wanted to forget.
The two books are two angles of the same problem: corruption in our government. However, whereas 'Master Plan' has its focus more squarely on the government at its core (and those closer to actual, concrete legislation), 'TNR' exposes the interlopers from Silicon Valley - who, until more recently, have been generally viewed as 'eccentric'.
'Eccentric', as it turns out, is a quaint word for 'insane'. 'Insane' as in 'Bonkers'. 'Insane' as in 'Toys in the Attic'. 'Looney Tunes' works as well ~esp. for 'grand poobah' / grand wacko Peter Thiel. (One perhaps need only take note - aside from *everything* else - of Thiel's extensive speaking tours, consisting of 4-hour (!) lecture-warnings on the antichrist (!); a more-than-curious undertaking for someone not at all interested in religion but whose activities bear a resemblance to said antichrist.)
You might be saying to yourself, 'Aren't there already books about these guys? Doesn't the public already know what it needs to know about them?' ... Yes and no. In interviews, the author has conceded that a number of *academics* have written about them - and he references some of their works in his book - but he didn't feel the word was getting out to average people.
Academic books can be a bit esoteric (and easily overlooked), so Durán wanted to bring about something more accessible for the average reader (and *voter*, considering the massive influence the Silicon Valley gang now has in DC). To a degree, he consolidated what was already out there, while adding more-than-considerable personal research.
(Almost overnight after being published, the book hit the bestseller list at #3; a rare thing for an unknown author / journalist.)
So, what are we talking about primarily here? We're talking about AI; we're talking about cryptocurrency; we're talking about billionaires with incel personalities - guys whose interests include crushing democracy at any cost; conquering death (with the help of cryonics); living where they can't be touched (even if that means under water or on Mars); achieving world domination (for no reason, except ego)... essentially, making sure that anyone who *isn't* a billionaire (and one of *them*) is a slave.
Sound fun? They're positive it can all be done; it may see setbacks in its exhausting work, but what are mere setbacks to men with money that doesn't end?
Though it's written in a very engaging (and, thankfully, occasionally humorous) way, what Durán has produced for us reduces to rubble just about every horror movie you've ever seen. Zombies can't really happen; crazy billionaires can.
The author says near the end:
People often ask me how to solve this problem. I tell them that the first step is to learn what is happening and spread the word to everyone they know. As a journalist, that's my role: to tell the story.I could have slipped a few other quotes in here from the book... but I found it difficult choosing significant ones when they're *all* significant.
So, yes, Sirota's book is necessary - but Durán's may very well have the edge since it feels more apocalyptic. These nutjobs in California are as serious as a heart attack - and they don't get tired (except in our brains). But don't take my word for it: take Durán's. You'll thank him for the heartfelt heads-up (esp. his *excellent* concluding chapter).
'Fun' fact: 'The Nerd Reich' - according to the author - is not a title he takes credit for since he didn't come up with the designation. He has said that workers inside Silicon Valley had already been referring to Thiel and his ilk in that way.
August 23, 2026
If you have questions about how in the world the US has gotten into the disastrous situation it is in, this is the book to read. Honestly, if you read one book this year, make it this one. Gil Duran is a seasoned and exceptional reporter who’s worked across N California for years. He has followed the TechBros since before they were TechBros and he is the only person, as far as I’ve found, who has put all the pieces together and explains the reasons why Silicon Valley has taken a massive swing to the far right.
The first chapters delve into the biographies of Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasen - men everyone needs to understand - as much as one can understand these bat-shit crazy souls. Their endgame is to destroy the US, so they can establish the absolute power centers they fantasize about. The quasi-religious (well not quasi to them) zeal that they are applying to their mission needs attention.
Seriously - buy this book, read this book, share this book (I’ve bought three copies to share amongst my friends), and talk about this book. These bros are in a seriously sick echo chamber, yet they are nothing more than adult versions of sci-fi, fantasy, DND nerds who have too much money an dwant more. They have talked and talked about their goals - in public - but most of us aren’t paying attention. They literally believe they must suck all the energy and life out of this planet so they can attain immortality and god-like power. It is sick, and we are being distracted/numbed by the very apps they made to addict us.
Gil Duran has been under intense pressure to shut up, but he got this book published. Please read it.
The first chapters delve into the biographies of Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasen - men everyone needs to understand - as much as one can understand these bat-shit crazy souls. Their endgame is to destroy the US, so they can establish the absolute power centers they fantasize about. The quasi-religious (well not quasi to them) zeal that they are applying to their mission needs attention.
Seriously - buy this book, read this book, share this book (I’ve bought three copies to share amongst my friends), and talk about this book. These bros are in a seriously sick echo chamber, yet they are nothing more than adult versions of sci-fi, fantasy, DND nerds who have too much money an dwant more. They have talked and talked about their goals - in public - but most of us aren’t paying attention. They literally believe they must suck all the energy and life out of this planet so they can attain immortality and god-like power. It is sick, and we are being distracted/numbed by the very apps they made to addict us.
Gil Duran has been under intense pressure to shut up, but he got this book published. Please read it.
August 25, 2026
Well, this was infuriating.
I think a lot of us have been guilty of thinking about Silicon Valley billionaires as basically Libertarian Lite™: they want the government out of their businesses, they don’t want regulations getting in the way of innovation, and they definitely don’t want to pay taxes.
Gil Durán would like us to understand that what some of the most powerful people in tech are proposing goes much further than that.
The Nerd Reich examines the ideologies circulating among some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest and most influential figures and, more importantly, what happens when enormous concentrations of private wealth translate into enormous concentrations of political power. Durán traces ideas about replacing democratic institutions with corporate rule, privatized “network states,” and other systems in which the ultrawealthy aren’t merely influencing government—they’re imagining alternatives to democracy itself.
At one point I was telling my partner about the book, and he said, “So, really, this isn’t that different from Rockefeller back in the day.”
And I said, “I have a feeling this is worse. I don’t remember Rockefeller trying to cancel elections.”
That pretty much sums up my mood while reading.
Durán is a journalist, and the book reads like the work of one: heavily researched, detailed, and focused on documenting how we arrived here. He’s not a policy maker, so while there is some hope and discussion of resistance toward the end, this isn’t primarily a book of solutions. It’s an alarm bell.
One of Durán’s most provocative arguments is also the one I haven’t stopped thinking about: “We can have billionaires, or we can have democracy.”
There are only a few thousand billionaires on the entire planet, yet this extraordinarily small group of people controls an almost incomprehensible amount of wealth—and wealth buys access, influence, technology, media, and ultimately political power. Reading about just how openly some tech elites have discussed using that power to reshape democratic government gave me a nearly permanent David Rose face of disgust.
