Curtis Yarvin: The Edgelord's Guide to Monarchy 40K
🕑 Added 2024-12-25 12:41:50 +0000 UTCIn this long-anticipated episode, Matt and Chris dip into the peculiar world of Curtis Yarvin, the reactionary blogger, tech entrepreneur, and self-proclaimed monarchist. Known to his early followers by the pseudonym "Mencius Moldbug," Yarvin is a prominent figure in the "dark enlightenment" and neo-reactionary circles. Some have even heralded him as an "intellectual powerhouse" of the modern far-right, with influential figures like Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance singing his praises.
But, what is Curtis actually all about? In this episode, the decoders wade back to the Triggernometry swamp to see what political insights the hard-nosed journalists, Konstantin and Francis, managed to unearth during their ferocious intellectual exchange with Curtis.
Join them and learn thrilling insights like the names of all the historical figures and movements that Yarvin has memorised, which Elizabeth he thinks was the best queen, and how many non-monarchs are in fact leading monarchical regimes. Yarvin’s rhetorical style is, in a word, meandering. So be prepared for a veritable "mind palace" tour through the history of Soviet Russia, Elizabethan England, Shakespearean conspiracy theories, a fantasy world of reactionary and techno-libertarian takes, and, of course, the usual lab leak narratives.
Is Yarvin an edgy but intellectual thinker, a provocative contrarian, or just a verbose windbag with bog-standard conspiratorial takes and a moody teenager's view of history? Matt and Chris grapple with these questions as they do their best to discern Yarvin’s vision for society and pray that he might eventually answer just one question.
Links
- Triggernometry: Curtis Yarvin- The Case Against Democracy
- UnHerd: Curtis Yarvin: Welcome to the Dark Enlightenment
- Behind the Bastards Part One: Curtis Yarvin: The Philosopher Behind J.D. Vance
- Behind the Bastards Part Two: Curtis Yarvin: The Philosopher Behind J.D. Vance
- The Guardian: He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration
Comments
Paul Ditta
When your entire political philosophy was summed up by Annakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones, you probably should just go home…
Paul Ditta
Well, Saudi Arabia is a bit problematic, what with the whole, “I’ll have you tortured or murdered and dismembered if you say mean things about me” vibe. Anyone thinking hereditary monarchy is a good thing, I have two words for you. The first word is Prince. And the second word is Andrew. A man who has 70 + cuddly toys on his bed and a seating plan for them. If one is misplaced he loses his shit. Yikes
Paul Ditta
Sounds like the least enjoyable addition to a Disney Theme park…
Paul Ditta
Well there’s a mental image I shall take to my grave…
Sarah S
I can’t believe people think this guy is intelligent.
Stephen
I’m just curious. I became a Patreon a few months back and I don’t think I’ve been given a “shoutout” yet. How does it work? I really love the show and I enjoy supporting it.
Stephen
Hi
Sean Daffy
Not only does the Emperor have no clothes - he’s masturbating in front of everyone!
Matt
jesus christ Matt, go off king fucking hell. (Podcast Matt at the end, not me, that would be crass).
Matt
It's actually impressive to be this (allegedly) well-read, yet entirely devoid of any real insight
Jonathan Crymes
Just occurred to me several weeks later. He never says it, but Yarvin believes the limits upon a monarch’s power should come from people like him: wealthy, “enlightened” elites. He probably never says that directly because it’s so nakedly self-serving.
Amadeusz Lisiecki
The real King will be able to choose himself!
Natasha Bride
I think we need a case study on this one. He definitely needs some reorganisation upstairs lol.
Joanna Go
I've just finished this episode... Well, that’s 3 hours of my life I won’t get back! Thanks for the experience, guys!:P :P
Philip Grant
He drops in "tower block" later in the interview too, but in the clip it seemed like this went over the interviewers' heads and didn't register with them as a British phrase that Americans don't really use. All that effort wasted!
Daniel Reed Miller
As good a theory as anything, given his complete lack of actual specifics. Pretty plausible actually that he and others would support something like that, ughh/lol.
Daniel Reed Miller
I was gonna say, those are the actual literal hereditary absolute monarchies that exist in the modern world. And he intentionally passed them right by in favor of… Singapore and communist China?? Make it make sense!
Linda Sears
Bingo!
AzurePropagation
Listening to this man speaking gives me the feeling you get when it’s been 2 hours since you had that edible, and you realize you’re in the time vortex where no part of reality actually makes sense, and it never has. Actually giving me bad drug experience flashbacks. Impressive.
Linda Sears
And inheritance. I was waiting to hear if Yarvin would go into the concept of blood bloods being better rulers.
