47 Comments
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Art Levine's avatar

Regarding yarvin having no influence, see Gil Duran's reporting,including www.thenerdreich.com And after you read all the documents information and quotes then still see if you believe that they don't have anti-democratic goals that go well beyond previous Republicans and they are aiming to destroy the federal government.

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Evan's avatar

"Figures like Musk, Thiel, and their allies appear to be dividing up spheres of influence – some focusing on media control, others on financial systems, still others on political organizing." - What is your evidence for this?

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Ted's avatar

Starlink and Twitter. Palantir and Crypto.

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The Intrepid Explorer's avatar

The comments have added more appreciation for the context that the article was trying to illicit..

I think what is hard to gauge atm is the fact that since we are still in the early stages of this apparent move towards a "techno-autocracy", the narrative about how bad/oppressive it will be, always seems to be the main impression of what is to come. I agree that consolidating power in the hands of a few is not really ideal, but I would also like to believe that the access to evolving tech and means of communication will likely lead to a future we can all benefit from more than we collectively will lose out off. The rich will always operate in levels above the norm, but maybe the opportunities and access that is available to a larger degree will hopefully curb the disparities between us.. Sentimental thinking, maybe, but let's not become what we fear.

Otherwise, Gr8 article, written in an informative and evocative manner 😁👍🏽

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James Hohmann's avatar

We’re on the same page, thank you for this clear and necessary analysis.

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Robert Lindsay's avatar

One ridiculous argument amidst a good essay. Putin is not a fascist by any stretch of the imagination. He is not part of some project to promote rightwing governments the world over. He likes the European Right because they are friendly.

But he’s also tight with Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Vietnam, Laos, China, North Korea, Belarus, all leftwing countries. No fascist would support any of those countries. The state is still quite socialist or even communist at all levels. The public sector is huge.

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Mahendra Shah's avatar

The word fascist should be replaced with ‘dictator’. The argument in the entire article is not about right wing versus left wing. It is about democracy versus autocracy.

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Robert Lindsay's avatar

This idea is insane. Do you believe there are a group of autocrats all working together to promote autocracy over democracy? It’s idiotic and insane and it’s never happened one time. Autocrats could give a flying fuck what kind of system you have. They just want friendly countries.

And no all autocracies don’t stick together. Historically many have hated each other.

I don’t understand the point of this article.

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Mahendra Shah's avatar

Indeed the autocrats support each other. The vested interests of technocrats and autocrats are also aligned in keeping the excessive wealth under their control.

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Robert Lindsay's avatar

Completely false. Leftwing autocrats support rightwing autocrats? Are you nuts? No autocrat cares what from any other government takes. They just want allies, democratic, autocratic, or otherwise.

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Mahendra Shah's avatar

Aren’t Trump and Putin supportive of each other? It is not about right or left. It is about oligarchs.

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Robert Lindsay's avatar

That’s bullshit. And Putin is not an oligarch nor did his government create an autocracy. Putin is nearly a socialist of even a communist. Trump is the polar opposite. Putin likes Trump because Trump is friendly. That’s it.

Putin just wants friendly allies. He has alliances with all sorts of countries around the world from democracies to autocracies. Putin has cracked down on the oligarchs in a big way. They have to support him, not the other way around

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Mahendra Shah's avatar

Even Hitler’s party’s official name was ‘National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP)’.

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Dino's avatar

Thank you. Not sure how we can resist the technocratic oligarchy as we are dependent on the very technology that makes them powerful. The UK prime minister and government, despite Musk’s summer onslaught (regarding grooming gangs) is cowering to Trump and his Tech bros. At the same time leading UK further from the EU which does have the potential to control tech and maintain democracy.

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Robin Mulvihill's avatar

The closeness of our (now outside the EU) governments of every stripe should not be underestimated.

Tech has ensconced itself right at the heart of our state’s functionaries.

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Chuck Connor's avatar

Are the UK government really cowering? I would hope so, everything I read shows them arresting native britons for speech infractions and welcoming unprecedented illegal boat landings while paying for housing for said illegals.

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David Jones's avatar

The installation of an autocrat dictator is not the beginning of fascism; it is the end of democracy. The political infrastructure that needs to be in place to capture SCOTUS, the FCC, SEC, DHS, CDC, FDA and the entire military apparatus takes decades and many billions of dollars.

No, the arrival of the autocrat is the end of democracy and the beginning of a new order. The battle of democracy was fought in the federal court system, not the voting booth.

What most people think is the beginning of the struggle to protect democracy is actually the full realization of fascism and autocracy. The battle is already over.

This next phase centers around the full implementation of a new social fabric and reality which will fundamentally change who and what America is; what Americans are and what America stands for.

As far as the public is concerned, they will be dumbstruck by things that do not seem to add up to anything at best and self-destructive at worst. Violence will be visited upon the public by the fascist government, as it has already begun.

The seemingly random people being selected to be deported to an El Salvador prison is meant to send a message that anyone, anywhere, is vulnerable and that the smallest insult to the regime could be met with death. This is the stage where terror and disorientation will be created to confuse and paralyze people with fear. .

The television has always been the tool of manufacturing the publics consent, and the continual onslaught of information will overwhelm viewer’s ability to fully grasp the wider implications of what they are witnessing. They will be lost in thought.

