This guy has been around forever, and my understanding was that he was extremely fringe and nobody took him seriously. So this article piqued my interest, because it would be worrying if his ideas actually started to gain a foothold in the mainstream.
So what are the claims exactly?
> But since Donald Trump’s re-election, Yarvin’s profile has grown exponentially. So has his influence, as his once-fringe ideas ... have gone from chatroom theory to something more like reality
Bold claim. And the evidence?
> Though Yarvin has never spoken with Trump, many of the president’s staffers are known to be avid followers and he is in contact with vice-president JD Vance, with whom Yarvin says he spoke in person about a month ago
Ah, as I expected, the proof here turns out to be absurd. "Staffers" (who we don't know the name of) are "known" (but we don't know by whom!) to be "avid followers" of him. And JD Vance "spoke in person" with him (but we don't know how many words were spoken, or if they agreed on anything!)
fennec-posix · 14h ago
wtf did I just read, what the hell are we doing
joules77 · 12h ago
Yarvin is an example of what happens to technical people who spend too much time thinking complex systems can be viewed through a rational lens.
If you ask them why things like Morality, Justice, Love, Forgiveness, Beauty, Empathy, Cooperation etc emerge their framework to explain reality and transformation starts breaking down.
1. Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking' Republicans to Control Entire US Government [0]
> A document [1] (33 page pdf. I checked the link), authored by an anonymous group of whistleblowers accuses Elon Musk of attempting to spearhead a private hostile takeover of the US Government on behalf of an extremist anti-democracy philosophy known as the ‘neo-reactionary’ movement, by effectively hijacking the Republican Party.
Snip
> The group, who are withholding their identity for fears of being targeted, includes former Silicon Valley and US technology leaders. They describe themselves as former followers of the neo-reactionary movement, also known as the ‘Dark Enlightenment’ – a burgeoning Internet philosophy which seeks to abolish the drive for greater equality and the very existence of democracy itself.
> The memo describes Elon Musk, the eponymous billionaire CEO of Tesla – now a US Government official in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – as attempting to exploit his position in the Trump administration to exert unilateral control of the entire US federal Government. It says that this is happening at the expense of both Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
> “Elon Musk’s unchecked consolidation of power over government infrastructure, financial systems, AI governance, and digital media does not serve the interests of the Trump administration or the broader conservative movement”, warns the memorandum. “While some may view Musk as a useful instrument in dismantling the bureaucratic state, in reality, his actions demonstrate that he is not working for Trump or the Republican Party, but rather for his own power and the broader neo-reactionary agenda.”
> In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO”
Gil Duran
05 Feb 2025
> The Point: In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO” who was not Trump and laid out a playbook for how it might work. Elon Musk is following it.
> The Back Story: In 2012, Curtis Yarvin — Peter Thiel’s “house philosopher”—called for something he dubbed RAGE: Retire All Government Employees. The idea: Take over the United States government and gut the federal bureaucracy. Then, replace civil servants with political loyalists who would answer to a CEO-type leader Yarvin likened to a dictator.
> “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia,” he said. Yarvin, a software programmer, framed this as a “reboot” of government.
> Elon Musk’s DOGE is just a rebranded version of RAGE. He demands mass resignations, locks career employees out of their offices, threatens to delete entire departments, and seizes total control of sensitive government systems and programs. DOGE = RAGE, masked in the bland language of “efficiency.”
So what are the claims exactly?
> But since Donald Trump’s re-election, Yarvin’s profile has grown exponentially. So has his influence, as his once-fringe ideas ... have gone from chatroom theory to something more like reality
Bold claim. And the evidence?
> Though Yarvin has never spoken with Trump, many of the president’s staffers are known to be avid followers and he is in contact with vice-president JD Vance, with whom Yarvin says he spoke in person about a month ago
Ah, as I expected, the proof here turns out to be absurd. "Staffers" (who we don't know the name of) are "known" (but we don't know by whom!) to be "avid followers" of him. And JD Vance "spoke in person" with him (but we don't know how many words were spoken, or if they agreed on anything!)
If you ask them why things like Morality, Justice, Love, Forgiveness, Beauty, Empathy, Cooperation etc emerge their framework to explain reality and transformation starts breaking down.
1. Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking' Republicans to Control Entire US Government [0]
> A document [1] (33 page pdf. I checked the link), authored by an anonymous group of whistleblowers accuses Elon Musk of attempting to spearhead a private hostile takeover of the US Government on behalf of an extremist anti-democracy philosophy known as the ‘neo-reactionary’ movement, by effectively hijacking the Republican Party.
Snip
> The group, who are withholding their identity for fears of being targeted, includes former Silicon Valley and US technology leaders. They describe themselves as former followers of the neo-reactionary movement, also known as the ‘Dark Enlightenment’ – a burgeoning Internet philosophy which seeks to abolish the drive for greater equality and the very existence of democracy itself.
> The memo describes Elon Musk, the eponymous billionaire CEO of Tesla – now a US Government official in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – as attempting to exploit his position in the Trump administration to exert unilateral control of the entire US federal Government. It says that this is happening at the expense of both Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
> “Elon Musk’s unchecked consolidation of power over government infrastructure, financial systems, AI governance, and digital media does not serve the interests of the Trump administration or the broader conservative movement”, warns the memorandum. “While some may view Musk as a useful instrument in dismantling the bureaucratic state, in reality, his actions demonstrate that he is not working for Trump or the Republican Party, but rather for his own power and the broader neo-reactionary agenda.”
[0] https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-whistleblo...
[1] https://america2.news/content/files/2025/02/Musk-NRx-Memo-Fe...
2. 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook [2]
> In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO”
Gil Duran 05 Feb 2025
> The Point: In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO” who was not Trump and laid out a playbook for how it might work. Elon Musk is following it.
> The Back Story: In 2012, Curtis Yarvin — Peter Thiel’s “house philosopher”—called for something he dubbed RAGE: Retire All Government Employees. The idea: Take over the United States government and gut the federal bureaucracy. Then, replace civil servants with political loyalists who would answer to a CEO-type leader Yarvin likened to a dictator.
> “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia,” he said. Yarvin, a software programmer, framed this as a “reboot” of government.
> Elon Musk’s DOGE is just a rebranded version of RAGE. He demands mass resignations, locks career employees out of their offices, threatens to delete entire departments, and seizes total control of sensitive government systems and programs. DOGE = RAGE, masked in the bland language of “efficiency.”
[2] https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-d...