Trump 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 @sfchronicle, I wrote about his extreme anti-government views and why he belongs in prison. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are built on extreme, right-wing, anti-government ideas.

Here's my full @sfchronicle piece:

Trump promises crypto bros he’ll set the creator of Silk Road free if elected. That’s a terrible idea

🎁Link:
sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo…

The false and racist attack on Haitians has roots in "Unhumans," the fascist propaganda book by Jack Posobiec (foreword by J.D. Vance).

It depicts the Haitian Revolution as a result voodoo and animal sacrifice -- which are cast as precursors to the slaughter of white people.

https://twitter.com/gilduran76/status/1825223946100462001

From the book:
"Unhumans. This is what they do. Large and warrior-like, former slave Dutty Boukman, who had been born in West Africa, kicked off that bloody slave result with a ceremony of animal sacrifice that blended Islamic teaching and voodoo practices."

Yesterday I visited a self-governing homeless tent encampment in my very Republican hometown. Homelessness is often depicted as a big Democratic city problem, and so you rarely hear about the situation in rural cities like Tulare. No Fox channel, no Gov. Newsom waving his broom. I was surprised by the degree to which the encampment is sanctioned/formalized. One difference: There are many rural edges of Tulare where there are few homes nearby. Outrage from the housed as is major obstacle to solving this issue. Nobody wants to problem -- or the solution.

In 2007, @GeorgeLakoff wrote an entire book urging Democrats to frame their agenda with the most important value of all: Freedom.

Let's hope it doesn't take another two decades for them to grasp the rest of what he's been saying for decades.

All politics is moral politics.

https://twitter.com/ClimatePower/status/1826098974492680667

"Ideas matter. Perhaps no idea has mattered more in American history than the idea of freedom."
New York Times, 2006.
nytimes.com/2006/07/23/boo…

The NYT ran a story depicting tech CEO Garry Tan as a paragon of mental health success (thanks to 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? … In a story that pushed “coaching” as an alternative to real therapy, Y Combinator’s CEO was held up as a model of coaching’s benefits.

But Tan’s death threat outburst in January undermines the entire premise. So I wrote a request for correction…

thenerdreich.com/new-york-times…

Peter Thiel is dreadfully inarticulate. But his writing is clear:

“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

This sums up the anti-democracy extremism in today’s GOP.

Power and privilege for the few, servitude and suffering for the many.

https://twitter.com/anandwrites/status/1824636040574824893

Most of the deranged and extreme scariness in our politics today is directly connected to Thiel and his network. 👇🏼

https://twitter.com/gilduran76/status/1818121375867088909

Let's talk about Trump's "Freedom Cities."

The idea matches exactly with the goals of the Network State cult, which plans to create new tech-governed cities around the world

In fact, Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen are funding a entire company to build such cities...🧵 Trump's "freedom cities" are a nod to the dystopian "Network State" idea popular in certain tech circles.
This cultish movement seeks to create tech-controlled sovereign cities that would essentially act as miniature corporate countries.
More: thenerdreich.com/trumps-weird-f…

I spent last year researching cults for a piece about Mexican history. But I ended up covering this new tech cult rising out of San Francisco.
It's got the whole cult suite:
-End times prophecy
-Messiah complex
- "eternal life"
-"promise land"
- communal living
More to come!

https://twitter.com/mjnblack/status/1821970885739450710

And this kind of thing is hardly new to San Francisco.
Jim Jones convinced his followers to crowdfund land and start an authoritarian colony in another country.
Jonestown was a "Network State."

J.D. Vance is a dangerous extremist.
Latest example: He enthusiastically promotes a book that uses *genocidal* language to stoke hatred toward liberals and progressives.
"Unhumans" grooms Republicans for civil war and, possibly, something far worse:
thenerdreich.com/unhumans-jd-va… "Unhumans" offers a sinister thesis: Progressive-minded Americans are not humans. Instead, they are "communists." In turn, the authors define communists as bloodthirsty "unhumans" hellbent on the destruction of civilization

🧵I've spent this year writing for the @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. #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. newrepublic.com/article/177733…

J.D. Vance is deeply influenced by a San Francisco man who once suggested turning "unproductive people" into "biodiesel."

Meet Curtis Yarvin, the Peter Thiel political guru who ♥️ dictatorship & whose ideas may reach the White House, via @newrepublic

👉newrepublic.com/article/183971… Yarvin, writing under a pen name, envisioned a future in which nation-states collapse and democracies are replaced with corporate dictatorships called "patchworks." The San Francisco patchwork would be called "Friscorp. It would be controlled with a massive surveillance system ⬇️

Patri Friedman, a major Network State figure and Peter Thiel servant, is upset. But my piece was fact-checked and is solid.

And here’s an important quote from Patri (grandson of famed economist Milton Friedman):

“Democracy is not the answer.”

Patri, is this quote accurate?

https://twitter.com/gilduran76/status/1783828602716553604

An early version of the Network State called for floating cities. Thiel dropped $500k on the Seasteading Institute, co-founded by Patri, to develop the idea (it flopped).
I mentioned this in my 1st New Republic piece: newrepublic.com/article/177733…

🧵To understand what's happening in San Francisco today, you must examine the extremist politics of the "Network State" cult.
For the @NewRepublic, I wrote about Balaji Srinivasan, an influential tech baron seeking to “ethnically cleanse” SF.
Read➡️ ⬅️ newrepublic.com/article/180487…
Balaji - an ally of Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan - lays out a disturbing vision for a color-coded apartheid police state. Citizens loyal to tech ("Grays") will don gray shirts, bribe police to serve them, and ban Democrats (blues) from tech-controlled zones.
newrepublic.com/article/180487…

1. How Fascism Works (from the book by Dr. Jason Stanley):
The Mythic Past: Fascist politics invokes a glorified, mythological past that has supposedly been destroyed or undermined by liberal, foreign, or otherwise corrupting influences. 2. Propaganda: The use of propaganda to manipulate or control the public narrative is a hallmark of fascist politics. This often involves the use of misleading or blatantly false information to shape public perception.

Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk book exposes the *deep* roots of his right wing politics:
1. Cruel dominating father (whom he both hates and emulates)
2. Pronounced lack of empathy
3. A strict hierarchical worldview amplified by a messiah complex (Musk believes he is our savior) Some people think Elon used to be liberal but suddenly pivoted. Nope. He sucked up in Democrats because they had power/money that he needed. It was self-interest. Once he had enough power and money, his true self emerged.

A Sacramento police officer beat and choked his girlfriend, pointed a gun at her, and said he'd have her killed and disposed of in a lake unless she got an abortion. Sac DA Anne Marie Schubert failed to prosecute ... until SF DA @chesaboudin stepped in. sfexaminer.com/news/opinion-b… Sacramento PD deserves credit for fully investigating and compiling voluminous documentation of the claims against one of their officers. The victim was afraid because she thought his fellow officers would protect him.

What happens when you criticize left-wing violence in Sacramento?
Some people threaten to come by your house.
One even posts an address on social media.
Interesting times in the Capitol. More to come. sacbee.com/article2493468… After I wrote about the vandalism at Mayor Steinberg's home, I became the target of angry leftist trolls. Over the weekend, some of them crossed the line, appearing to make plans to target me at home.