I think I finally put my finger on what shocks me so much about the so-called New Tech Right’s willingness to throw Anthropic under the bus and ultimately it is the abandonment of merit. Silicon Valley was once defined by “the best wins, absolutely,” but no longer for they who affiliate with the New Tech Right. For them, “the tribe wins, absolutely.” The merit value was like, their thing. Remember the summer of 2024 and the DEI posting? Where did that go? I never expected these guys to be political theorists or philosophers but I didn’t expect them to abandon that principle so readily, to throw it out the window in favor of chasing taxpayer-funded equity infusions and contracts that are piddling even by the standards of the MIC. DC may well be the toughest U.S. city of them all. It chews up and spits out all kinds of meat.
