Gil Durán's book "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" argues that wealthy tech leaders have abandoned democratic principles. The book traces anti-democratic ideas to Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, who wrote in 2009: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." Thiel reportedly complained US democracy declined since the 1920s due to welfare expansion and women's enfranchisement, viewing technology as a way to unilaterally change the world.

The ideology draws from the 1997 book "The Sovereign Individual" by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, which predicted microprocessing would destroy the nation-state. Curtis Yarvin, who advocated for a "national CEO" or dictator, influenced Thiel and now Vice President JD Vance, whom Durán calls "almost entirely a creation of Thiel."

Durán exposes Silicon Valley's incoherence: tech elites once sought to escape government through space colonies, seasteading, and cryptocurrency, but now partner with authoritarian regimes and seek state control. He argues they've "colonized" rather than collapsed government, with crypto enabling corruption. In a recent interview, Thiel hesitated when asked if he wanted humanity to survive. Durán, a former aide to Kamala Harris, was reportedly banned from X after criticizing Palantir.