It’s time to Disconnect.
Want to get past the hype and boosterism to learn how the tech industry really works? You’ve come to the right place.
I'm Paris Marx and this is Disconnect — your source for a critical perspective on what’s happening in Silicon Valley and beyond. For nearly a decade, I’ve been calling out the tech industry, its snake-oil billionaires, and the harmful realities they hide behind futures that never arrive. As their power grows, seeing through their deceptive narratives is essential.
In this newsletter, I explore the ideologies of tech’s increasing radicalized titans, the economic incentives that drive its top companies, and the movements pushing back on Silicon Valley’s power — all without the tech jargon that can leave your head spinning.
“If laissez-faire became one manifesto of capitalism, laissez-innover became the other.”
— David F. Noble
What can I expect?
Here’s what you’ll get as a free subscriber:
Weekly critical tech analysis. In 2025, expect an even deeper focus on the global consequences of the alliance between tech and the extreme right, along with the climate chaos being unleashed by the industry’s push to make us all adopt generative AI. Silicon Valley is determined to double down on dystopia to serve its own interests, including by investing heavily in new war technology to sell to the US government, but we need to be thinking about how we stop the terrible future they have in store for us.
The Year of the Luddite. To that end, I want us to make 2025 a year when the luddite ethos is resurgent. Technology and the industry behind it is not inherently positive or progressive — and we need to be ready to challenge tech that doesn’t serve the collective interest. Throughout the year, I’ll be putting a spotlight on people and projects doing just that.
But it doesn’t end there. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more:
Additional analysis to go even deeper. That means occasional pieces providing further insight into the madness of our tech oligarchy and what it means for how the rest of us live — exclusively for paid subscribers.
Monthly “what you missed” recaps. Instead of the weekly roundups, we’ll be moving to a recap of some of the best critical tech writing you might have missed over the past month.
Quarterly reading lists. Four times a year you’ll get an early head’s up about critical tech books coming soon you might want to grab.
A new diary series. I need to be a little vague on this one for now, but I have an exciting new project I’ll be announcing soon and paid subscribers will get a special look at the work I’m putting into it.
What are you waiting for? Get the full Disconnect experience — and help me hold the tech industry to account.
About Paris
Paris hosts the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and is the author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation. His work has appeared in Time, Wired, Business Insider, NBC News, and CBC News, and he’s regularly interviewed by major media like the Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.
Paris is based in Canada, far from the heart of Silicon Valley, and speaks about tech around the world. Find out more about him here.
[Paris is] part of the Luddite vanguard, and I think ultimately, we’re all better for that.
— Brian Merchant, former LA Times tech columnist
The left’s leading Muskologist.
— Leo Hollis, Verso Books
Too cynical. Far, far too cynical.
— Jason Calacanis, All-In host and tech millionaire 😢
