Silicon Valley is Backing Donald Trump w/ Jacob Silverman
Explicit content warning
07/25/24 • 60 min
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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss why tech billionaires have become more supportive of Donald Trump in the upcoming US election and whether Kamala Harris’ candidacy will disrupt their plans.
Jacob Silverman is the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud and is working on a new book called Gilded Rage that is scheduled for Fall 2025.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Jacob wrote about Silicon Valley’s embrace of Trump for The Nation.
- Paris wrote about what Silicon Valley wants from Trump in Disconnect.
- Molly White’s new project is called Follow the Crypto.
- Elon Musk is reportedly committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
- Mark Zuckerberg called Trump a badass, while saying he won’t endorse any candidate.
- Eric Schmidt is pushing the Pentagon’s embrace of AI for war.
- Peter Thiel says he’d vote for Trump this cycle if there was a gun to his head.
- Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote a Little Tech Agenda containing a basic policy program.
- Reid Hoffman funded a disinformation campaign in Alabama.
- Reed Hastings has already put $7 million into a pro-Kamala Super PAC.
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss why tech billionaires have become more supportive of Donald Trump in the upcoming US election and whether Kamala Harris’ candidacy will disrupt their plans.
Jacob Silverman is the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud and is working on a new book called Gilded Rage that is scheduled for Fall 2025.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Jacob wrote about Silicon Valley’s embrace of Trump for The Nation.
- Paris wrote about what Silicon Valley wants from Trump in Disconnect.
- Molly White’s new project is called Follow the Crypto.
- Elon Musk is reportedly committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
- Mark Zuckerberg called Trump a badass, while saying he won’t endorse any candidate.
- Eric Schmidt is pushing the Pentagon’s embrace of AI for war.
- Peter Thiel says he’d vote for Trump this cycle if there was a gun to his head.
- Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote a Little Tech Agenda containing a basic policy program.
- Reid Hoffman funded a disinformation campaign in Alabama.
- Reed Hastings has already put $7 million into a pro-Kamala Super PAC.
Previous Episode
Generative AI is a Climate Disaster w/ Sasha Luccioni
Paris Marx is joined by Sasha Luccioni to discuss the catastrophic environmental costs of the generative AI being increasing shoved into every tech product we touch.
Sasha Luccioni is an artificial intelligence researcher and Climate Lead at Hugging Face.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Sasha published a paper looking at the climate impacts of generative AI.
- Paris wrote about the increased emissions at Google and Microsoft, and the consequences of the growing data center buildout.
- Google’s emissions are up 48% in five years, while Microsoft’s are up 30% between 2020 and 2023.
- Bill Gates is telling governments not to “go overboard” with concerns about AI energy use. He’s been much more active in Microsoft’s AI strategizing than he’s admitted publicly.
- Microsoft President Brad Smith says its carbon “moonshot” is much farther away because of generative AI. The company is accelerating its data center construction plans.
- Sam Altman says we can geoengineer the planet if we can’t develop an energy breakthrough to power AI.
Next Episode
Escaping the Processed World w/ Chris Carlsson
Paris Marx is joined by Chris Carlsson to discuss Processed World, a tech-critical, anti-capitalist magazine that satirized the absurdity of work in its publishing run between 1981 and 2005.
Chris Carlsson is the author of many books, including most recently When Shells Crumble. He’s the director of Shaping SF and a cofounder of Critical Mass. He was also one of the people behind Processed World.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- You can find the full archive of Processed World on the Internet Archive.
- Chris wrote about his experience making Processed World in Notes from Below.
- Jacob Silverman wrote a great piece on the legacy of Processed World for The Baffler.
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