Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and ex-Meta executive, condemns a Silicon Valley 'tech bro' culture characterized by privilege and victimhood. Wealthy tech figures often perceive themselves as persecuted rather than recognizing their comparative good fortune. The culture combines machismo with self-pity and manifests in homogenous fashions, cars, podcasts, and fads. Performative stunts, such as high-profile onstage antics, exemplify the environment. Clegg asserts that accustomed privilege can lead individuals to interpret equality as oppression. He previously led Meta's decision to remove Donald Trump from Facebook after the January 6 riots.
"You'd think, wouldn't you, that if you were immensely powerful and rich like Elon Musk and all these other tech bros and members of that podcast community," the former politico told The Guardian, "that you'd reflect on your good fortune compared with most other people?"
"In Silicon Valley, far from thinking they're lucky, they think they're hard done by, [that] they're victims," he continued. "I couldn't, and still can't, understand this deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity."
"If you're accustomed to privilege," he said, "equality feels like oppression."
Collection
[
|
...
]