Some Praise From Curtis Yarvin

Earlier this year, I was invited to appear at Web Summit Vancouver, an annual conference that brings together CEOs, venture capitalists, journalists and other figures from the tech world.

There was a catch: they wanted me to appear onstage with Curtis Yarvin, the Peter Thiel guru who preaches the merits of dictatorship and monarchy.

That did not interest me. First of all, I have no interest in legitimizing Yarvin, who wears his racism like a badge of honor. Just as I would not share a stage with a KKK grand wizard or a neo-Nazi, I would not wish to appear with Peter Thiel’s anti-democracy guru who is so addicted to the N-word that he trained his AI chatbot to use it.

The platforming of Yarvin peaked as a trend in 2025, but quickly grew old. He tends to ramble, cry, digress, and generally prevent any productive dialogue from taking place. More than anything else, it’s boring. (Besides, there is not much to debate—the fascism question was settled for most of us in World War II.)

Second, Yarvin had refused to grant an interview for my book, so it did not make sense for me to participate with him in a public circus. (As the Book of Proverbs counsels: “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.”)

Alas, I turned down this scintillating offer to appear with the weepy sage of the Dork Enlightenment. The conference organizers kindly offered me another slot, but it felt a bit icky by then.

Besides, I was busy editing the book and, to be honest, I am generally leery of elite conferences where the elites hobnob and party and celebrate themselves. My job is to be an observer and an outsider. After all, there is a surplus of journalists who are Silicon Valley insiders, but I am among those writers who feel that “access journalism” is ass-kiss journalism and too much comfort kills good work.

No, my job is to sit here alone and struggle at the keyboard for the sake of my real audience—you!—my 10,000 loyal readers.

The Tyee, a media outlet in British Columbia, called me about the Web Summit kerfuffle last week. You can read the resulting story here: Far-Right Speakers Given a Perch at Vancouver’s Web Summit.

‘Big, big big truth’

Speaking of Yarvin: While he would not grant me an interview, he did go back and forth with me on email for a few days last year. He is as long-winded in that format as he is in every other.

Yarvin did not say much of interest, but he did attempt to insult me in a way that—in my view—amounts to a compliment. Here’s what he said:

You have one of the kinds of mindsets that is rare in historical power structures: (relatively) open Machiavellianism. You know it is an evil world, everyone in it is evil, and when you're fighting for the good (La Lucha Continua! Venceremos!) you gotta not be out-eviled. This is a big, big big truth which you probably latched onto as a young person. While I would prefer not to see the world through the light of this truth, I do respect it, and indeed have often gotten fucked for not respecting it enough.

For the record, I do not consider myself a “Machiavellian.” That term usually implies that a person is an ambitious and deceptive cutthroat. I am certainly Machiavelli-aware after having spent many years working in politics. But I preferred to be an honest broker and rise or fall on my merits, which explains why I left behind the halls of power and came back to writing—highly learned in the ways of power.

Also, I do not believe the world is evil—but I can think of some men who fit the description.

Yarvin is correct, however, in assuming that my identity as the grandson of poor Mexican immigrant farm workers influenced my worldview. I consider it a moral duty to be on the side of the downtrodden, the oppressed and—in general—on the side of the people. And here we are.

Barring some final edits, my book—The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and The War On Democracy—is finished. I can’t wait to share it with you! The book will hit the shelves on August 18. Please pre-order at Bookshop to support independent bookstores and this newsletter.

More soon—on the California governor’s race, JD Vance’s new book, and the scandal of “Hondurasgate.”