This post contains a video, which you can also view here. To support more videos like this, head to patreon.com/rebecca!
Transcript:
Many months ago, one of my patrons asked during a livestream how I felt about “network states,” and I’m sorry that the Patreon search function sucks so I’m not sure who asked about it or exactly how I responded but I do recall a sense of, “Eh, silly idea by techno-colonialist fascists.” And I didn’t give it much more thought.
But recently, I saw an article that made me realize that the topic is both sillier and more dangerous than I originally gave it credit for. The article in question is this one from the Washington Post: “A Tech Founder Wanted to Start a New Country. An Actual Country Got in the Way.
“Balaji Srinivasan left Silicon Valley and created an incubator for new countries in an Asian ghost city, before the government shut it down”
So, Srinivasan is the guy who sort of kickstarted the idea of network states in 2018 when he wrote a book called, appropriately, The Network State. In it, he laid out his idea for how a person could theoretically move from a chatroom full of ideologically aligned nerds, to helping each other make money, to pooling that money and buying land, to finally being recognized internationally as an independent state. And I know that by describing it that way I’m basically doing the “rest of the horse” meme but in practice, yeah, that seems to be what’s happening to everyone who tries it. Basically, some rich Libertarian tech bros get together, buy some land, and then completely fail to become a functioning society.
For instance, at the end of 2024 Gizmodo described how some of the bros were doing: the most developed project, called Prospera on an island off the coast of Honduras, “is currently locked in a legal battle with the Honduran government that threatens to topple the experiment before it’s begun. Praxis, while having recently received new cashflows, is still just an idea, and has not even publicly announced a location for its supposed development yet. Neom, which has been associated with the Network State movement, has had to drastically scale back its initial ambitions and is running out of money.”
They also note that Neom, in Saudi Arabia, has “‘solved’ the problem of inefficient labor regulation by simply not protecting their workers,” leading to the deaths of 21,000 migrant workers during the project’s development.
Reading that led me to see how Neom is doing 18 months later and ah, here’s another Wall Street Journal video helpfully explaining that “After sinking more than $50 billion into Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s dreams of a sci-fi metropolis, the kingdom is now spending billions of dollars more to wind down contracts, leaving mammoth-sized partially built structures to gather sand in the desert.”
I’m not sure which is worse: 21,000 people dying with nothing to show for it, or 21,000 people dying for a morally destitute Libertarian billionaire’s playground.
With all of these network states struggling, you may be wondering about the output of the guy who literally wrote the book on network states, Balaji Srinivasan. That brings us to the recent article, which I found rather interesting. Because the headline sets you up to assume that the project it describes is Srinivasan’s own network state, but the name of his state, I think, suggests something a bit different. In a Chinese-built “ghost city” at the southern tip of Malaysia, he began his enclave and called it “The Network School.”
Now, the piece does cite Srinivasan making promises about The Network School that mirror the other attempts at Network States, like carving out its own “special economic zone,” a redistricting that would allow it to operate independently of the surrounding countries rules and regulations.
But that’s just a quality of network states that allows the person or company in charge to make as much money as possible at the expense of the surrounding community, something that works whether you’re trying to start your own country OR your own business. And I think that’s where Srinivasan is being quite shrewd. As the old adage goes, when you’re in the midst of a gold rush, the best way to get rich is by selling shovels.
Srinivasan markets “The Network School” as a place for future network state founders to come learn the secrets of success, from someone who obviously has never built a network state but who offers networking, “vibe coding” classes, a sweet gym, and all-you-can-eat protein bar and creating cafe, all for the low low price of $1,500 a month for a room. Here in the Bay Area, that would be an absolute steal, but early adopters suggested that it might actually be a bit steep for a moldy hotel that sits in the middle of a partially built abandoned city with no amenities. Say what you will about the dearth of culture in Silicon Valley but at least there’s a decent place to get a falafel. Also, Wall Street Journal’s stereotypes aside, we do have women here, even if they don’t tend to work at the tech companies. By the way, put a pin in that “no bitches” complaint, because we’re going to come back to it.
Unfortunately for Srinivasan, last month Malaysian pro-Palestinian activists posted on Instagram claiming that the Network School had Israeli citizens in attendance who were using second passports. In one of the few Malay government “Ws,” they don’t allow Israeli tourists to enter without special permission because they don’t recognize Israel as a state. This post also pointed out, correctly apparently, that applicants to the school were asked about how they felt regarding Israel. Why? No one has offered an explanation, but it’s worth noting that Srinivasan is, obviously, a protege of Peter Thiel, a man who also fervently believes that Big Tech should secede from liberal democracy and set up their own societies. Thiel’s company Palantir is currently helping Israel genocide the Palestinian people. In a recent video, Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union highlights how Thiel and his cronies (11:37) have infiltrated the United States government in order to aid their plans to take new land, as in Venezuela and, yep, Gaza.
Srinivasan claims the Instagram post was a hoax, and the Malaysian government found no Israelis at the school. However, a short time later the local council found permitting issues and began to investigate the school. Within hours, Srinivasan was packing his suitcase, saying that he had accepted an offer to set up a NEW Network School…in Kazakhstan.
It’s certainly interesting that Srinivasan keeps finding space in poorer, authoritarian, Muslim-majority countries, isn’t it?
Anyway, remember how I said we’d be getting back to the Network School’s lack of women issue? Well, in a completely unhinged response to the Wall Street Journal article, posted in response to the reporter’s questions but before it was actually published, Srinivasan whines that this is a borderline libelous accusation. They’ve had hundreds of women and families, he says, and includes a little video as proof.
“In short,” he writes, “we are absolutely not simply for the “tech bro”, but for the tech dad, tech mom, tech family, and tech children (as well as non-tech people, of course).”
And let me be totally up front, here: I believe he’s telling the truth. I do believe that Srinivasan doesn’t just accept women and children at the Network School, but that he actively, desperately wants to attract them to his new campus in Kazakhstan. But it’s not necessarily because he thinks women can be just as smart and capable founders of network states as men. I don’t even think it’s because women’s money spends just as well as men’s. I think it’s because much like the other rich weirdos in and around this fucked up ideology, Srinivasan is a “pro-natalist,” who believes that the “right kind of people” should be having as many children as possible, in both a eugenicist idea that suggests wealthy “Westerners” are genetically superior AND because the future colonialist Libertarian utopia will require cannon fodder to expand beyond Earth.
In case you have any doubts about anything I just said, like him wanting more women and children, or the colonial eugenicist shit, have a look at this promo from the Network School’s website.
It’s like something from a movie where it’s a little too obvious that this is an evil racist cult trying to lure white women to a foreign country where their passports will be taken and their children held hostage by enslaved locals, to become baby factories for Peter Thiel’s billionaire buddies. Like, why else is this extremely pale redhead dressed like an extra from Little House on the Prairie? Why at the end does it look like she’s about to shove her ex-boyfriend in a bear corpse and light him on fire?
Pretty on the nose.
So yeah, that’s what the tech bros are up to these days. Let’s hope the people of Kazakhstan take a lesson from that Malaysian city council and chase these creeps out of their country with pitchforks. I want to see where they end up next. I hear Elon is going to be setting up something on the moon any day now! Maybe start planning for that.
