The Tech Robber Baron who wants to take over San Francisco ( newrepublic.com )
Balaji, a 43-year-old Long Island native who goes by his first name, has a solid Valley pedigree: He earned multiple degrees from Stanford University, founded multiple startups, became a partner at Andreessen-Horowitz and then served as chief technology officer at Coinbase. He is also the leader of a cultish and increasingly strident neo-reactionary tech political movement that sees American democracy as an enemy. In 2013, a New York Times story headlined âSilicon Valley Roused by Secession Callâ described a speech in which he âtold a group of young entrepreneurs that the United States had become âthe Microsoft of nationsâ: outdated and obsolescent.â
âThe speech won roars from the audience at Y Combinator, a leading start-up incubator,â reported the Times. Balaji paints a bleak picture of a dystopian future in a U.S. in chaos and decline, but his prophecies sometimes fall short. Last year, he lost one million dollars in a public bet after wrongly predicting a massive surge in the price of Bitcoin.
Still, his appetite for autocracy is bottomless. Last October, Balaji hosted the first-ever Network State Conference. Garry Tanâthe current Y Combinator CEO whoâs attempting to spearhead a political takeover of San Franciscoâparticipated in an interview with Balaji and cast the effort as part of the Network State movement. Tan, who made headlines in January after tweeting âdie slow motherfuckersâ at local progressive politicians, frames his campaign as an experiment in âmoderateâ politics. But in a podcast interview one month before the conference, Balaji laid out a more disturbing and extreme vision.
What Iâm really calling for is something like tech Zionism,â he said, after comparing his movement to those started by the biblical Abraham, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Theodor Herzl (âspiritual fatherâ of the state of Israel), and Lee Kuan Yew (former authoritarian ruler of Singapore). Balaji then revealed his shocking ideas for a tech-governed city where citizens loyal to tech companies would form a new political tribe clad in gray t-shirts. âAnd if you see another Gray on the streetâŚyou do the nod,â he said, during a four-hour talk on the Moment of Zen podcast. âYouâre a fellow Gray.â
The Graysâ shirts would feature âBitcoin or Elon or other kinds of logos ⌠Y Combinator is a good one for the city of San Francisco in particular.â Grays would also receive special ID cards providing access to exclusive, Gray-controlled sectors of the city. In addition, the Grays would make an alliance with the police department, funding weekly âpolicemanâs banquetsâ to win them over.
âGrays should embrace the police, okay? All-in on the police,â said Srinivasan. âWhat does that mean? Thatâs, as I said, banquets. That means every policemanâs son, daughter, wife, cousin, you know, sibling, whatever, should get a job at a tech company in security.â
In exchange for extra food and jobs, cops would pledge loyalty to the Grays. Srinivasan recommends asking officers a series of questions to ascertain their political leanings. For example: âDid you want to take the sign off of Elonâs building?â
This refers to the August 2023 incident in which Elon Musk illegally installed a large flashing X logo atop Twitter headquarters, in violation of building safety codes. City inspectors forced him to remove it. This was the second time Musk had run afoul of the city in his desire to refurbish his headquarters: In July, police briefly halted his attempt to pry the âTwitterâ signage from the buildingâs exterior. But in Balajiâs dystopia, he implies that officers loyal to the Grays would let Musk do as he pleases (democratically-inclined officers, he suggests, can be paid to retire).
Simply put, there is a ton of fascist-chic cosplay involved. Once an officer joins the Grays, they get a special uniform designed by their tech overlords. The Grays will also donate heavily to police charities and âmerge the Gray and police social networks.â Then, in a show of force, theyâll march through the city together.