GoKawiilBusiness chief executives, including Elon Musk, have become increasingly involved in US elections.Credit: Scott Olson/Getty
Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley Jacob Silverman Bloomsbury Continuum (2025)
Over the past 20 years, big technology companies in the United States have exerted an outsized influence on the country’s politics. Initially, it was through conventional lobbying. Google, for instance, was one of the most influential lobbying organizations in Washington DC during the administration of former president Barack Obama. But the methods of big-tech executives have become much more direct and, today, are often highly disruptive.
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In Gilded Rage, journalist Jacob Silverman describes how some of the United States’ wealthiest men, who have enriched themselves during the technology boom of the past 20 years, are recasting themselves as ideological ‘rage pundits’.
In this guided tour of the origins and ascent of “America’s self-designated innovator class”, Silverman traces how people once seen as outliers in President Donald Trump’s orbit — including space mogul Elon Musk and Palantir Technologies co-founder Peter Thiel — became messianic ideologues. Their wealth, software platforms and online networks now have begun to influence democratic elections in the United States and around the world.
What is the message or world view these individuals promote? According to Silverman, it is one in which ordinary people have little power or hope, democratic agency is hollowed out and political life bends to the will of a self-appointed group of wealthy individuals.
Tech oligarchy
Although the United States has previously seen periods of close alignment between industry and government, Silverman argues that the present moment marks a qualitative break, even compared with Trump’s first administration.
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