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2025-04-20-Tech-sector-restistance.md (5724B)

---
title: Resistance from the tech sector
date: 2025-04-20
---
As of late, most of us have been reading the news with a sense of anxious
trepidation. At least, those of us who read from a position of relative comfort
and privilege. Many more read the news with fear. Some of us are already no
longer in a position to read the news at all, having become the unfortunate
subjects of the news. Fascism is on the rise worldwide and in the United States
the news is particularly alarming. The time has arrived to act.
The enemy wants you to be overwhelmed and depressed, to feel like the situation
is out of your control. Propaganda is as effective on me as it is on you, and in
my own home the despair and helplessness the enemy aims to engineer in us often
prevails in my own life. [We mustn't fall for this gambit][0].
[0]: https://archive.org/details/0022_Dont_Be_a_Sucker_22_33_53_00
When it comes to resistance, I don't have all of the answers, and I cannot
present a holistic strategy for effective resistance.  Nevertheless, I have put
some thought towards how someone in my position, or in my community, can
effectively apply ourselves towards resistance.
The fact of the matter is that the tech sector is extraordinarily important in
enabling and facilitating the destructive tide of contemporary fascism's ascent
to power. The United States is embracing a technocratic fascism at the hands of
Elon Musk and his techno-fetishist "Department of Government Efficiency". Using
memes to mobilize the terminally online neo-right, and "digitizing" and
"modernizing" government institutions with the dazzling miracles of modern
technology, the strategy puts tech, in its mythologized form -- prophesied,
even, through the medium of science fiction -- at the center of a revolution of
authoritarian hate.
And still, this glitz and razzle dazzle act obscures the more profound and
dangerous applications of tech hegemony to fascism. Allow me to introduce public
enemy number one: Palantir. Under the direction of neo-fascist Peter Thiel and
in collaboration with <abbr title="Immigrations and Customs Enforcement">ICE</abbr>,
Palantir is applying the innovations of the last few decades of surveillance
capitalism to implementing a [database of undesirables][ice database] the Nazis
could have never dreamed of. Where DOGE is hilariously tragic, Palantir is
nightmarishly effective.
[ice database]: https://www.404media.co/ice-plans-central-database-of-health-labor-housing-agency-data-to-find-targets/
It's clear that the regime will be digital. The through line is tech -- and the
tech sector depends on tech workers. That's us. This puts us in a position to
act, and compels us to act. But then, what should we do?
If there's one thing I want you to take away from this article, something to
write on your mirror and repeat aloud to yourself every day, it's this: there's
safety in numbers. It is of the utmost importance that we dispense with American
individualism and join hands with our allies to resist as one. Find your people
in your local community, and especially in your workplace, who you can trust and
who believe in what's right and that you can depend on for support. It's easier
if you're not going it alone. Talk to your colleagues about your worries and
lean on them to ease your fears, and allow them to lean on you in turn.
One of the most important actions you can take is to unionize your workplace. We
are long overdue for a tech workers union. If tech workers unionize then we can
compel our employers -- this regime's instruments of fascist power -- to resist
also. If you're at the bottom looking up at your boss's boss's boss cozying up
with fascists, know that with a union you can pull the foundations of his power
out from beneath him.
[More direct means][ssm] of resistance are also possible, especially for
the privileged and highly paid employees of big tech. Maneuver yourself towards
the levers of power. At your current job, find your way onto the teams
implementing the technology that enables authoritarianism, and fuck it up. Drop
the database by "mistake". Overlook bugs. Be confidently wrong in code reviews
and meetings. Apply for a job at Palantir, and be incompetent at it. Make
yourself a single point of failure, then fail. Remember too that plausible
deniability is key -- make them work to figure out that *you* are the problem.
[ssm]: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184
This sort of action is scary and much riskier than you're probably immediately
comfortable with. Inaction carries risks also. Only you are able to decide what
your tolerance for risk is, and what kind of action that calls for. If your
appetite for risk doesn't permit sabotage, you could simply refuse to work on
projects that aren't right. Supporting others is essential resistance, too -- be
there for your friends, especially those more vulnerable than yourself, and
support the people who engage in direct resistance. You didn't see nuffin,
right? If your allies get fired for fucking up an important digital surveillance
project -- you'll have a glowing reference for them when they apply for
Palantir, right?
Big tech has become the problem, and it's time for tech workers to be a part of
the solution. If this scares you -- and it should -- I get it. I'm scared, too.
It's okay for it to be scary. It's okay for you not to do anything about it
right now. All you have to do right now is be there for your friends and loved
ones, and answer this question: where will you draw the line?
Remember your answer, and if and when it comes to pass... you will know when to
act. Don't let them shift your private goalposts until the frog is well and
truly boiled to death.
Hang in there.