Ross Douthat invited the would-be techno-aristocrat Marc Andreesen to describe his political evolution in a column a few weeks ago. The narrative ran like this:
- The left initially supported tech; the admiration was mutual. Both parties agreed on social liberalism and the need to expedite the economy of the future.
- But the left went nuts on identity issues starting with the last few Obama years. The tech workforce became way too demanding and started pushing employers around.
- Trump really wasn’t so bad in his first term, in spite of all the sound and fury.
- The woke disease made its way into government during the Biden years. Biden viewed tech with unwarranted suspicion, not unrestrained enthusiasm.
- As a result, tech is supporting Trump. Yes, there are some darkish figures in the Trump coalition that could wield some influence unless appropriately checked, but kindly Uncle Donald will keep them under control.
Two observations are pertinent here. First, Andreesen simply refuses to acknowledge the many negative impacts of tech that became obvious over the past decade; the left had good reason to react the way it did. Second, the tech barons, Andreesen among them, clearly have an adversarial relationship with their workers. That explains the support for Republicans and the interest in increasing the number of visas for immigrants.