3060 - The Great Tech Billionaire Escape w/ Douglas Rushkoff

Sam and Emma host Douglas Rushkoff, professor of Media Studies at Queens College, to discuss his recent book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Trump’s arraignment, the Chinese Spy Balloon, opinions on Trump’s indictment, Trump’s growing lead over DeSantis, and the advancement of the Dominion vs. Fox case, before diving into James Trusty, Trump’s attorney, appearing on Fox. Douglas Rushkoff dives right into the genesis of his study on the escapist fantasies of tech billionaires, as he was invited to speak at a wealthy tech talk, only for the discussion to run off the rails into fantasies of post-apocalyptic autocracy. Parsing through this, Professor Rushkoff looks at the inverse relationship between wealth and empathic response, and explores why the ideology of big tech seeks to separate the capitalist from the labor exploitation that creates their capital, as seen in everything from their industrial practices to Musk’s colonies on Mars. This brings Rushkoff to the topic of “Effective Altruism” as a way for Tech entrepreneurs to excuse the exploitation and discrimination that comes from their products in favor of supposed future benefits for the next stage of humanity, and why philosophical arguments (rather than material ones) ground this reactionary libertarianism. Wrapping up, Douglas, Sam, and Emma tackle the refusal of tech “disruptors” to attempt disrupting capitalism, and what we can learn from Elon Musk’s Twitter debacle. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch Matt Walsh argue that slavery was good because it gave us Matt Walsh, Dylan from Atlanta dives into crypto alternatives, and John Fetterman makes his first public comments on his recent battle with depression. A Republican Colorado school board resigns en-masse after harassment from OTHER Republicans, Dave from Jamaica reflects on Today’s interview and the vitriol of Matt Walsh, and Chris from Atlanta discusses the balance between voting on policy and voting on electability. Tristan from Wisconsin calls in ahead of tomorrow’s special election, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out Douglas's book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/survival-of-the-richest Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today’s sponsors: ExpressVPN: We all take risks every day when we go online, whether we think about it or not. And using the internet without ExpressVPN? That’s like driving without car insurance! ExpressVPN acts as online insurance. It creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet so hackers can’t steal your personal data. It’d take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN’s encryption. And ExpressVPN is simple to use on all your devices! Just fire up the app and click one button to get protected. Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://www.expressvpn.com/majority That’s https://www.expressvpn.com/majority and you can get an extra three months FREE. Seder's Seeds!: Sam tried to grow some cannabis last year, didn't know what he was doing, but now has some great cannabis seeds! Go to http://www.sedersseeds.com and MajorityReporters will get an automatic 15% off. Enter coupon code "SEEDS" for free shipping! Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/