The Broligarchy is Here

Inside the Billionaire Boys’ Club Plotting America’s Future

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Broligarchy - noun - bro-li​​·​gar·​chy - a system of governance dominated by a small cadre of tech elites who wield their wealth and influence to amass more power, reshape society, and impose their vision of culture and ideology on the world. While they frame their actions as heroic or revolutionary, their ultimate aim is to secure financial dominance and perpetuate their ideological worldview. They see themselves as superior beings, using their wealth to undermine democratic systems and ethical boundaries to create a society that reflects their interests, values, and profit-driven ambitions, at the expense of collective well-being and diversity of thought.

The New York Times

On Monday, the techno-class officially descended on Washington to pledge fealty to the incoming king. This week’s inauguration was a who’s who of tech power gathered to kiss the ring that will mint them a new America remade in their most bizarre fantasies.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai was chatting up Elon Musk before the swearing in ceremony. Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez were seated next to Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in the front row. Apple CEO Tim Cook and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew were in the audience along with Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Peter Thiel threw an inauguration party for Trump over the weekend at his mansion that Zuckerberg, in all of his masculine splendor, attended.

Their prominent positions on the inauguration stage, more visible than many cabinet members, underscored the significant and direct influence these affluent men (many of whom control the technology that directly impacts all of our daily lives) are going to have in the forthcoming administration. Billionaires are influencing the new administration from both the outside and the inside. So far Trump has tapped 13 billionaires for jobs in his administration.

We’re entering a new phase of American governance, one we have never experienced before. Oligarchy is defined as a “government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.” There are plenty of historical examples of actual oligarchies ranging from Medieval Venice to modern-day Russia.

Some have argued that America was moving towards an oligarchy in the 1880s through the turn of the 20th century, during the rise of ultra-rich financiers and railroad barons. We are much closer to an oligarchy today.

Michael Waldman, who was President Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriter and is now president and chief executive of the Brennan Center for Justice told the New York Times, “It’s tempting to liken this to the Gilded Age, but John D. Rockefeller didn’t actually run McKinley’s campaign or move into the White House.”

According to Oxfam, the ultra-richest segments in the U.S. today control a greater portion of wealth than they did during the Gilded Age.

Today we don’t just have an oligarchy, we have the broligarchy. Today’s billionaires control a near-unlimited set of resources and hold an unprecedented power over the flow of information. But for people like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and more - this is about more than just mining for riches. These men want to remake our society.

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Here are some characteristics of the broligarchy:

1. Belief in the superiority of tech elites: Techno-optimism is the justification for the dominance of the broligarchs. They truly believe their ideas are intellectually and technologically superior to traditional political and social institutions. They think tech will fix society’s ills and that they are the ones smart enough to create it. In turn they believe they are uniquely qualified to lead humanity into the future.

2. Use of technology for propaganda: Using social media platforms and algorithms, they shape public opinion by amplifying disinformation and alternative narratives while undermining traditional gatekeepers of truth, fact-checkers and independent journalism.

3. Confidence in ideological monoculture: They seek to promote a singular vision of progress in which technological innovation overrides diversity of thought, ethics, and cultural differences. Traditional social and political institutions are dismissed as obstacles.

4. Desire to maximize wealth and power: They maximize wealth, power and control by seeking to privatize public goods and services, including education, healthcare, and infrastructure. They will prioritize profit above all else and push for deregulation to achieve their goals.

5. Promoting masculine identity politics: As we recently saw during Mark Zuckerberg’s interview with Joe Rogan, their worldview reinforces “traditional” masculinity as central to corporate and societal progress. Policies that restrict rights or challenge gender norms reflect their broader goal of creating a society aligned with these “masculine” values and hierarchy.

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I’ve thought a lot about the intersection of wealth and politics over the years. Traditionally the way I have conceptualized the role of the uber-wealthy in the Republican party has been as part of an unholy alliance between pure capitalists and pure ideologues.

