Quick note — a bit on San Francisco this morning, as the city clearly intersects with tech, and I believe its fate matters a great deal to both the industry and country.

While the following dispatch is distinct, the themes I'm about to discuss are plainly, dangerously apparent in every one of our cities. High-level, the nation's intellectual D Team captured the entire critical infrastructure on top of which America lives. All founts of traditional power are corrupt beyond saving, but the "tech elites," a pejorative popular among the sort of people who are actually in power, represent a new kind of leader, and through them I do see a new kind of hope. The following constitutes a path forward.

-Solana

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Hit ‘Em Up. Last Saturday, just a little after midnight at the moody, broody Lion’s Den in Chinatown, Y Combinator’s Garry Tan tweeted a parody of Tupac lyrics reworked in reference to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was, obviously, a joke, and as much about Garry as the Board — here was a kindly, soft spoken tech guy quoting a famously hardened gangster. But given irony has long been canceled in this country, and Garry’s tweet did technically include the word “die,” the city’s entrenched, pro-crime political establishment identified a rare opening for feigned moral outrage. Breathlessly, in somber, pleading tones, the most regressive members of the Board argued Garry’s tweets constituted a credible threat to their lives. Then, our favorite Defund agents of darkness literally called the cops.

Well, there really is a first time for everything!

It didn’t matter Garry was drinking, or joking. It didn’t matter he deleted the tweets as soon as he woke the next morning. And it really didn’t matter he apologized, because nobody was actually frightened. Garry’s comments only interested the city’s political establishment insofar as they could be used for ammunition. The press activated, taking its direction from local Marxists Dean Preston and Jackie Fielder. The latter, running for office, rushed to X with the claim Garry’s Tupac reference was of a kind related to Harvey Milk’s assassination — who was killed, she said, because of “toxic masculinity.” The city’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Fielder is a member, concurred: this millionaire just “incited violence.” It was a fascinating turn of phrase from the nation’s most committed guillotine enthusiasts, last seen hosting public readings for their celebrated heroes Marx, Lenin, and Mao, the greatest mass murderer in human history. But the drama, so completely and perfectly stupid (thank you, I love it), was not yet over.

At the story’s hysterical zenith, the Board leaked evidence of looming violence, including letters mailed to “targets” with Garry Tan’s smiling face on the envelope. The implication, lapped up dutifully by the Red Guard press, was Garry’s supporters — for the most part young, nerdy startup founders — made terroristic threats against three sitting politicians. This is an obvious false flag, almost certainly the handiwork of a DSA activist, and whichever political aide is responsible belongs in jail forever. But setting aside our natural feeling of disgust, the desperation of this final bit of theater is at least illuminating. The machine has come for Garry with every gun in its possession. Why? Because the establishment believes he’s winning, and in choosing Garry for their target they’ve inadvertently betrayed their greatest point of vulnerability. In a sense, they’re telling the “tech elites” exactly how to win.

Garry Tan is over the mark.

In some sense, it’s obvious why entrenched local power considers him dangerous. Garry helped unseat three of the most psychotic members of the Board of Education, as well as the famously pro-crime DA Chesa Boudin, the machine’s spiritual leader and promised future king. Following the city’s last election, Garry is further credited with assisting the moderate politician Joel Engardio unseat his deranged incumbent Gordon Mar, a first of its kind coup in over two decades. In all of this, Garry provided money, support, and connections to other wealthy individuals. But there are many people responsible for each of these victories. There are also millionaires, from every political pole, heavily involved in city politics. So why is this guy so frightening?

About a month ago, YC announced its expectation founders live and work in San Francisco. Initially, I was surprised by the silence this tremendous gesture evoked from local government. Remember, downtown San Francisco is now a total wasteland, almost entirely because of the Covid “Techxodus,” and the city’s budget deficit is potentially cataclysmic. The bureaucrats both hate tech, and need it to survive. But Garry represents a very specific kind of “tech elite.” He isn’t satisfied with simply building in San Francisco, he wants to change the city in accordance with his values — reason, merit, growth, abundance, progress (the real kind). To make matters worse, he’s encouraging a wave of immigrants just like him. What if tech’s new class is not only willing to get involved, but wants what Garry wants: an end to the city’s fentanyl trade, legalized housing, legalized algebra? Unthinkable. These are the fears that keep the city government awake at night.

As silly as it seems, I also think the Tupac lyrics are themselves an important piece of the puzzle. Specifically, the brazen disrespect constitutes an important, fundamental shift not only in tech, but in “rich people” culture more broadly.

Until now, conflict between intelligent taxpayers and entrenched local power has always been polite, and why wouldn’t it be? In San Francisco, entrenched local power always won, while tech, a mix of actual crazy people, and intelligent but fundamentally passive dissidents, was satisfied with this dynamic. The reasons are unfortunate but obvious: tech’s craziest have always agreed with and supported the city’s chaos agents, while the industry's most intelligent have always taken a bizarre kind of pride in losing massively at the game of politics (the loss is taken as an indication they're different, precious, rare). But a middle finger up with millions of dollars behind it, and a will to run the town? That is a new phenomenon, and a welcome, vital change. Respect among political opponents is only possible where both parties share some ground floor values. In San Francisco, no such shared values exist. The morality of the city’s entrenched power is hopelessly inverted. The trend is also national.

