“Cultural heroin.” JD Vance on Donald Trump

Ten years ago today, JD Vance published an essay that called Donald Trump “cultural heroin” and “an opioid of the masses”:

During this election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever. It too, promises a quick escape from life’s cares, an easy solution to the mounting social problems of U.S. communities and culture. It demands nothing and requires little more than a modest presence and maybe a few enablers. It enters minds, not through lungs or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump.

Vance used a striking drug metaphor to explain the Trump phenomenon in 2016. In Vance’s telling, Trump was addictive and dangerous, a substance that gave people an artificial feeling of wellbeing while causing them dramatic harm.

Ten years later, Vance—Trump’s vice president—is the #1 pusher of the toxic man he once referred to as “America’s Hitler.” What does this tell us?

On this July 4, the people of the United States find themselves in an existential struggle to preserve their freedom and liberty from fascism. Trump’s return to the White House was the start of an unprecedented effort to tear down American democracy from within.

The good news: Trump’s regime is terribly unpopular. His polls numbers have sunk to historic lows and the Democratic Party is poised to reclaim some power during the midterm elections. But the Trump regime is actively sowing fear and distrust of the election system, and he will do whatever he can to keep his grip on power. We must be ready for an unprecedented struggle ahead.

Fascists like to erase the truth, to rewrite the past in order to bolster their false narratives. So, on this Independence Day, let’s remember the words of a man who warned against Trump but then lost his soul to him: “Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.”

Click here for a gift link to read “Opioid of the Masses” by JD Vance in the Atlantic.

Who is JD Vance, really?

Vance first rose to prominence by framing himself as a humble middle-of-the-road guy with “hillbilly” roots. But the truth is very different—and extremely disturbing.

Vance owes his entire life to one man: Palantir co-founder and tech billionaire Peter Thiel. In this five-minute video, I explain everything you need to know about the shapeshifting politician who is now one heartbeat away from the presidency.

I expose Vance’s troubling path to power in my forthcoming book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. It will be published on August 18 by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. You can pre-order it at Bookshop.org to support independent booksellers, or find other pre-order options here.

Some early praise for the book:

“Reader take note: Gil Durán is a deep, thoughtful, and expansive observer of events that shape the current and future of our American democracy.” —George Lakoff, author of The All New Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

“A clear and compelling account of the threats posed by technofascism to democracies everywhere.” —Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian and author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

“Gil Durán is an essential voice on this technofascist moment—where it comes from and where we are going.” —Carole Cadwalladr, investigative journalist, The Nerve

“The Nerd Reich is a clarion warning about the rise of techno-fascist sociopaths who seek to profit off of our collective misery. In clear, compelling and meticulously-researched detail, Gil Durán sounds the alarm about this incestuous cabal of broligarchs. He brings the receipts and the righteous rage.” —Wajahat Ali, The Left Hook

A fearless and urgent chronicle of the tech-authoritarian movement from its early days in San Francisco politics to its current moment on the international stage, exploring the wild and dystopian ambition of the technocrats at its center, and offering a road map to resistance.

When Silicon Valley says it is ‘‘moving fast and breaking things,’’ the world interprets the chaos as a necessary cost of innovation. Gil Durán reveals something far more sinister: a decades-long campaign to replace elected governments with corporate rule.

Drawing on insider political experience and new investigations, Durán traces this ideology from its philosophical roots in The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. He introduces its modern apostles—Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, and Elon Musk—and shows how the promise of technological liberation has transformed into a global movement for digital feudalism, powered by cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and the algorithmic propaganda of social media.

The Nerd Reich explains the origins, strategies, and ambitions of Silicon Valley’s war on democracy for the first time. From San Francisco’s weaponized elections and secret billionaire projects to the White House, Durán exposes how the world’s richest men are building a new political order.

The Nerd Reich is more than a hidden history, it’s an urgent warning: democracy is being dismantled not by coups or tanks, but by code, capital, and the illusion of innovation. Durán insists there is still time to fight back—if we act now.

Click here to pre-order.