On one side there were men who wanted total deregulation so they could mine every ounce of gold out of the American economy. On the other were the men who wanted to save America’s soul. In the late seventies the capitalists realized they could team up with evangelicals and culture warriors who could deliver the necessary votes to attain that power and deliver them their wealth.

With the rise of MAGA, we saw a hybrid political philosophy that centered around isolationism, the language of populism, perceived meritocracy and a tribalism of victimhood and hatred.

Now we are in a new season. With the rise of the broligarchs we have the same thirst for money and power. But now it is inextricably linked to their plot to remake this country and then the world into their greatest fantasies.

Money is, of course, central to the broligarchy. It’s not only how you get into the inner circle but also the key factor in their political success. Elon Musk is not the head of DOGE because of his unique and particularly brilliance at parsing government budgets, it’s not even because he runs Twitter, it’s because he donated $250 million to Trump’s re-election campaign.

Trump has literally proposed a “pay to play” scheme, where anyone who spends at least $1 billion in the United States “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all environmental approvals.” If enacted, this could mean near complete deregulation for these broligarchs to build whatever the fuck they want with no consequences or guardrails. While it’s unlikely to happen in full, it’s one of many signals from Trump about how he views the transactional relationship between his government and the broligarchs.

Both Musk and Zuckerberg have business up for regulatory review. These are cases that could be dropped or treated more kindly in exchange for the help they have already given Trump. Musk has called government regulations an existential threat to our nation. This is the grandiose language preferred by the broligarch industrial complex, a phrase that feels pulled straight from their favorite superhero movies. Believe people when they say things. Musk has made very clear that deregulation is the goal.

And that deregulation goes far beyond addressing some anti-competitive behaviours or some accidental river pollution, with crypto it’s about a vision to have money untouchable by governments.

These are men who have spent years using tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes on their multi-billion dollar businesses. (See this excellent Pro Publica piece) And with cryptocurrency, they have found a magical money tree that will enrich their entire political class. Trump has nominated Paul Atkins to lead the SEC, he’s a former SEC Commissioner and a known crypto advocate who will likely ensure that the industry is not regulated as securities. Trump had pledged to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet.”

The weekend before the inauguration, on January 18, 2025, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency called $TRUMP. This meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency often associated with internet trends or personalities, quickly gained significant value and attention. Its market capitalization soared to nearly $15 billion over the weekend, though it later settled around $10 billion by yesterday. Trump, his family companies, and the coin's developer collectively own 80% of the tokens. Following her husband's lead, Melania Trump launched her own meme coin, $MELANIA, on January 19, which also saw a significant value increase.

Dave Portnoy of Barstool posted that he made $1million off $TRUMP over the weekend. This feels in many ways like a rewards system for the men who have sold their souls to Trump and the broligarchs, but it’s also indicative of the larger ethos of the movement as a whole. As Sigal Samuel wrote in Vox,

“[Crypto is] inherently anti-institutionalist; its appeal lies in its promise to let people control their own money and transact without relying on any authority, whether a government or a bank. It’s how they plan to build these startup cities and network states, and how they plan to supplant the traditional financial system. The original idea of crypto was to replace the US dollar, but since the US dollar is intimately bound up with global finance, undercutting it could reshape the whole world economy.”

Writing in The Atlantic Brooke Harrington, the author of Capital Without Borders: Wealth Management and the One Percent, said:

Their political vision seeks to undermine the nation-state system globally. Musk, among others, has set his sights on the privatization and colonization of space with little or no government involvement. Thiel and Andreessen have invested heavily in creating alternatives to the nation-state here on Earth, including libertarian colonies with minimal taxation. One such colony is up and running in Honduras; Thiel has also invested in efforts to create artificial islands and other autonomous communities to serve as new outposts for private governance.

In April, 2022, Vanity Fair Magazine published an article explaining how Peter Thiel was placing his bets on J.D. Vance. It was the first major piece I read outlining the political philosophy of the “New Right.” “They’re not MAGA. They’re not QAnon. Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics.”

The “New Right” is the political philosophy that undergirds the broligarchy’s system of government.

