The tech oligarchs and their ongoing attempted coup of American democracy.
Elon sends his heart to you.
I found a conspiracy theory on the internet and I believe it. In this conspiracy: shadowy people with malign intentions get together and hatch a plot to surreptitiously hijack the American government and use it for their nefarious ends. I'm not talking about George Soros or cultural Marxism. I'm not talking about something which might potentially happen in the future. I am talking about what is happening in America right now.
[media=https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no]
The key figures who are carrying out this takeover are Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Though (via JD Vance) they also have links to their co-conspirators in the Heritage Foundation. Donald Trump is very important but only in the sense that he is the marketing figurehead for the operation and he can help carry a section of the population with him. Also, giving him the keys to state agencies that they wish to destroy.
Obviously, Musk isn't going to say that DOGE is really about destroying the US administrative state and needs some plausible deniability.. So, how do you do that? Well, they argue that what you are doing is about making the government more efficient. You tell your Republican supporters that the government is awash with waste and corruption. The bonus of this is that it's an easy sell to Conservatives because they already think this. They are predisposed to think of any government agency as like this: even if they directly benefit from it or it is essential.
The other arguments they use are culture war issues. Trumpsters will support them if they say they are against DEI or overseas aid. They are indeed cutting these things but only because they are cutting everything. Even things that the Consumer Protection Bureau (which saves Americans money) or the IRS (which makes money). Both these things being weak is obviously good for billionaires and Musk in particular because his companies are/were being investigated. Meanwhile, Musk's companies continue to get multi-million-pound subsidies from the US state. Is that fraud? In reality, DOGE and this administration (regime?) will do a lot of harm to Americans.
So, this is a libertarian capitalist slashing the state and feathering his own nest. Yes, but the motivations are even worse. The tech oligarchs want to destroy the US administrative state so they can rebuild it and mould it in a way that suits them and suits Trump's borderline dictatorship. This is not idle speculation about their motivations. Project 2025 said that the Trump administration wanted to fire most government workers and replace them with people who have 'conservative' policy values. In addition, this policy idea shows the real crossover between the authoritarian right and the tech oligarchs because Thiel and Musk both take their inspiration from someone called Curtis Yarvin.
Yarvin is an ultra-right political philosopher who is openly against democracy and thinks that the government should be completely remade to serve 'meritocratic' interests. He used the acronym RAGE (Retire all government employees). That is the real goal of an agency that never had anything to do with efficiency or saving people money. The tech bros know they are the smartest guys in the room (the room being Earth) and have a low opinion of the rest of humanity. They see democracy as a market inefficiency and are seeking to solve the problem by retro-engineering it. Trump will be the pliant CEO and they will be the board of directors. Just like Orban's Hungary, there will have to be some elections again but only when the state, law, media and cultural apparatus have been stacked in their favour. The constitution will continue to exist but will be ignored.
None of this is based on reading signs for weird hand signals or re-interpreting photo-shopped images. This conspiracy is all on public record in blog posts, talks and interviews. It's also in Project 2025. However, its all just criminally under-reported.
This is what is actually going on and people need to wise up and stop them,
P.S. This post was heavily influenced by the work of journalist Gil Duran who has been watching these people for years.
this is a libertarian capitalist slashing the state and feathering his own nest.
This sums it up very well. I have always hoped that the EU would be some kind of brake on the likes of Orban, but am wondering if that's not a false hope. However, despite all the careful 'checks and balances' of the US Constitution, a small group of powerful bad actors have no brake and seem quite at liberty (!) to remake the USA in a new way to the detriment of the many. And no, I don't think the Democrat led government, would have helped much in its current form, despite all the identity politics, they didn't show much of a vision that enough people could understand. Their intentions were far less malign, but not being something is not enough in what has been essentially just a competition between two shades of rampant capitalism.
@FreddieUK The blog is really good and goes into a lot more detail. If you have the time, go into it. Gil Duran deserves a MUCH higher profile. If these people are to be stopped, he needs to become a household name.
Yarvin is the gensis of the Nerd Reich. He's in a different IQ league than Musk and Thiel and they both look at his "philosophy" as a source of inspiration and guidance, because he can run circles around them when it comes to technology (Algorithms, Mathematics, Programming, etc.)
In a way, they see his works as a justification for their less than humane behavior and model themselves after him.
JD Vance, in my opinion, is the Manchurian Candidate.
@zonavar68 Kim Stanley Robinson is a great guy though. He had great politics too.
The Ministry of the Future is a great book in which humans successfully solve climate change. I wish I could be as optimistic as him.
Still, he has a humane and egalitarian view of the future. The tech gurus running the US government and the biggest and most entitled narcissists in human history.
@Burnley123 Yet our media (perhaps yours too) is bombarded with charity ads for mobs claiming to be acting in good faith to help underprivileged populations in other countries, yet like our country there's no focus on looking after our own. Trump himself is famous for making it obvious that if a military, law enforcement, or other government worker is injured physically and/or mentally making them unable to - perhaps permanently - fulfil their contracted role (or at worse - killed) then they are no longer of any use to him and must be discarded. Trump (and Musk too) view anyone in those sorts of roles, or any kind of emergency response agency, as expendable when human capital should be one of the most highly valued and resourced 'commodities'.
In some respects it's all rather funny... For years they talked about conspiracies and the deep state, but no one ever noticed it was themselves of which they spoke
@Burnley123 to me, it's silly to think that a digital govt could pose a risk to, say, america.
if the problem is that the wealthy are going to use it as a tax haven and take their wealth away from america—they can already do that. networkstate or no networkstate—they can already grab all their things and set up camp elsewhere. i mention this because this is how i see a traditional govt combatting a networkstate—eviction, more or less: if the problem is that people worry that a digital governemtn will rule or ruin their lives: (a) it's voluntary, and (b) people could vote a for a traditional government that can 'evict' and/or punish these so-called digital citizens.
@trash Yes but individuals have a choice as long as they have money. If you read Thomas Piketty's work, you'll know that capital has a historic tendency to monopolise. That is statistically proven.
Unlike some people, you have imagination and are taking this seriously. Musk, Thiel et al are not being honest or making a an argument for libertarian techno states on their own terms. We know they want this only because thye have said this in the past or little discussed forums. They are effectively lying and jumping on board (the highly authoritarian) Trump train to get the job done.
Some people would live very well in this world. Will they call the first freedom city Elysium?
@trash i considered that they could make it exclusive to elites etc., hence why i said: people can just vote for a traditional government that would dismantle their little network state—from their physical roots. 10000000% tarrifs on tech products; subsidies given to competitors who aren't aligned with any network state, etc etc. there are ways to combat these people via democracy.
there's no way a traditional government would roll over for an autocratic tech government—that's wishful thinking. the world would be reduced to radioactive dust before anything akin to that happens.
