No Mercy No Malice

Big Tech Is Now a Shadow Government

24 hours after a failed coup, the lead story on Twitter is Elon Musk becoming the wealthiest man in the world

Scott Galloway
Marker
Published in
8 min readJan 11, 2021

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An illustration of one of the violent rioters sitting in the Senate chamber well chair from Jan. 6’s attempted coup.
Illustrations: Scott Galloway

On my podcast last week, public health expert Dr. Abdul El-Sayed highlighted that while viruses are naturally occurring, epidemics are a function of human action or inaction. This week, as a mob overran the U.S. Capitol, his observation registered increased purchase.

Extremism, misinformation, sociopaths stewarding profit-incentivized algorithms: All viruses. What we witnessed Wednesday afternoon — and have seen at least since November 4th — is an epidemic. Record deaths from Covid-19 and the U.S. Capitol overrun by a mob on the same day. How did this happen?

The virus has broken containment, preying on our comorbidities.

The ascendant comorbidity is the steady denigration of our public institutions, particularly government and its agencies, over the last four decades. Since the Reagan Revolution in 1980, a conservative philosophy of limited government has morphed to an anti-government creed. President Trump is the manifestation of that narrative. The president blames the “deep state” for every setback and has stocked his cabinet with appointees opposed to the departments…

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Scott Galloway
Marker

Prof Marketing, NYU Stern • Host, CNN+ • Pivot, Prof G Podcasts • Bestselling author, The Four, The Algebra of Happiness, Post Corona • profgalloway.com