The goal of the broligarchy is to create, in essence, a post-liberal dictatorship run by a figurehead they can easily control. Trump is a means to an end— a gold toilet-loving, authoritarian-aspirant avatar for the new right ideology. As Ian Ward wrote in Politco in March, 2024 “Vance’s New Right cohort see Trump as merely the first step in a broader populist-nationalist revolution that is already reshaping the American right — and, if they get their way, that will soon reshape America as a whole.”

Thiel first hired J.D. Vance to work at his Mithril Capital firm (Mithril is a metal featured in “The Hobbit”) and later invested in Vance’s fund Narya Capital (Narya is a ring in “The Lord of the Rings”).

Thiel is a fantasy-world-building obsessed person emblematic of the darkest ideological strains of Silicon Valley. Their beliefs are so far from normal that we would laugh about them in any other situation. Well, we did laugh at Thiel-like character in Season 1 of the TV show Silicon Valley, Peter Gregory.

These are people who are obsessed with biohacking to such a degree that Bryan Johnson thinks he might just live forever. There are reports that Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Thiel have also invested in startups so they can thwart death. They are people who believe disruption is a god given right and regulations are mere constraints on their genius. They believe they are above the law, not just not the laws of the land, but the laws that have long-governed every functioning human society. They want unlimited power over money, government, and death itself. They want to be gods. Brooke Harrington wrote:

Though some of them have previously opposed Trump because of his immigration or tariff policies, the broligarchs share his politics of impunity: the idea that some men should be above the law. This defiant rejection of all constraint by and obligation to the societies that made them wealthy is common among the world’s ultrarich. Many broligarchs also see themselves as exceptional beings, but arrived at that view through a different path: via science fiction, fantasy literature, and comic books. Ideas from these genres have long pervaded Silicon Valley culture; last year, [Marc] Andreessen published a manifesto calling for “Becoming Technological Supermen,” defined by embarking on a “Hero’s Journey” and “conquering dragons.”

The last thing our country needs right now is a group of ultra-rich men with chips on their shoulders because they got negged by the hot girl in highschool who fancy themselves the Avengers and fathers of dragons.

Their obsessions ignore the very real problems actually facing Americans on a daily basis—affordable high quality education, poverty, grocery prices, childcare accessibility, soaring housing costs.

These things do not interest them.

Their obsessions with science fiction have led them to other goals: the space race, Mars colonization, the development of a virtual universe.

Millions of people who voted for Trump, many of them the most vulnerable among us, will be completely left behind in this world. But they refuse to believe it.

All of it just keeps getting weirder the more you read. And more patriarchal.

Marc Andreessen’s manifesto emphasizes ambition, relentlessness, and strength, qualities he sees as essential to creating the “technological supermen” who will conquer the challenges of the modern age. Elon Musk, has championed a “high T” culture of alpha males, amplifying the notion that masculinity equates to independence and superiority. Mark Zuckerberg has lately lamented the assault on masculinity in the workforce, and waxed poetic about hunting wild boar with a bow and arrow.

At the heart of this philosophy is a distinct brand of masculine identity politics, one that celebrates dominance, aggression, and the virtues of a “hard reset” to what they see as a feminized and weakened society. These men do not merely idolize innovation; they valorize the hypermasculine traits they believe are necessary to lead and shape the future.

This masculinity is not incidental, it is central to their vision. It is a masculinity that rejects vulnerability, empathy, or inclusivity. Instead, it is built on binaries: strong vs. weak, leader vs. follower, man vs. woman. They view movements that challenge traditional gender roles, such as trans rights, as destabilizing the cultural order they seek to reestablish. Their vision of society is one where masculinity is synonymous with progress, stability, and authority, reinforcing a hierarchical structure that marginalizes dissenting voices or diverse identities.

Elon is often seen attending Trump events with a child in tow. He’s a huge proponent of pro-natalism which is a belief system that views declining birth rates as a civilizational crisis, necessitating urgent action to encourage and prioritize reproduction. It promotes the idea that societies should reward and incentivize individuals, particularly the “right kind” of individuals, to have more children.

