The “Dark Elf” Leading Tech’s Extreme Right w/ Julia Black
Paris Marx is joined by Julia Black to discuss who Curtis Yarvin is and how his anti-democratic, far-right writings have influenced the politics of Silicon Valley and the wider American extreme right.Julia Black is a features reporter on The Information’s Weekend Team.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: Julia wrote about Curtis Yarvin and his ideas for The Information. She also wrote about the Musk-aligned tech CEOs trying to shape how we think about the future. Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto. The Dark Enlightenment is an anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian political project. Gil Duran wrote about the Reboot Conference and how it put the connections between the tech industry and the Heritage Foundation on display. The Heritage Foundation is flooding federal agencies with thousands of information requests to identify government employees to be purged under a second Trump administration. Peter Thiel wanted Balaji Srinivasan to become head of the Federal Drug Administration under the Trump presidency. According to Nick Land, hyperstition refers to ideas that bring themselves into being. Support the show