😬 Ew.
And while much of the book focuses on the political movement toward the right among prominent Silicon Valley figures, one of my biggest takeaways was actually broader than party politics: I am now much more suspicious whenever any politician—Democrat or Republican—becomes particularly cozy with tech billionaires. No individual should possess enough wealth to wield this degree of influence over a democratic government.
If you’ve been paying attention to the relationship between Silicon Valley, extreme wealth, AI, cryptocurrency, and American politics and have found yourself thinking, This seems…bad, congratulations! This book will explain in painstaking detail why you should probably be even more concerned.
For readers who liked Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War or The Last Nuclear War, or Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, I think this scratches a similar nonfiction itch: meticulously researched books that leave you fascinated, horrified, angry, and occasionally wondering whether you’d have been happier knowing less.
As the publisher describes it, this is a warning about a movement seeking to replace elected government with corporate rule. And Durán makes a disturbingly persuasive case that we should take these ideas seriously rather than dismissing them as the eccentric philosophies of a handful of very rich tech guys.
I really hope we’re paying attention.
4.5/5 stars
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy was published August 18, 2026, by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster.
I think a lot of us have been guilty of thinking about Silicon Valley billionaires as basically Libertarian Lite™: they want the government out of their businesses, they don’t want regulations getting in the way of innovation, and they definitely don’t want to pay taxes.
Gil Durán would like us to understand that what some of the most powerful people in tech are proposing goes much further than that.
The Nerd Reich examines the ideologies circulating among some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest and most influential figures and, more importantly, what happens when enormous concentrations of private wealth translate into enormous concentrations of political power. Durán traces ideas about replacing democratic institutions with corporate rule, privatized “network states,” and other systems in which the ultrawealthy aren’t merely influencing government—they’re imagining alternatives to democracy itself.
At one point I was telling my partner about the book, and he said, “So, really, this isn’t that different from Rockefeller back in the day.”
And I said, “I have a feeling this is worse. I don’t remember Rockefeller trying to cancel elections.”
That pretty much sums up my mood while reading.
Durán is a journalist, and the book reads like the work of one: heavily researched, detailed, and focused on documenting how we arrived here. He’s not a policy maker, so while there is some hope and discussion of resistance toward the end, this isn’t primarily a book of solutions. It’s an alarm bell.
One of Durán’s most provocative arguments is also the one I haven’t stopped thinking about: “We can have billionaires, or we can have democracy.”
There are only a few thousand billionaires on the entire planet, yet this extraordinarily small group of people controls an almost incomprehensible amount of wealth—and wealth buys access, influence, technology, media, and ultimately political power. Reading about just how openly some tech elites have discussed using that power to reshape democratic government gave me a nearly permanent David Rose face of disgust.
😬 Ew.
And while much of the book focuses on the political movement toward the right among prominent Silicon Valley figures, one of my biggest takeaways was actually broader than party politics: I am now much more suspicious whenever any politician—Democrat or Republican—becomes particularly cozy with tech billionaires. No individual should possess enough wealth to wield this degree of influence over a democratic government.
If you’ve been paying attention to the relationship between Silicon Valley, extreme wealth, AI, cryptocurrency, and American politics and have found yourself thinking, This seems…bad, congratulations! This book will explain in painstaking detail why you should probably be even more concerned.
For readers who liked Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War or The Last Nuclear War, or Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, I think this scratches a similar nonfiction itch: meticulously researched books that leave you fascinated, horrified, angry, and occasionally wondering whether you’d have been happier knowing less.
As the publisher describes it, this is a warning about a movement seeking to replace elected government with corporate rule. And Durán makes a disturbingly persuasive case that we should take these ideas seriously rather than dismissing them as the eccentric philosophies of a handful of very rich tech guys.
I really hope we’re paying attention.
4.5/5 stars
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy was published August 18, 2026, by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster.
September 29, 2026
"In a nation where money buys power, money can buy power to destroy the nation itself."
"Billionaires constitute a tiny sliver of the human population, yet they do a disproportionate amount of damage to the planet and its people."
I found out about this book through The Majority Report with Sam Seder. I immediately put this book on hold. It sounded both intriguing and terrifying.
In March of 2025, Bloomberg reported that 16 men connected to Peter Thiel and his companies now held positions of power in the Trump administration. The United States government is currently completely controlled by tech oligarchs. They only care about money and power and they want the rest of us dead. This book focuses on Republicans but don't be fooled, Democrats are also controlled by these same tech oligarchs. Neither party can be trusted. Rich people are our enemies.
Tech billionaires want to destroy the world, we should do everything in our power to stop...by any means necessary.
I highly recommend this book.
"Billionaires constitute a tiny sliver of the human population, yet they do a disproportionate amount of damage to the planet and its people."
I found out about this book through The Majority Report with Sam Seder. I immediately put this book on hold. It sounded both intriguing and terrifying.
In March of 2025, Bloomberg reported that 16 men connected to Peter Thiel and his companies now held positions of power in the Trump administration. The United States government is currently completely controlled by tech oligarchs. They only care about money and power and they want the rest of us dead. This book focuses on Republicans but don't be fooled, Democrats are also controlled by these same tech oligarchs. Neither party can be trusted. Rich people are our enemies.
Tech billionaires want to destroy the world, we should do everything in our power to stop...by any means necessary.
I highly recommend this book.
September 18, 2026
The Nerd Reich details the rise and successes of Silicon Valley's very open plan to destroy democracy and replace it with independent cities ruled by corporations placing centralized media and education in the hands of a small group of Christian nationalist men calling themselves "cognitive elites". While this action is principally led by apocalyptic horn-blower Peter Thiel, the book features a rogues' gallery of investors, parasites, sycophants, and backbone-less CEOs who have bent the knee during the second Trump administration. Never have such worthless boots been so unnecessarily licked.
The shocking part of this book is not that these people exist, it's how openly they have been describing their plans, and how uncritically their ideas have been treated. If you were a fan of Ben Mackenzie's Easy Money expose of cryptocurrency, you won't be surprised that crypto and scams underpin many of these successes.
And frankly, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing that this array of social losers - unimaginative megalomaniacs prone to emotional outbursts, cowardice, misogyny, and sycophancy - have been able to insert themselves so easily into democratic processes. Republicans and Democrats are both to blame.
So much of what these losers talk about is goofy to the max; theoretically and structurally unsound. Our tech "visionaries" (rationalists and accelerationists, as they fashion themselves) are just reinventing abandoned forms of monarchy and oligarchy, and repackaging these ideas to justify dictatorships.
