General
It May Not Be Brainwashing, but It’s Not Democracy, Either
The Trump administration has enabled a small network of high-tech oligarchs to determine a vast proportion of federal spending and regulatory policy. Much of the attention, understandably, has fallen on Elon Musk, but he is not working alone. Marc …
The Trump administration has enabled a small network of high-tech oligarchs to determine a vast proportion of federal spending and regulatory policy.
Much of the attention, understandably, has fallen on Elon Musk, but he is not working alone.
Marc Andreessen, a billionaire venture capitalist, cryptocurrency investor and pivotal but unofficial adviser to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, made the case in a recent interview that the entire system of American higher education should be shuttered and abandoned.
There is, Andreessen argued in a Jan. 28 exchange with Lex Fridman, a podcaster and research scientist at M.I.T.:
Andreessen is a member of a tech elite that stands to benefit from Trump administration policies, which are set to accelerate the ascendance of America’s technology oligarchs still further by lifting government restraints on digital, social media and cryptocurrency companies, allowing the untrammeled pursuit of libertarian goals and control over the flow of information.
Another potential beneficiary is Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who was a co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund, as well the first outside investor in Facebook. Thiel has been Vice President JD Vance’s guardian angel, getting him started in venture capital, arranging an initial meeting with Donald Trump in 2021 and putting $15 million into Vance’s successful senate campaign in Ohio.
Like Andreessen, Thiel is no stranger to controversy.
In 2009, Thiel sent shock waves through Silicon Valley when he published an essay, “The Education of a Libertarian,” in which he declared: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” adding
Thiel’s solution: abandon democracy in favor of technology, including the exploration of cyberspace and outer space:
Since taking office, President Trump and his appointees have supported the interests of conservative tech elites who in 2024 backed Trump and his fellow Republicans with hundreds of millions of dollars.
On his first day in office, Trump rescinded a 2023 Biden executive order that required AI systems developers to share with the government the results of tests determining whether any innovation poses a risk to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety.
