[fzeroracer]

That's my take too. The tech barons are all remarkably stupid and think that if they destroy the federal government they'll be able to swoop in and take everything, but the end result is 50 individual governments that stop paying dues to the feds, many of which are going to be far more hostile to said tech barons.

They're not even smart enough to properly pay off and maintain the military so they could try and enforce the oligarchy.

[mrguyorama]

The best part is this is trivially obvious to anyone who knows their US history. The articles of confederation were torn up and replaced with a strong federal government that could adapt over time in part because the "federated states" system resulted in a bunch of petty tyrant Governors who completely ignored and neglected their federal obligations, ran their states like fiefdoms, and consistently made things shitty for everyone out of their pettiness.

Lots of people insist that the US should be a loose federation of states that are mostly left to themselves, basically like a less bureaucratic Europe, but that's stupid, because if that model worked, the constitution would not exist