The medium is the message

For all the talk of being social liberals, it seems our tech giants are closet conservatives.  Jeff Bezos is supporting Cory Gardner in 2020, and funds a Super PAC that supports former military veterans running for political office, many of them Republican.  It's odd for a man who has contributed heavily to defend gay marriage in Washington and donated $33 million to fund scholarships for undocumented immigrant high school students would support a party that has fought against both.

A lot of tech giants like to split their political contributions among Democrats and Republicans so as to benefit from whomever is in power.  Every once in a while you get a guy like Peter Thiel, who is an ardent conservative and actively supports Republicans.  However, their contributions pale in comparison to conservative mega donors like the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and Robert Mercer.  These guys throw around huge wads of money, some with political agendas, others as tax deductions.  How else to explain Adelson backing Newt Gingrich and Lindsey Graham in presidential elections?

Now add Mark Zuckerberg to the list, who has given to Republicans and Democrats alike, albeit in rather small quantities.  He did however invest heavily in the Newark school system back in 2010, while Cory Booker was still mayor of the city and Chris Christie governor of the state.  It was widely regarded as a failure, as the three tried to shift the focus from public to charter schools, which received the lion's share of the money.  One could say Zuckerberg had his heart in the right place, but had no idea what he was doing. Nevertheless, this was widely portrayed as a bi-partisan effort.  In reality it was a way for Booker and Christie to get what they wanted politically, a US Senate seat and another term as governor.  The money was essentially pissed away with Newark no brighter than it was before Zuckerberg and other big name donors poured in all that money.  Since then Zuckerberg has been more careful where he invests publicly.

You really have to scratch your head in regard to what Zuckerberg is now accused of.  Facebook apparently hired a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters by linking them to George Soros.   Mark has been taking a lot of heat since the 2016 elections for making no effort to screen all the fake news that was spread through facebook.  It became several degrees hotter when it was learned that Cambridge Analytica had hacked over 50 million facebook user accounts.  The poor guy was having to answer all sorts of questions before Congress, and thought he might take some of the heat off by deflecting attention to the more outspoken critics of his social media empire.

Soros has become everyone's favorite bad guy, but you really have to wonder about the sagacity of Zuckerberg and Sandberg in going after Soros.  I understand they had an axe to grind since Soros himself has spoken unfavorably of facebook, but here were facebook's top two executives attacking a Holocaust survivor after claiming the attacks against them were anti-Semitic.  I suppose they figured they would never get caught, but in this day and age it is pretty hard to conceal your efforts on the Internet.

What's happened is that all these tech giants have become so fabulously rich that they now go to great lengths to protect their assets.  They prefer the compliant Republicans to the watchdog Democrats when it comes to laundering their money in offshore accounts and setting up shop in low-tax havens like Ireland.  Apple CEO Tim Cook is very happy with the current arrangement and has been hosting fundraisers for leading Republicans to maintain the status quo.  The last thing he and his fellow techies want are Social Democrats running the show.

Even the great philanthropist Paul Allen, who passed away recently, wanted to see the Republicans keep the House, although he offered very little toward this effort.  Allen made his billions off Microsoft and has used a large chunk of his money to fund charities, but it seemed for tax reasons he supported Republicans.  It's not to say all Republicans are bad, but supporting Kevin McCarthy's Protect the House appears to contradict everything he stood for.  The Republican House went out of its way the last 8 years to undermine health care and social security just so they could give huge tax cuts to guys like Paul Allen.  Why on earth would you want to protect this gang of thieves?

It no longer is so surprising that many of these tech giants were on Donald Trump's short-lived Manufacturing Council.  They probably would have stayed on that council if Donald hadn't stuck his big foot in his mouth in regard to the Charlottesville riots.  Nothing they like more than to cozy up to the President.  Even Bill Gates, who wasn't on the Council, had good things to say about Trump at one time.

For all their philanthropy, it seems these billionaire techies ultimately just look at the bottom line.  This is how Apple and Amazon have become the first trillion dollar companies on the stock exchange.  They didn't get there by practicing what they preach.

These CEOs still talk a great show.  Listening to Tim Cook on Amanpour you couldn't help but be impressed with his high-mindedness, especially when it came to protecting one's identity on the Internet.  Yet, no company is more cut throat than Apple.  They relentlessly go after competitors and form axes when it is favorable to them.  It's like one of those Medieval multiplayer online games.

As my Dad used to say, you can't trust any of these guys as far as you can throw them. Unfortunately, social media is the only means we have to express ourselves in an open forum.  Only now we know that whatever we say can and will be used against us.  Marshall McLuhan has to be rolling over in his grave.