The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran
Tech bros don't want to run the federal government — they want to eliminate it.
We hear this again and again, especially from members of Congress, “the answer is simple. Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies want to rob you of your social security so he and his fat-cat pals can enrich themselves at our expense.” Wrong, wrong, wrong! Those of us who track this ideology know that their real goals are much more nefarious — they don't want to run the federal government, they want to eliminate it.
Regular readers of my work here at America 2.0 and at The Washington Spectator are familiar with this concept, but the rest of the world is still catching up. One of the people who's been driving exposure of these ideas to a broader audience over the last couple of years is Gil Duran, a journalist and political communications strategist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He became familiar with the Network State ideas (which are really just a reworking of older ideas of Libertarian Exit) more recently, while investigating the emerging influence of the tech industry on San Francisco politics.
This week, Gil and I discussed the Network State movement, what it's really about, and what we should be doing to counter it. I actually attended the first Network State conference in Amsterdam in October 2023, and have also covered it in my comprehensive pre-history on this set of topics, Paranoia on Parade, and in a 2022 podcast episode on Libertarian Exit with historian Ray Craib.
One of the primary challenges in defeating this ideology is exposing it to the public in ways that are clear and easy to convey quickly to newcomers. Gil prepared this excellent 5-minute explainer video that is quickly gaining traction.
Please have a listen to the episode and share these resources widely! It's urgent that we understand and block these efforts.
Dave Troy Presents: The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran
Dave Troy
Gil Duran
