Bulwark Takes - MAGA Billionaire Marc Andreessen’s Ugly White Grievance Rant

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Tim Miller and JVL discuss how Marc Andreessen unleashes a full-throated rant against DEI, immigration, the media, and what he sees as a cultural takeover by the left. Despite being one of the wealthiest and most influential people in tech, Andreessen frames himself as a victim of systemic bias—sparking a conversation about billionaire grievance, hypocrisy, and the broader culture war within Silicon Valley. Bring on the good vibes and treat yourself to Soul today! Right now, Soul is offering my audience 30% off your entire order! Go to https://GetSoul.com and use the code BULWARKTAKES. That’s https://GetSoul.com, promo code BULWARKTAKES for 30% off. Become a Bulwark Youtube Plus Member here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG4Hp1KbGw4e02N7FpPXDgQ/join

Discover the exciting action of BedMGM Casino. Check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer, or enjoy over 3,000 games to choose from like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Lifts, Make Insta-Deposits or Same Day Withdrawals. Download the BedMGM Ontario app today. Visit BedMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wage your Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Ben MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey everybody Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with my bestie JVL who wrote his triad newsletter which you should be subscribed to if you haven't already go to the bulwark.com and subscribe right now it's the best newsletter going. His article today was on Mark Andresen, a guy that we were both kind of obsessed with, inventor of the internet quasi, with some help from

the government. Now he's one of the mega, you know, the tech libertarians who have turned into mega oligarchs. And there was a Washington Post story that revealed some of his private text messages that were just gobsmacking. So J JBL, why don't you kind of lay the predicate down for why these text messages mattered and what they said. So these are very recent text messages from the last month or two between Mark and Dreeson and a text chain which is on WhatsApp and which just happens to include a number of people

who work in the White House. It is not a White House thing. It's not an official White House joint. Just a bunch of people happen to work in the White House, some other tech people. They need a safe space where they can talk because these guys, everybody's just sitting around judging, judging, judging them, always judging. And, you know. Andreessen, it should be noted in this unofficial White House sex chain

Andreessen was I'm a big donor to the campaign was brought in to help that The talent apparently according to some reporting love people that were being hired into the administration You know particularly in areas that might have over lapped of business of areas of interest for him such as crypto and AI etc So yeah I mean, so anyway, the text chain was with people that he may or may not have helped put into the administration, and now is providing some feedback to off the books. So here's what Mark writes. The combination of DEI and immigration is politically lethal. When these two forms of discrimination combine as they have for the last 60 years and on hyperdrive for the last decade,

which is weird because Donald Trump was president for 40% of the last decade, no matter, they systematically cut most of the children of the Trump voter base out of any realistic prospect of access to higher education and corporate America. Any realistic prospect of access, Tim. And I just wanna put a finer point on that one more time. So he's talking about the children of Trump voters don't have access to higher education now. They don't even have a realistic prospect of access to education, Tim.

And so who do we think he's talking about there? I mean, because it's immigration and DEI, I don't think there's, I mean, and I'm not, I'm not trying to be a jackass here. White people, right? Because this is not talking about the multi-ethnic Trump coalition, because about the multi-ethnic Trump coalition, because in the multi-ethnic Trump coalition, those people would be DEI grantees, right? If you're an African-American who likes Donald Trump, you're still getting DEIs thrown your way,

here and there, I guess. So this is just white folks is what this is. It's just white folks. He goes on though and puts finer point on it. Well, do you want me to keep going, Timmy? No. Yeah, I would like you to because this is the part that really was getting me riled up. I was born in 1971 in Iowa and grew up in Wisconsin. My cohort of citizens was told that we just had to put up with this as a cost of prior American bigotry

Prior doing a lot of work there Even though the 19 no American bigotry left in 1971 71 Yeah, and for the most part we did but then the insanity of the last eight years, by the way again Donald Trump was president for four of those and in, the summer of 2020 totally shredded that complacency. And so now my people are furious and not going to take it anymore. Now here, I should say to him, he is probably correct because his people, meaning soft, doughy, billionaire, middle-aged white men, really are very furious and they are not going to take it anymore.

