The Nerd Reich: How Evil Tech Fascists Are Trying To Take Over the World

Posted on 5 september 2026 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Silicon Valley has long had something of a hippie image, epitomized by legendary figures like Steve Jobs, as the crucible of global tech innovation. Historically, its political engagement, when it existed, leaned Democratic. In recent years, however, the region has taken a dark turn, though authoritarian undercurrents have always simmered beneath the surface.

In his new book, ‘The Nerd Reich’, journalist Gil Duran exposes a chilling reality: the world’s most powerful tech billionaires – Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Balaji Srinivasan, and their allies – are not just building companies: they are waging a deliberate, ideological war against democracy itself, replacing it with a vision of corporate authoritarianism where the rich rule unchallenged. And with J.D. Vance, Thiel’s handpicked protégé, now a heartbeat away from the presidency, their ideas are no longer fringe – they are policy.

Duran’s book is a meticulously sourced account of how Silicon Valley’s elite have radicalized against democracy, using their wealth, influence, and technological might to reshape government in their image.

The Ideology: What is Tech Fascism?

Duran defines tech fascism as a modern iteration of classic fascism: “It’s a cult of grievance and self-victimization that seeks to return to a mythical greatness by purging its demonized enemies – whether they be the poor, the left, or democratic institutions – to impose a permanent hierarchical structure on the world.”

This ideology didn’t emerge overnight. It has roots in libertarian thought from the 1980s and 1990s, but as Duran explains, these billionaires were never true libertarians.

Now that they are the government (or at least its most influential backers), their true colors show: they are extreme fascists and authoritarians.

The intellectual foundation for this movement is James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg’s 1997 book, ‘The Sovereign Individual’, which Peter Thiel has long championed. The book predicted that technology, especially cybercurrency (what we now call crypto), would overthrow democracy in the 21st century.

Thiel, a Stanford-educated lawyer who made his fortune in Silicon Valley’s late-1990s boom, has spent decades pushing this vision. Peter Thiel is the central character in Duran’s book, not just as a billionaire, but as the architect of a political movement. His influence extends far beyond PayPal and Palantir.

Significantly, he bankrolled J.D. Vance’s entire career, from his stint as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to his Senate run. “Vance is almost entirely a creation of Thiel”, Duran writes.

He shaped Vance’s worldview. In 2011, Thiel gave a speech at Yale Law School that Vance later called “one of the most significant moments of his life.” Thiel convinced Vance to abandon law and become a venture capitalist and at every step since, Thiel has molded him into a political force.

He funded a network of extremists. At least 16 Thiel-connected figures served in the Trump administration, embedding his ideology into policy.

But Thiel’s most chilling contribution is Palantir, the surveillance giant he co-founded. Named after the all-seeing stone from The Lord of the Rings, Palantir is not just a tech company – it’s a cornerstone of the emerging authoritarian state. Embedded in U.S. military, intelligence, and ICE operations, it enables mass surveillance. Created with CIA investment, yet its leaders openly push anti-democratic ideas.

“It boggles my mind that you can say the most anti-American, anti-democratic things and still be a billionaire off government contracts”, said Duran in a recent interview.

Peter Thiel in South Park

Curtis Yarvin: The Philosopher of Corporate Dictatorship

If Thiel is the puppet master, Curtis Yarvin is the theorist. His writings – once dismissed as fringe – are now shaping policy.

Yarvin’s most infamous idea is ‘Patchwork’. He argues that nation-states are obsolete and should be replaced by corporate fiefdoms – autocratic ‘network states’ where billionaires rule as dictators over their own citizens.

His proposals are shockingly extreme:

● Purge the federal government of anyone who resists the dictator’s orders (Yarvin called this ‘RAGE’ Retire All Government Employees. That’s pretty close to DOGE – the Elon Musk led hatchet job to the American government).

● Eliminate international aid programs (The Trump administration did exactly this, with USAID cuts that Duran calls “a targeted hit delivered against the poorest people in the world by the richest man in the world”).

● Adopt ‘pretorian diplomacy’ – a military-first foreign policy.

● Deal with the poor by turning them into biodiesel to fuel city buses (Yarvin later claimed this was a joke, but added that what the poor really need is “a humane alternative to genocide”).

Yarvin’s influence is not theoretical. In 2021, J.D. Vance openly cited him on a conservative podcast, arguing that the left’s institutions should be “seized and turned against the left” as part of a “deep deinstitutionification program.”

