The poverty of anti-tech thought

Noah Smith · Noahpinion · August 11, 2026 at 08:01 · ⏱ 32 min read  | Read on Substack ↗
Summary
"The poverty of anti-tech thought" is Noah Smith's counterattack against Henry Farrell and the anti-tech left's reading of Acemoglu & Johnson's Power and Progress. Smith argues that the book and its defenders stretch "power" to include ordinary persuasion, thereby delegitimizing the consumer popularity of iPhones, Amazon, and AI, and that this class animosity risks undervaluing indispensable tech builders like Elon Musk. For markets, it suggests durable competitive strength for Musk-linked and consumer-tech names, plus rising political/regulatory risk for large AI/data-center businesses.
  • •Smith says Henry Farrell has written three testy posts (2024, 2024, 2026) responding to his negative review of Power and Progress.
  • •Acemoglu and Johnson's book covers digital surveillance on only pp. 320-322, per Smith, despite Farrell's claim that the panopticon metaphor pervades the book.
  • •The book defines "power" to include persuasion; Smith quotes it saying "quite a bit of this process is random" and "You are enormously lucky if you get the right idea, with just the right ring to it, at just the right time."
  • •Smith contends Americans bought iPhones, used Amazon, and embraced ChatGPT because they liked the products, not because techbros manipulated them through ideas or advertising.
  • •Smith asserts GM and Ford "struggled and failed for decades" to make commercially viable EVs, while Elon Musk succeeded, and SpaceX "out-launched China and NASA put together."
  • •Smith predicts the government will probably "quasi-nationaliz[e] the big AI companies in some way" due to grassroots backlash against AI and the data centers that power it.
  • •Smith claims anti-Big Tech hostility is mostly an elite phenomenon; Democratic voters' sentiment toward tech remains broadly positive, except for Elon Musk.
  • •Smith calls Robert Reich a poor authority on tech billionaires, citing Reich's unsupported claims about corporate greed and billionaires earning fortunes only through crime or monopoly power.
Read time 32 min
Length 32,924 chars
Category macro
Ideas
Noah Smith Economist; ex-columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Article states GM and Ford have "struggled and failed for decades" to make commercially viable EVs, while "only Elon Musk was able to do it" — implicitly validating Tesla's EV execution and competitiv
Article states GM and Ford have "struggled and failed for decades" to make commercially viable EVs, while "only Elon Musk was able to do it" — implicitly validating Tesla's EV execution and competitive moat. Risk: The same article acknowledges Musk is "a cruel and selfish man" and politically toxic, which could weigh on Tesla's brand and demand.
TSLA
Noah Smith Economist; ex-columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Article directly says General Motors "struggled and failed for decades" to make commercially viable electric cars, positioning GM as an EV laggard relative to Tesla.
Article directly says General Motors "struggled and failed for decades" to make commercially viable electric cars, positioning GM as an EV laggard relative to Tesla. Risk: Legacy auto has capital and scale; new EV platforms could still close the gap.
GM
Noah Smith Economist; ex-columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Article directly pairs Ford with GM as having "struggled and failed for decades" on commercially viable EVs, an unfavorable capability comparison with Tesla.
Article directly pairs Ford with GM as having "struggled and failed for decades" on commercially viable EVs, an unfavorable capability comparison with Tesla. Risk: Ford's commercial EV business may improve, and the article is an opinion essay, not a financial analysis.
F
Noah Smith Economist; ex-columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Article predicts a grassroots backlash against AI and data centers will lead government to "quasi-nationaliz[e] the big AI companies in some way" — and Microsoft is a major AI/data-center operator, so
Article predicts a grassroots backlash against AI and data centers will lead government to "quasi-nationaliz[e] the big AI companies in some way" — and Microsoft is a major AI/data-center operator, so this is a political/regulatory overhang. Risk: Quasi-nationalization is speculative; Microsoft's AI cloud demand remains strong and could offset regulatory costs.
MSFT
Noah Smith Economist; ex-columnist, Bloomberg Opinion
Article argues "The iPhone was the only argument Steve Jobs really needed" and people "simply really really liked the damn iPhone" — validating Apple's product-driven consumer demand against anti-tech
Article argues "The iPhone was the only argument Steve Jobs really needed" and people "simply really really liked the damn iPhone" — validating Apple's product-driven consumer demand against anti-tech narratives. Risk: The article is about politics and ideas, not Apple's financials or valuation.
AAPL
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This newsletter, published August 11, 2026, features Noah Smith discussing TSLA, GM, F, MSFT, AAPL. 5 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Noah Smith  · Tickers: TSLA, GM, F, MSFT, AAPL