I want to just put kind of a couple of the clauses there one more time now, just for people that miss this, you're reading fast. I was born in 1971 in Iowa and grew up in Wisconsin. My cohort of citizens. My cohort. In the most generous way possible, who could he be talking about there that is not white people? Oh, it's impossible to say, isn't it? My cohort of citizens? Is he talking about Packers fans? I like, I don't, he doesn't

seem like he's into sports actually. I don't know. He doesn't have a conehead. Coneheads? My cohort of citizens. Okay. And then my people are furious. And then it goes up, even though discrimination was now aimed at us. Yes. That goes at 1971. He's a 1971 immigrant that's discrimination is now aimed at them. Bullwork Takes is sponsored by Soul. Are you sick of drinking your calories or are you sick of just waking up hungover? Having some drinks can be fun, but I'm glad that I found an alternative that lets me feel great in the moment and in the next morning. Out of Office Gummies from Soul.

Soul is a wellness brand that believes feeling good should be fun and that it should be easy. Seoul specializes in delicious hemp-derived THC and CBD products designed to boost your mood and help you unwind. Their best-selling Out of Office Gummies were designed to provide a mild, relaxing buzz to boost your mood and to enhance creativity and relaxation. I've been taking a low dosage one of these gummies before bed and you know what? My parenting skills have gone through the roof. My kids are doing great. I'm doing great. I'm sleeping great. It's great.

The out of office gummies come in four different strengths so you can find the perfect dose for your vibe. You can choose from the gentle micro dose to the perfect buzz. You can get a noticeable high or you can get the fully lit experience, which we call here the Tim Miller special with wellness at the forefront. You can feel good about what you're putting in your body. All of Soles products are made from organically farmed USA grown hemp and are vegan, gluten free and low in sugar.

And if you like their out of office gummies, you've got to try their out of office USA grown hemp in our vegan gluten-free and low in sugar. And if you like their out of office gummies, you've gotta try their out of office beverage. A refreshing alcohol-free alternative that is perfect for summer sipping, seriously. And that DC heat, I have to have it. So bring on the good vibes and treat yourself to Sol today. Right now Sol is offering my audience 30% off your entire order.

That's right, 30% off, not bad. Go to getseoul.com and use the code bulwarktakes. That's getseoul.com promo code bulwarktakes for 30% off. This is the craziest thing, right? The idea that like 19. I mean, even if you would like to say like, hey, it's 20, 25 and everything's fine now. Can we get over the Black Lives Matter stuff? Even if you wanted to say that, which, again, I don't think is correct.

And we could have an argument, but whatever. He's talking about the 1970s. That is the mostacial moment in America Anyway, he then says And fucking Milwaukee you think the black, you know, I think the black people had fully, you know embraced like the franchise and equal rights and opportunity fucking Wisconsin in 1971

Anyway, he then says they and here they means the universities declared war on 70 percent of the country. And now they're going to pay the price. Anyway, it's a it's a whole thing and it's kind of a mask off moment. Like this is I don't think there are any charitable ways to read any of this. there any charitable ways to read any of this? I genuinely don't think you can read this as anything but a racialist criticer. But what's funny about it is, and this is how it is always with these guys, the truth is the exact opposite. Marc Andreessen is the luckiest son of a bitch who ever lived. He was a billionaire by the time he was 28 years old. He made his, so this is again,

is it all right if I just go here? Can I just bring it? So Mark Andreessen goes to the University of Illinois. He enrolls at a time in which he is paying out of state tuition, which is with room and board, nine grand a year. Even inflation adjusted to today's dollars, that's $24,000 a year for room and board

and a public university. Like that is a bargain at twice the price. Today, that cost at University of Illinois in real same dollars is $42,000. So almost twice as high, right? So college has doubled. He gets there and he has the National Science Foundation. Perhaps you've heard of them shoveling money at him to work on a project,

building a graphical interface for the new worldwide web information super highway, which perhaps you've heard of. And that is what becomes Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, which he then graduates and takes with him to California, founds the company Netscape, the first big, commercially successful web browser,

