Tech Bros Didn’t Build the Future...They Scaled the Past
Silicon Valley isn’t a rebellion. It’s a replication of Boomer power structures, digitized and distributed under the illusion of innovation.
Tech founders didn’t disrupt the system…they scaled it. This essay breaks down how Silicon Valley inherited power structures designed in the Powell Memo era and rebuilt them into the platforms we use today.
The Myth of Innovation: Why Silicon Valley Was Never a Break From Power
We’ve been sold a story: that Silicon Valley was born from rebellion. That its founders rejected the past, built from scratch, and created the digital frontier with nothing but code and caffeine. That myth still shows up in every pitch deck, podcast, and startup gospel.
But the reality is simpler and more dangerous: Silicon Valley didn’t rebel. It inherited.
The men who built the platforms we use every day were not starting from scratch. They were building on the ideological scaffolding created by their fathers, their funders, and their mentors—men who came of age under Reagan, read the Powell Memo like scripture, and believed deeply that power should be consolidated, not shared.
How the Powell Memo Became the Operating System for Big Tech
In 1971, future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell warned corporate America that liberal values were infecting the culture and that the free market was under attack. His memo wasn’t subtle. It laid out a plan for business leaders to infiltrate media, shape academia, fund think tanks, and restore “balance” to American life by taking control of its institutions.
That document became a roadmap for the next 50 years. It fueled the rise of Reaganomics, deregulation, right-wing media consolidation, and elite philanthropic networks that shaped public opinion through branding disguised as research.
And whether they knew it or not, today’s tech founders absorbed that playbook. Not because they read the memo, but because they were mentored by the men who lived by it. Venture capital became the new gatekeeper. University labs became startup pipelines. Disruption became a cover story for domination.
Extraction by Design: The Values Embedded in the Algorithm
When you understand the origin story, the platforms make sense. These weren’t tools designed to dismantle power, they were tools designed to scale it. Speed became a virtue. Efficiency became morality. Metrics became the measure of human worth.
The values encoded into the systems we rely on. AI models, recommendation engines, search algorithms aren’t neutral. They reflect the priorities of the people who built them: hierarchy, competition, control. Content that centers care, collaboration, or nuance? Filtered out. Female-coded language? Deprioritized. Emotional truth that doesn’t convert? Shadowbanned.
This isn’t a glitch. It’s the point. The platforms were built to reward what the original architects of corporate dominance always wanted: more reach, less resistance.
What They Choose Not to See
It’s tempting to ask: do these men know what they’re doing? Do they understand how deeply they’ve reinforced the very systems they claimed to disrupt?
Some do. Most don’t. But the outcome is the same.
When your success is measured by scale, not substance, you are rewarded for what you can build…not what you repair. That’s why we see tools designed to replace workers, not redistribute wealth. Chatbots built to mimic intimacy, not deepen it. Platforms that organize attention but can’t hold a single act of care.
They weren’t trained to think systemically. They were trained to think transactionally. As long as something grows fast and makes money, they’re told it’s working—even if it’s harming the very fabric of human life.
And when women show up with a different approach…when we build for slowness, for connection, for interdependence…we’re dismissed as niche. Until our work is repackaged, stripped of context, and monetized by someone louder.
Innovation Is Happening…Just Not Where They’re Looking
The real innovation isn’t coming from the platforms with billion-dollar valuations. It’s coming from the edges…from the women, the queer technologists, the Indigenous designers, and the disabled builders who understand collapse firsthand and know how to build for continuity, not hype.
They aren’t optimizing for exit. They’re building for survival. For sovereignty. For something that can actually hold a future, not just predict it.
They’re not funded by the men who wrote the original code of power. They’re funded by time, attention, and each other.
And if you’re one of us…building quietly, documenting slowly, choosing clarity over performance…you’re not behind. You’re exactly where you need to be.
You’re Not Behind. You’re Building What Comes Next
You weren’t meant to fit their mold. You weren’t late to the AI wave or too soft for the tech stack. You were just never supposed to inherit a system built on replication.
You’re not building a brand. You’re building an archive of truth.
And in a world designed to silence you, that’s not just brave…it’s revolutionary.
Summary:
Q: Did Silicon Valley disrupt traditional power structures?
A: No. Most of Silicon Valley replicated and digitized boomer-era power structures that prioritized control, consolidation, and profit.
Q: What is the Powell Memo and how does it relate to tech today?
A: The Powell Memo was a 1971 directive for corporate America to reclaim cultural and institutional power. Its influence shaped the economic and ideological foundations that tech leaders later scaled through digital platforms.
Q: Where is real innovation happening today?
A: Outside the dominant platforms—among marginalized builders who are focused on sustainability, care, and alternative economies rooted in equity and lived experience.
Hi, I’m Sundee. I write at the edge where Gen X women and the world collide.
Sometimes it’s scripted. Sometimes it’s a wild tangent. But every word, every build, every rebellion is about the same thing—claiming a life they told us we couldn’t have.
On Time. On Purpose. On My Own Terms.