© Illustration by Ben Kothe. Source: Gerard Julien / AFP / Getty.
Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It's past time we call it what it is.
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter.
Sign up for it here.
If you had to capture Silicon Valley's dominant ideology in a single anecdote, you might look first to Mark Zuckerberg, sitting in the blue glow of his computer some 20 years ago, chatting with a friend about how his new website, TheFacebook, had given him access to reams of personal information about his fellow students:
Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuckerberg: Just ask.
Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
Friend: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.
Zuckerberg: I don't know why.
Zuckerberg: They "trust me"
Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks.
Comment: See also: Arab states helping Israel bypass Yemen's Red Sea blockade