Gilded Rage examines the radicalising networks of power in big tech
If someone 20 years ago had come up with a James Bond villain who was planning to colonise Mars, the whole thing would have been dismissed.
What if that person had developed an artificial intelligence that thought it was Adolf Hitler? It would be downright silly.
Today the situation is somehow worse. Not only is Elon Musk real, but he and his billionaire tech buddies dominate the United States’ government. One of their creatures, JD Vance, is sitting there as vice president.
How has this come about? Jacob Silverman’s book, Gilded Rage, is essential reading if you want to understand this.
Gilded Rage explains how Peter Thiel is one of the key figures in the rise of the tech lords. He was at the centre of the so-called Pay‑Pal Mafia.
He is a libertarian, someone who believes that big business should be allowed to operate without restraint.
Libertarians think that the state should be dismantled—except those parts that protected the interests of the super-rich. They also believe that the welfare state is oppressive.
As far as he’s concerned democracy and freedom were incompatible. On one occasion he made it clear that he believes votes for women had been a big mistake.
Thiel enthusiastically backed Donald Trump for president in 2016, but has since retreated into the shadows.
His influence is still everywhere, however, and Vance is very much his man.
Other tech lords, such as Musk, did not start out on the right. At one time, Musk supported LGBT+ rights and took a stance over climate change.
What led to his dramatic swerve to the far right, actually giving the Nazi salute at a Trump rally and leading the way for other tech lords?
Silverman sees the embrace of the security state as decisive with Silicon Valley. They have embraced “the defence industrial complex, building surveillance tools, databases and weapons for the biggest military on Earth”.
Another factor was that as their wealth and power grew, these men became increasingly hostile to any regulation and restriction on their activities.
They saw Trump’s Maga movement as a way to reshape the US to fit their particular dystopian vision.
Musk, using X and the Grok AI, led the way and has done his best to spread the hate across Europe and Britain.
According to Silverman, what has taken shape is “a corporatist techno-fascist right…the natural ideological province for cossetted billionaires”.
Silverman explains one interesting project—the tech lords’ obsession with establishing mini-states. Here they can operate how they like, outside any government control, regulation or oversight.
A number of these were established in Honduras. Among other things, the super‑rich conduct medical experiments here that are illegal just about anywhere else they could be carried out. This links to the tech lords’ fixation with immortality.
The man who made this possible was president Juan Orlando Hernandez. He was to be later sentenced to 45 years in a US prison for smuggling over 400 tonnes of cocaine into the country.
Trump, of course, pardoned this good friend of the tech lords.
A key company in all this was Palantir, whose success played an important part in pulling Silicon Valley to the far right.
Palantir has major security contracts in the US and elsewhere. Its technology has been used by the Israelis in Gaza.
This was where the most money could be made, with Palantir in 2025 valued at $225 billion.
Silverman reports on Palantir boss Alex Karp, speaking at an forum in Washington DC in May 2024. He told his audience that students protesting about the Gaza genocide should be deported to North Korea.
Keir Starmer government, and in particular Wes Streeting, are close to Palantir. This is an outrage.
Silverman’s book is a warning and an urgent call to action.
