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The End of Reality
- How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
A brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society.
At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme—the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism—is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms.
In The End of Reality, Jonathan Taplin provides perceptive insight into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen (“The Four”) —and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of "The Four," the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires, exacerbate these disturbing trends.
The End of Reality is both scathing critique and reform agenda that replaces the warped worldview of "The Four" with a vision of regenerative economics that seeks to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment.
Critic reviews
"Once again, Jonathan Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin's careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope that the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy
Once again, Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin’s careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Princeton University
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In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters, Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so.
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It promises much and delivers too little.
- By jim on 12-28-22
By: Douglas Rushkoff
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When McKinsey Comes to Town
- The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
- By: Walt Bogdanich, Michael Forsythe
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In When McKinsey Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public image. Bogdanich and Forsythe have penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding McKinsey by conducting hundreds of interviews, obtaining tens of thousands of revelatory documents, and following rule #1 of investigative reporting: Follow the money. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made the world more unequal, more corrupt, and more dangerous.
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Shows systemic problems in McKinsey's culture
- By GA on 10-15-22
By: Walt Bogdanich, and others
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Move Fast and Break Things
- How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy
- By: Jonathan Taplin
- Narrated by: Jonathan Taplin
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Move Fast and Break Things tells the story of how a small group of libertarian entrepreneurs began in the 1990s to hijack the original decentralized vision of the Internet, in the process creating three monopoly firms - Facebook, Amazon, and Google - that now determine the future of the music, film, television, publishing, and news industries.
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Against progress and libertarians.
- By Matthew S. on 07-20-17
By: Jonathan Taplin
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The Contrarian
- Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power
- By: Max Chafkin
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the days of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, no industry has made a greater impact on the world than Silicon Valley. And few individuals have done more to shape Silicon Valley than Peter Thiel. The billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur has been a behind-the-scenes operator influencing countless aspects of our contemporary way of life, from the technologies we use every day to the delicate power balance between Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington. But despite his power and the ubiquity of his projects, no public figure is quite so mysterious.
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Don’t burn a credit.
- By John on 09-27-21
By: Max Chafkin
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Sedition Hunters
- How January 6th Broke the Justice System
- By: Ryan J. Reilly
- Narrated by: Ryan J. Reilly
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The January 6th attack is an unprecedented crime in American history. Sprawling and openly political, it can't be handled by the traditional rules and norms of law enforcement—threatening the very idea of justice and its role in society. A mass of online tipsters—"sedition hunters"—have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence. In this work of extraordinary reportage, Ryan Reilly gets to know would-be revolutionaries, obsessive online sleuths, and FBI agents, and shines a light on a justice system that's straining to maintain order in our polarized country.
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Lost Opportunity
- By JenMarie66 on 10-21-23
By: Ryan J. Reilly
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The Magic Years
- Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life
- By: Jonathan Taplin
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts - from the folk scene of Woodstock, to Hollywood’s rebellious film movement and beyond, Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism.
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A life well-lived, to say the least
- By Steven Gilb on 01-01-22
By: Jonathan Taplin
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Survival of the Richest
- Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
- By: Douglas Rushkoff
- Narrated by: Douglas Rushkoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters, Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so.
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It promises much and delivers too little.
- By jim on 12-28-22
By: Douglas Rushkoff
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When McKinsey Comes to Town
- The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
- By: Walt Bogdanich, Michael Forsythe
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In When McKinsey Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public image. Bogdanich and Forsythe have penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding McKinsey by conducting hundreds of interviews, obtaining tens of thousands of revelatory documents, and following rule #1 of investigative reporting: Follow the money. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made the world more unequal, more corrupt, and more dangerous.
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Shows systemic problems in McKinsey's culture
- By GA on 10-15-22
By: Walt Bogdanich, and others
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Controligarchs
- Exposing the Billionaire Class, Their Secret Deals, and the Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life
- By: Seamus Bruner, Peter Schweizer - foreword
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine a world in which you own nothing and rent everything. Most of the protein in your diet comes from bugs. You are not allowed to have more than one child, and your financial and medical data are instantly transferred to a centralized government database via a subdermal microchip. Controligarchs warns that this will be our existence if the supranational elites of the World Economic Forum get their way.
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time to act
- By Dan on 11-21-23
By: Seamus Bruner, and others
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The Longest Con
- How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism
- By: Joe Conason
- Narrated by: Steve Marvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The Longest Con tells the fascinating story of the partisan con artists who have corrupted conservative politics in our time, creating a toxic phenomenon that culminated in the election of Donald Trump, a bumptious fraud whose checkered career and tawdry retinue, including his presidential cabinet, have featured almost every variety of scam. But long before he appeared, Trump's path to power was blazed by the motley horde of swindlers and quacks who preceded him.
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Republicans, please do NOT read this!
- By CharlieSeymourJr on 07-17-24
By: Joe Conason
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The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- By: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.
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Everyone dies except Americans
- By preetam on 06-22-22
By: Peter Zeihan
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Strongmen
- Mussolini to the Present
- By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the "strongman" playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin. In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.
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Fascism expert talks fascism
- By sparky on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
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Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
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We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
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Autocracy, Inc.