The Central Role of Crypto

Balaji Srinivasan, a former Coinbase CTO, is the evangelist of the ‘network state’: a vision where tech billionaires create their own countries, free from democratic oversight.

His ideas are gaining traction: Kazakhstan is now building a ‘crypto megacity’ based on these principles. Trump himself tried to establish ‘freedom zones’ in the EU – autonomous territories where billionaires could make their own rules. Media coverage of these efforts, Duran notes, never explained what ‘freedom zones’ actually were, because they stem from this radical Silicon Valley ideology.

The network state cult envisions a world where billionaires can flee to their own private nations when democracy becomes too inconvenient. As Duran warns: “They’re investing in escape routes for when their prophesied apocalyptic collapse of democratic states happens.”

Originally, crypto was seen by cypherpunks as a way to escape democracy, rules, and law. Today, it’s a tool of mass corruption. The crypto industry is now the biggest spender in U.S. politics, holding politicians hostage by threatening to spend millions against anyone who opposes them.

Trump’s family is cashing in. From bitcoin mining to coin scams (including Melania Trump’s own crypto scheme), the Trumps have fully embraced the industry – despite Trump once calling crypto a “scam against the dollar.”

Duran calls this a “crypto banana republic” – where oligarchs use fake digital currency to undermine government authority. Crypto used to be a useful tool for drug dealing, human trafficking, gambling, and crime. Now it’s being used to break the country in half.

And the corruption is staggering. A Trump-appointed bank regulator recently granted conditional approval for a Trump family crypto business to establish a bank charter – a move Duran describes as “a bank of mass corruption.”

Elon Musk: The Crypto Fascist

Musk, once a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, has fully embraced the authoritarian turn. He bought Twitter (now X) and banned critics, including Duran himself, who was suspended for calling Palantir’s manifesto “fascist”.

He stood behind the presidential seal at a Trump event and threw a Hitler salute. He pivoted from calling crypto a “scam” to becoming a “crypto bro-in-chief.” The Trump family, Duran reports, made 5 billion dollars from crypto schemes, though volatile markets have since reduced that to about 1.2 billion dollars.

Musk’s realignment with Trump is no accident. As Duran puts it: “These guys – Musk, Thiel, David Sacks – are immigrants who came to America, became wildly successful, and now feel it’s not enough. They’re full of anger. And with Trump, they see an opportunity to remake the country in their own image.”

Now, with Vance as Trump’s Vice President, Silicon Valley has one of their own in the White House – a man who has openly embraced Yarvin’s extremist ideas and who, as Duran warns, holds “personally anti-American” views.

The Resistance: Is Anyone Fighting Back?

The good news is that there is resistance. Communities across America are opposing data centers – the physical infrastructure of the surveillance state.

Some politicians are speaking out, though Duran argues not enough. Journalists like Duran himself are exposing the movement, despite censorship and harassment.

But the bad news? The resistance is fragmented. Democrats are afraid to directly challenge tech billionaires, instead repeating “innovation” talking points.

Republicans are fully aligned with the Nerd Reich’s agenda. The media often fails to connect the dots, treating these ideas as eccentric rather than dangerous. “Silicon Valley is no longer about innovation. Silicon Valley is about fascism and a race to control the future.”

After years of studying these figures, what keeps Duran up at night? “That you can be as anti-American and anti-democratic as Peter Thiel and still be a government contractor with CIA investment. That you can smoke the most anti-democratic dope in the world and still profit from the intelligence infrastructure of the United States.”

Duran’s book is not just a warning – it’s a call to action. We don’t have to accept a future where billionaires rule as dictators. We can reject the dystopian vision being imposed on us.

The tech fascists are now fully entrenched in authoritarianism, they are prepared to go all the way and they are moving at breakneck speed to destroy democracy once and for all.

Reading Duran’s book makes it clear: these tech demons have to be completely destroyed if we are ever to be fully free again.

SOURCE:
“The Nerd Reich”: Author Gil Durán on Big Tech Fascism, Peter Thiel, JD Vance & the War on Democracy

The Doorway (1): LSD

Posted on 20 december 2025 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“A fraction of a milligram and everything changes. A molecule that alters your consciousness. An unforgettable experience.”

On April 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz laboratory in Basel, accidentally ingested a small dose of LSD. Suddenly, he felt as if he were in another world. Fear gripped him: he worried he might never return to his wife and child, and panic set in. But later, the fear gave way to a positive wave. Afterwards, Hofmann felt he had crossed to the other side and returned.

