Is the modern right preparing for the end times?

I did think about Trump's possible motives in his first attempt to rule the world.

When he made a State Visit (self-invited or normal protocol?) to Britain in 2016 he waffled on about the USA taking over Greenland and the NHS; thus upsetting the Danes, Greenlanders and his hosts at around the same time.

Until then I suppose most of we Britons knew of him only as a shortbread-tin Scottish, but fully American national, property-speculator who somehow obtained planning-permission to destroy a Site of Special Scientific Interest (so protected by law) in Scotland, merely to build a golf-course.

We knew from his campaigning he'd been loudly dismissing climate-change, a matter too scientific for him, as a hoax or even a lie. That was superficially to please his country's own coal, oil and automotive industries and the Republican voters among their employees.

What I do not recall, were many people at the time spotting the link. I had realised Greenland may well have useful minerals under its ice-covered ground... Caring about and for its inhabitants or their environment would not be relevant to Trump as long as the island, annexed or still foreign territory, can be plundered for those resources by American mining companies.

We also realised that Trump has the diplomatic skills of a wildebeeste, and not much better education; but I thought a little deeper:

"For all his apparent dim-ness, insensitivity and naivety, this man is sly and driven by money. So what, " I wondered, "is he up to?"

A little study of an atlas and some knowledge of basic geology made it all glaringly obvious.

.......

Regarding the obsessions of Musk and the others, it's hard to treat them with any credibility.

Musk - who also dreams or fathering unfeasible numbers of children he thinks will all be super-intelligent 'cos he imagines he is - did qualify in IT but all his space-exploration ideas were inspired more by space-fiction than understanding its reality. Though I suppose, as with the Tesla car firm, his role is just that of speculator who doesn't need know which end of a spanner is which, or a Watt from a Joule.

The rest of this type might have their oligarchical ldreams but how realistic they are is anyone's guess, and their careers probably hang very much on what Donald Trump does, or does not do.

I wonder if they will end like the Russian oligarchs who helped and were supported in turn by Vladimir Putin, until he had no further use for them so now likely worry how near they are to poisoned scent-bottles... I don't go as far as saying their (the American ones') lives are in danger but their livelihoods may well be as fragile as their egoes, if Trump has no further use for them.

I tend to think the revenge of the Tech Bros began with their losing social status.

The left and left of center began to turn against them (especially as it was revealed how harmful and manipulative social media is) as did their employees on group chat threads, and demands to keep working from home post COVID.

Add their inherent sexism, coupled with incel misogyny, and the inherent belief rules shouldn’t apply to them, and the warm embrace of Trumpsim seems like a natural fit. Trump’s embrace of crypto as a force for corruption also sped this marriage up.

American survivalism has been around for a while along with right wing militias. Also, a natural fit for Trumpism.

The rise of hunting culture as a new masculine virtue fits in here somewhere. (Rogan, Trump Jr.). God, how insufferable Zuckerberg must be talking about hunting…

I tried to follow those links. The Guardian one demanded I either allow access to about 130 commercial "partners" or pay a "subscription". I don't object to freely buying a printed newspaper that happens to carry passive advertising but I am not playing those games!

The "Nerdreich" one didn't really enlightme me verymuch and I did not discover who this Theil bloke is, but more impoertantly I learnt men like him and Elon Musk are after riches beyond anyone else's wildest dreams, and power. But power of what, wielded how and over what or whom?

How, presumably by using the Internet as a gigantic propaganda machine while raking in money from advertising revenues, "subscriptions" and hidden personal-data sales to any old rich spiv or dodgy sovereign wealth-fund going. It was all very vague as to what they want to do and why (apart from making even more money beyond what they can sensibly spend).

I thought the Heritage Foundation (concocter of the "Project 25" campaign) bad enough, but at least that talking-shop of arcane business-people, sanctimonious para-religious cults and strange clubs with opaque names does have its own, easily-available web-site on which to tell us all what sort of Handmaid's Tale America it wants to control.

The Thiel types though seem more hidden, and maybe that's where their danger lies.

Who the Hell are these men, what do they want, and why do they imagine they have the right to have it?

I think the more insightful conservatives are coming to realise how unsustainable their regular economic pursuits are and have determined to grab as much as possible for themselves before the whole thing blows up.

They are. Unless, of course, they aren’t.

They ARE ridiculous ideas completely divorced from reality, even in case of a successful US takeover.

That's the western equivalent of the Russian delusion of being able to annex Ukraine and Moldova in 3-15 days with 1970 to 1930 equipment