Today on Upstream, we’re airing Erik Torenberg’s conversation with Jon Askonas. They explore the emerging coalition between MAGA supporters and Silicon Valley tech leaders, examines the underlying political realignment, the tensions and fault lines within this coalition, and the potential future conflicts surrounding issues like immigration and transhumanism.

This episode originally aired on Moment Zen (February 22, 2025)

—

📰Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess

🙏Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—

RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:

🎙️Moment of Zen

Every week, Erik Torenbergand frequent special guests discuss what's happening in technology, business, politics, and beyond.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15KYOzvDzAQvqX0z0SpHEJ

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/moment-of-zen/id1661672738

—

SPONSORS:

☁️Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at https://oracle.com/turpentine

🎯Say goodbye to the headaches of out-of-home advertising. AdQuick combines technology, OOH expertise, and data to enable efficient, seamless ad buying across the globe. Visit https://adquick.com/ to start reaching your customers in the real world.

🕵️‍♂️Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UPSTREAM at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/upstream

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—

LINKS:

Ezra Klein on Supply-side Progressivism, Polarization, and What Silicon Valley Misses About Politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1vBO8SYvto

The Future of Crypto with Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQdaQr3EW8g

Tech for Trump: https://www.city-journal.org/article/tech-for-trump

The New Control Society: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-new-control-society

—

X / TWITTER:

@JonAskonas

@eriktorenberg

@turpentinemedia

—

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:

Silicon Valley has experienced a significant shift away from Democrats, visually demonstrated by tech CEOs like Nadella, Pichai, Bezos, and Zuckerberg attending Trump's inauguration.
The tech elite was historically one of the most entrenched parts of the Democratic coalition from the Clinton era through the Obama administration.
COVID enabled tech to be publicly anti-left due to perceived governance incompetence, with figures like Mike Solana leading criticism of San Francisco's policies.
Brian Armstrong's "no politics at Coinbase" stance marked a controversial turning point, though it wasn't explicitly right-wing.
The new right coalition consists of three pillars: the Tech Right (elite talent and donors), MAGA (America First policies), and MAHA (Make America Healthy Again).
What unites this coalition is an "existential fight with the Cathedral" - targeting establishment institutions rather than protecting existing systems.
Immigration represents a major fault line, with tech generally being pro-immigration while the MAGA base is restrictionist.
Transhumanism and biotechnology create tension between tech enthusiasm for innovation versus MAGA/MAHA skepticism about "messing with natural biology."
Democrats are struggling with post-election analysis, focusing on messaging rather than substance.
Trump's approach differs from previous Republicans by focusing on destroying rather than reforming institutions.
Many of Trump's most controversial positions were actually Democratic positions in the 1990s.

Profiling a new VITT-like disorder; real-world outcomes of tafasitamab and lenalidomide in LBCL; and spatial mapping of human hematopoiesis