Last week, on the heels of San Francisco’s symbolic vote for a ceasefire in Gaza, Chicago followed with a successful vote of its own. Fascinating, I thought. In 2023, how many Chicago residents were shot to death? Nearly 700, turns out. In response to the endemic carnage, the mayor declared “he would steer city dollars to implement a more ‘holistic approach to public safety.’” Do we really believe anyone is this stupid? Or are we finally willing to entertain the notion chaos, and carnage, is the point?

In response to area drug stores, restaurants, and grocery stores closing due to rampant crime de facto legalized by the government, Dean Preston, San Francisco’s Millionaire Marxist, is now attempting to criminalize… the stores for closing. Unfortunately, it seems his work has inspired psychotic politicians across the country. Ayanna Pressley, an actual member of the United States Congress, just took the issue to Washington. Thus follows the logic of our sitting power: 1) defund the police, 2) self-defense is now illegal, 3) after your store has been, by design, robbed to the point of insolvency, you are not allowed to shut it down.

Good, reasonable men are generally expected to enter a respectful dialogue with these committed proponents of destruction. The idea, I think, is the enlightened among us might counter with such common sense retorts as “but how will the businesses pay their employees if they’ve been robbed to the point of bankruptcy,” or “while we demand these stores stay open, can we also defend them with more police protection?” From here, we do as all good democracy lovers do and compromise. But what is compromise with the position our cities be dismantled?

San Francisco’s Board, along with every local government in the country, is perfectly clear on what it has to offer, and what it’s willing to fight for: crime with no recourse, suffocating business and housing policies, legalized meth, “sanctuary” for foreign drug lords, abolition of academic standards, abolition of advanced placement courses for gifted students (themselves abolished conceptually) from families that can’t afford private school, zombie encampments, a “holistic approach” to random acts of violence. The correct response to any attempt, foreign or domestic, to revoke the social contract, and dismantle human civilization, is not polite rebuttal. The only possible response is a fight for your life. Disrespect, in this way, is at least some primal indication there are men remaining in this country with a will to live.

Still, a little Tupac in the early morning, while important, will never be enough. Against so freakish and objectively heinous an opponent, agents of civilization too often fall back on knee-jerk reaction. It’s a game of idiot whack-a-mole, every day, in which we destroy the dumbest opinions on social media. This is sometimes fun, and sometimes helpful, but it will never change a city, or a country. For any real transformation, the most important tool is vision. One can’t simply tell the Board of Supervisors to “fuck off,” one must also explain, every day, in every medium from tweets to print to pods to shouting on the mountaintops, precisely the world we want — in lucid, evocative detail.

This is what you’re fighting for: great public schools, including well-paid teachers held to standards or removed from power, advanced placement courses, an end to lotteries for the future of our children, and housing policy that makes a life of education, nursing, police work, fire fighting, or driving a city bus tenable (legalize construction of new units, in the first place, and shift use of public units to the support of contributing members of society); energy too cheap to meter; the re-criminalization of crime, including an end to fentanyl dealing, no more safe harbor for foreign dealers, no more shitting on the street in front of children, jail for serial shoplifters, the return of felonies for not only first-degree but second-degree burglary; efficient and abundant public transit; a reduction of government employees, with an increase in pay and benefits for the competent among them; technology-friendly zoning and legislation; legalization of new housing, with a gutting of every regulatory hurdle beyond the (legitimate) scope of safety; and the concerted drive from public life — forever — of every single official responsible for our present state of rot.

Once we take care of the basics, it’s on to solar punk of course:

But we have a long road ahead of us, and right here, at our first step, is a fight with people fundamentally committed to revoking every single reasonable expectation of government. In this, no, I’m sorry, you don’t negotiate with terrorists. You gather your allies, you relentlessly attack the policies of chaos as well as their agents, you share your lucid vision for what the world could be if sanity prevailed, you fund like-minded voices in media and politicians running for office, you use every possible legal channel — as does every nihilistic local activist standing in your way — to undo the legislative work of all the sitting goblins, you excel at your job, relentlessly, and you never apologize. You also consider inviting me to the VIP Lounge of the Lion’s Den for drinks one night in Chinatown, where we crack open your secret stash of liquor, break bread with the city’s strangest characters, and acquire more material for future chapters in this spectacular story of our lives.

But remember, now that you're actually playing to win it’s a totally different game, and don’t forget your enemies are projecting. Entrenched power is only “afraid for its life” because power is itself willing to take life. Such has been demonstrated from the beginning of recorded history. And duh, most of these people are openly Marxist. They’ve literally told you what they’re planning. So be smart, and never stop.

Westside when we ride, come equipped with game.

-SOLANA

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Reminder, we just launched Dolores Park, our San Francisco vertical, with a ton of incredible writing and reporting. If you live in the city, or just enjoy great reporting from the capital of tech, subscribe to our free newsletter. In the meantime, check out a few of my recent favorites:

Legalizing Chaos: How Activists Are Changing Laws Around the Country

activists groups are suing police departments across the country to effectively legalize blocking major transit routes and other destructive forms of protest

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San Francisco Taxpayers Funded the Bay Bridge Protests

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Are Most of San Francisco's Homeless Even From the City?

mainstream reporting on sf and california homelessness is based on two reports afflicted by methodological flaws and ideological bias so extreme, they're impossible to take seriously