The Birth of a Monster: America's Oligarchs and What They Want

For decades they integrated themselves into our system until they were ready to take it for themselves.

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I was asked a couple of days ago what gives me hope. Honestly, right now, in the midst of the crisis I’ve been warning about and fearing for years, and all of the heartbreak and personal crises that accompany it, seeking out hope is paramount. I will admit, I’m having trouble. Continuing on is about searching out oases. But my answer was blooming class awareness. How you can see the beginnings of a backlash in the populace and, at its roots, is clarity regarding the nature of where we find ourselves: smackdab in a class war between the masses and a tiny sliver of the economic elite.

As Elon Musk continues his audacious coup, the word “oligarchy” is catching fire. It is obvious after all. Musk’s brazenness and Donald Trump’s transparent performance as a mad king figurehead make it all unbelievably clear. For some, it is a recognition that something is very, very wrong. For others, it is confirmation of suspicions they have had for a long time. What starts to reveal itself, through fits and struggles, is that we are being subjected to an incredibly dangerous agenda intended to benefit a select few while plunging the rest of us into chaos and decline.

Like all things, we must understand the particulars in order to recognize what has happened, what is happening, and what is to come. Today, like all days, is a good one to wrestle with the emerging oligarchical class. We have talked at length about the wealth class, their myriad of tactics intended to disrupt and dismantle democracy, including faux-science, reality-twisting techniques, and a whole host of think-tanks, institutes, and foundations that serve as weapons in taking over systems and furthering enriching their benefactors. These are at the heart of things like Project 2025 and virtually every other political and cultural ill.

The oligarchs are linked to the wealth class, but are their own segment with a host of specific characteristics, ideologies, and goals. In discussing this with colleagues, coworkers, friends, family members, and potential partners in solidarity, it’s extremely beneficial to understand how this new class has arisen and to fully fathom just what it is they believe and what it is they want to achieve. Learning how to communicate about this effectively and moving beyond “Red / Blue” and “Democratic / Republican” framing is essential if we are to create the kind of movement necessary to stop this. And stop it we must.

Their end goal, I have to tell you, is beyond disturbing.

Who are the Oligarchs?

The industrialists of the late-20th and 21st century. These men - they are almost exclusively men - were the heads of companies that created the digital infrastructure that dominates our lives. It’s the internet, social media, and the vast array of tools most of our jobs depend upon. Very quietly at first and now very loudly, they have seized the means of production and the means of operation. At first, it seemed somewhat innocuous, almost as if they were offering IT help or simply programming to the benefit of the larger corporate structure. Then, over time, their businesses and personal fortunes grew to the point where they ascended to an almost untouchable status.

To call them “Big Tech” is accurate, but it also obscures the true nature of their diaspora. That label of Big Tech actually obscures what is happening. It relegates it to something we see on our laptop and mobile screens, detaches it from the very physical and political reality they are attempting to control. Tech is their means, their tool, their weapon, but what it is enabling them to do stretches far beyond the digital realm.

Presently, the oligarchical class is carrying out a bold-faced takeover of the federal government, deleting the social safety net as if it is an unused icon on a desktop, solidifying complete control over our economy and culture, and working hand-in-hand with despotic regimes around the world in order to quell resistance and gain complete dominion over the resources necessary to sustain themselves and continue their personal pursuits. As climate change worsens and the consequences come into sight, and as the Neoliberal order fractures and evolves into authoritarianism, they fully recognize it is time to pounce and take what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Where did the Oligarchs Come From?

During World War II and then the Cold War the United States pumped unbelievable amounts of wealth into technological research. To win the war, and eventually fight against the Soviets, the U.S. turned to computing in order to gain an advantage. Rather than demobilizing following the end of the conflict, scientists and weapons manufacturers advised for a continuation of mobilization in order to avoid a future “wartime deficit,” creating an ongoing cycle that would eventually create what we have come to call “the Military-Industrial Complex.”

This was incredibly destructive and led to a state of continual imperial activity in which a small group of contractors, corporations, and individuals became incredibly wealthy and powerful while representative democracy was overriden in favor of a capitalistic relationship between government and the wealthy. All the while, the New Deal Consensus - with a foundational belief that government should protect citizens from the excess of the wealthy and create a social safety net and regulatory oversight - was being aggressively destroyed. Eventually, in the late-1970’s and 1980’s, that consensus gave way to Neoliberalism, which relied on deregulation and transitioning to a government dedicated to enabling unadulterated capitalism and the wealth class.

One of the components of this change was the rise of Neoliberal Globalism, or created conditions that relied on free trade to open up markets around the world in which workers in other countries could be exploited for cents on the dollar and resources hoarded for the benefit of the wealth class in America and other “First World” nations. This also served another purpose: a workaround the protections of America workers, including minimum wage and regulation in the workplace. Instead, workers being oppressed by U.S.-friendly dictators and strongmen could be fully exploited by while America remained “free” of overt authoritarianism.

