Given the vast resources involved in conjunction with the possibility that many jobs get eliminated in its wake; America is heavily invested in artificial intelligence (AI) and a tech led future. But while optimism abounds as to what new heights can be reached through an all-out pursuit of ubiquitous AI; what if this frantic digital march forward lands American society in a regressive politically embedded minefield instead ?
This is the unique argument put forth by Greek economist, academic, author and politician Yanis Varoufakis in his 2023 book, “TechnoFeudalism – What Killed Capitalism” where he asserts that through the emergence of cloud technology we have undergone “an epochal shift that means that traditional capitalist markets now operate differently within what has become a digital feudalistic structure.”
Said differently, Varoufakis believes that the tenets of the feudal system that governed much of Europe for hundreds of years during the Middle Ages applies to today’s digital economic system. Back in the 1300’s, the peasants and serfs that were the lowest socioeconomic rung of European medieval society, were granted access to the local “lord’s” land and physical protection in return for working this same lord’s land while also paying taxes. Today, “we” serve today’s big tech overlords (Amazon, Google, Apple and Meta) by handing over our data to access their cloud space. And it is here where Varoufkis’s “Technofeudalism” forms as our preferences, from the author’s perspective, are no longer even our own, but instead are manufactured by machine networks, known as the “cloud”.
And to the extent that large digital platforms gain strength daily as a result of the data provided by the “people”, such unregulated and “unchecked” power rests on a misplaced but still seemingly assumed belief that today’s digital “robber barons” such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have the best interests of the “people” in mind as they become increasingly entrenched as digital oligarchs within today’s political and capital market system. Unfortunately, as attention and skepticism increasingly begin to turn toward today’s societal “lords” as the stakes of America’s headlong pursuit of AI grow, what gets revealed in this slow-motion awakening is disturbing.
A closer look at today’s Techno Elite is disturbing
Meta Platforms is currently facing a landmark federal jury trial in Oakland, California, where multiple states are accusing Facebook and Instagram’s parent company of intentionally designing addictive features that harm youth mental health.
The plaintiffs—including California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey—claim Meta misled the public and built addictive elements like infinite scroll, autoplay, and like counts to hook children. These plaintiffs are seeking a court order forcing Meta to overhaul its algorithms, require parental verification, and remove features like beauty filters and ephemeral stories to which Meta argues that social media addiction is not a medically recognized condition, even though Facebook executives actively limit their own children’s screen time as a matter of practice…, and that the states’ demands are unsubstantiated and disproportionate. This legal action exists while Meta also faces separate actions, such as a massive antitrust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission targeting its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, alongside state-level rulings regarding child safety.
In determining for myself whether Facebook’s senior staff, including its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has culpability in the above referenced landmark case, the writer decided to explore Sarah Wynn-Williams’s, the former director of public policy at Facebook, “tell all” best-selling March 2025 book, “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism”. This exercise has been well worth the effort as Williams’s work portrays a deeply disturbing profile of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his executive team from a “deep inside” vantage point that is indeed rare.
According to Wynn-Williams, Meta played a role in the Rohingya genocide as well as allegedly engaging in censoring activities on behalf of the Chinese government for the purpose of expanding Facebook’s presence in this quasi-communist country.
Additionally, “Careless People” captures an elitist mindset where the author, for example, at one point during her tenure was advocating for paying some modest taxes within certain foreign countries to help facilitate use of the Facebook platform in those regions to which Sheryl Sandberg replied to the entire Facebook executive team with “the best thing we can do is invest in getting policymakers to use Facebook to communicate and politicians to win elections.” Going further, Sandberg in the book directs an initiative in Asia to “coach politicians on how to target specific messages to specific sorts of voters to not only sell them ads but to also “make them reliant on Facebook for their power”.
Before leaving Sandberg who left Meta in 2022 as its Chief Operating Officer and its Board of Directors in 2024 under a swirl of controversy is the additional perspective of Wynn-Williams who believes based on her own experience as a pregnant executive and subsequent mother during her time at Facebook that Sandberg’s book “Lean In” and the subsequent movement it created should potentially be renamed “Hire a team of nannies and then…Lean In”. Here Wynn-Williams, whom Zuckerberg legally fought every step of the way on her way to publishing her book, seems to take exception to the sheer arrogance and hypocrisy that was embedded within much of the corporate culture that existed at Facebook during her time at the company.
As for Zuckerberg, his singular mindset depicted in the book is growth for Meta Platforms at any price and that anyone opposed to unregulated expansion of his social media company is “an enemy”.
Interestingly, just as this article was completed, it was announced that social media giant Meta had reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve the court case related to child safety on Facebook and Instagram referenced above.
“The tech company will pay a maximum of $16.68bn, according to court documents.
The settlement requires Meta introduce certain rules for teenage users, including daily limits and night-time blocks.
Meta denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
It was alleged the company had violated numerous federal and state privacy laws for children.
The states suing Meta claimed it used its platforms “to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” and ignored the damage they did to the “mental and physical wellbeing of America’s youth”.
After the settlement was announced, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb called it a “monumental public health victory””.
