'The Nerd Reich' tracks the 'unmasking of Silicon Valley's true politics' | Hacker News Reader

'The Nerd Reich' tracks the 'unmasking of Silicon Valley's true politics'

npr.org

123 pointsrbanffy55 comments

I believe this topic was flagged for political reasons, which constitutes an abuse of the system. This is an important topic for the tech industry. Avoiding it won't make it go away.

Alternatively, if this topic is too hot for discussion, it should be frozen but allowed to remain on the front page, because this book is newsworthy. I intend to read it.

41 comments. Hardly "too hot".

Flagging is systematically used to remove certain topics. This is just another instance of that.

I believe the go-to response from leadership here is that there's other places to discuss political news, and that if it doesn't encourage curious, thoughtful discussion, it shouldn't exist here. So they probably won't address the flagging system as they truly believe it's working as expected.

I mean, Garry Tan is precisely the kind of person being criticized here. Rich tech CEOs with illiberal beliefs and limited care for the rights of other people.

> there's other places to discuss political news

There are, that's why we discuss most political news elsewhere. But there's no more informed place to discuss tech news, that's why we want to discuss crossover topics here.

The painful thing is that there's a non tech related political item on the front page at least every other day, so it's very clear that certain topics are just too close to home for some people here.

> DURAN: In April 2009, Peter Thiel wrote an essay in which he said he no longer believed that freedom and democracy were compatible and suggested that women and other people getting the right to vote marked the end of freedom being a thing you can have with democracy. At least, of course, as we can see for white men, he was talking about. Well, this caused a lot of outcry and criticism of Thiel, who had to go back and say, I didn't mean to say - I'm not saying that women shouldn't have the vote, etc.

“How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk...

Gays like him would have been forced to wear pink triangles in his utopia state.

that's a spin.

> Peter Thiel wrote an essay in which he said he no longer believed that freedom and democracy were compatible and suggested that women and other people getting the right to vote marked the end of freedom being a thing you can have with democracy.

This is true that Peter Thiel wrote ti

> At least, of course, as we can see for white men, he was talking about.

This is spin. He wasn't talking about white men. He was talking that as long as people are allowed to vote to take things from others to give to themselves they will.

And, it can be argued, that in the end that will end up with worse outcomes for everyone. (not saying this is true, I'm saying it can be argued that it's a possibility)

IMO, what Thiel wrote is essentially that women and non-whites are beneficiaries of welfare and leaches on society, and that they therefore will vote to transfer wealth from the white men who create it (according to Thiel).

https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

> The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.

(edited to remove a redundant word)

Yet women are the ones who go through hell and back actually making members of society.

These “pro” business advocates never seem to want to pay for that service. That Thiel is gay is even more egregious.

He was talking about white men. White men vote to take from others and give themselves too. Trump vote was to large extend that.

Thiel is supported of that. He happily votes to take others and give himself.

If that's what he was talking about he would not have said "women and other people".

> He was talking that as long as people are allowed to vote to take things from others to give to themselves they will.

The implicit point here is that the super rich, like Peter Thiel, currently have the power to vote (through the process of lobbying) to take money from others to give to themselves and they do it regularly. It's his 'freedom' to continue to that which he feels is threatened.

Previously on the book (2025):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46066482

Comment removed - I regret commenting here.

See also: "America’s Oligarchic Techno‑Feudal Elite Are Attempting to Build a Twenty‑First‑Century Fascist State"

- Article: https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2026/02/16/amer... - HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198912

Reply on news.ycombinator.com