Bannon, Musk, MAGA

On technofeudalism, brought to you by the man who wants to build a new god with artificial intelligence.

Composite. Credit: Writerfantast / Liudmyla Matviiets.

James Billot at UnHerd called Steve Bannon the “architect of old-school Trumpian populism.” I think that is basically correct, which is why it has been interesting to watch him mostly flail without effect at Elon Musk from the sidelines of a movement he helped build.

“Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant,” Bannon told Billot in an interview published on Feb. 18, adding that he is unimpressed with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and believes that the billionaire has nefarious designs.

“He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values, or traditions,” Bannon said.

It was the latest salvo in a feud between, as Vice President J.D. Vance put it, the “populists and techies.” Vance, who styles himself as a populist, has insisted that this divide is overblown. And yet, Musk, the leader of the techies, has directly attacked populists like Bannon while completely eclipsing Vance as Trump’s right-hand man. He has just about overshadowed Donald as well.

How did things get to this point, and what might come with total techie victory? My pessimistic disposition on the latter says Philip K. Dick’s “Black Iron Prison,” an imperceptible cage in which all “dwelt in it without realizing it.” Musk, after all, is claiming to fight the “Deep State” even as SpaceX helps the National Reconnaissance Office build a network of satellites that will form the most powerful panopticon in history, offering unprecedented levels of surveillance and therefore control. Perhaps even more shocking than that is the utter lack of alarm or even interest from the people who spent years railing against Big Tech, transhumanism, and, of course, surveillance.