How the Tech Billionaires Bought Radical Journalists
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, I talk to Eoin Higgins about how rich tech weirdos co-opted huge chunks of the media.
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
How the Tech Billionaires Bought Radical Journalists w/ Eoin Higgins
Tech lords such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are among the richest humans who have ever
lived and have an enormous sway over the American political system but even that isn’t enough
for them. They also want a compliant media, one that echoes their ideas, doesn’t investigate
their business practices, and goes after their enemy. This is the subject of a new book by Eoin
Higgins: Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. I
talked to Eoin about two of the major figures in this story, Peter Thiel, a plutocrat who is eager
to abandon the human species and Matt Taibbi, a onetime anti-establishment voice who now
has become a standard reactionary.
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Peter Thiel
(Nordin Catic / Getty Images for The Cambridge Union)Tech lords such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are among the richest humans who have ever lived and have an enormous sway over the American political system, but even that isn’t enough for them. They also want a compliant media, one that echoes their ideas, doesn’t investigate their business practices, and goes after their enemy.
This is the subject of a new book by Eoin Higgins: Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. I talked to Eoin about two of the major figures in this story: Peter Thiel, a plutocrat who is eager to abandon the human species, and Matt Taibbi, a onetime anti-establishment voice who has now become a standard reactionary.
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Overcoming the Left’s Politics of Powerlessness w/ Yotam Marom / Fighting Fascism
Yotam Marom has been helping build movements—and many of the most important movement organizations—for the last 20 years. His new book, For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond a Politics of Powerlessness, is an essential read for everyone on the left who wants to win a better world.
Yotam, who became an organizing leader in Occupy Wall Street alongside Jonathan approximately a million years ago, joined us to talk about the left's conflicted relationship to power, leadership, identity, and strategy. We discuss how and why movements too often get in our own way, turn on each other, and play small, and talk through the big shifts we need to make if we hope to win the big battles ahead.
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