Read: Burn Book

DISCLAIMER: If you gave me a billion dollars I might become a monster.

Sociopathic tendencies are a range of behaviors and attitudes that are associated with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Some common traits of sociopathy include: 

• Disregard for othersA person with sociopathic tendencies may not respect the feelings or rights of others. They may also ignore social norms and laws, and may break rules at school or work. 
• Lack of remorsePeople with sociopathic tendencies may not feel remorse or regret their behavior. They may also justify actions that negatively affect others. 
• Impulsive behaviorPeople with sociopathic tendencies may have difficulty controlling impulses and planning for the future. They may also act without considering the consequences. 
• ManipulationPeople with sociopathic tendencies may use charm, deceit, or other methods to get what they want. They may also attempt to control others with threats or aggression. 
• AggressionPeople with sociopathic tendencies may be prone to aggressive behavior, which can manifest as physical violence or emotional abuse. 
• Pathological lyingPeople with sociopathic tendencies may be extremely convincing liars who could even pass a lie detector test. 

Apathy:

1: lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness

I didn’t know Kara Swisher existed until two weeks ago. You know me, all things tech. I’m just catching up. I watched an interview and there she was. Calling people names they deserved to be called. Big names, famous names, important names. The names of those both bringing us together and tearing us apart. Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos, you know, the kids who never made the team. The kids who should have been held to task decades ago, but who now wield so much power they operate outside the constrictive bounds of decency, truth, reality, or regulation.

Big Tech wants to live forever, maximize profit and avoid regulation. Those of you questioning this week’s move by The Washington Post need not wonder as to why there was no political endorsement. Just remember Bezos, on his knee, in front of Donny in 2016. (He was not alone, they were all there.) Tell us great master how we can appease you. They feel Donny gives them the best chance to avoid regulation, as long as he profits, but they also know he will eventually turn on them, that he cannot be trusted, and has no real understanding of what they do or the technology itself. (No wonder why so many used to the backdoor to get to and from this meeting.)

You might know Swisher from her duties at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, or her online life at Recode/Decode and Pivot podcasts, her producing the Code Conference, or a slew of other ways you might have encountered this small but potent package. Given a choice in the dark years of the early 1990s, politics or tech, she chose tech. A dusty frontier far from the glam of Washington power plays. Swisher looked at this new horizon and thought “Old media is dead and tech will change the world.” She was correct on both counts.

There are many of us out there who don’t know the difference between a Joe Rogan podcast and an article in The New Yorker. Tens of millions, actually. Swisher is the rare journalist, with actual training, who is feared by everyone in the industry but also trusted. Barry Diller, legendary media modul, explained this perfectly. “People are afraid of her, and they trust her…That’s not an everyday combination.”

“Burn Book,” is Swisher’s story of her love affair with tech. Like all good relationships, things get messy. She watches as potentially good intentioned tech bros morph from idealists to world class narcissistic assholes who lie like you and I breath. (Scrawny to HGH monsters, or ketamine prone late night tweeting zombies.) Naive, detached, and yes….sociopathic. We should have been using these terms from the beginning, but the world is now filled with addicted minions, you and me, who bow before the digital graces these people have unleashed on the world.

The great fear is what I mention above. A handful of sociopathic tech leaders, combined with sociopathic political leaders and an apathetic population drugged out of their minds on social media and streaming services. Well, what we have today. Yep, the fear is here. This is not a dystopian future. It’s a dystopian right goddamn now. We don’t need to worry about the planet killer asteroid. Nah, we can kill ourselves off quite nicely, thank you very much.

I watched Instagram kill off many of the world’s best photographers. Reduced to cowering fools checking their feed to make sure enough bots and strangers told them they were worthy, all while being deluged by advertising from which they receive no revenue. I am a lifelong “C” student, but even I could see the damage being done by our addiction to tech. And even I was smart enough to pull the cord back in 2014. I’m not saying Swisher is perfect. Far from it. But this book, and the stories within, feel a bit like a torch on a moonless night. And before you go ape shit, I know she uses tech. She loves it, in fact. But this does not mean she can’t speak truth to power, something Americans now fear because it might make their horse look less race ready.

It’s not often you find someone with preserved communication streams from the 1990s. Communications with some of the most powerful people. Exposing the hypocrisy, the lies, the infantile behavior. We’ve all been there, but most of us don’t control the world’s flow of information. When I look ahead to November 5th and beyond, I can’t help but think, “We knew, so we deserve what’s coming to us.” Get it, read it.