Hofmann had been searching for a medicine to improve circulation. His work led him to ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and related plants. From this he synthesized LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), a substance chemically related to psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. At first, Hofmann did not know what had caused his extraordinary experience, but he soon realized it must have been the compound he had created.

At Sandoz, researchers recognized LSD’s potential value for psychiatric research. Samples were sent to Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born American psychiatrist and consciousness researcher. This marked the beginning of Grof’s decades-long exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Grof saw LSD as a catalyst. It does not create these experiences, he argued, but makes them accessible. “In that sense”, he said, “LSD is comparable to what a microscope is for biology or a telescope for astronomy. We don’t think the microscope creates worlds that are not there, but we cannot study these worlds without the tool.”

During the Cold War, the CIA became interested in LSD as a possible truth serum. The problem was that they were seeking predictable outcomes and LSD does not work that way. It was also considered as a potential weapon to incapacitate the enemy.

So how does LSD work? Our consciousness is the sum total of everything our senses perceive. LSD amplifies these senses dramatically. Psychedelic sessions can take people further than years of psychoanalysis.

In a positive experience, users may feel the ego dissolve, boundaries melt away, and control loosen. This can be deeply pleasant. Space and time lose their meaning; experience flows freely until one becomes pure experience itself.

In the 1960s, the psychedelic revolution erupted. The Merry Pranksters, led by Ken Kesey – author of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ – embraced LSD and drove a brightly painted bus across America, inviting people to experience it for themselves.

In Millbrook, an abandoned estate in New York, psychiatrist Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner established a psychedelic research center where anyone could participate. LSD was seen as a great equalizer. No matter one’s social background, the experience could dissolve hierarchy and expand cosmic understanding.

“We teach people to turn on, go out of their minds, and tune in”, Leary said. “The country is an insane asylum, focused on material possession, war, and racism.” His ambition was nothing less than a spiritual revolution, achieved by millions of people using LSD regularly.

Hofmann strongly objected to this approach. LSD, he warned, was a powerful instrument that required a mature mind. Promoting it indiscriminately to young people was irresponsible.

LSD often triggered strong anti-war sentiments, rooted in transpersonal experiences of unity with nature and all living beings. This directly challenged conservative values. In the United States, amid the escalating Vietnam War, tensions between the counterculture and the establishment grew. LSD became a convenient scapegoat for social unrest, and the government launched an aggressive – and often absurd – propaganda campaign.

In 1966, LSD was outlawed in California. In 1967, President Nixon declared Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” Grof later remarked, “In the irresponsible hands of Leary, it came to be seen as dangerous and that killed nearly all possibilities for research.”

Some clinical work continued for a while. Grof conducted LSD sessions with terminal cancer patients, profoundly altering their relationship with death. Many became reconciled with the fact that they were dying. “In our culture”, Grof said, “we are programmed to think we are only our bodies. LSD can show you that you are part of something much larger.”

Soon, however, LSD was internationally demonized. Research disappeared underground and remained there for decades.

Albert Hofmann died on April 29, 2008, at the age of 102. He never denied LSD’s risks, but he also believed its greatest danger lay in misunderstanding it. For Hofmann, LSD was not an escape from reality but a doorway… A doorway that, if approached with care, could reveal how vast and mysterious consciousness truly is.

The documentary ‘The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD’ is available for rent on the Apple TV app.

Che Guevara – Held of schurk?

Posted on 27 februari 2015 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Che Guevara (1928 – 1967)

Toen ik in 2001 in Bangkok was, viel me voor het eerst het karakteristieke gezicht van Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara op. Ik kende zijn naam toen nog niet, maar zijn beeltenis was moeilijk te missen. Elke winkel op Khao San Road verkocht Guevara t-shirts en toeristen liepen er massaal mee rond. Wie was deze man? Een revolutionair, zo weinig wist ik nog wel. Maar er werden ook minder fraaie dingen over hem gezegd. Bijvoorbeeld dat het een moordenaar was. Maar waarom zou dan iedereen zijn t-shirt dragen? Hoe zit het echt?

Een onverstandig besluit…
In 1967 slaagde een groep Boliviaan overheidssoldaten erin een klein groepje rebellen te arresteren. De leider was de Argentijnse socialistische rebel Che Guevara, die in de jaren 60 Fidel Castro had geholpen het Cubaanse regime van dictator Batistá omver te werpen. In de jaren daarop was Guevara het symbool geworpen van socialistisch succes.

