This is a very unwise stance to take. Peter Thiel has teamed up with the Heritage Foundation to implement this plan. This is why A16Z and Musk put Trump in power, it is precisely to implement this plan.
The fact that Thiel backs him so hard is what worries me more than anything. Thiel has a way of making things happen when he's really committed to something on a personal level... (see the Gawker Media case)
Musk is on the outs. And what if there is no grand conspiracy?
We're extremely far from any of Yarvin's "plans" at any rate. Yarvin's most cherished plan was to create a shadow university called the "Antiversity" -- a sort of repository of all truths unbeholden to politics and fads. Is this a bad idea? Which other Yarvin ideas scare you so?
Today I found out that a friend of mine had their tenure case rejected because of their participation in a peaceful protest by a board of visitors staffed with GOP appointees.
The rising fascist movement is anything but supporting a “repository of truths in beholden to politics and fads.”
The reality matters. Simply saying “oh I’m good” while Yarvin smashes people under his feet is garbage.
>"Antiversity" -- a sort of repository of all truths unbeholden to politics and fads. Is this a bad idea?
It's not an idea in good faith. The people talking the loudest about political bias and trends being "wrong" are very much more likely to be extremely biased and following fads themselves.
If you actually cared about unbaised truths you'd be having good faith debates and be open to critical interpretation.
But the people complaining about political bias &c. are actually complaining that their bias isn't the dominant one.
Yes and by and large things that "they won't teach you in college" are because they have been already looked into and rejected by any serious academic.
These institutions are not above criticism (particularly in regards to economic theory IMO) but universities not teaching like, race science and holocaust denialism is not because they are scared of some "alternate truth" out there.
And there's a troubling problem that the criticism isn't being addressed.
One of the reasons we're in the political extremist situation is that the only ones seemingly capable of getting anything done are the fascists with no respect for rule of law. People get so sick for so long of nothing getting better that large numbers of them are turning to extremists who are actually addressing problems. Not in good ways or ways that many of us support, but they're in power because they're doing something.
Reasonable people failing to address reasonable problems encourage extremists. Now more than ever we have to do a great job of fairly managing our own house or it's going to get taken over by people will do it one way or another.
I tend to agree with this basic argument that feckless do-nothing liberalism leads to fascism. If the existing power structure is actively, visibly, constantly working to make people's lives better than fascist messaging is far less effective.
I do think that our current brand of fascism has completely skipped the "make some things better to prove the superiority of our ideology" stage (e.g. "Mussolini made the trains run on time" type stuff.)
To say they are actually addressing problems is an absurdity. They can't even cut overall spending like they claim they would.
They simply have to use their tens of thousands of media outlets and social media bots to convince people to not believe their eyes while things visibly and rapidly deteriorate.
but many folks are rejecting serious academics! I have been defeated in tech debates by my opponent dropping the nuke "thats just ivory tower thinking" and man my boss ate that shit up haha
Yes, I'm disinclined to believe that these extremely biased folk are largely incapable of recognizing bias on the opposite side of the isle. It seems like bad faith all the way down to a core of deep insecurity, fear, vindictiveness and lack of basic respect for others' boundaries.
> Yarvin's most cherished plan was to create a shadow university called the "Antiversity" -- a sort of repository of all truths unbeholden to politics and fads. Is this a bad idea?
Yes. That is a twelve-year-olds idea of a smart idea.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world follow his ideas, including people who have been in government or deeply involved in government, and people who want to use their wealth to increase their own power.
"'How dangerous is it that we are being linked?' Thiel wrote to Yarvin in 2014. “One reassuring thought: one of our hidden advantages is that these people”—social-justice warriors—'wouldn’t believe in a conspiracy if it hit them over the head (this is perhaps the best measure of the decline of the Left). Linkages make them sound really crazy, and they kinda know it.'"
Musk "left" government the day before his government employment would reach a length threshold requiring a lot more paperwork and transparency.
Trump presented Musk with a ceremonial key to the White House.
Musk has made some recent statements about the "big beautiful bill" that could be seen as an actual policy break with Trump. With that, he's aligned to GOP politicians who feel the bill doesn't cut enough taxes and/or spending. And he's still very much in the conversation.
this is one of the most depressing things about recent turns. this directly manufactured outrage. these petty dramas, this US govt a tv show. Oh no, did you see what trump did to that foreign leader? we've been explicitly given a sham, playacting government whose primary mission to be replace honest debate with this sham soap opera. i expect soon to found out that the Elon that we see is really his secret twin.
Its ongoing, and this is just phase 1 of whatever they've cooked up. But its not like all Yarvins ideas are happening, its an amalgamation of his ideas and Christian fascism. It's likely they will just Trump at some point and then they'll have their true puppet believer as president.
Just because Musk is done firing government employees and is engaged in a little punch-and-judy show of conflict with the Trump administration does not mean he is "on the outs"
Musk is on the outs because if he didn't leave his post within another week or so as he was a temporary government employee. In other words, had he stayed, he would have had to publicly disclose a ton of personal financial information.
Him "leaving" was part of the plan, and this fallout was most likely part of the charade.
This is a very unwise stance to take. Peter Thiel has teamed up with the Heritage Foundation to implement this plan. This is why A16Z and Musk put Trump in power, it is precisely to implement this plan.