Accordingly, author Gil Durán adopts a mildly sneering tone. I’m sure critics desperately scrambling to defend fascists for outright promoting fascism will point to Durán's obvious personal dislike of his subjects and his use of adjectives like 'ridiculous' and 'silly' as unnecessary commentary.
I disagree. These idiots are ridiculous. Call it like it is, but don't ignore it! A handful of right-place-right-time losers are accumulating wealth for their friends while recruiting non-wealthy rubes into their nakedly fascist schemes. Check what your teenagers are following on social media. Dark times ahead!
The shocking part of this book is not that these people exist, it's how openly they have been describing their plans, and how uncritically their ideas have been treated. If you were a fan of Ben Mackenzie's Easy Money expose of cryptocurrency, you won't be surprised that crypto and scams underpin many of these successes.
And frankly, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing that this array of social losers - unimaginative megalomaniacs prone to emotional outbursts, cowardice, misogyny, and sycophancy - have been able to insert themselves so easily into democratic processes. Republicans and Democrats are both to blame.
So much of what these losers talk about is goofy to the max; theoretically and structurally unsound. Our tech "visionaries" (rationalists and accelerationists, as they fashion themselves) are just reinventing abandoned forms of monarchy and oligarchy, and repackaging these ideas to justify dictatorships.
Accordingly, author Gil Durán adopts a mildly sneering tone. I’m sure critics desperately scrambling to defend fascists for outright promoting fascism will point to Durán's obvious personal dislike of his subjects and his use of adjectives like 'ridiculous' and 'silly' as unnecessary commentary.
I disagree. These idiots are ridiculous. Call it like it is, but don't ignore it! A handful of right-place-right-time losers are accumulating wealth for their friends while recruiting non-wealthy rubes into their nakedly fascist schemes. Check what your teenagers are following on social media. Dark times ahead!
August 28, 2026
Okay so far, but the author's uncritical citations of things like USAID are concerning. If you're going to discuss fascism in the US, you have to be honest about it. I understand this book is about a specific topic but it's always a letdown to hear progressive authors discuss so-called liberal institutions w/o any criticism at all. Idk, I should have been tipped off by the title. I assume this author believes we had a functioning democracy before this, and this view greatly depends on who you are in America or in the world.
That being said, it provides some solid intro material about the network state if you've never heard of it, which most people have not. For a more thorough overview of everything related to the network state and tech fascism, check out https://www.vcinfodocs.com/
Also if you liked this and are willing to have your view stretched a bit more, consider reading The Racket by Matt Kennard or almost anything by William Blum. Imo this book is not critical enough of US foreign policy and tech fascism is a global problem.
That being said, it provides some solid intro material about the network state if you've never heard of it, which most people have not. For a more thorough overview of everything related to the network state and tech fascism, check out https://www.vcinfodocs.com/
Also if you liked this and are willing to have your view stretched a bit more, consider reading The Racket by Matt Kennard or almost anything by William Blum. Imo this book is not critical enough of US foreign policy and tech fascism is a global problem.
Read
August 30, 2026Thank you to Libro.fm for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review!
This may be the most terrifying book I've ever read but I do think it is very much worth reading to better understand what exactly the tech billionaires have been up to and also how they came into so much power (especially in the US). Duran's journalistic voice is also strong and comes through the writing, and though I did feel it was a bit optimistic, I appreciated the slightly more hopeful call to action at the end, which was very much needed after everything else that was discussed in the book.
This may be the most terrifying book I've ever read but I do think it is very much worth reading to better understand what exactly the tech billionaires have been up to and also how they came into so much power (especially in the US). Duran's journalistic voice is also strong and comes through the writing, and though I did feel it was a bit optimistic, I appreciated the slightly more hopeful call to action at the end, which was very much needed after everything else that was discussed in the book.
September 21, 2026
4.5- highly recommend this, especially for anyone interested in politics or technology. A sobering, frightening picture of how Silicon Valley money is actively funding the accelerated demise of American democracy. Thiel, Musk, Vance, Trump, crypto, AI, Gaza, bizarre apocalyptic visions... It's all here. The half-star off is because it seems to get a bit too much into the trope of the guy wildly gesticulating at the pictures on the wall connected by strings for my taste, but maybe he's right. This book definitely lays out the layers of corruption in a timely fashion.
PS- Also the title is a bit too on the nose.
PS- Also the title is a bit too on the nose.
September 9, 2026
It seems that while we "normies" have been focused on the daily outrages from DC, we've been missing the bigger picture. Gil Duran's "The Nerd Reich" helps us to understand how we got here and who is really manipulating things behind the scenes. Obviously, the tech billionaire class has been running the show, but their motives and methods haven't always been clear. They don't just want to accumulate more wealth (real or crypto), they want to start new cities outside of current government control and live forever. If that means going to Mars or under the oceans, so be it. Most of these plans would result in the destruction of the world as we know it, so they can rise from the ashes like gods. If you aren't rich or smart enough to be part of the future, good riddance. They'll have AI and robots to replace you.
This is a scary book, but absolutely essential for understanding the motives and goals of the tech billionaire power elite.
This is a scary book, but absolutely essential for understanding the motives and goals of the tech billionaire power elite.
August 25, 2026
Nerdish
One thing I hope the author would agree with me wholeheartedly on: the world need never hear another word about Yarvin or his idiotic worldview ever again. But really, who is served by going so deep into such a shallow pool? With exposes like this quite frankly I am expecting more these days - there are better bios of Thiel, technology, crypto and much better overview on this kind of extreme right thinking (see Laura Field's excellent "Furious Minds" recently published). But really, my frustration with this is that it's a preaching-to-the-choir in a superficial way that deals in absolutes and caricatures - not that there's anything really redeeming about Thiel but there were adjacent topics that this former Feinstein & Kamala advisor lazily throws in as "evil" without any background, depth, or nuance (see notes for examples). Dunking on technology seems fashionable now with AI, yet a recent poll shows more people would rather have a coal plant in their neighborhood than a data center - this is stupidity. And the politics seem very Verso Publishing dogmatic. While the author is not a degrowther or anarcho-primitivist or other such imbecile, as a former tech journalist he seems to know Valley personalities but doesn't seem to have a deep understanding on technology itself and I worry that this over-subscribed book (at least at my library) will further a misunderstanding of those topics among a younger reading public.
