November 1, 2025
From code to control
Gilded Rage – Why Silicon Valley went from libertarian to authoritarian
From startup rebels to control freaks — readers say SV was always bossy
TLDR: Krugman’s chat with Jacob Silverman says Silicon Valley’s right turn started with post‑9/11 surveillance ties, not just Biden-era regulation. Commenters clap back: SV was always top-down authoritarian; some mock the book’s clickbait vibe, while memes about seasteading and Andreessen’s NFT pivot keep it spicy.
Economist Paul Krugman sat down with Jacob Silverman to ask why Silicon Valley’s billionaire class swerved right. Silverman’s claim: it didn’t start with Biden; it traces back to post‑9/11 cozy ties with surveillance and political campaigns like David Sacks’ push to recall reformist D.A. Chesa Boudin (link). Peter Thiel hovers over it all, with proteges like J.D. Vance, and yes, we’re closer to a “Person of Interest” world than we’d like.
But the comments? Pure fireworks. ModernMech went full “mask off”: SV was always authoritarian, pointing to CEO-first, top-down culture. vessenes admitted they clicked the “rage bait” anyway, then roasted the glow‑down of Marc Andreessen—from browser pioneer to Bored Ape hype-man (BAYC). mc32 dragged the book’s “Gilded Rage” title as clickbait, warning it undermines serious critique. techblueberry took a comedic detour into seasteading: if 100 billionaires flee to a Greenland island and get embargoed, how many residents do they need to keep their “freedom” economy going? Meanwhile Razengan distilled it to two words: Money/Power?
The mood swings between told-you-so cynicism and meme-fueled eye rolls: “browser bros to bunker bros,” “freedom on an island, but who runs the Wi‑Fi?” The takeaway: less political conversion, more convenience of control, and a community that’s unimpressed—and very online.
Key Points
- •Jacob Silverman argues the rightward turn of some Silicon Valley elites began before the Biden administration and that the industry fared well under Biden.
- •David Sacks’s political activism in California (including supporting the recall of D.A. Chesa Boudin) helped inspire Silverman’s book and was framed as a model for broader efforts.
- •Silverman traces tech–state collaboration to post‑9/11 mass surveillance, with close ties to the Obama administration and a consumer tech revolving door (e.g., Uber, Amazon).
- •He describes a persistent union of state and corporate power across parties, with reactionary currents intensifying around 2020 amid Covid-era upheavals.
- •Early Silicon Valley had defense roots (e.g., microchips for Minuteman missiles), complicating the narrative of a libertarian or countercultural tech ethos.