How Tech-Right Billionaire Joe Lonsdale Helped Criminalize Homelessness

This episode starts off with a background on the ideologies of the far-right tech elite that have gained more and more power in our country, acting out decade’s long plans such as the “Network State.”Joe Lonsdale co-founded Palantir, the Silicon Valley tech company that has countless contracts with the US military and recently used AI to help the IDF automate genocide in Gaza. Lonsdale’s Cicero Institute has affected legislation across America, including the Supreme Court Grant’s Pass decision that removed constitutional protections of homeless people under cruel and unusual punishment. They offer law-makers a cut-and-paste template that takes funding away from housing first initiatives that are shown to work. Cicero-backed laws passed in Kentucky make it easier to involuntarily commit people, as well as extending “Stand your Ground” laws of firearm self-defense to cover people living in homeless camps, which could allow citizens to shoot people experiencing homelessness. Lonsdale’s 8VC firm has investments in private prisons and his Cicero Institute has advocated legislation that allows new private prisons to be built and empowers governors to bypass elected Attorney Generals and appoint their own “Special Prosecutors” to fight “public lawlessness.”First article talked about (not vox): Groups Confront Billionaire’s Institute Pushing Laws Criminalizing Homeless2nd Article: Inside the Right’s War on the Homeless This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nowherepod.substack.com