AI is wreaking havoc on the climate, Elon Musk is the extreme right’s new best friend, Silicon Valley is paying fealty to the MAGA movement, and who

New year, new Disconnect - by Paris Marx - Disconnect

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2025-01-09 17:00:08

AI is wreaking havoc on the climate, Elon Musk is the extreme right’s new best friend, Silicon Valley is paying fealty to the MAGA movement, and who knows what new horrors the industry has planned for 2025. It’s more important than ever for people to understand how this industry really works and how its dominant players are destroying the world around us.

In 2024, I wrote pieces on tech’s embrace of the extreme right as it coalesced around the Trump campaign, explored issues with data centers and generative’s climate impacts, and did a series of articles on the state of the internet, how we got here, and where we might go next. I dug into the TikTok ban, Mark Zuckerberg’s rebrand, Bill Gates’ deceptive climate narratives, and how none other than Kara Swisher has falsely positioned herself as a renegade truth teller. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The critical analysis Disconnect provides is more important than ever, but after nearly two years, it’s time to make some changes to meet the moment and reinvigorate it for this next stage of the tech dystopia.