Tech Bro Messiahs: How Tech Billionaires are Spearheading late-stage Reactionary Politics

Abstract

Far-right tech billionaires are advancing a new form of reactionary ideology, one hostile to democratic power. Silicon Valley tycoons Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and Peter Thiel are actively pushing for a techno-capitalist political and economic order, one where the capitalist can operate in the market unimpeded from outside interests such as the state, and even democratic concerns that would only get in the way of their work. These tech oligarchs insist innovative minds like theirs are at the center of creating a brighter future, and thus deserve not just the immense wealth and power they currently hold in liberal America, but the larger concentrations of power they will inevitably receive in their ideal world without regulations, worker power, or elections. The three billionaires are notable agents in a larger reactionary movement produced by liberalism seeking to dismantle liberalism, calling into question the nature and viability of the liberal order.