One thing I hope the author would agree with me wholeheartedly on: the world need never hear another word about Yarvin or his idiotic worldview ever again. But really, who is served by going so deep into such a shallow pool? With exposes like this quite frankly I am expecting more these days - there are better bios of Thiel, technology, crypto and much better overview on this kind of extreme right thinking (see Laura Field's excellent "Furious Minds" recently published). But really, my frustration with this is that it's a preaching-to-the-choir in a superficial way that deals in absolutes and caricatures - not that there's anything really redeeming about Thiel but there were adjacent topics that this former Feinstein & Kamala advisor lazily throws in as "evil" without any background, depth, or nuance (see notes for examples). Dunking on technology seems fashionable now with AI, yet a recent poll shows more people would rather have a coal plant in their neighborhood than a data center - this is stupidity. And the politics seem very Verso Publishing dogmatic. While the author is not a degrowther or anarcho-primitivist or other such imbecile, as a former tech journalist he seems to know Valley personalities but doesn't seem to have a deep understanding on technology itself and I worry that this over-subscribed book (at least at my library) will further a misunderstanding of those topics among a younger reading public.
Read
September 26, 2026We need to throw these people into a series of oubliettes.
Read
August 20, 2026First chapter is about another book called " The Sovereign Individual".
What is that book about?
The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg is a 1997 book predicting how the internet would weaken governments and give highly skilled, wealthy individuals more independence.
It's pretty much the foundation for what Peter Thiel has been saying now in 2026. And not just him.
Peter Thiel: escape from democratic constraints, competition between jurisdictions, seasteading, private governance and insulation from taxation.
Balaji Srinivasan: network states, digital communities that become territorial polities, and technological “exit” from existing institutions.
Marc Andreessen: technological acceleration, hostility toward regulation and support for builders creating alternative institutions.
Brian Armstrong and parts of the crypto movement: money and economic activity beyond traditional state control.
Elon Musk: private infrastructure functioning at state-like scale, although his worldview isn’t derived solely from this book.
Curtis Yarvin: supplies a more openly anti-democratic theory of governance—states run more like corporations under powerful executives.
What is that book about?
The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg is a 1997 book predicting how the internet would weaken governments and give highly skilled, wealthy individuals more independence.
It's pretty much the foundation for what Peter Thiel has been saying now in 2026. And not just him.
Peter Thiel: escape from democratic constraints, competition between jurisdictions, seasteading, private governance and insulation from taxation.
Balaji Srinivasan: network states, digital communities that become territorial polities, and technological “exit” from existing institutions.
Marc Andreessen: technological acceleration, hostility toward regulation and support for builders creating alternative institutions.
Brian Armstrong and parts of the crypto movement: money and economic activity beyond traditional state control.
Elon Musk: private infrastructure functioning at state-like scale, although his worldview isn’t derived solely from this book.
Curtis Yarvin: supplies a more openly anti-democratic theory of governance—states run more like corporations under powerful executives.
September 4, 2026
When the author said he was harassed online (having account platforms removed etc.) you know that people in this book are quite upset which means I must drop what I am doing to read this right away. There is a waiting list generally, but was able to get a special 7-day library loan to get it NOW!
It is hard to even know where to begin but a lot of the disparate pieces of this puzzle which I have observed now make sense. For instance, the race to destroy public lands, the race to acquire Greenland, the race to build more data centers NOW! (It seems the overlords believe in some sort of "infinite Monkees" theory where if you cover every square inch of the planet with AI data centers all that computing power will come up with the secret of eternal life).
And if that sounds batshit crazy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Like exhibit B: Curtis Yarvin -- a huge influence on J.D. Vance -- who stole all his wackadoodle ideas from Italian fascists like Evola. (Just remember Ebola with a 'V' kind of like Liza with a 'Z'"). Far from my initial belief that these tech overlords were using Christianity as bait for their much crazier and dumber allies in the Christian right, make no mistake, they believe in this magical nonsense just as much as the Christians do.
"Like, I got an idea. Instead of rebuilding New York City underneath a giant biodome on Mars, why don't we just build a biodome right here?" That kind of thinking gets you imediately dismissed as some sort of Luddite, although my most fervent wish is that Elon Musk sends himself over there as soon as possible.
Of course, much of this magical thinking goes back sixty years (yes, even one of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters was the architect of this). Hence, the entire worldview revolves around the idea of "getting away" and forming a separate country or zone free from the fetters of us ordinary folk and our pesky regulation. It is the impetus behind Crypto. And it was the impetus behind Theil's original idea was for a settlement at the bottom of the ocean like Captain Nemo.
And of course, they are all worshippers of Ayn Rand. What I did not know was that there is a crazy conspiratorial book called The Sovereign Individual by a guy named William Rees-Mogg, which is considered by the PayPal Mafia to be sacred scripture, when it is nothing more than a screed filled with doomsday predictions which, like a stopped clock got a few things right like Crypto currency. It was also filled with Y2K hysteria which did not materialize. Of course, the name Rees-Mogg is familiar to anyone who has more than cursory knowledge of the Rolling Stones story. "THEE William Rees-Mogg who wrote 'Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?'" (If you don't know what that is just Google It).
Considering that was in 1967, it did not seem possible but he is in fact one and the same! Tellingly, he was also pro Brexit which could very well be the lunacy that started this dystopian nightmare we all live in.
But that was then, this is now. Thiel has moved on to a new obsession with the Antichrist and Armageddon and he is holding his version of the "Be-Inc" seminars to promote it. In fairness, many are only buying in just to get face time with the grand wizard, but no matter. Theil seems to be anti- Armageddon while doing everything humanly possible to bring it about. While he and his followers are obsessed with breaking society down into micro-autonomous units (aka "Network States") Thiel wants to become so deeply embedded in the defense department that they disrupt the major players like Lockheed Martin (and they are doing it). Of course the most micro-state of all is the family, which they are convinced is being destroyed by the "deep state." I am not sure who these deep state people are, but after hearing so much about them, I am convinced they must be my friends if Silicon Valley hates them so much.
If you are confused, so was I. To recap, Silicon Valley, which got rich by its long association with the defense department, feels angry and put upon by the fascist "deep state" (America), and is seeking to destroy it using weapons of mass destruction and crypto currency to crash the economy. They are like toddlers who were scolded to keep the playroom neat and want to form their own country because they are simply too highly evolved to be ruled by us morons. It's why, in 1997, The Sovereign State recommended buying land in Argentina and New Zealand. Check!
Oh, and if you are a super fan of Lord of the Rings, you may hate it by the time you are done with this. I never thought much about it other than it was the preserve of dippy Dungeons and Dragons types. I enjoyed The Hobbit when I was about twelve, but reading this stuff as an adult (when the movie came out) had me wondering how people can still be so obsessed with it into adulthood? [This from somone who is still obsessed with the Beatles and Monkees, but at least they were taking the piss out of dufuses like these "earnest true believers."] Not that the message of LOTR is anywhere near as odious as that of Ayn Rand (and Tolkien is a better writer), but I blame those early hippy dippy nerds too. And according to this book I was not wrong in my assessment.
