Jemin Na’s Reviews > Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley > Status Update

"[Charter cities] were places where people like Thiel, who had expressed an aversion both to women voting and democracy itself, would get to play dictator...No matter how much the US, and Silicon Valley in particular, had helped them achieve their wealth and power, the future lay in escaping its strictures."

"in fall 2023, I attended an evening of sales pitches on charter cities...in the vision of one presenter, to be a place where guys could get together, study ancient Greek, and lift weights. No women allowed. There was a lot of that coursing through this world: masculine insecurity manifesting as homoerotic body worship. Tucker Carlson had just aired a special about the rejuvenating powers of tanning one's balls."

"The bills that ALEC helped pass tended to be pro-corporate, reducing regulations, chiseling away at consumer rights, eliminating "sanctuary cities," and pushing other conservative priorities."

One thing I learned from conservatives is more taxes don't always mean solutions. Programs can be inefficient or ineffective. It's not a criticism of progressive policies. I am the dumb who had never thought of it.

The Phoenix Project
https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/

"Since 2020, a network of political pressure groups have emerged from the shadows, secretly funded by a handful of conservative tech and real estate oligarchs worth over $21 billion. The Phoenix Project is uncovering their dark money trail."

"Political billionaires stand atop the pile of their wealth and promise that the smart thinking that got them there is now being made available to you, the citizen. They are reasonable. The other side is not."

One thing I've noticed. Powerful people are very hands on about protecting their interests, but strangely nonchalant when it comes to the public benefits they use as justification. I mean I get it but still.

"When France's right-wing political parties ran strongly in a June 2024 election, Jacob Helberg, the Palantir advisor who'd emerged as an influential hawkish voice against China and TikTok, asked why Marine Le Pen's (NR) party was considered right-wing. This was the party that was forced to expel its founder --...Jean-Marie Le Pen -- for his racism and dismissal of the Holocaust as a "detail of history."

"They've kind of reached a point where they have so much wealth, and so much egomania--and, in some cases, so much drug-addled thinking--that they decide they're going to rule the world, and that democracy is an outdated form of software," Duran said. I mean, why would they want democracy when they think they are the shit? I am pretty sure they want "central planning" as long as they are in control.

"Srinivasan speculated about who must be finding a freelance journalist who had the temerity to question the political program being promoted by powerful tech leaders...There was little money in this kind of work, only the satisfaction of uncovering information that powerful people didn't want the public to know. And maybe pricking their egos in the process."

The Network State.
"Drawing on the anti-state and corporate charter city ideas then coming into vogue, the Network State described a potential "tech Zionism" in which right-wing techies ("Grays") would buy property, take over local institutions, and cleanse neighborhoods of their ideological opponents ("Blues"). Grays were generally intellectual tech elites who would reap the fruits of technological progress."

Why do these guys hate homelessness? Isn't it a symptom that capitalism is successfully creating the wealth inequality that's supposedly necessary for the benefit of society as a whole?

What they want people to do.
Have multiple children
Stay healthy
Go to church or do community stuff
Be financially responsible
But spend enough for the economy to grow

While working as many hours as they can.
lol.