and then sells it to AOL in 1999 for $4.3 billion. Again, he's 28 years old. He is now a billionaire. He got this by being handed incredibly cheap college tuition and then having his work funded by the government. And also in this text chain, he says that the NSF, the National Science Foundation, which made his career, should be raised to the ground now. His words, not mine. And I just, there's something so weird about life's biggest winners thinking that they are the ones who are the most put

upon people in the universe. It's like, I really, do you understand the psychology of this? Cause I don't. I guess I guess I'm like I'm a pretty happy person and like I always feel pretty lucky. And like the idea that'd be aggrieved at other random people when you know, we all have one life's lottery we fucking live in America and I mean, like, what was better in America in 2015 than it was now, but still all things being considered economically speaking, opportunity, like, so I don't, it's hard for me to comprehend it. I understand generally that, you know, some of these guys are driven by grievance and driven by competition and that you need to have that, you know, whatever

the Kobe Bryant, you know, the Michael Jordan thing, right? Like, you need to, even if people aren't trashing you, you need to kind of invent it in your head to get a competitive advantage. I guess I understand that. I understand that, like, just in general, some category of old white guys get grumpy and, you know, start to think that, you know, whatever, they didn't get the recognition they deserve. This particular case is flummoxing to me though, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I'll just say I've been in Marc Andreessen's home. Oh! Yeah, it's, he, back 15 years ago, he invited me to a breakfast.

2100 square foot, three bedroom, too bad. His home is unbelievable. And it's like a museum. It's unbelievable. He has servants. Like it's in a suburb and Atherton, like the, the art, uh, the, the, the, you know, first edition books. The house is truly, I mean, it's, it's breathtaking. This house. And it's like, so what this person could possibly be upset about. I don't know. It's hard to understand.

But the thing that's harder for me to understand actually than that, because some people are just fucking grumpy and aggrieved and whatever. That's just like some people's nature. The thing that's harder to understand about all this is that he sees some kind of kinship between him and the 18 year old living in lacrosse Wisconsin, going to a public school. Like their lives are not the same at all. Like they don't, it isn't his people. That's not his people. The Trump voters child in Wisconsin has literally nothing in common with Mark Andreessen besides his skin color. Like literally nothing. Like culturally, what their interests are, you know,

like what, how they want to spend their free time, who they associate with, their networks, their circles. Like they have literally nothing in common. And he has like adopted, because he doesn't have any legitimate grievance on his own, he's adopted this grievance on behalf of this other group. And like, that is the part that is just, totally based on, literally based only on skin color.

That's bad. Except that he really doesn't believe that he wants to help that group. This is, so is my buddy Travis in the comments over on the triad that I mentioned. And by the way, people who don't know, comment section of my newsletter, that's fucking place on the internet. It's amazing. And he pointed out, you know, the tell on all this is these guys stances against remote work. So if, if you were interested in the forgotten man, then telework is maybe the biggest thing since the invention of the wheel,

because it allows people in rural communities who don't want to move or to have access to big pools of good jobs. And what do all of these tech guys hate more than anything else? Remote work. Because they want to be sitting there looking at their worker bees and getting them under their thumb. They don't trust them. Like this is again, it's just there is nothing here. This is a guy who just, and this is what I think it really is about. I talked about this.

So Robert Moses, who people who are not New Yorkers or people who are under the age of 50 may not know him, but he was the urban planner who basically invented modern New York. So he ran New York City city planning for the middle 40 years of the 20th century. And he bent that city to his will. And he was a colossal asshole. And his ideas were terrible. New York is still dealing with the fall

out of this guy's horrific ideas, which just tore the city apart. And Robert Caro, the great biographer, wrote an amazing, amazing, it's like 4,000 pages, it's called The Power Broker. And the end of that is, Caro is at a speech that Moses is giving and he's in flushing queens and he's like, it's some dedication, it's very late in his life. He's in winter and he is like, you know, the verdict of the world is upon him. And this guy gets up and gives a speech

about ingratitude. And Caro, who's sitting there in the audience, is right behind a bunch of Robert Moses' yes men. And one of them looks to the other and shakes his head and says, why aren't they grateful? You know, it was like, why aren't these people of New York grateful for the things that Robert Moses did to their city? And who cares if it screwed it all up and caused unbelievable damage to the city

and unbelievable economic problems, racial problems, et cetera, et cetera. I think that's what it is with Andreessen and all of these guys. They have remade the world around us for their trouble. They've been paid, again, sovereign wealth levels of remuneration. And they were free reign, given free reign to do this.

