NYT on the tech billionaire plot against democracy

NYT on the tech billionaire plot against democracy

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk and J.D. Vance have a plan to unite with Trump's MAGA party and end democracy as we know it...

Yes, that is the theme of this newsletter – and also the central point of a big New York Times Magazine story that published online today.

It's a long read, but totally worth it.

Gift Link: "How Tech Billionaires Became the G.O.P.’s New Donor Class: Elon Musk and a group of Silicon Valley allies have built a shadow campaign to put Donald Trump back in office."

From the story:

As the internet blossomed, Thiel began to encourage a new set of even more provocative thinkers. At their center was an ex-programmer named Curtis Yarvin, who blogged under the nom de plume Mencius Moldbug, sketching out the framework for a nascent reactionary movement — later called the new right — aimed at deposing the cabal of liberal elites running the country. Yarvin saw democracy as a “destructive” form of government, instead proposing a techno-monarchy run by a national chief executive. Americans, he said, had to “get over their dictator phobia.” He and Thiel grew close; Yarvin stayed in Thiel’s homes, and they watched the 2016 election returns together.

Further:

As Thiel became wealthier and more powerful, he continued to help like-minded men accumulate their own wealth and power. They included a lot of Stanford Review alumni, like Josh Hawley, now the 44-year-old senator from Missouri, but also others who came to him via different routes — most prominently JD Vance, who has cited Yarvin as an influence himself. Vance reached out to Thiel after hearing him deliver a talk at Yale Law School, and following his graduation, Thiel helped set him up in Silicon Valley, first recommending him for a job at a biotech firm whose founder he was close with and later helping him raise $120 million for his own venture firm, Narya Capital. When Vance ran for Senate in 2022, Thiel was by far the biggest donor to his super PAC, giving $15 million.

And here's the chilling conclusion about the twisted hopes of our would-be tech overlords... a terrifying vision of the future:

They had big dreams and had made the calculus that Trump would create a more hospitable environment in which to realize them. They were going to plant devices in people’s brains, replace national currencies with unregulated digital tokens, replace generals with artificial intelligence systems and much more.

If Trump wins with their help, the rise of tech fascism will turn out to be one of the more important stories in American history. Unfortunately, much of the mainstream press has been completely asleep at the wheel. So this story is a big step forward. Share it with every voter you know!

More to come, soon.