Come to think of it, I should form a cult based on the "The Frodis Room," and charge people a million dollars a year to join. Cuz being the guru is really where it's at. And interestingly, I interrupted reading The Barbary Coast to read this in seven days. That book details what a terrible person Leland Stanford was, so maybe his university was destined to be the root of all evil dating back to the Gold Rush. The entire region always was home to a spirit of rapacious greed, so perhaps this is just the latest incarnation.
It is hard to even know where to begin but a lot of the disparate pieces of this puzzle which I have observed now make sense. For instance, the race to destroy public lands, the race to acquire Greenland, the race to build more data centers NOW! (It seems the overlords believe in some sort of "infinite Monkees" theory where if you cover every square inch of the planet with AI data centers all that computing power will come up with the secret of eternal life).
And if that sounds batshit crazy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Like exhibit B: Curtis Yarvin -- a huge influence on J.D. Vance -- who stole all his wackadoodle ideas from Italian fascists like Evola. (Just remember Ebola with a 'V' kind of like Liza with a 'Z'"). Far from my initial belief that these tech overlords were using Christianity as bait for their much crazier and dumber allies in the Christian right, make no mistake, they believe in this magical nonsense just as much as the Christians do.
"Like, I got an idea. Instead of rebuilding New York City underneath a giant biodome on Mars, why don't we just build a biodome right here?" That kind of thinking gets you imediately dismissed as some sort of Luddite, although my most fervent wish is that Elon Musk sends himself over there as soon as possible.
Of course, much of this magical thinking goes back sixty years (yes, even one of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters was the architect of this). Hence, the entire worldview revolves around the idea of "getting away" and forming a separate country or zone free from the fetters of us ordinary folk and our pesky regulation. It is the impetus behind Crypto. And it was the impetus behind Theil's original idea was for a settlement at the bottom of the ocean like Captain Nemo.
And of course, they are all worshippers of Ayn Rand. What I did not know was that there is a crazy conspiratorial book called The Sovereign Individual by a guy named William Rees-Mogg, which is considered by the PayPal Mafia to be sacred scripture, when it is nothing more than a screed filled with doomsday predictions which, like a stopped clock got a few things right like Crypto currency. It was also filled with Y2K hysteria which did not materialize. Of course, the name Rees-Mogg is familiar to anyone who has more than cursory knowledge of the Rolling Stones story. "THEE William Rees-Mogg who wrote 'Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?'" (If you don't know what that is just Google It).
Considering that was in 1967, it did not seem possible but he is in fact one and the same! Tellingly, he was also pro Brexit which could very well be the lunacy that started this dystopian nightmare we all live in.
But that was then, this is now. Thiel has moved on to a new obsession with the Antichrist and Armageddon and he is holding his version of the "Be-Inc" seminars to promote it. In fairness, many are only buying in just to get face time with the grand wizard, but no matter. Theil seems to be anti- Armageddon while doing everything humanly possible to bring it about. While he and his followers are obsessed with breaking society down into micro-autonomous units (aka "Network States") Thiel wants to become so deeply embedded in the defense department that they disrupt the major players like Lockheed Martin (and they are doing it). Of course the most micro-state of all is the family, which they are convinced is being destroyed by the "deep state." I am not sure who these deep state people are, but after hearing so much about them, I am convinced they must be my friends if Silicon Valley hates them so much.
If you are confused, so was I. To recap, Silicon Valley, which got rich by its long association with the defense department, feels angry and put upon by the fascist "deep state" (America), and is seeking to destroy it using weapons of mass destruction and crypto currency to crash the economy. They are like toddlers who were scolded to keep the playroom neat and want to form their own country because they are simply too highly evolved to be ruled by us morons. It's why, in 1997, The Sovereign State recommended buying land in Argentina and New Zealand. Check!
Oh, and if you are a super fan of Lord of the Rings, you may hate it by the time you are done with this. I never thought much about it other than it was the preserve of dippy Dungeons and Dragons types. I enjoyed The Hobbit when I was about twelve, but reading this stuff as an adult (when the movie came out) had me wondering how people can still be so obsessed with it into adulthood? [This from somone who is still obsessed with the Beatles and Monkees, but at least they were taking the piss out of dufuses like these "earnest true believers."] Not that the message of LOTR is anywhere near as odious as that of Ayn Rand (and Tolkien is a better writer), but I blame those early hippy dippy nerds too. And according to this book I was not wrong in my assessment.
Come to think of it, I should form a cult based on the "The Frodis Room," and charge people a million dollars a year to join. Cuz being the guru is really where it's at. And interestingly, I interrupted reading The Barbary Coast to read this in seven days. That book details what a terrible person Leland Stanford was, so maybe his university was destined to be the root of all evil dating back to the Gold Rush. The entire region always was home to a spirit of rapacious greed, so perhaps this is just the latest incarnation.
September 4, 2026
I now know so much more about Peter Thiel than I ever wanted to… even though it’s all necessary. Sigh.
This was great. It felt like THE book the people need to read right now to understand just how darkly entangled US politics and Big Tech are… and Durán writes in a punchy, clear-headed way that I am on board with.
So. What about Peter Thiel and technofascism? Durán talks about libertarianism and its desire to decentralize/defund the government and leave things up to the “free market.” Except they want to control the “free” market itself… by setting up their own form of governance that is favorable to them.
Basically, a bunch of self-centered loser babies got money and power, and, as Durán puts it, “[made] a philosophy out of a personality defect”.
Did I mention Durán has a way with words?
These “technolibertarians” say that they want democracy… but they only want democracy if it works in their favor. They are willing to break apart existing forms of democratic governance if they believe it’s not working for them. Thus do you get the technofascists. Really, Durán is excellent at explaining the mindsets of these technofascists, and showing how Silicon Valley can swing from Obama-supporting centrists to rightwing fascism within a decade.
Oh, and there’s this sociopathic loser named Curtis Yarvin who has been writing about how to dismantle the US government for decades. Duran talks about Yarvin’s “PAGE” motto—”Purge All Government Employees”—which is eerie to read about now that, you know, DOGE actually went and did exactly that. It really shows how Project 2025 isn’t something that has come out of nowhere, but encapsulates philosophies and directives that libertarians and right-wingers have been calling for ever since more socialist programs were implemented in the US after World War II.
