A seething hot bed of toxic neutrality. In the great pantheon of Silicon Valley political discourse many questions have been recently asked in good faith: are all forms of thinking valid, or is there an acceptable band of political speech? What role should the technology industry play in shaping national or international discourse, and — perhaps most importantly — should it be arbitrating truth? By what method? If algorithmic, can we see the algorithm? If by moderation, with some written law somewhere, penned by some unnamed executive, can we see the law? Can we speak with the executive? Our understanding of the way powerful men and women in the industry think about questions so abstract as truth, the nature of which has been debated for thousands of years, is not some triviality. The internet has fundamentally reshaped society, and questions pertaining to how we interact online are therefore questions of historical importance. The industry is not — can not be — above reasonable inquiry and critique. But this week, TheWashington Post’s Nitasha Tiku argued Silicon Valley is a fount of right wing (“far right,” with an implied possibly “alt right,” which is to say literally “white nationalist”) power. This is not a good faith critique. This is a demonstrable, insane lie.

Perhaps more striking than the misinformation was the inclusion in the piece of so telling an admission of icy rebuff from almost every one of the story’s central figures, a full eight of whom declined a request to comment from the Post. Presumably, the shocking volume of refusals to speak with an ostensibly-reputable outlet was catalogued in such a way as to demonstrate the nefarious silence of a shadowy, Silicon Valley elite. But has there ever been a cabal of shadows so talkative? Like, in history? These people are addicted to Twitter. They speak publicly every day. They just aren’t speaking with the tech press. This implies not their desire to conceal their opinions from the public, but hints rather at their opinion of the press, which they see as openly adversarial. This is not to say critical. This is not to say “asking the hard questions.” The sense among entrepreneurs, technologists, and venture capitalists is the press actually wants to destroy them.

Through my work on Pirate Wires and Anatomy of Next I received an unexpected reality check. It was not so long ago I thought the press was an antiquated, entirely unnecessary professional construct. I focussed on the loud social media personalities and the mistakes journalists made, often about people I knew, or companies with which I was familiar. The press seemed classist, elitist, and, more often than not, wrong. It also seemed to be going extinct, and I was glad. But more recently, in attempting to provide context or depth on some important topic or other, I’ve found myself relying on the work of serious journalists covering a wide range of topics spanning everything from local politics and UFOs to the Chinese Communist Party, COVID-19, and even, yes, the technology industry. Often, I’m looking for hard facts, dates, timelines, which these professionals, many of them working for mainstream institutions like The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have dedicated their lives to soberly providing. These are serious, studious writers, and they tend not, I’ve discovered, to make a lot of noise on Twitter. I’ve become acquainted with many of them, have a great deal of respect for what they do, and I’ve been asked, many times now, by people with whom I’d like to one day work in good faith collaboration, what the hell is going on between the media and tech. I’ve written a bit about this before in a piece precipitated by an early, absolutely ridiculous Clubhouse drama. I believed mostly the problem was the two industries were locked in an unfortunate tribal conflict in which no one was really listening to “the other side.” But dialogue, here plainly rejected by tech leadership, is impossible if requested in some obvious bad faith, which the Post’s piece on the politics of Silicon Valley clearly confirmed.