A common enemy
While many of you are reading my book, I’m reading The United States of Oligarchy: How America’s Wealthiest Ally With Dictators, Weaken the U.S., and Destroy Democracy by Casey Michel.
The book is a compelling history of oligarchy—rule by the wealthy few—in the United States and around the world.
“At its core is a search for a grand unified theory of how oligarchs both foreign and domestic began to work in tandem to dismantle American democracy,” writes Michel in the book’s introduction. “This book does not revolve around a single character, but rather a single story: how oligarchic forces in the U.S., aided by dictatorships abroad, are attempting to mount an antidemocratic assault on the U.S. like we’ve never seen before, trying to destroy the last, best bulwark against not only oligarchy, but tyranny itself.”
Our books complement one another, and Michel’s book includes some of the characters I focus on in The Nerd Reich, like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Curtis Yarvin.
But he also zooms in on oligarchs in Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to show how wealthy criminals and tyrants around the world are plotting against democracy. And Michel highlights Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s failson-in-law, who has become a key vector of oligarch power in the U.S.
I highly recommend The United States of Oligarchy. Michel is a writer and investigative journalist who also serves as director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation.
This week, I’ll interview him for the podcast. Got questions? Leave them in the comments or reply to this message.
Click here to buy the book on Bookshop (purchases help support independent bookstores and this newsletter).
Nerd Reich Gets New York Times Mention
New York Times contributing opinion writer Jean Guerrero mentions The Nerd Reich in her most recent column.
In “Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Coalition Is Cracking. Here’s What Could Come Next,” Guerrero argues that the fracturing of Trump’s anti-immigrant coalition could result in a new political realignment with billionaire elites as the common enemy.
Writes Guerrero:
[T]ransnational oligarchy benefits from race-based divisions that distract everyone from the oligarchs’ exploitation of all people. Americans all along the political spectrum are beginning to turn against parts of that oligarchy.
She continues:
If anything can heal the rupturing body politic, it may be opposition to what the journalist Gil Durán details in his new book, “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy.” He writes: “All around the world, Silicon Valley oligarchs are scheming to acquire land, resources and power. They see a world in decline and seek to profit by hastening its collapse — and remaking it in their own image.”
You can read the entire piece at this gift link: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Coalition Is Cracking. Here’s What Could Come Next.
Guerrero guest-hosted the most recent episode of The Nerd Reich podcast, interviewing me about the book.
Nerd Reich Meets Blood in the Machine
I was recently a guest on journalist Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine podcast. Click below to watch:
Connect with me
The Nerd Reich is now on TikTok!
You can also connect with me on: Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Mastodon, , and Threads.
On Tour:
Oakland: Clio’s Books, September 9, in conversation with Adam Becker. Click here for tickets. (Only a few left!)
Chicago: Fighting Technofascism, September 19. Click here for tickets.
Baltimore: Red Emma’s Bookstore, Baltimore Book Festival, September 20. Click here for info.
Oh yeah: If you haven’t already, please buy The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. It’s a New York Times Bestseller!
Your local independent bookstore is best, but use this Bookshop link to support indie bookstores and this newsletter.