Rightwingers have long wanted to set up their own society if the existing one isn’t favoring them economically or politically—the Confederate States of America is one shining example—so it isn’t much of a stretch that the Tech Bros will join them because they are fearful of losing their power, money, and privilege. Durán connects that with the Trump regime’s obsession with colonizing Greenland (“empty” land on which to build their own empire, right?), the rise of cryptocurrency (a financial system that is not beholden to government restrictions), and more.
There’s so much more that I think I’ll reread this in order to get everything. Durán spends a chapter talking about the rightwing (or specifically Thiel’s) obsession with the Antichrist. He writes, “Silicon Valley sees religion as an industry ripe for disruption” (ziiiiiing!), and so Tech Bros like Thiel harness the Antichrist label and slap it on anyone and everyone who is remotely opposed to them, thus bringing Big Tech, Christian evangelicism, and fascism closer together.
THE NERD REICH ends with a call to arms that has Durán laying out some truths we need to hear:
Highly recommended.
This was great. It felt like THE book the people need to read right now to understand just how darkly entangled US politics and Big Tech are… and Durán writes in a punchy, clear-headed way that I am on board with.
So. What about Peter Thiel and technofascism? Durán talks about libertarianism and its desire to decentralize/defund the government and leave things up to the “free market.” Except they want to control the “free” market itself… by setting up their own form of governance that is favorable to them.
Basically, a bunch of self-centered loser babies got money and power, and, as Durán puts it, “[made] a philosophy out of a personality defect”.
Did I mention Durán has a way with words?
These “technolibertarians” say that they want democracy… but they only want democracy if it works in their favor. They are willing to break apart existing forms of democratic governance if they believe it’s not working for them. Thus do you get the technofascists. Really, Durán is excellent at explaining the mindsets of these technofascists, and showing how Silicon Valley can swing from Obama-supporting centrists to rightwing fascism within a decade.
Oh, and there’s this sociopathic loser named Curtis Yarvin who has been writing about how to dismantle the US government for decades. Duran talks about Yarvin’s “PAGE” motto—”Purge All Government Employees”—which is eerie to read about now that, you know, DOGE actually went and did exactly that. It really shows how Project 2025 isn’t something that has come out of nowhere, but encapsulates philosophies and directives that libertarians and right-wingers have been calling for ever since more socialist programs were implemented in the US after World War II.
Rightwingers have long wanted to set up their own society if the existing one isn’t favoring them economically or politically—the Confederate States of America is one shining example—so it isn’t much of a stretch that the Tech Bros will join them because they are fearful of losing their power, money, and privilege. Durán connects that with the Trump regime’s obsession with colonizing Greenland (“empty” land on which to build their own empire, right?), the rise of cryptocurrency (a financial system that is not beholden to government restrictions), and more.
There’s so much more that I think I’ll reread this in order to get everything. Durán spends a chapter talking about the rightwing (or specifically Thiel’s) obsession with the Antichrist. He writes, “Silicon Valley sees religion as an industry ripe for disruption” (ziiiiiing!), and so Tech Bros like Thiel harness the Antichrist label and slap it on anyone and everyone who is remotely opposed to them, thus bringing Big Tech, Christian evangelicism, and fascism closer together.
THE NERD REICH ends with a call to arms that has Durán laying out some truths we need to hear:
“We already have abundance, but it is being hoarded by a wicked few.”
“We can have billionaires, or we can have democracy.”
Highly recommended.
September 22, 2026
🎶We passed upon the stairs
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there
He said I was his friend
Which came as a surprise
I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone
A long long time ago…🎶
Throughout this month, I’ve been reading From Hell, The Exorcist, and a book called “The Devils”…and I think this one is scarier than all of them. These tech billionaires may not be murdering prostitutes, possessing the souls of little girls, or…whatever the hell was going on in The Devils*, but they’ve done their best to kill God, remake Him in their own image, and sell it to the masses**. And people are eating it up, and they’re winning.
As for the book itself, it’s great. I’m not a big nonfiction guy—I’ve bounced off of several recently as they just haven’t been able to grab my interest—but Duran’s work here is thoroughly researched and detailed without feeling repetitive. It’s always locked in, doesn’t feel verbose, and is genuinely as entertaining as it is informative. It’s scary as hell, but essential.
“A.I. will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.” —Sam Altman
“Zero—as little as possible. Move forward. Go.” —Marc Andreessen, when asked about introspection
“Earth is obsolete.” —Elon Musk
“…” —Peter Thiel, when asked if humanity should persist
*actually, I can’t say for sure they’re not doing any of these things
**an important thing to remember is that, like the supernatural behind many conspiracy theories, whether or not we believe in mystical hokum, some people with great power do. They with tell you as much (the older I get, the more I realize how true it is that people tell you exactly who they are), and their actions reveal attempts to bend it to their will. Does this stuff exist? Who knows? Probably not, but the ideas are so pervasive they’ve quantifiably shaped our demon-haunted world.
“He dreamed of a dark world, and today, we live in it.”
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there
He said I was his friend
Which came as a surprise
I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone
A long long time ago…🎶
Throughout this month, I’ve been reading From Hell, The Exorcist, and a book called “The Devils”…and I think this one is scarier than all of them. These tech billionaires may not be murdering prostitutes, possessing the souls of little girls, or…whatever the hell was going on in The Devils*, but they’ve done their best to kill God, remake Him in their own image, and sell it to the masses**. And people are eating it up, and they’re winning.
As for the book itself, it’s great. I’m not a big nonfiction guy—I’ve bounced off of several recently as they just haven’t been able to grab my interest—but Duran’s work here is thoroughly researched and detailed without feeling repetitive. It’s always locked in, doesn’t feel verbose, and is genuinely as entertaining as it is informative. It’s scary as hell, but essential.
“A.I. will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.” —Sam Altman
“Zero—as little as possible. Move forward. Go.” —Marc Andreessen, when asked about introspection
“Earth is obsolete.” —Elon Musk
“…” —Peter Thiel, when asked if humanity should persist
*actually, I can’t say for sure they’re not doing any of these things
**an important thing to remember is that, like the supernatural behind many conspiracy theories, whether or not we believe in mystical hokum, some people with great power do. They with tell you as much (the older I get, the more I realize how true it is that people tell you exactly who they are), and their actions reveal attempts to bend it to their will. Does this stuff exist? Who knows? Probably not, but the ideas are so pervasive they’ve quantifiably shaped our demon-haunted world.
“He dreamed of a dark world, and today, we live in it.”
September 15, 2026
Long story short, my takeaway existential question is: Our own sense of self is what we’ve got, right? (I think that's my question?)
