[thr0waway_abcd]

Palantir would more or less be as a part of the "government" if the Curtis Yarvin acolytes were to attempt and succeed at some form of Yarvinism next term. I think likely it would require replacing Powell, and maybe that can be stopped until 2026. But there's still an extremely frightening non-zero chance.

[UltraSane]

I know what Palantir does and I kinda know about Yarvin but I don't know what they have to do with each other.

[thr0waway_abcd]

Thiel and Vance are both friends of Yarvin and followers of his ideas. Musk likely is as well due to his recent orbit into that world. And these ideas are floating around in various elite circles.

In a Yarvinist world, there are no nation states, there is no liberalism, no conservatism, no democracy, no representative forms of government, only corporate fiefdoms.

I would hope that it is concerning to people, the fact that these ideas are now so close to power, smuggled in behind a near perfect mandate. They inherit many sophisticated means of manufacturing consent. And they inherit if not total immunity to legal action, then a total lack of appetite for legal action.

[hollerith]

Does Vance admit that he is friends with Yarwin or do other people that don't like Vance claim that Vance is friends with Yarwin?

[UltraSane]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/18/jd-vance-w...

[hollerith]

I don't read whole web pages anymore when someone here links to them because I've found that most of the time, nothing on the web page supports the assertion being made.

Also, you haven't stated an assertion.

[UltraSane]

Fair point, I will stop being lazy in the future and quote the specific parts of the articles I link to

[Epa095]

I agree, he should have given the following quote (from the webpage he linked) and given the url as a reference.

> Vance has said he considers Yarvin a friend and has cited his writings in connection with his plan to fire a significant number of civil servants during a potential second Trump administration.

[sourcepluck]

> In a Yarvinist world, there are no nation states, there is no liberalism, no conservatism, no democracy, no representative forms of government, only corporate fiefdoms.

Isn't that what we already have now? One could argue that it's structurally the case since neoliberalism got going in the 80s, but it seems much more obviously and viscerally true the last couple of decades (2008 financial crash, Obama saves banks, Trump 1.0, generalised trade wars, COVID, Ukraine, Gaza, Trump 2.0, climate chaos, nuclear treaties being revoked, etc).

I mean, if there's a revolving open door between these three entities:

  1. government
  2. business
  3. media

Then what we get seems to amount to corporate fiefdom, at least in its effects. In the words of Walter in The Big Lebowski: "Am I wrong?"

Put differently: if you look at the larger threats we face as a species, and then if you look at the larger trends of how nation states ("democracies") actually act, the actions don't seem to track whatsoever with the desires of populations, and they do seem to track very accurately with the desires of big business. At what point do we say - hold on a minute, are we living in a corporate fiefdom of some kind?

[insane_dreamer]

Not quite there yet but agree that we’re heading that direction.

[wood_spirit]

How does Ukraine fit into that list?

[sourcepluck]

I'm unsure what you think it's a list of. It fits in because populations don't like wars, and have to be lied into them. War is very good for business, so we get wars. Bigger ones like Ukraine and Gaza, and small multi-decade ones like in various parts of the Middle East and Africa.

Worrying now about how my comment reads to U.S. readers, so I'll say explicitly - there was not meant to be a partisan slant towards either of the two absolutely terrible mainstream U.S. parties.

[immibis]

It's confusing because the Ukraine war was obviously not started for any reason like this. The Ukraine war wasn't started for the USA to profit and nobody on the western side (including Ukraine itself) was lied to to allow it to happen.

The USA was keeping Ukraine in a perpetual state of not quite winning for reasons like this (the longer the war goes on the more money defense contractors make) but it's got nothing to do with the reason the war happened.

[klranyv]

- Revolving door: Hunter Biden's stint as Burisma board member.

- War profiteering: U.S. defense industry is doing great.

- War profiteering: https://successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toru...

The other side does it too, of course. The people in the trenches fight for Russian oligarchs or for Ukrainian oligarchs and Western companies.

Historically, it is interesting that WW1 stopped with German sailors realizing that they were being used and starting the Kiel mutiny.

[UltraSane]

Other than firing a lot of federal workers I don't really see how much Trump could implement Yarvinism.

[Hikikomori]

Trump is their tool to get into power. Trumps first presidency was unexpected, he didn't have a real plan to do anything. He was doing it for himself, his cabinet was filled with people there for similar self gain reasons. They were inept and mostly unable to do anything.

The second time around they have a plan, project 2025. It's not trump's plan but they'll do it in his name anyway, if not they can always 25th amendment him and have Vance instead. The authors and their acolytes will all be in his cabinet. They have the presidency, the house, senate, supreme court and already have many federalist society judges in place.

Will they be able to do everything in the plan? Probably not. Is it likely that they'll do great damage to the federal government and hurt many people? Yes, they're set up to do so already. Will states be able to resist? Maybe, the right is all for states rights but they're also hypocrites so I have my doubts.

[cen4]

Buying politicians, media and govt contracts has been going on for as long as govt has existed.

It hasn't suddenly begun in 2024, and institutions have lasted those hundreds of years, while being under constant assault by one mindlessly ambitious resourceful group after another.

Blindly pick any institution you want, and go look at their history. In fact, most would have been set up in reaction to some groups delusional activities. Its hard to find a single institution that some group hasn't tried to shutdown, control or exploit.

Institutions survive for the simple reason, that these groups don't have solutions for everything that happens in a complex ever changing universe.

And sooner or later the universe will throw some complex problem in their lap, that breaks whatever mental model of reality, their 3 inch chimp brain can hold. Such people and groups come and go all the time.

[thr0waway_abcd]

In Yarvin's conception, the first step is "RAGE", "Retire All Government Employees". And I don't think it's going out on a limb to draw a parallel with Schedule F.

[insane_dreamer]

He can give it a pretty big start

[petre]

Just like Musk's management of Twitter or some sort of Cultural Revolution.

[krhwaF]

Who has the army in that scenario? Yarvinism sounds like Thatcherism/Ayn Rand dressed up in Silicon Valley mysticism and lore.

It is a pity that Vance stoops so low instead of citing proper sources.

But that is what you get if Democrats run a corporate fascist/elitist regime for four years that is dressed up in empty equity rhetoric and does not tolerate any opposing opinions.