welcome
Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Technology

Technology

Barabak: Elon Musk brought a Silicon Valley mindset to Trump's Washington. It's been a disaster

Los Angeles Times
Summary
Nutrition label

78% Informative

Margaret O'Mara's new book, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America ," charts the rise of the tech industry and its titans.

David Gergen : There's an attitude, a worldview and a fundamental set of principles that guide tech industry, like a secular catechism.

He says the book explains how the federal government built Silicon Valley , a fact many of its entrepreneurs and legends choose to ignore, or fail to understand.

The wantonness of DOGE destruction, the bloodletting, the undifferentiated firing of federal employees en masse is not a bug, as they say in software development.

The desire for high services at low cost is a contradiction and conundrum that Americans have wrestled with since the country's founding.

Now Elon Musk is supposed to be the solution?.

VR Score

82

Informative language

79

Neutral language

55

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

52

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

medium-lived

External references

24

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-07-mn-25026-story.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-03-16/trump-musk-doge-silicon-valley-mindset-comes-to-washington-historian-margaret-omarahttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-25-mn-25774-story.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-26-fi-166-story.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/us/politics/doge-errors-funding-grants-claims.htmlhttps://apnews.com/article/us-postal-service-doge-agreement-daf3bf54fa0718908791fcb368b4d9d8https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-03-09/musk-and-doge-try-to-slash-government-by-cutting-out-those-who-answer-to-votershttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-02-19/trump-administration-doge-firingshttps://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-04/doge-firings-provoke-confrontations-republican-town-halls-joshua-treehttps://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-03-12/us-forest-service-parks-layoffs-elon-musk-trump-doge-firehttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-01-26/trump-musk-zuckerberg-bezos-political-rise-high-tech-silicon-valleyhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-04-mn-1207-story.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/science/story/2025-03-12/nasa-hitches-a-ride-on-musk-spacex-rockethttps://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-donald-trump-doge-federal-workers-53e59ab9a4bc52ce5553e0e83bb8cc7bhttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-10/social-security-doge-threat-benefitshttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-15-me-23217-story.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-11/uc-students-education-department-loan-data-lawsuithttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-01-21/musk-says-gestures-at-trump-inauguration-werent-nazi-saluteshttps://jointventure.org/margaret-omarahttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-10-16/2024-election-elon-musk-donald-trumphttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-12-13/tech-billionaires-zuckerberg-bezos-and-altman-donate-to-trumps-inaugurationhttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-11-16/elon-musk-is-laying-down-the-law-at-twitterhttps://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-02-07/federal-judge-blocks-elon-musks-doge-from-accessing-sensitive-us-treasury-department-materialhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/books/review/the-code-margaret-omara.html

Affiliate links

no affiliate links

Small business owner?

Otherweb launches Autoblogger—a revolutionary way to bring more leads to any small business, using the power of AI.