The roots of reactionary tech oligarchy and the need for radical democratic alternatives

The aim for this commentary is two-fold: first, we seek to outline how decades of liberal “post-democratic” hegemony—prevalent across liberal democratic parliaments, journalism, and academia—have enabled the rise of reactionary tech oligarchy. Second, we call for cross-disciplinary and cross-societal alliances that not only reject depoliticized euphemisms such as “polarization,” “populism,” and “post-truth,” but also actively commit to building radical democratic alternatives to both the failed liberal democratic status quo and its authoritarian outgrowth. Departing from the growing overt involvements of tech billionaires in authoritarian movements—financially, politically, discursively—we build on emergent scholarship to highlight failures in understanding the rise of reactionary tech, through its historical roots, financial and political power, and discursive reach.