Once they begin to awaken, they will again mistake where they are in the process, and it will be far too late to change course.

This fascist regime seeks total global dominance and power to shape the past, present and future of the planet and make it a fact that white anglo saxon heritage will be the majority of people.

And so the patterns repeat but this time, there is not a satisfactory model already in place to replicate. The regime will do what is required to completely destroy all the institutions, norms and law that buttress what was the past and part of the present. The creation of terror, destruction and confusion while tearing down the icons and ideologies that keep the fabric of our present society in place will be destroyed.

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Chang Chokaski's avatar

What you say unfortunately seems to be coming true - I see it happening already...

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Mephistophelic's avatar

Billionaire worship—the modern religion that requires no church, no doctrine, and certainly no logic. Just a blind, unwavering faith that you—yes, YOU, the middle manager at BestCorp Inc., the high school junior who just discovered dropshipping, the aspiring tech bro with a Substack full of “grindset” wisdom—are merely one lucky break away from the penthouse at the top of the American economic Hunger Games.

You’re not mad at billionaires. Why would you be? You’re just pre-billionaire. A little more hustle and one day you, too, will be hoarding wealth like a dragon that eats stock options instead of villagers. You vote for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, cheer for corporate deregulation, and sneer at universal healthcare—because why should you pay for someone else’s doctor visits when, any minute now, you’ll be calling your personal concierge physician on your way to Davos?

Except…

You won’t.

You will never be one of them.

Not because you lack ambition, but because the system they created isn’t a ladder—it’s a hamster wheel covered in inspirational quotes about bootstraps. It dangles just enough possibility in front of you to keep you sprinting, believing that if you just work harder, wake up earlier, network better, read more LinkedIn posts about “The 5 AM Club,” you’ll manifest your way into their tax bracket.

But billionaires don’t work like you do. They don’t hustle. They don’t grind. They accumulate. They inherit. They invest in the kind of policies that ensure you’ll never climb high enough to join them—but that you’ll keep trying, anyway, defending them as if they’ll someday return the favor.

Jeff Bezos is not your underdog success story. Elon Musk is not a role model. And no, your drop-shipping side hustle will not land you a seat at Peter Thiel’s private island of libertarian biohacked overlords.

Billionaires want you to believe in the dream because it keeps you compliant. It keeps you voting against your own interests. It keeps you scoffing at higher wages, rolling your eyes at labor unions, and deriding wealth taxes—because one day, in some imagined alternate universe, those things might affect you.

They won’t.

The only thing your billionaire idol wants from you is continued belief in a fantasy that keeps you trapped in an economic system designed to serve them, not you.

So maybe—just maybe—it’s time to stop worshiping the people hoarding everything while telling you to work harder. Maybe it’s time to stop believing you’ll be the exception to a rigged game. And maybe it’s time to start demanding an economic system where you don’t need to be a billionaire to live a decent life.

But hey, if you really want to be rich, I hear there’s a much better lottery system for that. It’s called Powerball. At least it’s honest about your odds.

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Chang Chokaski's avatar

Well said! I don't understand how your comment doesn't have a 100 likes!

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Natalie Fingerhut's avatar

To have a proper resistance, one needs to know history. Unfortunately tech people are not interested in taking history courses.

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Naomi Drew's avatar

Oppose the oligarchs!

Call your Republican representative NOW and let it rip.

They vote today to gut Medicaid and give massive tax breaks to the wealthy. And the acting director at the Social Security Administration just called for a 50% reduction in forces there. They're starving out Social Security as we speak.

 https://apnews.com/article/social-security-layoffs-doge-musk-trump-93efbed33957af5ec8ac37744d0592de

CALL 202-224-3121 

SAY: 

DON'T TOUCH MEDICAID AND SOCIAL SECURITY!!

We are angry and we are watching. THIS CARNAGE HAS TO STOP!

**********

PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. 

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Art Levine's avatar

Putin came out of the Communist system and the dictators who proceeded him nominally claimed to be left-wingers.

But The common features of authoritarianism are using whatever democratic structures are at hand to create a fascist government using a LARGELY right wing oriented narrative of us versus them as described in the book strongmen and numerous volumes on totalitarianism by Hannah arendt. Whatever ideology they proclaim to follow such as Christian nationalism communism socialism the free market free enterprise etc the ideology is just a cover for greed power and destruction of any independent voices in the government they are taking over

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Alemany's avatar

Excellent work. Thank you

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Cailean's avatar

Amazing, the comments in here defending a fascistic global network as something it's not.

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Radical Thought's avatar

Excellent article I really enjoyed your insight!

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James B.'s avatar

Another great piece. I admit that I skimmed a little at the end--sorry about that. I've been thinking of Polanyi a lot these days.

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D Wolfie's avatar

Yep

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Borderline Interesting's avatar

Amazing article, it is in parts overlapping with the essay I posted today. Mine is outlining how there is actually a movement in motion that has infiltrated MAGA and appears to be working on achieving seven strategic objectives, to establish a post-democratic order. One of those is called RAGE - Retire All Government Employees - or, as it is now known: DOGE.

I try to get my blog out of the gate, we seem to argue in comparable directions - a restack would mean the world to me!

https://broderlineinteresting.substack.com/p/the-butterfly-revolution-a-silent?r=56uteg

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