Andreessen et al are going through a phase of being the American techbro parallel to Eurotrash.
Techbros are going through an existential crisis. For about 25 years, tech has been responsible for the plurality of America's economic growth, and a substantial portion of the world's. They've gotten fawning press and lifted up as geniuses and history-makers.
Around and after the pandemic, culture and economy pivoted. Inflation begat interest rate hikes, upending the financials of a tech sector that only knew how to grow but not create economic value. It turns out free money (zero to near-zero interest rates) was propping up tech and their holdings.
There is both a leftwing and rightwing backlash to tech, albeit for different reasons. Non-executive tech workers don't subscribe to the libertarian ethos of the 'bros, in fact well-compensated techies who don't have to struggle like their neighbors turned out to be "woke" and "progressive", camping firmly in the Blue Tribe, not the Grey Tribe. They are using VC money to undermine the libertarian vision and advocate for a more egalitarian and diverse vision.
The rightwing backlash is status anxiety. The term "bluecheck" as a snarlword is the quintessence of status anxiety. Then there's the accusation of censorship, some real and plausible but largely (and mostly) perceived. The rightwing worldview is wedded to the idea that conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. The only explanation is woke techies manipulating the algorithm like kinking a garden hose. But consider this alternate possibility: In the marketplace of ideas, liberals offer a superior product and by playing by the rules, liberals not only won but ran up the score. Liberals won culture, liberals won the economy (blue regions are more prosperous than red regions), and in academics, conservative ideas do not hold up well when pressed under scrutiny.
If it seems soi-disant libertarian techbros "turned" fashoid, they didn't. They still hold the same politics they did in the glory days. Unless you would say you underwent a political conversion recently, most likely your politics stayed the same too. It's the ground -- the reality beyond humans' agency and grasp -- that shifted, and brought the 'bros closer to the magas and populists.
Andreessen et al are going through a phase of being the American techbro parallel to Eurotrash.
Techbros are going through an existential crisis. For about 25 years, tech has been responsible for the plurality of America's economic growth, and a substantial portion of the world's. They've gotten fawning press and lifted up as geniuses and history-makers.
Around and after the pandemic, culture and economy pivoted. Inflation begat interest rate hikes, upending the financials of a tech sector that only knew how to grow but not create economic value. It turns out free money (zero to near-zero interest rates) was propping up tech and their holdings.
There is both a leftwing and rightwing backlash to tech, albeit for different reasons. Non-executive tech workers don't subscribe to the libertarian ethos of the 'bros, in fact well-compensated techies who don't have to struggle like their neighbors turned out to be "woke" and "progressive", camping firmly in the Blue Tribe, not the Grey Tribe. They are using VC money to undermine the libertarian vision and advocate for a more egalitarian and diverse vision.
The rightwing backlash is status anxiety. The term "bluecheck" as a snarlword is the quintessence of status anxiety. Then there's the accusation of censorship, some real and plausible but largely (and mostly) perceived. The rightwing worldview is wedded to the idea that conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. The only explanation is woke techies manipulating the algorithm like kinking a garden hose. But consider this alternate possibility: In the marketplace of ideas, liberals offer a superior product and by playing by the rules, liberals not only won but ran up the score. Liberals won culture, liberals won the economy (blue regions are more prosperous than red regions), and in academics, conservative ideas do not hold up well when pressed under scrutiny.
If it seems soi-disant libertarian techbros "turned" fashoid, they didn't. They still hold the same politics they did in the glory days. Unless you would say you underwent a political conversion recently, most likely your politics stayed the same too. It's the ground -- the reality beyond humans' agency and grasp -- that shifted, and brought the 'bros closer to the magas and populists.