Techno-Authoritarianism, Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State, and the Big Tech Oligarchs Backing MAGA w/ Gil Duran

On this edition of Parallax Views, San Francisco-based journalist Gil Duran, a former communications director for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein & Kamala Harris (during her time as Attorney General), joins the show to discuss the big tech oligarchs backing Donald Trump, JD Vance, and MAGA this election season and their strange, science fiction-sounding techno-authoritarian vision for America.

Gil Duran recently wrote two pieces in The New Republic that will form the basis for this conversation. The first, "Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas", deals with JD Vance and the figure of Mencius Moldbug aka Curtis Yarvin, both of whom have a conneciton to Peter Thiel. Moldbug/Yarvin, for the uninitiated, is a key figure in the formation of what's come to be known as "Neo-Reaction" (NRx). Yarvin has promoted many ideas over the years, including the creation of corporate-controlled sovereign "realms" such as an imagined version of San Francisco called "Friscorps". These realms would essentially serve as panopticon-esque Orwellian surveillance systems. For example, in regard to his concept of Friscorps, Yarvin writes:

“All residents, even temporary visitors, carry an ID card with RFID response. All are genotyped and iris-scanned. Public places and transportation systems track everyone. Security cameras are ubiquitous. Every car knows where it is, and who is sitting in it, and tells the authorities both.”

We'll delve into Yarvin's ideas about patchworks, his strange writings about using humans as biodiesel fuel, and, most importantly, how his RAGE (Retire All Government Employees) plan bears similarties to Project 2025. And yes, as previously mentioned, we'll discuss how both Vance and Yarvin are tied to Peter Thiel.

The second article, also from The New Republic, that informs much of Gil and I's discussion is entitled "The Tech Baron Seeking to Purge San Francisco of 'Blues'". That piece deals with the figure of venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan and his rather right-wing, techno-authoritarian vision for San Francisco vis-a-vis a concept called the Network State. We'll delve into Srinivasan's ideas about the Network State as well as a concept he refers to as "techno-Zionism" and the conflict between what he calls the gray tribe (tech-loyalists) and the blue tribe (liberal voters). According to Duran, Srinivasan's vision involves purging Blues from San Francisco. “Take total control of your neighborhood. Push out all Blues. Tell them they’re ... unwelcome,” Srinivasan says, "Just as Blues ethnically cleanse me out of San Francisco, like, push out all Blues.” We'll dissect exactly what Srinivasan meant by that and much more.

Additionally, Gil and I will delve into why these figures are fascinated by the figure of French philosopher Rene Girard and his writings on the scapegoat mechanism of mimetic theory, how these figures are influenced by the controversial legal theorist Carl Schmitt (who worked for the Nazis under Hitler's Third Reich) and Schmitt's concept of the Sovereign and the State of Exception, and much, much more. In other words, you'll be hearing episode pulling the curtain back on the Silicon Valley/venture capitalist right-wing in California and America more broadly.