Wired's Politics issue is now out, with more stories coming. Letter from their editor & What happened to Silicon Valley

[highplainsdem]

Look at this cover:

Here it is: The @wired.com Politics Issue is now live, with more stories rolling out all week. We're so proud of this one.

Behold this cover; truly a work of art.

And we're treating it that way: Starting today, you can find it on murals, billboards, and posters across in five U.S. cities.

— Katie Drummond (@katie-drummond.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T13:02:59.504Z

https://www.wired.com/politics-issue/

You can feel democracy short-circuiting with every AI-generated edgelord meme posted on official government accounts...


Click Read More to read all of the letter from editor Katie Drummond.



And read this from Steven Levy:

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.
https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-politics-shift/

-snip-

It should be the best of times for the tech world, supercharged by a boom in artificial intelligence. But a shadow has fallen over Silicon Valley. The community still overwhelmingly leans left. But with few exceptions, its leaders are responding to Donald Trump by either keeping quiet or actively courting the government. One indelible image of this capture is from Trump’s second inauguration, where a decisive quorum of tech’s elite, after dutifully kicking in million-dollar checks, occupied front-row seats.

“Everyone in the business world fears repercussions, because this administration is vindictive,” says venture capitalist David Hornik, one of the few outspoken voices of resistance. So Silicon Valley’s elite are engaged in a dangerous dance with a capricious administration—or as Michael Moritz, one of the Valley’s iconic VCs, put it to me, “They’re doing their best to avoid being held up in a protection racket.”

-snip-

What’s happened to Silicon Valley? Why did the Ayn Rand–loving heroes of tech become Donald Trump’s bootlickers? How did one of the supposedly smartest VCs wind up posting a manifesto that declared war on “trust and safety,” “tech ethics,” and “social responsibility”? What was the point of Jeff Bezos buying The Washington Post for civic benefit, as he claimed, and then right before the 2024 election, killing its Kamala Harris endorsement and changing its opinion section to editorials on “personal liberties and free markets”? And speaking of Cook, how is it that the most effective political tactic for the head of a $3.4 trillion company is to march into the Oval Office and solemnly present to Trump a glass-and-gold tchotchke?

-snip-

Ever since Jobs began selling the first sleek Apple II’s, digital technology has been touted as America’s pride and future. In its own geeky way, tech spoke truth to power. But now, says Stanford professor of social ethics of science and technology Rob Reich, “an extraordinarily tiny number of billionaires who control the information ecosystem have made allyship with the most consequential and fearsome political power in the world. There’s never been a time in history when those things have been combined.”

-snip-

Much, much more at the link.

And btw, the Rob Reich quoted there is not the Robert Reich we're all familiar with. Wikipedia page on Rob Reich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Reich

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. I don't know which issue, but ancianita posted a Wired link which led me to this amusing image w ghost of Jobs

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220665235#post14

Wired paywalled, but the picture is amusing. I think I see left to right: Bezos, unknown1 (Thiel?), unknown2 (recent IPO guy?), unknown3, Zuckerberg, unknown4, tRump, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, Google CEO, Muck, Howard nutLick.

[highplainsdem]

2. That's the illo for the story quoted above, which deserves a LOT of attention.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. On cover you posted, note DOGE (coin) dog at back opposite Muck. Don't who sits second fr left. . . nt

[superpatriotman]

3. I don't see Thiel in that collage

Am I missing him?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. I'm not sure, but I think Thiel might be second from left or maybe fourth from left. . . . nt

[highplainsdem]

6. The illos are nice, but I'm much more concerned about the letter from the editor and that long article.

Incredibly important issue.

[Avalon Sparks]

9. He is behind Trump

Lol

[highplainsdem]

7. kick