Globalism required infrastructure. The miles between the U.S. and the countries it exploited needed to be vaporized, communication and logistics needed to streamline and become instantaneous. The Internet was perfect for this task. Created in case of a nuclear attack during the Cold War, the Internet was a system created using hundreds of millions of dollars in government funds. In other words, your money created the system that oligarchs have used to build their empires. And, like most authoritarians industrialists, the oligarchs and their associated cronies are quite fond of obscuring that fact.

To facilitate Globalism and its digital infrastructure, the Clinton Administration of the 1990’s slashed regulations and set loose a flood of monopolistic actions, creating the framework for our present environment. In the beginning, it was based on home computing and digital storefronts. When the bottom dropped out at the turn of the century, a few growing giants like Amazon were left to pick up the pieces.

Things took a turn during the War on Terror. The business of empire and creating new markets for the wealth class necessitated data gathering and digital outsourcing, creating a feedback loop of wealth and power between the emerging digital behemoths and the federal government. “Domestic security” against hyped terror threats fused the tech monopolies and the government and with growing federal contracts and outsourcing through privatization, the relationship was solidified. The government got the support it needed and the burgeoning oligarchical class got a fresh supply of funding and institutional allegiance.

During the Obama Administration that went into hyperdrive. Barack Obama, the Democratic and Republican parties, and culture writ large bought into the idea that the future belonged to tech. They invested ungodly amounts of money into the growing oligarchical class’s pet projects and outsourced entire operations like the exploration of space. If you want to feel weird, watch this clip of Obama touring a SpaceX facility in 2010 and see Elon Musk back when he was a Democrat. And why? Because the only affiliation the oligarchs actually have is to themselves.

The push to tech and STEM was an echo of the Cold War arms race, an attempt to corner the market of the future in order to ward off any challengers to U.S. hegemony. There was still an arrogance then, a belief that America, as an empire, could control the world and a blindness to the inevitable order-shaking changes we’re currently experiencing. In academia, funds shifted to STEM at the expense of humanities, creating a host of crises we’re still suffering to this day. Politically, the Obama Administration, the Democrats, and the Republicans refused to regulate the emerging tech giants even as their platforms and projects were revealed to have sweeping problematic effects. They were allowed to hoover up all of our data, spy on us, and learn to manipulate us because to step in would mean bothering the emerging economy and disturbing the relationship necessary for the empire’s functioning.

The Military-Industrial Complex became the Military-Industrial-Tech Complex.

This moment was a crossroads. A place and time where we might have avoided this entire mess.

Instead, the oligarchs were gestating, gobbling up as much power and as many resources as they required. They were becoming historically wealth and unconscionably powerful.

A note: both parties laid this foundation. The rank and file in Washington, D.C. and in corporate America fed this thing until it grew into this form. The need to regulate and rope them in is as essential and intertwined with the need to create a new politics that moves beyond this disastrous status quo. If you find a way to defeat them, and I believe we must, you find a way to transform this country.

The Oligarchical Ideology

Oligarchs are not a new phenomenon. As long as capitalism has existed we have seen concentrated wealth and grasping of power. At the heart, there is a belief among oligarchs that their wealth and influence is built upon their hardwork and singular talent, all while ignoring their privilege, the role public investment played, and the fact the capitalist trends look for actors and if it were not them it would be someone else.

The tech oligarchs we are dealing with, however, have a set of ideologies that portend disaster if they are allowed to carry out their agendas.

At the root has been what theorists Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron called the “Californian Ideology.” This was a mishmash of capitalist, libertarian, and individualism that assured tech creators they were part of a revolutionary class that would, over time, dismantle the sclerotic systems of the tangible world and lead the way into the future. Of course, they would get very rich, but that was just part and parcel of the endeavor. Government had no right to regulate or impede and any attempt should be seen as hindering the birth of the future.

As their wealth and power grew, this megalomaniacal worldiew evolved into full-on messianism. Being completely inundated from consequences, worshiped by sick, sad acolytes, treated like gods by a friendly and adoring press, and enjoying the splendors of historical wealth, the oligarchs began to see the decaying world as theirs to save. Neoliberalism, which created them in the first place, wrought unbelievable damage to political, cultural, and economic systems, but they chose instead to simply see it as inevitable decline because of liberal democracy and “unfair” suppression of the natural hierarchy. They built digital worlds in which they were literal gods, but when products like the Metaverse were soundly rejected they turned to the physical realm. With Musk, a clearly disturbed individual, a host of father-issues and personal failings set off a need and a desire to harvest all the resources of the Earth in order to create his own kingdom on the surface of Mars.

