MAGA Ben Horowitz melts down at SF Standard profile
SF tech figure goes from progressive to pro-Trump. Not weird at all...
The San Francisco Standard just published an amazing story about Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm.
The piece by Emily Shugerman examines how Horowitz and his wife, Felicia, have undergone a very strange political transformation. After having previously championed progressive and Democratic causes and politicians, the duo are all-in for Donald Trump in 2024. From the story:
The Horowitzes were committed Democratic donors who ran a family foundation supporting a host of social justice causes, from prison recidivism to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Flash forward to today, and Ben Horowitz has publicly endorsed Donald Trump and — in partnership with co-founder Marc Andreessen — plans to give a “significant” amount of money to his campaign. Felicia appears to be on board with the decision, retweeting her husband’s Trump endorsement and scrubbing her social media of all photos with liberal politicians. Through May 2024, she has donated 25 times to Republican politicians and PACs, including Trump’s running mate Sen. J.D. Vance.
I encourage you to read the full story by clicking below:
The Standard reports that the unusual political flip has mystified the couple's friends and associates:
Both had been Democratic donors for decades, pledging nearly $300,000 combined between 2008 and 2023 to candidates on the left, including Barack Obama, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, and Sen. Cory Booker. Felicia donated $2,000 to Joe Biden’s 2020 election campaign; Ben donated more than $66,000 to Obama-related entities in 2015.
Horowitz explodes
Before the story even published, Ben Horowitz exploded in a lengthy online rant attacking the Standard's credibility:
Sir Michael Moritz is now having his fake disinformation ‘newspaper’ fabricate hit pieces on his business rival, me.
He goes on and on, throwing ad hominem attacks at the Standard and appearing to falsely accuse the publication of racism and sexism. (Note to Mr. Horowitz: If you don't like racism and sexism, I have some bad news about the MAGA movement...)
The Standard is owned by Moritz, a billionaire venture capitalist and former journalist who has long worked with the firm Sequoia Capital. Some in San Francisco accuse the paper of having a pro-tech, conservative-leaning bias. But stories like this one complicate that narrative. (As I've said before, while I'm leery of a tech billionaire starting his own publication, the Standard has great reporters who have done some groundbreaking, hard-hitting work so far.)
MAGA Mind Virus?
Marc Andreessen, Horowitz's partner at Andreessen Horowitz, appears in a lot of my work. He's a key figure in the effort to radicalize tech politics toward extreme right-wing belief systems. And he's close with Balaji Srinivasan, the former Andreessen Horowitz partner who wants to purge Democrats from San Francisco.
I haven't written much about Horowitz. What's most interesting to me about this story: It's very rare for people to completely flip their political beliefs.
I do a lot of work with UC Berkeley cognitive scientist George Lakoff. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that our political beliefs stem from our moral systems and are framed powerfully in our brains.
If something doesn't fit your moral frame, it tends to bounce right off. So it's exceedingly rare for someone's entire moral system and political worldview to break like this. Something much deeper is going on here – and it's not a matter of taxes, regulations or policy.
Right-wing versions of 'woke'
Right-wingers like Elon Musk often accuse others of suffering from a "woke mind virus." But the opposite appears to be true. There’s clearly a “MAGA mind virus” sweeping certain quarters of tech, causing these bizarre moral system meltdowns.
From QAnon to "redpilled" to MAGApilled, extreme right-wingers have their own versions of woke. And while they vilify Democrats for allegedly embracing radical politics, the right-wingers publicly trumpet their own twisted versions of extreme political awakening.
Read more about that here:
FrameLab
