👁️The Techno-Fascist Starter Pack
Get caught up on three years of Dark Markets
Hello to a big bunch of new subscribers! I’m David Z. Morris, and I’ve been very humbled by the flood of interest in my work here. This email is intended to get all of you new subscribers caught up, with a (long) list of some of the most important work here at Dark Markets.
First, about me: I’m a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, where I investigated Nikola and other frauds, and a former columnist for CoinDesk, where I was part of the team that exposed and brought down Sam Bankman-Fried. I wrote a book about Sam that’s very, very good. I also have a Phd in the history of technology, and (among other C.V. entries) have served as a visiting scholar at Tokyo University of Fine Arts (Geidai).
Our work at CoinDesk was so effective that we blew up our parent company, which had loaned FTX a bunch of money. That made us the story for a moment, with writeups in the New York Times and a glorious photo spread in New York Magazine.
But because we killed CoinDesk (now a husk of its former self owned by actual fraudsters), I am now completely independent. That leaves me free to speak the truth here in blunt terms, and it means your support here is extremely valuable. Some of the below pieces are paywalled for paying supporters, who also get access to a subscriber chat and a few other benefits.
P.S. If you didn’t see my interview with Wajahat, you should.
And if you missed it, definitely catch up on my recent dive into the connections between Jeffrey Epstein and a pair of fraudulent PR firms, who I first started investigating in 2019:
👁️ I Found Epstein. I Just Didn't Realize it.
Masha Prusakova and Masha Drokova were very bad at public relations. But they were very good at helping Jeffrey Epstein in other ways.
Second, please consider grabbing a copy of Stealing the Future, my book about Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX fraud, and how techno-utopian thought enables fraud.
Introducing Techno-Utopian Fascism
What is TESCREALism? Mapping the Cult of the Techno-Utopia.
An introduction to the work of Emill Torres and Timnit Gebru, coiners of the acronym for the obfuscated tech-authoritarian package: Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singulariatrianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism.
What's So Bad About Rationalism?
Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Rationalist" movement is, as you might guess, exactly the opposite of that name: A vector for madness, nonsense, compulsion, exploitation, and ignorance. No wonder Peter Thiel was his biggest champion.
👁️ DeepSeek and the AI Murder Cult
This isn't even the only cult associated with Rationalism. It's just the only one that killed three or four innocent people in random acts of psychotic violence. So far.
👁️Epstein, Eugenics, AI, and Fraud: The Idiocy of Genius
Years after Sam Bankman-Fried blew up, we can connect his ideas to Jeffrey Epstein through figures including Nick Bostrom.
👁️ Stolen FTX Money Supported Richard Hanania and Other Racist "Rationalists"
The line from FTX to outright techno-fascism ran, in part, through the Rose Garden Inn and its Festival of Eugenics.
👁️ Peter Thiel is the Antichrist Minus Charm and Wit
Jeffrey Epstein's overriding goal was to eliminate accountability for the very wealthy. He strongly approved of Peter Thiel's attacks on education and the media - and the broader agenda of destroying institutions to foment social chaos.
👁️ Conan, the Phrenologist
Yudkowsky's blinkered critiques of Stephen Jay Gould, of all people, again link TESCREALism to race science and genocidal logics.
👁️ Luigi Mangione: Disillusioned Techno-Rationalist?
Far from a left-winger obsessed with inequality, Mangione's path started in the more brightly-lit parts of the "intellectual dark web."
Making the Cages Bigger: The Peter Singer-Alice Crary Debate
In which one of Effective Altruism's many rigorous critics absolutely bodies its lazy, self-satisfied, pro-corporate intellectual godfather.
The Fraud of “Artificial Intelligence”
AI "Consciousness" is a Pillar of the Next Huge Tech Grift
In March of 2023, I saw all of this bullshit coming.
👁️ The AI Timelines Scam, Expanded (Free Excerpt): The Future as an Emergency, Part 3
The hilarious thing about Rationslists and AI bros is they are completely blinded to their own biases by the sight of money.
Racist IQ Theories are Inextricable from the FTX Story – and the AI Bubble.
The very concept of artificial intelligence is only legible if you regard humans themselves as simple (and disposable) machines.
Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX Fraud
“Earn to Give” and the Ethics of Mediocrity (The Future as an Emergency, Pt. 2)
The pitch that led Sam Bankman-Fried into finance is most appealing to people who have absolutely no talent, desire, or sense of purpose.
Wicker Man: Sam Bankman-Fried as Human Sacrifice
Sam Bankman-Fried's rise was driven by the desires of influential people around him. His fall cleansed them of their sins.
The Child is the Father To the Man
How painting 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried as a child helped sell his fraud.
👁️ FTX, Rationalism, and U.S. Intelligence: A Conspiracy Theory
The CIA's favorite law firm was hip-deep in FTX. Why?
Based Economic Theory
Effective Altruism and the Logic of the Code
A dive into Jean Baudrillard, whose economic theories explain how gambling and fraud took over our society.
👁️ Towards a Horror of Economics, Part 1
“Inorganic demons are parasitic by nature – they produce their effects out of a human host.”
Scam Research
Nikola's Trevor Milton is Hilariously Bad at Astroturfing His Hilarious Crimes
One of the things I’ve learned over ~15 years investigating technology and investment fraud is this: Fraud is mostly committed by people too incompetent to succeed without it.
👁️ Bullish and EOS: A Very Long Grift
The publicly traded "crypto exchange" has its origins in a $4 billion fraud.
👁️ A Cardano Rots From the Head
Hello and welcome to your (usually) weekly Dark Markets financial fraud news roundup. I’m David Z. Morris, longtime tech, finance and crypto investigator.
Libra and the LeBarons
👁️ Javier Milei, $Libra, and Hayden Davis: We Deserve A Better Class of Criminal
Part 1 of my dive into one of the most bizarre connections I've ever unearthed - and the possible role of a colony of Mormon polygamists in laying the groundworth for the kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro.
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CoinDesk (now a husk of its former self owned by actual fraudsters)
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As I mentioned in the last substack, I was reminded of Datafinnovation. This sentence is what reminded me of them. In particular this piece https://medium.com/chainargos/dcg-filings-analysis-b96818abfec. Which was apparently reported on by Protos https://protos.com/did-barry-silbert-safeguard-his-personal-funds-at-the-expense-of-dcg/
I'd have to click on each to pick out favorites, but two jumped out at me as thought provoking:
https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/making-the-cages-bigger-the-peter
https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/so-bored-im-going-to-die-the-miseducation