Podcast: Nerd Reich Redux with Gil Durán
Gil joins Dave for a discussion of his recently-released New York Times bestselling book, "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" and what it might mean for the midterms.
Gil Durán has a line he uses in interviews. Trying to explain what is happening to our country without talking about the radicalized billionaires behind it, and ideas like the network state, he says, “is like trying to explain 9/11 without mentioning Al-Qaeda.”
Gil first joined me for a podcast interview in March 2025, while he was still writing The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. It came out in August, debuted at number three on the New York Times bestseller list, and was still on the list six weeks later, when we sat down again. X permanently banned him in April, the day after he summed up Palantir’s manifesto in two words: “TLDR: fascism.” And when The Bulwark ran a (rare) negative review, Gil pointed out that its author is a fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation — a right-wing think tank tied to Peter Thiel’s network, and one his book examines. The Bulwark added a note saying the tie should have been disclosed.
Our conversation starts with a definition of Classical fascism, which promised a return to a mythical greatness; the tech version, Durán argues, promises an acceleration into a mythical future. Both are apocalyptic. Thiel lectures on the Antichrist, while the effective accelerationists talk of a “thermodynamic God” — one, as Gil describes it, they believe is worth burning up everything on the planet to create. That sits uneasily with the evangelical Christians in the same coalition, and exposing those contradictions may be one way to pull the coalition apart.
Then we follow the money. Gil calls crypto “a weapon of mass corruption,” part of a closed loop in which billions flow to the Trump family while federal contracts flow back to Palantir, Anduril, Elon Musk’s companies and the AI firms. We trace the schemes to build new cities from scratch, from Praxis to a planned crypto city in Kazakhstan to California Forever, a project in Solana County which has drawn opposition from both parties.
With midterm elections now less than a month away, Durán — a longtime communications strategist for California Democrats — is blunt: tech money is buying both parties. Republicans have been easier to capture, but Democrats who keep voting for crypto bills are doing their bidding as well. If the media talks about this, he says, the politicians will, and vice versa. So ask your candidates about it.
The Nerd Reich is on the America 2.0 Reading List. Follow Gil at thenerdreich.com and on Bluesky.
Dave Troy Presents is published by America 2.0. america2.news
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