They were utterly unaccountable. Nobody ever told them to stop. And now that the world is looking around and saying, I don't know, maybe this internet stuff, as you guys have built it, has some downsides. Andreessen is furious that people aren't grateful to him. I think that is at the end of the day, the root of all this. They wanna clip his wings, you know,

they wanna clip these worksters, the regulators, the people that think they know better, the middle managers are the problem. I think that's it. I've got one other rant I wanna do on this exchange and it's just about, I agree with what you said there, it's about the college of it all. There's also like a little bit of, like the high school cafeteria. It's like this for a lot of these

people. They never got over. I don't know what happened to Mark Andreessen in college or some of these folks where they weren't respected enough or didn't get the scholarship that they wanted or whatever. I don't, this is another thing I don't really relate to. I kind of half-assed it through college. Sorry, mom and dad. Thank you for putting the bill for that. I appreciate it. But I did. I kind of half-assed it. college. Sorry, Mom and Dad. Thank you for putting the bill for that. I appreciate it. But I did I kind of half-assed it. I was working. I did I was interning and stuff I knew I wanted to be in politics like that was what I was into So I don't like the college status symbol thing was never really for me

so but these guys are all obsessed with and Like that they're so mad at you know And they think that that's like the only thing that matters and that that's the only thing you know The only way to get again recognition, you know, in this world that you want. And he tells this story of the whatever high school kid in Wisconsin. And it's like, it's just again, wrong on so many levels. Like for starters, if you're a high school kid in Wisconsin and you do well, like you work hard in school and get good grades, and're as smart as Mark Andreessen is, even if the woke IVs don't

let you in, you can go to UW Madison, like one of the great institutions of the world for in-state tuition. It's not like, you still have a great, like that's a great opportunity for the son of a Trump voter in Green Bay. Like, that's still, that's plenty of successful people from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Also, many of these, like, IVs actually want geographic diversity and it might work out in your favor. You might get DEI'd if you're from a rural state. Like, you know, maybe not Wisconsin. 100%. Believe me, the mythical wonder kid from Idaho is what every Ivy League school is looking for. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

So, Brian, I was concerned if you're the son of the Trump voter in South Dakota, and you are in a really, you know, get great grades. So your opportunity, compare that person's opportunities to like, so it goes to Edna Carr in the West Bank, a black kid that goes to Edna Carr in the West Bank in New Orleans, where there's still violence over there all the time. And you've got like to all these issues. Again, like somebody at the very top of their class at Edna Carr is going to do well and back in New Orleans where there's still violence over there all the time. And you've got like to all these issues. Again, like somebody at the very top of their class that Edna Carr is going to do well and have great opportunities.

But like at that upper medium level, I would, I would think the opportunities are still much better for the son of the Trump voter who whatever, like is a roofer in green Bay. Like, yeah. So like the whole thing, like there are plenty of things to criticize about colleges, tuition has gone up too much, and it is part because of some of the stupid HR shit. There are right-wing criticisms of higher universities I will listen to. State funding to public universities is a big thing over the last 30 years, right? And

if you cared about the forgotten men and the forgotten women of Trump voters, one of the things you'd want is better levels of state funding, especially in red states, right? Like Alabama and Wisconsin. But you never hear any of that. Yeah. We need more funding for these universities, especially for the second tier universities, because he also doesn't care. I forget UW Madison, he doesn't care about UW Green Bay, right? You know, which is also not a good opportunity for kids, like those kind of schools, like make sure there's more funding for them. Sure, we could bring, if you want to tell me, oh, we need some to doge it, we need some

