Fascism For First Time Founders

"...This isn’t theoretical. When political favor becomes more important than product quality, innovation dies. The companies that survive aren’t the ones building the best, most innovative products—they’re the ones best at navigating the whims of whoever’s in power.

The Brain Drain You’re Not Thinking About
Want to know what really kills innovation? Brain drain. And nothing drives brain drain like encroaching fascism.
And the brain drain has already started.
Foreign students are looking to study elsewhere rather than deal with visa uncertainty and hostile rhetoric. Many of America’s smartest researchers are being wooed to other countries that offer more stable funding and less political interference. International PhD students, postdocs, and visiting researchers ... people who often go on to start the most innovative companies—are increasingly choosing Canada, the UK, or other destinations over the US.
This isn’t just the H-1B visa holders ... It’s the entire global talent pool that has always seen America as the place where you could build something amazing without worrying about arbitrary political interference.
The United States became the global innovation leader in part because ... we had something other countries didn’t: a stable, democratic system where merit mattered more than connections, where you could build something without worrying that tomorrow’s political winds might destroy everything you’ve worked for.
But that’s been trashed. In mere months.
History shows ... When authoritarian regimes came to power in the past, they didn’t just drive out targeted groups—they drove out anyone who valued intellectual freedom and scientific integrity. The result? Countries like the United States got Einstein, Fermi, and a whole generation of brilliant minds ... You think the smartest engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world are going to want to move to a country run by a dictator?...

The Infrastructure You Take For Granted
You know what else makes innovation possible? Boring stuff like universities, research institutions, and a functioning legal system.
You know what authoritarian regimes love to do? Gut all of those things.
Think about where most breakthrough technologies actually come from... from decades of basic research funded by institutions that operate independently of political pressure. The internet you’re using ... That was DARPA. The GPS in your phone? Military research. The algorithms powering AI? University research.
Here’s how the ecosystem actually works: government funds basic research that has no obvious commercial application. Universities and research institutions build on that work, training graduate students who become the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs. Some of those students go on to start companies ... Others stay in academia and continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
Yes, eventually the private markets and companies take over the commercialization, but so much of the core infrastructure of innovation comes from elsewhere.
... none of this happens overnight. The internet took decades to go from ARPANET to the web. GPS took years of satellite launches and signal processing advances. The machine learning techniques powering today’s AI boom are built on decades of research in statistics, computer science, and neuroscience.
Fascists hate independent institutions. They see them as threats to their authority. So they defund them, politicize them ... straight-up destroy them. And when they do, innovation dies—not immediately, but over the course of years as the pipeline of basic research dries up.

The Trust Problem
...something else you might not have considered: innovation requires trust. Not just between individuals, but institutional trust. People need to believe that contracts will be enforced ... property rights will be protected ... the rules won’t change arbitrarily based on the whims of whoever’s in charge.
Building a startup requires long-term thinking ... You're asking employees to bet their careers on your vision ... asking investors to put money into something that might not pay off for years... asking customers to trust that your product will be supported and improved over time.
None of that works in an environment where the rules change based on political caprice.
You think venture capitalists are going to invest in your startup if they’re worried that next month’s political purge might decide that your industry is suddenly “unpatriotic”? You think customers are going to adopt your product if they’re concerned that using it might put them on some government enemies list? Biden may not have been the most tech friendly president, but he didn’t threaten to deport a tech CEO over a policy disagreement.
Authoritarian systems are fundamentally unpredictable. The rules change based on the leader’s mood, personal vendettas, or political needs. That’s the opposite of the stable, predictable environment that innovation requires. When political favor matters more than legal precedent, no one can plan for the future.

The Historical Precedent
Here’s the thing about fascism: it never ends well. Not for the countries that embrace it, not for the people who live under it, and definitely not for the entrepreneurs who think they can ride the tiger.
Every authoritarian regime in history has eventually turned on the business community that initially supported it. The oligarchs who think they can control the dictator always end up learning the hard way that the dictator controls them.
You think the tech bros who are currently sucking up to Trump are going to maintain their influence indefinitely? Just ask Elon Musk. One day you’re the world’s richest man and Trump’s “first buddy,” the next day you’re being publicly humiliated and threatened with the destruction of your business empire because you criticized his “one big beautiful bill” for being a disaster.
And that’s just the beginning. Historical patterns are clear: authoritarian leaders use business elites to consolidate power, then systematically eliminate them as independent actors. The German industrialists who bankrolled Hitler’s rise thought they could control him. The Russian oligarchs who backed Putin in the early days thought they could maintain their influence through personal relationships.
They were all wrong. Dictators don’t share power. They accumulate it. And when they’re done using you, they discard you—or worse.

The Choice
So here’s your choice: you can embrace the chaotic, messy, sometimes frustrating democratic system that has produced more innovation than any other system in human history. Or you can bet your company’s future on a dictator who ... promises to make everything simple and efficient mainly by ignoring the nuances and complexities of reality.
One of these has a track record of creating the richest, most innovative economy in human history. The other has a track record of destroying everything it touches—including those who support it early on.
Democracy isn’t perfect. It’s slow, it’s messy, it’s often staffed by people who don’t understand technology. But it’s also the only system that has consistently created the conditions for innovation to flourish: open competition, institutional independence, predictable rules, and the freedom to build something without worrying about political retaliation.
Fascism is really good at one thing: making everything worse.
If you’re really building something that matters, something that could change the world, you want that world to be one where merit matters more than loyalty, where competition drives progress, where the best ideas win regardless of who came up with them.
You want democracy. You just might not realize it yet."

Much more advice to America's tech world at
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/


Looking straight at you, stealth oligarchs.