Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and author of the new book, The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto, tells The New Abnormal how the future of our society hinges on the actions of four American billionaires—Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen.

“Elon Musk would like us to give him $10 trillion to go to Mars. Mark Zuckerberg thinks you’re gonna spend seven to eight hours a day with a virtual reality helmet on because you’ll be at home without anything to do. Peter Thiel would like to live to 200 and has got lots of plans for how you can do that. And Marc Andreessen is wanting to sell you an NFT, which as someone noted yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, 95 percent of those holding NFTs that they bought in 2021 are worthless investments today,” Taplin told Andy Levy.

Taplin says he is not calling the four billionaires fascists but says through their work they are creating the conditions under which fascism can flourish.