BBC: Meta reaches $16.68bn settlement with US states over child safety
Away from Meta Platforms, all of today’s new “Techno elite” have a direct audience with a Trump administration desperately seeking any communication strategy that can distract from the self-inflicted disaster that it has dealt itself through inflationary tariffs as well as an ill-conceived war with Iran. With such access to the ultimate reins of US political power, a deep review of other tech titans such as Peter Thiel is not only warranted but disturbingly revealing. Consider, for example, that Thiel’s ideal governmental structure represents a form of extreme libertarianism where technology and the free market replace traditional government bureaucracy. To this end, Thiel no longer believes “freedom and democracy are compatible” since voters usually support bigger government and more welfare, which limits individual liberty according to Thiel. Thiel favors instead a knowledgeable cognitive elite to run the US government rather than select officials chosen by popular majorities.
Thiel even goes a step further with his unconventional and non-democratic beliefs as he also espouses “Seasteading” where building permanent, autonomous dwellings on the ocean to create new societies outside the reach of existing governments. It should also be noted that Mr. Thiel considers anyone who espouses the need for a greater level of regulation around AI and US Tech in general as the “anti-Christ”. Mr. Thiel also appears to be a hypocrite of the highest order. Consider, for example, that while unfettered access to public data has been pivotal in helping make him achieve billionaire status; as a father of two adopted children, Thiel also limits the screen time, as is the case with the executive team at Facebook referenced above as well as most Tech elite, of his kids to 1.5 hours per week.
Now let’s pause to reflect on the rich irony that exists within the observations referenced above. It is the data associated with daily human interaction with the various technology interfaces (Google, Amazon, Waze, Uber, Meta…) that help people traverse the internet for conducting commerce as well as facilitating human digital interaction which is the lifeblood that has powered the meteoric rise of today’s hyperscalers. And yet, the leaders of some of these companies understand that too much “screen time” is not a good thing for humans; especially young ones and pursue the unregulated perpetuation of their respective platforms anyway. In addition, even though these leaders have amassed enormous wealth within the US capitalist system, leaders such as Thiel now not only want to abandon this same system they desire to do so while paying as little in taxes as possible.
Jeffrey Sachs for additional confirmation…
If all of what is described above seems to be too audacious to be true, please consider the interview of American economist and public policy analyst and Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, in India attached below.
YouTube: Jeffrey Sachs on US tech elite and governance
The interview was conducted in India as part of Sachs’s “Marco Polo Drive of Peace, Culture and Sustainable Development” that traversed the ancient Silk Road trade route of over 15,000 kilometers through 12 countries running from Rome to China’s Greater Bay Area during June and July. With much to unpack in this great exchange, the writer focuses on a subset of Sachs’s claims embedded in the discussion that pertain to today’s note.
From Sachs’s perspective, today’s leading US Tech executives, who also own the media (think Ellison family and Jeff Bezos…) also essentially “bought” the White House”. JD Vance is a Vice President, for example, that has been placed in his seat by tech titan Peter Thiel who defibrillated Vance’s flailing early political career with capital, a name change and a makeover that included a beard and eyeliner. To Sachs, if the theoretical veil that separates “us” the public from “ultimate truth” in government were lifted, we would all be concerningly amazed at just how “unreal our current reality is” when considering just how much power the US tech elite now holds in determining not only US policy but the essentials of governance itself.
Bottom Line – how long can a bad feudal system last ?
For anyone thinking that the twisted dynamics of today’s US political structure now impacted by big US Tech will untangle in the event of President Trump’s eventual demise should think again. History has proven time and time again that an organized minority with means and capital can last considerably longer than most people can conceive.
In the case of France, for example, a bad political governing arrangement kept in place by an organized minority can last approximately 433 years…This marks the time difference between France’s disastrous Battle of Poitiers in 1356 where French knights and lords for the second time in 10 years (the best that French knighthood had to offer was also decimated at Crecy a decade before…) broke their “feudal” vow to their peasants and serfs by recklessly being unable to protect them at this fateful battle against England within their Hundred Years War. And yet the feudal system that was irretrievably broken that day remained in France until its Revolution of 1789.
In terms of the endurance of a bad and failed feudal system lasting so long in the case of France does not relate to a people that didn’t rise up. The “Jacquerie” peasant revolt of 1358 that burned manors and killed nobles was a response to the France’s military failure at Poitiers. This revolt was additionally sparked by burdensome overall war related losses, heavy taxes as well as the fear and danger that came with lawless soldiers marauding the countryside as many of the lords who administered the local law within their respective localities were killed at the battle of Poitiers. Aristocrats were, nevertheless, able to squash the Jacquerie within weeks at a decisive battle at Clermont, which led to massive slaughter of all peasants and serfs involved in the uprising. This crushing defeat of the “people” cemented the feudal system permanently into France for hundreds of years even though this system failed miserably in the mid 1300’s.
Today, a new tech empowered feudal system is arguably being built and appears to be becoming actively interwoven into today’s government. This process is not complete which makes this year’s mid-term elections of heightened importance. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Space X is being awarded national defense contracts in what appears as a quid pro quo in return for Musk spending approximately $200 million in favor of Republican candidates in the looming midterm elections. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel’s Palantir, run by avowed Zionist Alex Karp, gains greater traction within the Pentagon with each month that passes.
Once installed, this secret and illegal governing apparatus that marries technology with dictatorial power at the chief executive level as French history informs us can endure for much longer than it should. This November, please vote as if your life depends on it…because it does.