Joe Lonsdale Calls For Public Hangings
Silicon Valley radicalization escalates
Joe Lonsdale, a billionaire member of the “PayPal Mafia” who is also a co-founder of Palantir, wants a return to draconian punishment and public executions in the United States.
Wrote Lonsdale on X yesterday:
If I'm in charge later, we won't just have a three strikes law. We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes.
And yes, we will do it in public to deter others.
Our society needs balance. It’s time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.
The venture capitalist was responding to a writer who had criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s enthusiastic tweets about murdering people on boats in the Caribbean.
On December 4, Andrew Kolvet—a spokesman for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA—praised Hegseth for his bombing campaign against fishing boats, which he accuses of drug smuggling. Critics say the bombings, which have killed scores of people without due process, may constitute murder or war crimes.
“Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean,” wrote Kolvet.
“Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat,” replied Hegseth.
When Australian writer Claire Lehmann criticized Hegseth’s post as “grotesque,” Lonsdale responded, declaring that sinking the boats “helps publicly deter others” and “killing bad guys” is Hegseth’s job.
“Masculine truth: bold, virtuous men deter evil,” wrote Lonsdale.
In his subsequent post, he unveiled his fantasy of a future in which he, put in charge, erodes due process, expands the use of the death penalty, and revives public hangings.
This public fetishization of state violence—framed explicitly as “masculine truth” and virtuous protection—suggests tech elites are entering a more dangerous and desperate phase of radicalization.
For months, Peter Thiel guru Curtis Yarvin has been squawking about the need for more severe measures to cement Trump's authoritarian rule. Peter Thiel is ranting about the Antichrist in a global tour. And now Lonsdale—a Thiel protégé—is fantasizing about a future in which he will have the power to unleash state violence at mass scale.
The meme is spreading. Where is it heading?
Live Chat With Strongmen author Ruth Ben-Ghiat
I’ll analyze this during a live video chat with historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday, December 7.
Ben-Ghiat is the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present and one of the foremost experts on authoritarian leaders and the tactics they use to capture and consolidate power.
Her book details the core tenets of strongman rule: the fetishization of hyper-masculinity and violence, the erosion of due process, the cultivation of cults of personality. I read Strongmen when it was published in 2020 and it was essential to my understanding of authoritarianism (years before I stumbled into my study of tech fascism).
We’ll have plenty to discuss! Details at Lucid, Ben-Ghiat’s newsletter. Click here.
Pre-Order The Nerd Reich Book!
The radicalization of Silicon Valley is the subject of my forthcoming book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and The War on Democracy.
It exposes a decades-long campaign to use tech power to overthrow democracy and destroy nations. Please pre-order a copy today!
