A Declaration of Withdrawal

Why I'm no longer posting on social media

From my dorm many years ago

I have recently learned that I am the target of a retribution campaign engaged in by the allies of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. He is described as a vengeful sort and that has indeed been my experience of him so I can’t say that I’m altogether surprised.

Vance’s allies are upset with me for exposing Vance’s excessive closeness with Netanyahu and Modi in the pages of the Washington Post and I’m not sorry I did it. In fact I wish I had done more to stop his ascension to political life and I’m sorry for my own involvement in that effort.

It’s my fear that President-elect Trump will be assassinated and that J.D. Vance, beloved of Netanyahu and Modi, will ascend to the presidency.

The initial thought I had had was that I was going to go and fight Vance’s foreign-backed allies — to take them on!  — but my birthday, the election, the impending sale of one of my companies, and my impending move back to California has occasioned a deeper, quieter reflection.

Maybe it’s time to give up a public profile altogether.

I will not be speaking on Twitter. I will not be talking publicly on podcasts. I will not be engaging on any matter save my businesses and a few light personal matters. I’m not quite at Howard Hughes levels but I’m more successful than I have ever imagined so it’s time to do other things.

When you have enough it’s right around the time that you learn all that money can’t buy, how lonely and empty it is, and how the things that give you most satisfaction are oftentimes not monetarily or ego-driven at all.

Some years ago I learned that I’m going to be going blind in my mid 40s. That seemed like a distant place when I was in my mid-20s but now suddenly in my mid-30s it doesn’t seem all that far at all.

As my vision goes I’ve been rediscovering music, museums, art and literature — things I enjoyed before so much of life became digital — and I find that I like these things a lot more than the scrum of online life with its blinding glare. How I long to be among those people who learned seemingly in the ballot box that Joe Biden had stepped down!

When I have things I want to talk about I’ll talk about them on Substack exclusively. I’ll keep my DMs open but candidly the day to day news cycle holds less interest over me than it ever has.

I have too many other people’s thoughts colliding into my own. I get rattled and perturbed by too many nonentities. Or worse yet, I find myself too cooly and cruelly engaging with other people in ways I don’t like.

My work has now entered a phase of my life where my moves are best made privately. I have important technology companies to invest in and build.

I will not be making another post on X.com save possibly to promote my other writings or business interests. If you’d like to get a hold of me I’m fairly reachable elsewhere but I’m tapped out here.

And while I understand that this news might disappoint a number of you please know that you’re more than capable of continuing on without me.

All the best,

Charles