The End of Reality
How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto
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Narrated by:
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Jason Culp
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By:
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Jonathan Taplin
About this listen
A brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society.
At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme—the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism—is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms.
In The End of Reality, Jonathan Taplin provides perceptive insight into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen (“The Four”) —and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of "The Four," the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires, exacerbate these disturbing trends.
The End of Reality is both scathing critique and reform agenda that replaces the warped worldview of "The Four" with a vision of regenerative economics that seeks to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment.
©2023 Jonathan Taplin (P)2023 PublicAffairsCritic reviews
"Once again, Jonathan Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin's careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope that the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy
Once again, Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin’s careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Princeton University
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- The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
- By: Nancy MacLean
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Behind today's headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did.
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A must read if you believe in democracy
- By H. L. Nelson on 10-11-17
By: Nancy MacLean
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Good and Mad
- How Women's Anger Is Reshaping America
- By: Rebecca Traister
- Narrated by: Rebecca Traister
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 2018, it seems as if women’s anger has suddenly erupted into the public conversation. But long before this, women’s anger was not only politically catalytic - but politically problematic. With eloquence and fervor, Rebecca tracks the history of female anger as political fuel - from suffragettes chaining themselves to the White House to office workers vacating their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. She deconstructs society’s (and the media’s) condemnation of female emotion (notably, rage) and the impact of resulting repercussions.
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The perfect book for October 2018.
- By Kate Willette on 10-03-18
By: Rebecca Traister
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On Tyranny
- Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.
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History does not repeat, but it does instruct.
- By Darwin8u on 11-19-18
By: Timothy Snyder
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How to Be an Antiracist
- By: Ibram X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves—now updated, with a new preface.
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80% of the useful content is in the first 1-2 chapters
- By Anonymous User on 03-09-20
By: Ibram X. Kendi
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Less Is More
- How Degrowth Will Save the World
- By: Jason Hickel
- Narrated by: Ben Crystal, Clifford Samuel
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause. Capitalism demands perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.
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Paradigm shift
- By HN on 09-18-24
By: Jason Hickel
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Men Who Hate Women
- From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth About Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All
- By: Laura Bates
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women and traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spider web of groups. It includes interviews with former members of these communities, the academics studying this movement, and the men fighting back. Women's rights activist Laura Bates wrote this book as someone who has been the target of many misogynistic attacks online. As Bates went undercover into the corners of the internet, she found an unseen, organized movement of thousands of anonymous men wishing violence (and worse) upon women.
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Shocking
- By Lisa Rose on 08-31-24
By: Laura Bates
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Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
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Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
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Mutual Aid
- Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
- By: Dean Spade
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.
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An excellent primer on collective good
- By Robert R. Fike on 01-27-22
By: Dean Spade
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The Road to Unfreedom
- Russia, Europe, America
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. In the last six years, it has creeped from east to west as nationalism inflames Europe, abetted by Russian propaganda and cyberwarfare.
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A Key Understanding of Modern Politics
- By Richard Keohane on 04-08-18
By: Timothy Snyder
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Let This Radicalize You
- Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
- By: Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe. Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue, and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.
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together, we fight back
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-24
By: Kelly Hayes, and others
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White Tears/Brown Scars
- How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
- By: Ruby Hamad
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Called "powerful and provocative" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times best-selling How to Be an Antiracist, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how White feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and women of color.
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Though provoking and Important
- By Gabriella Hernandez on 05-06-21
By: Ruby Hamad
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Attack from Within
- How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America
- By: Barbara McQuade
- Narrated by: Barbara McQuade
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Disinformation is designed to evoke a strong emotional response to push us toward more extreme views, unable to find common ground with others. The false claims that led to the breathtaking attack on our Capitol in 2020 may have been only a dress rehearsal. Attack from Within shows us how to prevent it from happening again, thus preserving our country's hard-won democracy.
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Trump bashing
- By joseph clayson on 03-09-24
By: Barbara McQuade
What listeners say about The End of Reality
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kenny nelson
- 11-13-24
I should have read it sooner
This book does a lot to explain the world that we are living in in America in 2024. It provides the motivation of why these guys work so hard to get Donald Trump reelected and what they are set to gain in his second administration.
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- ZEM
- 09-16-23
Essential & timely!
An vital overview of our current crisis and how to change our trajectory from the path of technocratic nihilism to a world in which we all thrive.
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- John
- 09-23-23
End of Reality
Exceptional and terrific. Book ends with Move Fast and Break Things. Maybe a 3rd coming soon for a trilogy?
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-02-24
Realizing
Good read. I wish I have read sooner. It a good reality check. A must read.
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- Arturo Zendejas
- 09-15-23
Insightful
Taplin’s insightful description of Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg & Andreessen and their technologies demystifies their projects’ value to society. I’ll never again see them the same way.
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- Unhappy
- 02-07-24
Oustanding
Taplin’s interesting background along with his strong research made the book fascinating and worthwhile. The power and corruption of the technocrats needs to be understood and pushed back.
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- Sparkie
- 07-22-24
A must read....
I have no idea why this book has so few reviewers, it's absolutely eye-opening how big money controls the world today and will completely dominate in the future if there is not a course correction
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- David A. Stadlin
- 08-16-24
Eye-Opening and Thought-Provoking
Jonathan Taplin, a former professor of innovation at USC, does a great job creating a framework in which to understand the alliance formed by the Technocratic elite and the Republican party. Prior to reading this book, I understood that Peter Thiel was a fascist and dangerous; now I see it clearly. Similarly, the author explains how Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and selling of the expensive folly of colonizing Mars are both part of the same program — the ending of subjective reality and its replacement with a Technocratic “metaverse” in which they, the overlords, are the masters.
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- Consumer Expert!
- 09-22-23
Amazing work!!
Just listen to his points and truly see what’s going on around you. Why is the media accepting fascism??? Why are these people allowed to control and benefit from our taxes??? Tell yourself is mars colonization a reality??? We can barely build new communities here having the materials at our disposal. Don’t be a sheep and think for yourself stop accepting an “alternative” reality that won’t do anything for you, this is our world right here and Mars or AI won’t pay your bills and put food on YOUR families table.
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- Kelster
- 12-04-24
A Reality Check
Wonderfully written. The books chronological order kept my interest. The authors breakdown of where we were, how we got here, and where we most likely (especially given the latest election results) are going gives the reader a palpable understanding of why things are the way they are, ie why Musk is riding Trump’s dick so hard. While there is a tinge of optimism in the author’s tone throughout the book there is no denying the reality of what’s to come.
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