On the one hand, as the cosmists have long believed, if you could duplicate someone’s exact molecular structure down to every teeny-tiny particle, you’d be duplicating them. By this method, scientists could essentially resurrect a dead person. Yeah, well, I’m a materialist in this sense, and to me it just sounds like a truism that duplicating the position of every atom in my brain and body would duplicate me.
On the other hand, if your dayplanner shows your Monday 8 a.m. as an appointment to drop acid and lock yourself in a closet with a John Travolta movie, why does it matter if you’re Curtis Yarvin or someone else?
Which leaves the question as: How much does it matter if you resist the Nerd Reich or join it?
Surely you don't want to become a Nazi scammer, no. But who are "you", after the AI absorbs you? After nations dissolve? After history is rewritten? Once Elon Musk has won the planet, who decides what good and evil are? (Elon Musk does.) Food for thought. (You're the food.)
On the one hand, as the cosmists have long believed, if you could duplicate someone’s exact molecular structure down to every teeny-tiny particle, you’d be duplicating them. By this method, scientists could essentially resurrect a dead person. Yeah, well, I’m a materialist in this sense, and to me it just sounds like a truism that duplicating the position of every atom in my brain and body would duplicate me.
On the other hand, if your dayplanner shows your Monday 8 a.m. as an appointment to drop acid and lock yourself in a closet with a John Travolta movie, why does it matter if you’re Curtis Yarvin or someone else?
Which leaves the question as: How much does it matter if you resist the Nerd Reich or join it?
Surely you don't want to become a Nazi scammer, no. But who are "you", after the AI absorbs you? After nations dissolve? After history is rewritten? Once Elon Musk has won the planet, who decides what good and evil are? (Elon Musk does.) Food for thought. (You're the food.)
August 19, 2026
The kicker to this powerful and disturbing treatise on the fascist creeps trashing the planet comes when the author’s bio reveals he was an advisor to the sclerotic centrist hacks Diane Feinstein, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris.
What a fucking rug pull.
What a fucking rug pull.
September 8, 2026
One of the most important books you'll read all year.
September 2, 2026
I feel like this is a hit piece more than a work of journalism. While I do believe there are a lot of facts, I do see some extreme stretches in connecting ideas. Wealthy tyrants is not a new concept. It has existed since the beginning of time. The content on crypto currency and AI was very enlightening however. I did enjoy that part of it. Hypocrisy and power is not new, only the people who wield it changes.
Want to Read
May 4, 2026Being a daily reader of "Daring Fireball" RSS feed, I instantly pre-ordered the ebook from Thalia.
Thinking out of the box, I still have to read the blueprint/playbook Ayn Rand Box Set: ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD
Thinking out of the box, I still have to read the blueprint/playbook Ayn Rand Box Set: ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD
September 1, 2026
"This is the scariest book I've ever read. Keeping me up at night." That's what my friend told me when he recommended The Nerd Reich. Undoubtedly, this is a real life horror story. I was already familiar with many of the players in the book: Thiel, Musk, Andreessen, JD; introduced to new characters like Srinivasan, Tan, Armstrong; and the “intellectuals” of the movement, such as Yarvin, Long, Davidson, and Rees-Mogg. But the way Durán links them together through such a masterful narrative, laying out where their ideologies stemmed from (often times psychedelics and amphetamines mixed with half-cooked conspiratorial doomsday theories, eugenics, and inaccurate theology) and where they will lead us (techno-fascist dystopia), makes this required reading for anyone who values democracy, equality, and humanity.
I can't help but think back to another book I read this year dealing with parallel subject matter, Dark Money by Jane Mayer, published in 2017. In many ways this is the evolution of her story that unmasked the Kochtapus. But where Dark Money revolved around mostly libertarian fossil fuel barons who have molded the government over a decades-long endeavor, Gil Durán's investigative journalism follows the libertarian tech barons who have taken up their mantle of political control, supercharging their efforts and timeline. Where Dark Money shows the Koch Brothers (Charles in particular) as the ringleader, The Nerd Reich puts Thiel in the role. In many ways, Thiel is far more terrifying, blending his technolibertarian aspirations with theological cockamamie that feels almost too bizarre to be real, all stemming from a conspiratorial screed written in the 1990s by the two guys who were known for right-wing economic doomsday prepper newsletters and would eventually go on to create Newsmax. But it's real, it's documented, he says it publicly, yet most institutions are so captured that it slips through the cracks, and when it is reported, it feels too little too late.
And now these ideologies are pervading the highest office in the land, with Thiel's hand picked and groomed VP just a breath (or one last cabinet meeting nap) away from the presidency. That's not even taking into consideration how the AI and Crypto lobby has transformed the 47th president into the first true Silicon Valley commander in chief, openly espousing—although not very articulately—their dream fantasy of creating the Network State (in my opinion, the most dystopian and horrifying aspect of their ideology). When most think of Silicon Valley, they think of iPhones and quirky eggheads from an HBO comedy series. But Durán unmasks the facade. Thiel and his apostles have largely transformed Silicon Valley into a technofascist breeding ground, seeking the capture of every aspect of life and government, from our media and communication to our shopping and food delivery to even the military industrial complex, willing to dispose of billions of lives for an ideology of greed and futurism.
The final chapter provides broad ideas that can give us hope, with the only superpower at our disposal being democracy—there are, after all, only around 1,000 billionaires and roughly 10,000 centi-millionaires in America, compared to over 340 million regular folk. No matter how degraded it has become, we can still use our democracy to put a halt to the destruction of civilization that this large sector of Silicon Valley seeks (and that is not hyperbole). We either use it, or we lose it.
I can't help but think back to another book I read this year dealing with parallel subject matter, Dark Money by Jane Mayer, published in 2017. In many ways this is the evolution of her story that unmasked the Kochtapus. But where Dark Money revolved around mostly libertarian fossil fuel barons who have molded the government over a decades-long endeavor, Gil Durán's investigative journalism follows the libertarian tech barons who have taken up their mantle of political control, supercharging their efforts and timeline. Where Dark Money shows the Koch Brothers (Charles in particular) as the ringleader, The Nerd Reich puts Thiel in the role. In many ways, Thiel is far more terrifying, blending his technolibertarian aspirations with theological cockamamie that feels almost too bizarre to be real, all stemming from a conspiratorial screed written in the 1990s by the two guys who were known for right-wing economic doomsday prepper newsletters and would eventually go on to create Newsmax. But it's real, it's documented, he says it publicly, yet most institutions are so captured that it slips through the cracks, and when it is reported, it feels too little too late.
