Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

About this event

Elon Musk is the world's richest man and the largest donor to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. But why have Musk and so many other tech billionaires moved to the right over the past decade or so? In Gilded Rage, author Jacob Silverman examines how and why the tech billionaires that influence so much of our lives have become, in his words, "radicalized." Join us at the August meeting of the Technology and Society book club as we discuss Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. Book Description from Amazon: A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2025 A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2025 'Lively and provocative' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Makes a convincing case for how tech became radicalized' BLOOMBERG What happens if the world's richest and most powerful men decide to dismantle democracy? In Gilded Rage, New York Times bestselling author Jacob Silverman takes us inside the surreal, high-stakes world of Silicon Valley. This is the story of the political awakening and radicalization of a cabal of tech billionaires and their descent into ideological extremism. Flush with cash from the zero-interest era, addicted to their own mythology, these men have began reshaping the world in their image - and it should terrify us all. At the center is Elon Musk, the mogul whose obsession with the “woke mind virus” has turned him from a tech innovator to an ideological crusader. But Musk is just the beginning. Silverman maps a sprawling network of radicalized elites - from Peter Thiel and JD Vance to the financiers bankrolling Donald Trump - who are using their platforms and their money to ensure a political revolution that's already underway. We meet the billionaires funding life-extension labs and embracing apocalyptic visions of AI. We examine the populist rhetoric that is leading to the ruthless dismantling of democratic norms. And we enter the strange, darkly comic world of the tech-oligarchy where libertarian dreams meet authoritarian impulses, and where the people with the most influence over our lives are the least accountable. Silverman travels from San Francisco to Miami, New York to DC, following a movement that's rewriting the rules and oftentimes fighting a war against reality itself. With sharp reporting and a cast of extraordinary characters, Gilded Rage is a gripping, essential dispatch from the front lines of the billionaire revolution.