I have seen a number of essays, articles, and posts recently that try to fathom why the tech moguls of Silicon Valley seem to have shifted from an almost-progressive stance in years past to a distinctly conservative/reactionary position now. Some of the arguments are complicated, confused, and seem tortured. Others were just… long.
I might be missing some nuance, but it doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.
In the 1990’s, tech was upstart and new. The status quo represented barriers to tech’s ascendancy. Tech leaders were big fish in small ponds. They were pushing for change, for progress, to get rid of old ideas that were holding back tech adoption and push for new standards of normal. They needed change, and liberal, progressive thought made that kind of change possible.
Now tech reigns. Many Silicon Valley leaders are billionaires. They are powerful, connected, recognized, and on top. Big fish in the biggest ponds. Once you’ve cemented your place at the top of the power hierarchy, change is no longer desirable. Now you want to conserve the status quo, perhaps even react to the new popular skepticism of tech and go back to a (real or imaginary) simpler time when people trusted Facebook and Twitter.
We’ve got ours. Let’s conserve it. Let’s become conservative.
—2p