These delusions are not singular. We’ve seen it with monarchs and madmen before. And the drive to suppress and conquer is always welcomed by malicious ideologues ready to tell the oligarch what they want to hear. It isn’t a coincidence that people like Curtis Yarvin, who has attached himself to nearly every tech oligarch because his open authoritarianism appeals to their wants. Yarvin isn’t shy about his desire to dismantle liberal democracy or create an American dictator. His fantasies, which are being carried out presently, are marked by open cultivation of Neo-Nazi tactics, symbols, and goals. See for yourself:

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Whether it is Yarvin in the U.S. or Aleksandr Dugin in Russia, the point is to bring the modern order to heel and create a “new” structure in its place based on violence, oppression, and control. The oligarchs rely on these ideologues and their poisonous writings / plans because they speak to what they already want: unimpeded power. They have personally milked present Neoliberalism for everything it’s worth and see the consequences as proof that they, the special, “chosen” class, need to override representative democracy. The push for eugenics, cruelty, and resource extraction goes with the territory and you can see this cycle playing out throughout history, including the fascist turn, when you look at industrialists and oligarchs of the past.

Their embrace of antidemocratic movements, weaponized misogyny, nationalistic religion, and poisonous online subcultures is merely an updated version of how this has worked previously. The tech veneer is new, but what is underneath remains the same. The tools have changed. The goals haven’t.

What they are looking to create is what has been called by the Thiel-circle a “Technological Republic,” and others have referred to as a “Network State.” It doesn’t matter what the name is, it amounts to a society under the full control of tech oligarchs as they assert what they see as their rightful place as rulers of the world.

The Coup

The parasitic relationship between the oligarchical class and the state was always going to lead us here. Eventually, when concentrated wealth reaches a certain point, corruption and control breed a total takeover of the apparatus. The nation state, and even the global capitalist structure, becomes completely subservient to the class that has fed on it.

Musk’s actions with DOGE represent a rewiring of the system. Behind closed doors, Musk’s cronies are not only eradicating what’s left of the social safety net and regulatory systems, but installing tools of their design and control to continue its basic functioning. It’s not enough that Musk and his compatriots control funds and are purging agencies and apparatuses, they’re literally reworking it so that only they can oversee what’s left of its operations.

Meanwhile, culturally they already have control. Using algorithmic technology, they have created a digital space that surveils us, manipulates us, and has profited from increasing radicalization. As they have gotten wealthier they have predictably gobbled up more and more organs for control, including newspapers, social media, and entertainment conglomerates. What we are fed constantly is a steady diet of conspiracy theories, antidemocratic thought, and a neverending stream of mind-numbing content. It is the equivalent of Big Tobacco or Big Pharma getting us addicted to their products, only it is a reality of their choosing and a system designed to know us better than we know ourselves.

This is far from an American phenomenon. The globalist structure has served their financial interests, but has also linked them to authoritarian regimes friendly with oligarchs around the world. It began with outliers like Russia and China, but has now spread quickly to the remaining “Western democracies,” threatening U.S.-style takeovers in France, Germany, the U.K., and elsewhere. They have shown a total willingness to censor, manipulate, and aid authoritarians, engaging in their own corporate authoritarianism as they’ve reaped the benefits.

Like Musk using Starlink as a bargaining tool in shaking down Ukraine, what is intended is a system run by and for the oligarchs in which any investigation into their activities or attempts to regulate them could be answered with a technological shutdown of government altogether. This would coincide with the usage of state power and military power, all wired with their own personal tools, to gather as many resources as possible to fulfill their individual goals, whether that is going to Mars or simply fueling their data centers and AI push. Law enforcement, operating with their surveillance and tools, would essentially be a security force to stave off dissent and protect them from societal uproar. The economy, directed by their tools, would be fully dedicated to their own enrichment, allowing them to continue hoarding resources and becoming the first generation of trillionaires, all while serving as a continually malfunctioning bomb. Social programs would evaporate. Any help would be at their choosing and we have seen enough of their white supremacist and eugenic leanings to know which way that would go. Culturally, we would be inundated with ceaseless propaganda and exposed to ever-worsening algorithmic content under their direction. And basic operational systems, much like what the FAA is doing with Starlink now, would be converted to their tools and oversight.

Considering the tools and the people involved, full state capture would be difficult to escape. An illiberal nation like Russia armed with cutting-edge technology and reality-warping systems is nothing short of a nightmare.

Geopolitically, this would not bring peace. We would likely see the largest countries gobbling up as many smaller countries as possible and hoarding resources. Over time, this would inevitably create conflicts between the nation states at their disposal while the oligarchical class moves and shifts between allegiances in a way that changes from year to year, day to day, and minute to minute. It would probably look like our economic climate in which corporate conglomerates merge and disintegrate and merge again. The pace would be dizzying and we would all be caught in the middle.

We are witnessing the moment they have chosen to assert what they believe is their right to take control. This is due to a combination of factors, including the pressing existential threat of climate change, the weakening of nation state control, and a host of conditions arriving at the same time. We have been in this battle our entire lives, but it is coming to a head. There’s no negotiating. No waiting it out. We either confront this head on or watch and see what they will create.