from the the-internet-is-more-than-tech-bros dept

Well it’s now been a couple days since the Democrats obliterated Donald Trump and MAGA in the midterm. It turns out that the messaging of “price hikes, soldiers in the street, new forever wars, and diarrhea for everyone, with a side of enriching the rich while protecting pedophiles” somehow failed to resonate. Which is how you end up with absolutely historic midterm results.

As happens after every election, no matter how narrow or lopsided, lots of people rush in to explain how it proves their own pet worldview. I’m not going to do that because I don’t think a single election can ever show any long term support for any particular worldview, and most elections are decided by a variety of factors, mostly based on the vibe of “do I think things are heading in the right direction or wrong direction” which is a very subjective thing.

But, I will note that for those who bought into the MAGA gains of 2024 as some sort of permanent shift in the American outlook, you played yourself. And I will highlight specifically those goons (mostly among the VC and tech billionaire class) who seemed to assume that this was an invitation to go all in on supporting fascism.

We warned you.

Last year, in a post called Fascism for First Time Founders, I pointed out to the tech bros embracing MAGA-style fascism in the short-sighted belief that this was their moment to become the permanent overlords of the tech world… that it would not end well. Fascism never does. And as for the idea that Silicon Valley as a whole (beyond the VC bro / tech bro set) had gone all MAGA, well:

Of course, there is still likely to be a real reckoning for all the tech companies that cozied up to Trump, thinking that donating to his ballroom or suddenly deciding to call AI “Super Intelligence” because Trump said so, would somehow set them up to be the new leaders of the next tech revolution. And it would have been nice if the bozos with billions had thought literally any of this through. I mean, they have these AI tools now, couldn’t they have asked them how this might play out?

But, no, the billionaire tech bros decided this was their chance to go all in for fascism, and now the entire tech industry will almost certainly pay the regulatory price.

Though, arguably, after all the handwringing about Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen, and Peter Thiel “putting their thumbs on the scales” for Trumpian fascism, the fact that their side still got walloped this badly — even with all the money they spent as well — suggests their power to manipulate minds through their platforms isn’t nearly as strong as some commenters make out.

My fear is that the good parts of the internet — the parts that empower individuals against billionaire control — get destroyed as collateral damage by those in power who will now seek (understandably) to exact revenge on the billionaire tech bros who took their shot at becoming new fascist overlords and missed. Knocking them all down a peg should be the goal, and the way to do that is by backing decentralized, user-controlled tools. We can take away their power by giving it to the actual users of the internet.

That means we should avoid tech policies that “punish” big tech companies in a way that just inherently gives them more power and more control over our lives. The “easy” path is “regulating” social media and AI, but done badly (like most current proposals) and in a way that actually gives those jackasses more power by making sure that only they and their giant bank accounts can afford to comply. Instead, we need policies that make it more difficult for big tech to have so much control over our lives. Keep Section 230 strong (which protects small forums and internet users way more than the giants). Fix the DMCA 1201 and the CFAA, both of which big tech companies keep using to try to stifle competition. While we’re at it, we can still do more to fix patent law to prevent troll lawsuits that harm competition. And make sure that decentralized offerings — in both social media and AI — can actually function without needing government sign-off on every move, even when the real goal of a regulation is to hamstring the giants.

Now I know that there are some who worked at the big companies who got in line behind Trump, saying some variation on “we needed to do so just to keep our business going,” and that is, indeed, different than those (listed above) who seemed positively eager to support and promote Trump’s MAGA agenda. But to me that’s little excuse. Have a backbone. Stand up for what’s right. Isn’t that what “free thinkers” in the wild west of the tech world keep claiming is so important?

Anyway, there’s no doubt that a reckoning is coming to Silicon Valley and the tech bros who tried to use the last two years in pursuit of a technocratic fascist network state. And they totally deserve it. But it would be nice if we didn’t take down the rest of the internet — especially the parts that actually are empowering to users — with it.

Filed Under: donald trump, elections, elon musk, fascism, maga, marc andreessen, mark zuckerberg, midterms, peter thiel, silicon valley