Gil Duran

California journalist and writer. Ida Tarbell stan. FrameLab (w/@GeorgeLakoff). Beat: tech fascism, billionaire extremism, meta narratives, network state, mirror worlds.

Current Book: "Crime and Punishment" (reread)
Favorite Place: Library
Website: http://www.gilduran.com
Newsletter: http://www.thenerdreich.com

Last Notes

2025-09-13 21:01:27 UTC

On Sept. 15, Peter Thiel begins a secret four-part Antichrist lecture series in San Francisco.
What the hell is going on? Why all this Bible doom talk?
I talked to an Antichrist historian & a theologian about this outbreak of tech apocalypse hype:
https://www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiel-the-antichrist-silicon-valley-apocalypse-hype/

2025-08-25 23:25:49 UTC

“We’re witnessing, in real-time, a profound consolidation of power and collusion among political and tech elites—the ruling class of this country, and the world—wherein the tools and technologies that this industry has built, and continues to build, can now be deployed in service of an authoritarian regime.”
Katie Drummond of WIRED, says the American press is failing to cover the rise of tech authoritarianism. And she has some suggestions for how to fix the problem:
https://www.thenerdreich.com/wired-editor-tech-billionaires-threaten-us-democracy/

2025-08-24 18:43:02 UTC

Whether you like him or not (and I don't), Gavin Newsom is one of the few Democrats who understands that this is an Information War.
But can a Trump copycat save democracy? My thoughts on Newsom's journey from MAGA lapdog to resistance memelord.
https://www.theframelab.org/from-maga-lapdog-to-trumps-worst-enemy/

2025-04-03 04:15:01 UTC

Tech Fascists: We shall weaken the nation, destroy the economy, replace the dollar with crypto, replace people with AI, and create new Network State cities everywhere.
Normie Journalists: Folks, this is total chaos and incompetence with no structure or plan.

2024-12-06 06:09:22 UTC

We need a massive public communications campaign to warn the public about crypto.
It should highlight 1st-person accounts of everyday people who lost their money due to the #cryptoscam.
To strike crypto is to stab the heart of the tech fascist movement swallowing our nation.
To start with, we must make "crypto" synonymous with "scam."
The very word must make people reach for their wallets (to make sure they're still there).
Crypto is still small. Most don't trust it.

2024-11-07 02:07:05 UTC

Why did so many Americans lurch to the right over the last few years?
Hmm. It's truly a big mystery.
Anybody got any ideas?
ANYBODY?!?!
Here's one: Maybe activating these particular neural networks wasn't so dang clever after all.
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/439/222/584/390/657/original/e1c3f3c972b30430.png

2024-10-07 16:06:40 UTC

Reminder that Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Sam Altman are building their own authoritarian “nation.”
They market it as “the next America.”
Something has gone very, very wrong in Silicon Valley. This is brazenly bizarre.
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/266/991/412/481/827/original/838cb7137d264b0f.png

2024-09-15 20:37:16 UTC

Trump -- who says drug dealers deserve the death penalty -- promises to free the creator of Silk Road, an online marketplace for illegal drugs and guns.
Ross Ulbricht's case is a popular cause among crypto bros and libertarians.
For the San Francisco Chronicle, I wrote about his extreme anti-government views and why the Bitcoin drug kingpin belongs in prison.
Gift Link:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/crypto-silk-road-trump-19755604.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL29waW5pb24vb3BlbmZvcnVtL2FydGljbGUvY3J5cHRvLXNpbGstcm9hZC10cnVtcC0xOTc1NTYwNC5waHA%3D&time=MTcyNjQzMjUzODQxOQ%3D%3D&rid=ZDBhY2NhMjQtNzY2Ny00MWYzLWExNzktMGVmMjljNTdjNDE0&sharecount=NA%3D%3D

2024-08-19 19:56:02 UTC

The NYT ran a story depicting tech CEO Garry Tan as a paragon of mental health success (thanks to executive coaching).
One big problem: Tan recently made headlines for *tweeting “die slow” at San Francisco politicians while drunk*
But this crucial fact wasn’t mentioned. Why?
Tan’s death threat outburst in January undermines the entire premise of the story. So I wrote a request for correction…
More at The Nerd Reich:
https://www.thenerdreich.com/new-york-times-erases-garry-tans-die-slow-tweet-explosion/

2024-08-03 15:40:35 UTC

The language of dehumanization — and of purging political enemies — has become popular on the extremist right.
At one time, praising a book like “Unhumans” might have ended JD Vance’s career. But incendiary beliefs are now a basic GOP qualification.
👉🏼 https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-horrifying-fascist-manifesto-endorsed-by-j.d.-vance
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/112/898/835/827/524/424/original/1f7c64d08903b6f9.png

2024-07-31 21:10:28 UTC

- reply

6. MAGA/Tech overlaps:
- Collapse. They believe in an impending societal collapse.
- Messiah complex. They believe they alone can save humanity. They "alone can fix it."
- Supremacy. They share a believe in the supremacy of rich white (mostly straight) males over everyone else.
- Anti-Empathy. They abhor empathy/care.
- Anti-Public. They detest the idea of the public and seek to privatize most functions of government.
- Anti-Worker. They believe employers are superior to employees.

2024-07-31 21:09:44 UTC

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5. Most newspaper analyses suggest that these tech authoritarian guys just want lower taxes and friendly regulations, but that's only part of the story. They have developed their own weird sci-fi influenced tech authoritarian IDEOLOGY.
It overlaps with MAGA in multiple ways...

2024-07-31 21:09:17 UTC

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4. JD Vance is ONE OF THEM. Vance was literally put on Trump's ticket by the same group of people - Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen - who are behind all of the weirdness I've been writing about. https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas

2024-07-31 21:07:36 UTC

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#1: They despise democracy. These Trump-loving billionaires believe democracy is bad. They want to create their own corporate dictatorships called Network States. They are actively trying to build these weird little dictator cities all over the world.https://newrepublic.com/article/177733/billionaire-solano-california-tech-secession

2024-07-31 21:06:42 UTC

🧵 I've spent this year writing for the [@newrepublic](https://threads.net/@newrepublic/ ) about how a group of Silicon Valley billionaires has gone WEIRD. Now their weirdness is mating up with Trump's MAGA weirdness in the 2024 election.
Here's a few things to understand about these guys: