Is America becoming economically fascist? Marc Andreessen hinted as much in a recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Billionaire, software engineer, and co-creator of Mosaic, the first widely used Internet browser, Andreessen offers a unique inner workings for navigating the inner workings of Silicon Valley. I did.
Andreessen and Rogan discussed a wide range of topics, from the Democratic Party's response to Trump's re-election to Chinese drones, but the conversation always centered on one theme. The idea was that the public and private spheres were intertwined. Marc Andreessen said this “cooperation” is the root of many of our country's corruption problems, and while Trump's return to office in January is expected to bring “positive change,” it's not over yet. claims.
Combining these levers of power creates “a privatized sanctions regime that allows bureaucrats to do to the American people what we do to Iran.”
Rogan and Andreessen talked about the current state of the Democratic Party. Andreessen, a lifelong Democrat who voted for Trump, said a “civil war” has begun within the Democratic Party, adding: “There's no denying that the path they're on this time isn't working. … Smart Democrats. Members of the public know this is not a viable path… [They] We have to go back to common sense and get back to the middle ground. He also acknowledged that if things don't turn around as he hopes, it could simply “fall off a cliff.”
The moment the topic came up, Logan said: “They're desperate to create their own version of this show. It keeps coming up like, we need our own Joe Rogan, but they had me. Despite Rogan's attempts to talk to her, Harris was unable to appear on “The Joe Rogan Experience.'' Logan endorsed Donald Trump very late in the election cycle, when Trump appeared on his podcast days before the election, but he had been supporting the Democratic Party even before that. In a sense, the extreme stance of the Democratic Party in recent months and years has finally ousted him and pushed him into the Trump camp.
Speaking of extremes, Andreessen adds the following insight into the nature of the Awakened and compares it to traditional religion. “The big difference between awakened people and traditional religion is that awakened people have no concept of salvation or forgiveness. You don't want that to be the basis of your religion,” he laughed. He went on to say that Wake is “totalitarian in nature because it has the potential to permanently destroy a people.”
America is at a crossroads, and significant legislation from our leaders will be needed if we are to see any positive changes in the structure of our government and society. Andreessen brought up ideas from the Roman orator Cicero. Cicero famously complained that society's best and wealthiest people were isolated from the rest of the world, holed up in private homes in the countryside, and “working in fish ponds.” He compared these Roman leaders and the current situation in America to our own, asking, “When times are tough, do people who are in a position to actually make positive change step up or not? ” he said. But he and Rogan said a “coalition” led by Trump, including billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is ready to “do everything in its power” to repair our system. expressed his expectations.
American fascism?
What exactly is our system? Mr. Andreessen highlighted government corruption that effectively forces corporations to “legally” do the government's bidding. He explained that this is the basic mechanism, or as he called it, a “sleight of hand” that enables censorship and debanking. “The First Amendment applies only to the government. … The government cannot censor the American people. That means if you are in the government and you want to censor the American people, you have to pay an outside organization to censor the American people. and you will get that tissue. [censor Americans]. And that's what's happening now. ”
Andreessen suggested that the government is behind the censorship campaign, which has worsened in recent years, even though it is carried out by private companies. There's a lot of bad judgment being called for, but the Biden White House is putting direct censorship pressure on American companies to censor the American people, and I think this is completely illegal. ” He went on to explain that companies are likely to say this all happened under “coercion” from the government, a type of “soft totalitarianism” that he discussed elsewhere in the interview. He explained that it is connected to the concept of
Just as the government censors Americans by proxy, it is also responsible for canceling the bank accounts of Americans who disagree with the government. The language of this regulation is shockingly explicit. “Under current banking regulations, there is a category called ‘politically exposed persons.’” If you are a PEP, you will be asked by financial regulators to remove you from your bank. …I have never heard of a single case of a left-wing person being deducted from a bank. ”
The logic behind debanking is the same for censorship. “There's a constitutional amendment that says the government can't restrict speech, but there's no constitutional amendment that says the government can't abolish banks.'' They don't have to lock you out of banks. It just puts pressure on private sector banks to do so. Then the government could say they didn't do it. ” This plays nicely into the distinction drawn by Andreessen between hard and soft totalitarianism. Hard totalitarianism involves outright violations of the First Amendment by the government itself, while soft totalitarianism involves what Andreessen described as “manipulations” with private corporations. Masu.
Mr. Andreessen provocatively said that combining these levers of power would result in “a privatized sanctions regime that forces bureaucrats to do to the American people what we do to Iran.”
Why would a private company allow this kind of external control over its operations? “You can invent the future before it happens to you, but that's hard. You can't go to the government and propose a deal.” “Transaction” includes “voluntarily conducting a transaction.”[ing] While the government has a huge amount of regulations in place, it makes it virtually impossible for startups to function. Andreessen said regulations require companies to hire thousands of lawyers and compliance experts, something large companies can afford while smaller competitors and startups cannot. I explained. This makes it impossible for startups to compete with large, established companies. Thus, he complained, this “intertwining of government and private enterprise” in multiple sectors of the economy has effectively created America's “privatized social credit score.”
This trade has two simultaneous consequences. First, governments quickly gain some control over the private sector. Second, the number of start-ups will decline and large companies will eventually merge. Big government, big business.
Therefore, Andreessen went on to say, large private companies are subject to, or consent to, “regulatory capture.” He cited several examples of this phenomenon, including the negative impact on the food industry and the drone industry. In the case of the food industry, “one of the reasons everyone is unhealthy is because of government's direct involvement in the food system.”Governments have been subsidizing unhealthy food for decades; There is no sign that they will change their practices. “We are living with these terrible downstream effects, and nothing is going to change unless someone steps in with a hammer.”
Drone troubles
Similarly, the government has heavily regulated the U.S. drone industry, stating that “the FAA killed the U.S. drone industry.” Andreessen detailed the specifics of these regulations in the interview, but basically, complying with the current regulations would either make it impossible for drone manufacturers to sell to a sufficiently wide customer base or make it impossible for drone manufacturers to sell to a sufficiently wide customer base. Either it becomes virtually useless. As a result, the market has shifted primarily to China, which poses other problems. “All Chinese drones are potential surveillance platforms and potential weapons.”
This expanded the conversation to China more broadly and encouraged consideration of our relationship with China. To beat our rivals in the 21st century, should we become like China or like ourselves? “As long as the U.S. system actually remains open, there's no question I'd rather be a CEO in the U.S. than in China. … That's why [the Biden] It really surprised us because it seemed like the government was trying to be more like China. ”
After hearing about this tangled, corrupt, and potentially fascist mess, who wouldn't agree with Andreessen that it's time to restore the size and scope of government?
The only way out is through. Mr. Andreessen described some alarming meetings he had with government officials, possibly in the spring of 2024. They talked about future plans for regulators to capture a budding AI industry that the government hopes to control, not crush. We had a meeting in the spring, and it was the most alarming meeting I've ever been to. There they were explaining to us their plans…completely under government control. … A small number of large corporations will be regulated and controlled by the government. … They told us not to start a startup. …I can't allow that to happen. ”
Joe Rogan asked, “What do you do when you walk out of a meeting like that?” Andreessen immediately laughed and replied, “So you support Donald Trump.”
