Silicon Valley is full of wealthy men who think they're victims, says Nick Clegg

Silicon Valley is full of wealthy men who think they’re victims, says Nick Clegg
Former Lib Dem leader and Meta strategist writes in new book that power in tech capital is interlaced with ‘self pity’

Lisa O’Carroll and Gaby Hinsliff
Sat 23 Aug 2025 02.00 EDT


(Guardian UK) Silicon Valley is full of hubris and hugely wealthy and macho men who think they are victims, the former politician and Facebook executive Nick Clegg has said.

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats makes the claim in a new book chronicling his three careers as an MEP in Brussels, an MP and deputy prime minister in Westminster and as a communications and public policy strategist in San Francisco.

In an interview with the Guardian, Clegg heaped praise on his former boss, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Meta, but was scathing of the culture fostered in the tech capital of the world where he said wealth and power was interlaced with “self pity”.

“In Silicon Valley, far from thinking they’re lucky, they think they’re hard done by, [that] they’re victims. I couldn’t, and still can’t, understand this deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity.

He said: “It is a cultural thing, through from Elon Musk’s chainsaw-wielding stuff to any Silicon Valley podcast. If you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” .................(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/23/nick-clegg-silicon-valley-self-pity-wealthy-men