efficiencies, we have too many administrators, like yeah, like yeah, sure. College cross have gotten out of control, like sure you know like there have been certain right like the whole thing he doesn't care about like this he cares about the racial makeup yes that's right like that's the crazy thing right right he's like there aren't enough whites in the good colleges right now it's like what I really like how is that even the thing that you that you are the most concerned about right now? You know, and can I, man, this is maybe a little third railish. Maybe we'll have to

cut this out. Yeah, whatever. We're in minute 20. Only the real ones are still here. It's very interesting to me that he complains about the racial aspect of college admissions without fingering the real problem. I'm putting problem in air quotes here. So what has happened is over the last 40 years, the percentage of whites at all colleges has dropped from like 80% down to between 40% and 50% depending on how you're slicing it. In part, that's because the percentage of whites as a college age population in America, 18 and 24 year olds, that is white, has dropped precipitously in line with that and the percentage of Hispanics

has increased. Now Hispanics are still underrepresented, especially at the elite levels in elite colleges relative to their share of the population. African Americans, underrepresented, persistent to their, but you know who isn't? Asians. And Asian kids are in, especially at the elite levels, like 5X their percentage of the population. And guys like Andreessen will never say that out loud. Right. Right. Never in a million years will they say, boy, too many Asian kids showing up at Harvard. They're squeezing out. It's always, it's always the DEI and Latin immigration. And it's like, what is the problem, really? The Honduran kids that we were letting in on asylum you know or the fact that we were DEI black kids no it's like they're like so and great and good on all the hard working

Asian kids that are getting into into colleges right but like I'm not saying it's a problem I'm all for it. It's Andreessen that's saying it's a problem the whole thing is crazy I don't know my final last and another thing on it is just because this is the thing that bugs me the most about the DEI hit on the I was out there in the Bay for a little while. I did some consulting for these Silicon Valley companies. It's not like there's this massive over representation of black people at the top levels of the tech companies. Again, this idea that DEI has become this huge problem, that we're not a meritocracy anymore and the good whites of Wisconsin can no longer get opportunities. It's like who runs these companies? Elon, Zuckerberg, Teal, Andreessen, Bezos. Is there

a woman running any big tech company anymore? Didn't Andreessen Horowitz hire that guy who murdered, sorry, hire that gentleman who was involved in the killing of a homeless man in a New York City subway. Was it Andrew Horowitz? I'm reasonably sure that was Andrew Horowitz. So they hired this guy basically on the strength of, he's a white guy who killed somebody in a New York subway. And like, I don't know, what sort of work is he doing? Is he managing tail risk at the

VC fund? Like how's that? Daniel Penny is hired by his top Silicon Valley investing firm. Is this really true? How did I fucking miss this? Yeah. This is unbelievable. So like, I'm great that he's putting his money where his mouth is and like, you know, really trying to give these guys a leg up and doing some, some DEIs for white people who've been involved in questionable killings.

Yeah. And there's not just hiring, you know, planning. But like, I'd just be interested like in his performance review. How's that working out? Is this guy like, like what's his, I'm sure he's doing a lot of seeking alpha there. How are his returns? This is also the other thing. I'm sure he's doing a lot of seeking alpha there. How are his returns? It's like, oh, you're upset that the forgotten children of America can't get hired? Go to TPUSA for your next hiring.

Go to TPUSA, just tell their big thing. There should have been an Andreessen Horowitz booth there, just signing those kids up as their quants. I'm sure those are just the smartest people that you could possibly find for your VC firm. I hate these people so much, JBL. All right. This is way longer than we meant it to be, but I could do another 25 minutes on this. This is the thing that got my goat the most. So thank you for your newsletter. Everybody subscribe to this YouTube if you haven't.

If you've watched 24 minutes of this and have not subscribed to our YouTube yet, what are you doing? Let's be honest. What are you even doing with your life? Tim, welcome home, baby. After all, you're my wonder wall. Thanks JVL. Everybody else will see you soon. Bye.