#1783 The Ideology of a Cancer Cell: AI, Surveillance, and Silicon Valley's Psychopath Problem
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2026
⏱️ 193 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
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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 4: Sam Altman Is Dangerous To Silicon Valley - Better Offline - Air Date 6-13-24
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?
(01:50:08) SECTION B: THE CULT(URE) OF SILICON VALLEY
(02:34:34) SECTION C: AN END TO THE ENDLESS SCROLL
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
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
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Call my wife. |
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| 0:05.7 | BlackRock Investment Trust has a lot working for you. |
| 0:08.2 | Get to know them at blackrock.com. |
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| 0:11.4 | BlackRock Investment Management UK Limited, |
| 0:13.0 | authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. |
| 0:18.4 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast. |
| 0:22.0 | Today we examined the ideology quietly driving Silicon Valley, |
| 0:25.7 | a worldview that treats growth, extraction, and the erasure of human messiness as virtues. |
| 0:31.9 | We'll hear how tech leaders from Sam Altman to Larry Ellison embody a kind of corporate psychopathy. |
| 0:39.0 | 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. |
| 0:49.3 | For those looking for a quick overview, the sources providing our top takes in about 50 minutes today include Pist Majistice, The Majority Report, There Are No Girls on the Internet, Better Offline, |
| 1:01.2 | BBC Question Time, Good Work, and Morbid Zoo. Then, in the additional deeper dives half |
| 1:06.9 | of the show, there will be more in three sections. Section A, are they all psychopaths? |
| 1:12.2 | Section B, the culture of Silicon Valley, and section C, and end to the endless scroll. |
| 1:20.1 | But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of Left YouTube channel. |
| 1:24.3 | We're really proud of the show we're making and think you'll get real value out of it. |
| 1:27.4 | Plus, you're checking it out will help us find new viewers on YouTube. So thanks |
| 1:31.3 | in advance for all of your views, likes, subscribes, and comments. That's all on the best |
| 1:35.9 | of left YouTube channel. Linked in the show notes. And now, onto the show. |
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