And now these ideologies are pervading the highest office in the land, with Thiel's hand picked and groomed VP just a breath (or one last cabinet meeting nap) away from the presidency. That's not even taking into consideration how the AI and Crypto lobby has transformed the 47th president into the first true Silicon Valley commander in chief, openly espousing—although not very articulately—their dream fantasy of creating the Network State (in my opinion, the most dystopian and horrifying aspect of their ideology). When most think of Silicon Valley, they think of iPhones and quirky eggheads from an HBO comedy series. But Durán unmasks the facade. Thiel and his apostles have largely transformed Silicon Valley into a technofascist breeding ground, seeking the capture of every aspect of life and government, from our media and communication to our shopping and food delivery to even the military industrial complex, willing to dispose of billions of lives for an ideology of greed and futurism.
The final chapter provides broad ideas that can give us hope, with the only superpower at our disposal being democracy—there are, after all, only around 1,000 billionaires and roughly 10,000 centi-millionaires in America, compared to over 340 million regular folk. No matter how degraded it has become, we can still use our democracy to put a halt to the destruction of civilization that this large sector of Silicon Valley seeks (and that is not hyperbole). We either use it, or we lose it.
September 11, 2026
Fantastic compilation of the worst details, facts, and quotes of our tech overlords such as Thiel, Musk, Andreesen, and Altman. Only giving this book five stars because of how prescient it is, but in truth, if you've been paying attention at all to these evil dweebs much of the details revealed in this book won't be all that shocking to you.
The fact is, all of the above mentioned tech oligarchs are strict adherents of a strict father worldview, a tale as old as time. A view of the world as having strayed from the 'natural' path of traditional racial, gender, and class hierarchies. The tech dorks fuse classism (thinking they are cognitive elites who are both morally and physically superior to the rest of us), armageddon-drenched thinking (they are openly either calling for the end of the world, trying to cause it, or are at the very least indifferent to it), and good old fashioned racism (in the words of Yarvin, "I'm not a white supremacist but I'm not exactly allergic to the stuff") in order to insist on a new world order that strips us of the few rights we currently have in favor of building a hyper-capitalist dystopia absent of any democracy.
Phew.
The good news is these guys have about as much charisma, empathy, and emotional intelligence as the vampire Stephen Miller and regular people whose towns are now covered in flock cameras are starting to notice.
The fact is, all of the above mentioned tech oligarchs are strict adherents of a strict father worldview, a tale as old as time. A view of the world as having strayed from the 'natural' path of traditional racial, gender, and class hierarchies. The tech dorks fuse classism (thinking they are cognitive elites who are both morally and physically superior to the rest of us), armageddon-drenched thinking (they are openly either calling for the end of the world, trying to cause it, or are at the very least indifferent to it), and good old fashioned racism (in the words of Yarvin, "I'm not a white supremacist but I'm not exactly allergic to the stuff") in order to insist on a new world order that strips us of the few rights we currently have in favor of building a hyper-capitalist dystopia absent of any democracy.
Phew.
The good news is these guys have about as much charisma, empathy, and emotional intelligence as the vampire Stephen Miller and regular people whose towns are now covered in flock cameras are starting to notice.
September 18, 2026
This is an eye opening book about the tech billionaires and their influence and goals regarding disrupting the world order and destroying countries and governments . There is so much information that it is hard to wrap my head around it all. Basically the billionaire tech class is challenging the foundation of civil coexistence.They view technology as a tool to manage the decline of democracy while supporting a cognitive elite detached from geography and operating in cyberspace devoid of any regulation. They promote tech theocracy masquerading as Christianity, while actively funding government fascism by buying candidates, government officials and corporations. The end of the world is their business model.
Part of the plan is eugenics and spreading multi polarity and creating nation states and cities. Unseating the U.S. as a superpower and propping up small counties is part of the plan. A global collapse is needed in order for them to subjugate the world. They are weaponizing capitalism to overthrow democracy and utilizing digital forms of currency to undermine government. They seek to escape accountability through immortality, building their own reality and flaunting laws. The author makes the point that we may need to hold ourselves accountable for ceding our freedom by using the convenience of tech while ignoring the dangers.
There is so much more I could say about this book but my grasp of this topic is somewhat rudimentary. Everyone should read this book and decide if it resonates. It was very depressing but I highly recommend it.
Part of the plan is eugenics and spreading multi polarity and creating nation states and cities. Unseating the U.S. as a superpower and propping up small counties is part of the plan. A global collapse is needed in order for them to subjugate the world. They are weaponizing capitalism to overthrow democracy and utilizing digital forms of currency to undermine government. They seek to escape accountability through immortality, building their own reality and flaunting laws. The author makes the point that we may need to hold ourselves accountable for ceding our freedom by using the convenience of tech while ignoring the dangers.
There is so much more I could say about this book but my grasp of this topic is somewhat rudimentary. Everyone should read this book and decide if it resonates. It was very depressing but I highly recommend it.
September 8, 2026
An infuriating and terrifying read (and like most people, expecting all of my views to be suppressed by the big bad algorithm for having read and talked about this book on platforms owned and operated by the various billionaires talked about in this book!). It's long been easy to ridicule the more visible tech bros and their bizarre ideas, but the events of the past couple of years in the US have been sobering, and this book really lays out the pathway to power and influence of the various major players. It's very strong on the "what the hell happened" and "how we got here" parts, but pretty thin on "what can we possibly do now?". Not that I expect one journalist to provide the solutions to our current existential crisis. Still, I highly recommend this book for any thinking person in 2026, so any time you hear one of these tech bro assholes open their mouth, you can put the crap they spout in context, and so that the next time you contact one of your elected representatives, you can some intelligent reasons when you ask them to do something, ANYTHING, to try and maybe stop our slide towards dystopia!
September 16, 2026
TL;DR: We’re all suffering because a bunch of tech bro nerds got bullied too much when they were younger, and they’re making the world pay for it.
I had to listen to this in small chunks because it was pissing me off so much. I already knew a lot of this information, but I still learned plenty. Hearing it all in a row was rather disheartening, ngl. The number of these rich losers with manifestos who want to start tech cities that sound like actual hell is, frankly, shocking. I’m at least grateful the last chapter had some hope.
Recommended for anyone who defends billionaires.
Thank you to Libro and S&S Audio for the audiobook.
I had to listen to this in small chunks because it was pissing me off so much. I already knew a lot of this information, but I still learned plenty. Hearing it all in a row was rather disheartening, ngl. The number of these rich losers with manifestos who want to start tech cities that sound like actual hell is, frankly, shocking. I’m at least grateful the last chapter had some hope.
Recommended for anyone who defends billionaires.
Thank you to Libro and S&S Audio for the audiobook.
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