Anger. Rage. Disbelief. These are just a few words I can muster to summarize my feelings after reading Gil Durán’s The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. While some of the contents were known to me prior to reading the book, such as Peter Thiel’s outsized influence on American politics, the sheer depth of the insane TESCREAL (short-hand for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, Longtermism) cult-like ideologies that proliferate amongst Silicon Valley tech elites was worse than I could have imagined. The meddling in San Francisco politics, the insatiable thirst for money, influence, power, and control over the world, as well as the desire to oust us non-believers of the sick and twisted future they have in mind, makes my blood boil. It’s a future that blends white nationalism and supremacy, technofeudalism, racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and an overall disdain for the human species as is. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and the rest of this cabal should not have the ability to dictate the lives of billions of people without consent. It’s not their world and the rest of us just living in it. They may be powerful, they may be a united Silicon Valley technofascist and religious white nationalist coalition, but with every fiber of my being, I will resist this Nerd Reich.
