Tag: Wired magazine

Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future

In August 2020, Thiel told Die Weltwoche that COVID-19 had created an opening. “Changes that should have taken place long ago did not come because there was resistance. Now the future is set free.” But the future desired by Thiel is one that involves less democracy, more restrictive immigration measures, and a tech industry even more aligned with the interests of the US government. Tech’s libertarian age is waning, but its future could be even worse.

Pentagon whistle-blower under US govt probe for publishing op-eds at Global Times

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Pentagon whistle-blower under US govt probe for publishing op-eds at Global Times

Related:

In May 2007, amid a U.S. troop surge in Iraq, Wired magazine published a piece titled “Military Dragged Feet on Bomb-Proof Vehicles.” The article unleashed a whirlwind of controversy that led to congressional hearings and, ultimately, hundreds of millions of dollars for lifesaving equipment.

The exposé didn’t mention Gayl, but he had leaked a key document to Wired. As a science adviser to the Marine Corps, he had recently returned from a stint in Iraq, where he had seen signs the military had delayed the rollout of much-needed armored vehicles known as MRAPs. Gayl briefed the staffs of Sens. Biden and Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who both later praised him as a “hero.”

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Gayl claims he didn’t receive any blowback over the first op-ed, but that changed after he wrote another claiming “China-averse special interests” in the United States were “othering” or trying to “dehumanize” the Chinese in preparation for a war.

Op-eds in a Chinese state tabloid slammed U.S. policy. The author works at the Pentagon.

Why US will lose a war with China over Taiwan island

Biden’s retaliatory cyberattacks against Russia are folly

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden’s retaliatory cyberattacks against Russia are folly

The planned response to the SolarWinds hack reflects a much deeper problem in the Washington establishment’s attitudes and policy: the belief that the United States can unilaterally set the rules of the international system, and yet set different rules for itself whenever it feels an urgent need to do so. This was never an approach that was going to be accepted by other powerful states. In the area of cybersecurity it makes even less sense, for the internet really is (in many bad ways, alas) a great leveler. To adapt a famous meme: on the internet nobody knows that you are the only superpower.