From The Week:

Musk, the world's richest person, has fathered at least 12 children with three mothers, while billionaire founder of the Telegram messaging service, Pavel Durov, revealed that a sperm donation he made to a fertility clinic had resulted in children conceived in 12 countries by more than 100 couples.

Pro-natalism draws intellectual roots from conservative thinkers like Patrick Deneen and Adrian Vermeule, who argue that modern liberalism has severed society from its foundational values. Deneen’s critique in Why Liberalism Failed emphasizes the collapse of community and family structures under liberal individualism, advocating for a return to traditional, hierarchical societies rooted in familial and communal bonds. Vermeule, with his focus on “common good constitutionalism,” calls for the reassertion of natural law and societal cohesion over individual freedoms. These thinkers, whose ideas resonate deeply with J.D. Vance, see pro-natalism as a counterpoint to what they perceive as societal decay, a way to rebuild the social fabric by focusing on the family as the fundamental unit of civilization.

Politico explained “The conservative think tanks the Center for Renewing America and the Heritage Foundation — have proposed policies for a potential second Trump administration that would promote having children and raising them in nuclear families, including limiting access to contraceptives, banning no-fault divorce and ending policies that subsidize ‘single-motherhood.’”

But the tech bros are into pro-natalism for even more nefarious reasons. According to reporting from The Week, “Elon Musk is also among a growing number of Silicon Valley investors in fertility technology and research who are ‘looking for a way to reverse reproductive ageing, overcome infertility, and optimize child selection."

Meanwhile, Peter Thiel has invested millions into companies to improve fertility services overseas, egg freezing, IVF and a women's wellness startup called 28, which tracks users’ menstrual cycles and encourages them not to use birth control. That startup was founded by the same person who founded conservative Evie magazine. You may know Evie for its cover story featuring Hannah Neelaman of Ballerina Farm in the milkmaid dress, or from their efforts to repackage Christian patriarchy and the right wing culture wars in a really cute pink bow.

So once again the political billionaire class is hopping right into bed with the Christian ring wing. But this time it’s because they mean it.

Even though all of this sounds crazy when you write it all down in one place or say it out loud, it is still being injected directly into American citizens' veins, or rather their brains because the broligarchs have an unprecedented ability to manipulate the information coming into our phones.

The tech elites control information at a level unthinkable to past generations. Billionaire Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong owns the LA Times. But tech platforms dominate how most Americans access news. Google decides what we see in our searches and news feeds. Social media giants like Meta, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) have become the primary sources of news for millions of people. According to Pew Research, a staggering majority of users on these platforms encounter news: 82% on Instagram, 90% on TikTok, 91% on Facebook, and 92% on X. And all of these things can be manipulated with investments in bots, propaganda and algorithmic gaming.

These platforms control not only the flow of information but the ecosystem of public discourse. Their algorithms determine what ideas rise to prominence and which voices are amplified or silenced. This concentrated power in the hands of the broligarchy not only shapes what people see but also influences how they think, vote, and engage with other members of society. The combination of their control over information and their immense economic power creates a dangerous potential for manipulating public opinion and bending policy to their will.

This consolidation of power poses an existential threat to democratic values. When a small group can control the news narratives for millions of people, they effectively define reality. The result is an ecosystem in which trust in institutions is eroded, dissenting voices are marginalized, and the flow of information is skewed to serve elite interests.

Yet, I’ll admit this: I agree with the broligarchs on one thing. Our future demands bold action and bold ideas. The current system is deeply flawed, and there is no question that we need change. But their vision for the future is not one that serves the greater good. Their bold ideas focus on their own wealth, power, and ideological dominance, not on solving systemic issues for the collective benefit of society.

Instead, we need bold ideas that prioritize the well-being of the many, not the few. We need to find innovative ways to care for one another, address the rising tide of income inequality that is fracturing this country, and restore trust in the institutions that underpin democracy. Bold action is necessary, but it’s about the shared pursuit of a better future for everyone, not just for the elite few.