A common misconception is that Trump is just himself. In reality, he’s the face of many billionaires who are backing him. Let me explain.
Many of DOGE’s first exposed software engineers are associated with Peter Thiel and Palantir. Palantir Gotham is a mass surveillance tool initially funded by the CIA which links massive amounts of information together to form what has been termed “total data awareness”. This information is uploaded into the system and it automatically links things like an email address to your home address, your address to property records, and so on.
“Thiel hired Vance at his global investment firm in 2017, and then nurtured Vance’s political rise, donating $15 million to his 2022 Ohio Senate campaign and helping him win a closely fought GOP primary before going on to capture the seat in the general election.” - [1]
“Several prominent Silicon Valley investors and Republican politicians have expressed their influence from the philosophy, with venture capitalist Peter Thiel describing Yarvin as his “most important connection”. Political strategist Steve Bannon has read and admired his work, and there have been allegations that he has communicated with Yarvin which Yarvin has denied. U.S. Vice President JD Vance has cited Yarvin as an influence. Michael Anton, the State Department Director of Policy Planning during Trump’s second presidency, has also discussed Yarvin’s ideas. In January 2025, Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington; Politico reported he was “an informal guest of honor” due to his “outsize influence over the Trumpian right.” - [2]
So we have Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, JD Vance, Steve Bannon, and Michael Anton so far. Who’s this Yarvin guy that they’re all fans of?
“Curtis Guy Yarvin (born 1973), also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American blogger. He is known, along with philosopher Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).” - [3]
What is NRx? A lot of things.
“The NRx alternative seems to be to, first ‘Retire All Government Employees’ (RAGE) in order to ‘reboot’ the economy, and second, to replace democratic institutions with a CEO (or even a Monarch!). The resulting ‘gov-corp’ – a society run as a business – can then be regulated not via the voice of its citizenry – there will be no democracy – but via their ability to exit as consumers in a free market for states.” - [3][1]
“Of course such hyper-neoliberal, technologically deterministic, anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, pro-eugenicist, racist and, likely, fascist ideas have proven to be very unpopular within the academy, and amongst progressive liberals more generally.” - [3][2]
They want to turn America into a state like China in order to accelerate technology, to put it simply.
‘Yarvin’s disturbing manifestos have earned him influential followers, chief among them: tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his onetime Silicon Valley protégé Senator J.D. Vance, whom the Republican Party just nominated to be Donald Trump’s vice president. If Trump wins the election, there is little doubt that Vance will bring Yarvin’s twisted techno-authoritarianism to the White House, and one can imagine—with horror—what a receptive would-be autocrat like Trump might do with those ideas.” - [4]
Where does Elon Musk play into this? For starters, both Elon and Thiel are part of a group known as the PayPal Mafia. Elon is simply the eccentric personality representing Silicon Valley billionaires. Thiel values his privacy and likely wants his name to stay out of this.
References:
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-trump-vp-peter-thiel-billionaire/
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
- https://thesociologicalreview.org/projects/undisciplining/talks-discussions-and-debates/on-neoreaction/
- https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas
This interview with historian Quinn Slobodian gives a good overview of the multi-pronged attack on the US government: https://youtu.be/YIPWekMahXc
Originally commented by u/Kazzie2Y5 on 2025-02-25 11:50:12 AM(meq7dmv)Everyone should watch this overview of the crazy as shit Dark Enlightenment philosophy that Curtis Yarvin pushes and Peter Thiel seems to believe.
Originally commented by u/wrecks3 on 2025-02-25 10:52:47 AM(mepvgdx)Palantir Gotham is a mass surveillance tool initially funded by the CIA
Is this a reference to the device Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) makes for Batman in the Dark Knight, that he destroys at the end of the movie because it’s too powerful and dangerous?
Actual supervillains…
Originally commented by u/RaymoVizion on 2025-02-25 10:44:02 AM(meptnmk)Learn more about Curtis Yarvin here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2n0l9WweTvdcgnIrgkYRNv
SPREAD THE WORD. HE IS IMPLEMENTING HIS PLANS NOW. HE WANTS A MONARCHY. LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY.
Originally commented by u/NotafanofLauraI on 2025-02-25 09:59:19 AM(mepkswn)So, the difference between this and fascism is that it solves fascism’s problem of dying due to its own contradictions. They solved the problem by watching you while you shit, watching you while you have sex, watching you while you have any conversation with anybody. The goal is to use that surveillance and confiscation of weapons to prevent any uprising from happening again, no matter how bad the situation gets.
That said, the elites would probably have less restrictions, and probably dissent among elites could lead to revolution, but it seems like if the walls go up, it could be thousands of years before revolution would happen.
Originally commented by u/Praxical_Magic on 2025-02-25 11:27:55 AM(meq2owj)I’ve been trying to spread the word, but it sounds too much like Qanon to other people, so I usually just stick to the fact that they aren’t even decreasing the deficit with all their cuts because they are also cutting taxes, and that usually gets people to start to wonder if they have been lied to.
That said, I feel like there is a population out there who would see forcing transhumanist upgrades on people like Neuralink as “the Mark of the Beast”, so there could be room for messaging on that as long as it doesn’t make the rest of us sound like nuts.
Originally commented by u/Praxical_Magic on 2025-02-25 09:51:35 AM(mepjcin)