#1783 The Ideology of a Cancer Cell: AI, Surveillance, and Silicon Valley's Psychopath Problem

Air Date: 4–10-2026

Today we examine the ideology quietly driving Silicon Valley — a worldview that treats growth, extraction, and the erasure of human messiness as virtues. We'll hear how tech leaders from Sam Altman to Larry Ellison embody a kind of corporate psychopathy, why Zuckerberg never understood what Facebook actually is, and how the cult of "go for its own sake" may be the most dangerous religion of our time.

Direct Download

Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube!

Be part of the show! Leave a voice message, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email [email protected]

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!)

Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience!

Join our Discord community!


TOP TAKES

KP 1: This Will Be the Death of Us All! - PissedMagistus - Air Date 3-18-26

KP 2: Palantir Weirdo Gets Cornered By Journalist - The Majority Report w/Sam Seder - Air Date 1-24-26

KP 3: Sam Altman Isn’t Building a Company, He’s Building an Empire (with Karen Hao) Part 1 - There Are No Girls on the Internet - Air Date 3-31-26

KP 4: Sam Altman Is Dangerous To Silicon Valley - Better Offline - Air Date 6-13-24

KP 5: Ash Sarkar Calls Silicon Valley Tech Bros Emotionally Maladapted Psychopaths - BBC Question Time - Air Date 10-27-25

KP 6: Why Fun Tech Jobs Went Extinct - Good Work - Air Date 3-27-26

KP 7: Zuck Never Understood the Metaverse - The Morbid Zoo - Air Date 4-4-26


(00:47:59) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

AI Isn't Taking Your Job — But Your Boss Wants You to Think It Is


DEEPER DIVES

(01:02:18) SECTION A: ARE THEY ALL PSCHOPATHS?

A1: The Price of Permanent War | Palantir and Peter Thiel - J Aubrey - Air Date 12-11-25

A2: Inside Silicon Valleys Dirtiest Power Play - TheCollapseCo -Air Date 1-26-26

A3: Oracle: The Company That Knows Everything You Do - More Perfect Union - Air Date 11-6-25

A4: Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein with Ed Niedermeyer - Tech Won't Save Us - Air Date 3-19-26

A5: Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead Part 1 - Taylor Lorenz - Air Date 1-19-26


(01:50:08) SECTION B: THE CULT(URE) OF SILICON VALLEY

B1: I Was Right About Sora. - Pillar of Garbage - Air Date 4-1-26

B2: Do Tech Oligarchs Really Believe AI Will Save Us? - The Majority Report W/ Sam Seder - Air Date 6-2-25

B3: Sam Altman Isn’t Building a Company, He’s Building an Empire (with Karen Hao) Part 2 - There Are No Girls on the Internet - Air Date 3-31-26

B4: The Left Doesn’t Hate Technology with Gita Jackson - Tech Won't Save Us - Air Date 3-12-26

B5: Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead Part 2 - Taylor Lorenz - Air Date 1-19-26


(02:34:34) SECTION C: AN END TO THE ENDLESS SCROLL

C1: Meta and Google Found Negligent (Because Of Course They Were) - Some More News - Air Date 3-30-26

C2: A Jury Says Meta and Google Hurt a Kid. What Now? - Decoder with Nilay Patel - Air Date 4-2-26

C3: Why the Meta Verdicts Are a Big Deal (And What It Was Like to Testify) - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 3-26-26

C4: Resisting The Tech Oligarchy | Jason Koebler | TMR - The Majority Report W/ Sam Seder - Air Date 1-26-25


SHOW IMAGE CREDITS

Description: Composite image of a cluster of cancer cells and vessels with the images of Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg on them.

Credit: Internal design. Component images: “Sam Altman” by TechCrunch, Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0 | “Larry Ellison” by Greg Rubenstein, Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0 | “Mark Zuckerberg” by Ian Kennedy, Flickr | License: CC BY SA 2.0 | Changes for all 3: Cropped and effects applied. Other image from Pixabay

 

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com

Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere!

Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X

Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft

Contact me directly at [email protected]


Showing 1 reaction

  • Ben Grant
    published this page in Episodes 2026-04-10 17:55:40 -0400
Sign up for activism updates