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There’s been a lot of recent reporting on the endorsements and monetary support that Donald Trump’s campaign is receiving from tech executives and investors — many of them white men.
This week’s “Tuesday Tech Drop” documented one aspect of that phenomenon, in which some influential figures in tech who previously donated to Democrats are now lining up behind Trump’s campaign. And last week, Reuters reported that the venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya are hosting a high-dollar event for Trump in San Francisco on Thursday, designed to show an outpouring of support from Silicon Valley leaders for the convicted former president. To the extent that this may come as a surprise, that may be rooted in a widespread misconception of Silicon Valley as a bastion of liberalism and not what it truly is: an epitome of crony capitalism, exclusion and white male elitism.
Author Malcolm Harris’ book “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World” is a great read for anyone looking to disabuse themselves of the pollyannaish propaganda about Silicon Valley’s purported progressive bonafides. The history of how Silicon Valley (largely built on Ohlone land) and its roots intertwine with the development of nuclear weapons dispelled for me some of the more fanciful depictions that portray Silicon Valley executives as avatars of a progressive revolution.
In reality, the public alignment of some tech executives with the Trump campaign is pretty easy to understand. Generally speaking, Silicon Valley leaders are overwhelmingly white and male — and disproportionately rich. Which is to say, they belong to a group that Trump and his allies have gone to great lengths to show they’ll defend in a second Trump term. And conversely, Joe Biden’s administration has taken steps to bring more equity and diversity to the tech industry and to ensure rich people pay their fair share in taxes, both of which could diminish the power of those who’ve already made a killing off of Big Tech.
As an example, the divergence between some rich, white tech executives and the Biden administration is epitomized in the administration’s efforts involving artificial intelligence tools, which are arguably the building blocks for the future global economy. Biden has emphasized the need for marginalized communities — including women, people with disabilities, and racial and ethnic minority groups — to be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to major developments in the world of AI. Conservative tech bros, including Elon Musk and others in his orbit, have vocally opposed such efforts to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in the world of artificial intelligence.
There’s no reason to think the tech executives and investors sidling up to Trump this year wouldn’t also benefit from Biden’s re-election. The U.S. is going to be deeply invested in new technologies regardless of who wins. But their share of Big Tech’s power and wealth is likely to be diminished if Biden wins in November and his administration follows through on its plans to emphasize diversity, equity and inclusion when it comes to emerging technology.
Trump, on the other hand, is vowing to give a massive tax cut to the rich if elected. Judges he handpicked have ruled that efforts to diversify the tech industry amount to anti-white discrimination. And Trump himself has said he’d prioritize ridding America of “anti-white feeling” if he’s elected.
That appears to have been all the assurance some in Big Tech needed to fall in line.