In de zomer van 1967 was Guevara naar Bolivia gekomen om de corrupte overheid te breken. Tot zover waren zijn pogingen onsuccesvol geweest. Met zijn gevangenschap hadden de Bolivianen de kans zijn imago verwoesten door hem in een publieke rechtszaak als verliezer neer te zetten. Ze kozen er echter voor om hem te executeren en zijn dode lichaam te laten fotograferen. Een cultheld, die bereid was te sterven voor zijn idealen, was geboren.

Een korte geschiedenis van Che
Che Guevara groeide op in Rosario, de dichts gelegen stad nabij de Argentijnse hoofdstad Buenos Aires. De zeer intelligente Che was astmatisch en moest soms dagen in bed blijven. In die tijd verslond hij boeken (zijn vader had er zo’n 3.000) over onder andere wiskunde, filosofie, politiek en sociologie.

Het opnemen voor sociale outcasts kreeg Che er met de paplepel ingegoten. Zijn ouders waren intellectuelen die graag politieke debatten voerde. Deze basis en zijn goede stel hersenen zorgden ervoor dat Che excelleerde op school. In 1941 maakte de toen 13 jarige Che zijn eerste grote motortocht door het land. Daarna begon hij aan de hoge school waar hij opviel door zijn jonge volwassenheid, zijn openlijke afkeuring van de Katholieke kerk, en zijn Marxistische idealen.

In deze tijd sloot hij zich aan bij de jeugdbeweging die uiteindelijk de confrontatie zou aangaan met dictator Juan Perón. In 1947 ging Guevara medicijnen studeren aan de universiteit van Buenos Aires. In deze periode gingen zijn ouders scheiden en Che trok bij zijn moeder in. Via haar leerde hij een aantal toonaangevende Argentijnse Marxisten kennen. Che’s toewijding aan zijn studie en vele buitenschoolse activiteiten leiden tot een enorme persoonlijke ontwikkeling.

Een nieuwe motortocht leidde tot het besef dat een (gewapende) revolutie nodig was in zijn land. In de zomer van 1955 zou Che tijdens een reis door Mexico Fidel Castro en zijn broer Raoul ontmoeten. Deze ontmoeting zou zijn leven veranderen. Che zou snel een rol gaan spelen in het omver werpen van het door de VS gesteunde regime van president Batistá in Cuba.

Guerrilla oorlog
Zijn ervaringen in Zuid Amerika hadden hem strijdlustig gemaakt tegen wat hij als de echte vijand beschouwde: de CIA, door de VS bestuurde conglomeraten, en Amerikaans imperialisme dat onderdrukkende regimes – zoals dat van Batistá – in stand hield. Dus sloot hij zich aan bij de guerrilla beweging van Castro. Nu kreeg hij de kans echt wat te betekenen. Met een belachelijk kleine groep rebellen drongen de Castro’s en Guevara Cuba binnen. Ze wisten de sympathie van de lokale bevolking te winnen, en met behulp van lokale hulp en intelligentie wisten ze uiteindelijk in 1959 Batistá te verslaan.

Het is gedurende deze strijd dat de twee kanten van Guevara beide maximaal zichtbaar werden, waar de titel van dit artikel op zinspeelt. De held Guevara was onbevreesd, zette zijn leven talloze keren op het spel om zijn idealen te verwezenlijken, nam het op tegen corruptie, en wist uiteindelijk een bijna onvoorstelbare overwinning te behalen.

Maar er was een keerzijde: Guevara ging gewelddadig en fanatiek te werk. Hij was gaan geloven dat gewapende revolutie het antwoord was, en deinsde er geen moment voor terug soldaten en handlangers van het bewind te doden. Ook liet hij soms guerrilla’s executeren die verdacht werden van verraad. Na de overname van de macht in Havana heeft Guevara een leidende rol gespeeld in het executeren van Batistá’s mensen.

De werkelijkheid is te complex om te kunnen spreken van held of schurk. Wie gelooft dat geweld geoorloofd is in tijden van oorlog, of bij het bestrijden van corrupte regimes, zou Guevara wellicht een held kunnen noemen. Net zoals William Wallace dat is in Braveheart wanneer hij de Engelsen in bijna onmogelijke situaties weet te verslaan. Maar kan een held iemand zijn die zonder pardon geweld gebruikt tegen vijanden die al verslagen zijn? Dat lijkt mij niet.

Een laatste puntje mag niet onvermeld blijven en dat is dat juist van deze exemplarische socialist, die consumptisme verfoeide, miljoenen t-shirts worden verkocht per jaar. Dat is ironie ten top.

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Tagarchief: CIA