- The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them.
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Legerdemain
- By Cosmo on 07-26-24
By: Anne Applebaum
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Cues
- Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication
- By: Vanessa Van Edwards
- Narrated by: Vanessa Van Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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What makes someone charismatic? Why do some captivate a room, while others have trouble managing a small meeting? What makes some ideas spread, while other good ones fall by the wayside? If you have ever been interrupted in meetings, overlooked for career opportunities or had your ideas ignored, your cues may be the problem - and the solution.
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I wish I had chosen a hard copy of the book…
- By JenMcL on 07-14-22
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The Fund
- Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
- By: Rob Copeland
- Narrated by: Rob Copeland, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Ray Dalio does not want you to listen to this audiobook. Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles.
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Best finance book I've read in years
- By Aaron on 12-16-23
By: Rob Copeland
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Parable of the Sower
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose unlikely prophet is 18-year-old Lauren Olamina. The young woman's diary entries tell the story of her life amid a violent 21st-century hell of walled neighborhoods and drug-crazed pyromaniacs - and reveal her evolving Earthseed philosophy. Against a backdrop of horror emerges a message of hope: if we are willing to embrace divine change, we will survive to fulfill our destiny among the stars.
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Dystopia before dystopia was cool...
- By Amber on 05-28-14
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Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
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As good as Ultra was it did not have the time to fill in the historical holes… Prequel does that.
- By Lorraine Petrosky on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
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The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
- American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
- By: Tim Alberta
- Narrated by: Tim Alberta
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Evangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing—and least understood—people living in America today. In his seminal new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, journalist Tim Alberta, himself a practicing Christian and the son of an evangelical pastor, paints an expansive and profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement.
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Looked forward to this a long time and wasn’t disappointed!
- By Josh Hulbert on 12-08-23
By: Tim Alberta
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Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
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Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper
- By Mark Brandon on 10-31-14
By: Peter Thiel, and others
What listeners say about The End of Reality
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ZEM
- 09-16-23
Essential & timely!
An vital overview of our current crisis and how to change our trajectory from the path of technocratic nihilism to a world in which we all thrive.
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- John
- 09-23-23
End of Reality
Exceptional and terrific. Book ends with Move Fast and Break Things. Maybe a 3rd coming soon for a trilogy?
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- Consumer Expert!
- 09-22-23
Amazing work!!
Just listen to his points and truly see what’s going on around you. Why is the media accepting fascism??? Why are these people allowed to control and benefit from our taxes??? Tell yourself is mars colonization a reality??? We can barely build new communities here having the materials at our disposal. Don’t be a sheep and think for yourself stop accepting an “alternative” reality that won’t do anything for you, this is our world right here and Mars or AI won’t pay your bills and put food on YOUR families table.
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- Arturo Zendejas
- 09-15-23
Insightful
Taplin’s insightful description of Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg & Andreessen and their technologies demystifies their projects’ value to society. I’ll never again see them the same way.
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- Unhappy
- 02-07-24
Oustanding
Taplin’s interesting background along with his strong research made the book fascinating and worthwhile. The power and corruption of the technocrats needs to be understood and pushed back.
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- Sparkie
- 07-22-24
A must read....
I have no idea why this book has so few reviewers, it's absolutely eye-opening how big money controls the world today and will completely dominate in the future if there is not a course correction
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- David A. Stadlin
- 08-16-24
Eye-Opening and Thought-Provoking
Jonathan Taplin, a former professor of innovation at USC, does a great job creating a framework in which to understand the alliance formed by the Technocratic elite and the Republican party. Prior to reading this book, I understood that Peter Thiel was a fascist and dangerous; now I see it clearly. Similarly, the author explains how Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and selling of the expensive folly of colonizing Mars are both part of the same program — the ending of subjective reality and its replacement with a Technocratic “metaverse” in which they, the overlords, are the masters.
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- Guerrin3
- 02-10-24
A left leaning conspiracy theorist yelling about right leaning conspiracy theorists.
The author identifies real problems created by the miss management of our current situation. Where it breaks down is he sees the source as individuals who sit on a political spectrum. Ultimately making a plea for his preferred failed political ideas over the other teams failed political ideas. As an example , lots of time is rightly given to the closeness of his 4 villains to the Republican Party leading to the 2016 election. What is lacking is the acknowledgment that the Democratic Party had their own technocrats from the same companies like former leaders of Google in similar places. The books misses the issue is total capture and the need for a revolution in thinking rather than the return to tired political ideas he prefers.
This books is the same as advocating MSMBC is the solution to Fox News.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-07-24
Bait and switch
What a surprise, the cover of the book would mislead you into thinking they were going to give you an objective analysis of how technocrats in the digital world are controlling our lives. However, it becomes a one-sided political argument for the left. Very disappointing.
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- Marc
- 01-06-24
Very biased
The author makes some interesting points, but his left wing bias shines throughout - droning on and on about the “authoritarian right” while ignoring the authoritarian left and the damage it has done. He conveniently leaves out that the big tech companies and the Democrats have been in bed together since the rise of social media etc, ironically ignoring that reality. I would have preferred a more balanced look at things.
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