Gilded Rage

A searing insight into the political radicalization of Silicon Valley, from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel, JD Vance and Donald Trump, and how it will affect the future of all our lives.

From the pursuit of potentially apocalyptic artificial intelligence to life-extension start-ups that promise billionaires eternal youth and those who encourage the political far right around the world, the Silicon Valley techno-utopian dream has curdled. The global innovator class has the world in their hands, but they can't stand the touch.

In Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, New York Times bestselling author Jacob Silverman leads us on a critical investigation into the radicalization of Silicon Valley and the billionaires that increasingly run our lives, shape the global economy, and support Donald Trump.

At the center of this book lies Elon Musk, but this is about more than just one man and his obsession with the "woke mind virus", as Silverman reveals a network of tech and finance oligarchs, emboldened by the zero-interest rate years, now using their wealth to exert an increasingly radical political program.

Transiting San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Austin and Miami, New York, Washington DC, and various global capitals of tech, finance, and political power, Silverman talks to the people who are already living with the real-life consequences of the political revolution underway. It's a bizarre, sometimes frightening, darkly humorous world where moguls preach populist revolt while dismantling the few remaining checks on their influence.

Gilded Rage offers essential reporting and insight for anyone who wants to know what's happening to Silicon Valley. As the erratic influence of tech elites continues to spread around the world, the story that Jacob has to tell will have a profound relevance for us all.

Review

Jacob Silverman is one of the sharpest and most plugged-in tech commentators working today. He understands subcultures, politics and the internet. He can tell you what's in the black box, and what it's doing to our society. Gilded Rage is unmissable. -- Hari Kunzru, Writer and Journalist, author of 'Gods without Men', 'White Tears' and 'Red Pill'

In Gilded Rage, Jacob Silverman delivers a clear-eyed anatomy of tech-addled delusion that has stubbornly eluded our media and political establishment for more than thirty years. Along the way, he recounts how the libertarian ethos of Silicon Valley has curdled into a frontal assault on our democracy. -- Chris Lehmann, DC Bureau Chief of The Nation and the author of 'The Money Cult'

A book that should trouble your dreams. -- Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

JACOB SILVERMAN is the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection and co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, which was a New York Times Bestseller. He's a contributing editor at The New Republic and The Baffler, and his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and many other publications. He lives in New York.