On this edition of Parallax Views, freelance journalist Jacob Silverman, co-author with actor Ben McKenzie (TV's The O.C. & Gotham) of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, joins the show to discuss his article in The Nation entitled "It’s Official: Silicon Valley Is Fully MAGA-Pilled". With Peter Thiel associate JD Vance being unveiled as Trump's Vice President pick and Elon Musk officially throwing his endorsement to Donald Trump after the attempted assassination of the former President, this topic is timelier than ever. But Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are far from the only Silicon Valley elites to throw their weight behind Trump's campaign. They've been joined by Marc Andreassen, David Sacks, Shaun Maguire, and Joe Lonsdale. In this conversation will discuss why rich Silicon Valley power players are getting on the MAGA train. Amongst some of the topics covered in this conversation: libertarianism and the Silicon Valley ideology, the late David Golumbia's The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism, corporate tyranny, Thiel associate Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug, Mark Cuban's comments about how Silicon Valley's power player may be getting behind trump as a "bitcoin play", America PAC and crypotcurrency lobbying/lobbyists, cryptocurrency-related organizations like Coinbase and Ripple Labs, the crypto PAC known as Fairshake that's interested in "installing crypto-friendly politicians and ousting those the industry views as a threat", JD Vance, Sam Bankman-Fried, right-wing faux populism, the Silicon Valley right-wing's fascination with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, artificial intelligence, Silicon Valley apocalypticism, and much, much more!
