Is the modern right preparing for the end times?

The political actions of the tech oligarchs make sense if they think that most of humanity is going to die due to an environmental catastrophe, and they get to rule what is left. From Elon's obsession with colonising Mars to Theil's network states, it does show (cynical) long-term thinking. The Trump administration's obsession with taking Canada and Greenland also makes a lot more sense in a world where the Earth's temperature has risen by a few degrees and these places are far more habitable.

They also believe in network states, which are small nations run on a corporate structure where AI and robots do most of the work, and they are completely unchallenged. Their alliance with Trump and the MAGA movement can be seen as a method for accelerating American decline and ensuring that they have appropriate control over what is left. These would seem like ridiculous ideas and dystopian. However, Peter Thiel has been on record as being against democracy; he wrote a foreword to a book that predicted this outcome. Curtis Yarvin (praised by Theil and Vance) has written an essay on how to dismantle the US government (like DOGE has done)

Gil Duran is the world's most important journalist.

https://www.thenerdreich.com/

Naomi Klein (a long read but excellent) on the links between MAGA and the tech oligarchs.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

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The Trump administration may be incompetent and riddled with contradictions but it's not based on madness. It has plans and a vision; Nihilistic and cynical though that may be.

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Elessar · 26-30, M

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

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Elessar But they have tremendous money and power. They are at the cutting edge of AI and control social media platforms. Also, they are aligned to the MAGA movement, which is (however unwittingly) supporting their plans. No Trump supporter is going to listen to you or me about anything.

They are also up against a Democratic Party and state apparatus which has been mostly ineffective. I don't expect it to completely succeed in the short term, but at the very least, it will do a lot of damage.. It's Theil people need to worry about more than Musk.

Elessar · 26-30, M

@Burnley123 Putin arguably has even more power and money (yeah the country's economy is smaller but wealth distribution is more concentrated towards the top; Musk is allegedly the richest man on the planet only because we don't know how much the alikes of Putin are really worth - I'd speculate they're already in the trillionaires camp), and definitely also popularity at home. And here we are, he's in the position where a single rogue drunkard and 2000 men nearly toppled him, and he's in a 3+ years stalemate against a country with 1/10 his own military capacity, even now with the main ally neutralized by Thiel.