Alex H
Greatly enjoyed hearing Matt's rant at the end. Truly off the leash.
Noreen B
Yes, I keep thinking that one of his big problems is that he didn’t study any of this stuff in an environment where he would be pulled up on his shallow thinking. He’s just surrounded by people who don’t know what he’s talking about as he rambles on with his adolescent nonsense.
Alex H
Lol 'simple jack'
Cate Kneale
The specific accent of Edward VIII, maybe?
Cate Kneale
I'm still waiting for someone to explain Nick Land to me. Can i put that in as a request?
Eric Quirk
It’s mind-bogglingly pretentious, is what it is
Eric Quirk
Wow. This podcast is truly a revelation, I’m actually shocked. I pretty much already knew that Yarvin is a name-dropping intellectual poser, however I had assumed that he at least had a coherent theory of power and political organization… but no, not even that. He’s way more of a pathetic lightweight than even I had imagined! And so insufferable!
JGraves
This guy looks exactly what you would think he would look like.
Jeanne H-B
This week I learned three excellent words: broligarchy, wafflearium, and The Nerd Reich. Happy New Year, y’all!
Will Jameson
Dude just uses, “you know”, and other stretched out meaningless words to buy himself time while he figures out what name he is going to drop next.
S Garvey
in the traditional way - violence. steal it from those who can't defend it.
Charlie Friedberg
Matt’s point about narcissism at the end is exactly why at one point i was drawn to conspiracies and these online grifters. Can’t thank you two enough for the truly invaluable work you do
Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrPNvVhKLU Behind the Bastards did him. More deep divy and a good compliment to DtG version. Chris and Matt are all you need to hear if you don't have time. Especially just hearing the man talk. It's significant that this guy is hanging out with Peter Thiel, JD Vance and others on election night watching parties. No doubt more cross-pollinating with mutants. The next time you hear someone like Rick Santorum casually mention that the USA is a republic and not exactly a true democracy (and thus the right to one-man-one-vote), just know that the altright thinktank messaging is afoot and guys like Yarvin are providing the historical validation, however badly, to justify disenfranchisement. Don't take this guy seriously but do take his perceived importance seriously. Reminds me of DtG profile of Aleksandr Dugin. He weaves the folklore with the state lies to convince the Russian people that Ukraine IS Russia and Russia IS Ukraine. We don't need the west...
Mike
It's wokeness that restrains the landed gentry from stepping on the neck of those who aren't...ah...landed? How does one get landed? Flowers and chocolate?
Ema Corro
Seems like once a month one of my older relatives starts telling me about some really "interesting" guy they heard talking, that I should listen to. Usually the discussion leaves me confused and annoyed (and in this case yelling about covid not coming from a lab). Then a couple of weeks later you guys do an episode on them and I am like "so thats what that was about..."
Noreen B
Ok that’s hilarious. I’m stealing this.
S Garvey
the King of the Nerd Reich.
S Garvey
re: will Apple survive without Tim Cook? How will United Heathcare survive without . . . that CEO guy who got shot whose name I can't remember?
S Garvey
the point he was trying to make about the Uhgers was about violence. What these people think (I read his blog ages ago) is that power needs sovereignty to enact legitimate violence. The Chinese used brute violence to deal with the Ughers while we (US) fund proxy "revolutionaries" to CAUSE violence. this relates to Israel. they think Israel needs to be given space to end the war entirely. It's liberalism that perpetuates war with its focus on human rights which restrains the ability of sovereigns to enact violence to solve problems. that's their ideology.
Ben Godek
Either that or it’s the subject of the last book he read.
Ben Godek
I think he was trying to make a joke with his British interviewers.
Linda Sears
I wondered that as well. Given his love of monarchy, one would think he’d have an affected English accent.
Megan
I came to the comments because I need someone to address the “I’m using the British pronunciation of Nazi”. What?! Is this a thing? Why use an accent for just one word? Was that supposed to be a joke? Also, not even self described Nazis talk about Nazis as much as this guy.
Megan
It sounded like someone trying and failing to write a Seinfeld joke. (drive on a parkway, park on a driveway)
Monica B.
Oh and also his weird comment about CP members back in the day—but actually characters in the movie Reds he was referencing—living like modern San Franciscans?! I giggled. One of my grandfathers (who had very opposite politics to me but who always took me seriously even as a teen, listened to me, challenged me, and crucially for my learning let himself be challenged and even change his mind on things) once called SF ‘Moscow one the Pacific’. Love ya gramps, but 🤣🤣🤣
Monica B.
Omg great reference!!!
Monica B.
Hahaha exactly!
Monica B.
So true! I was so annoyed to realize that there is a person in the world that I would choose listening to Peterson over
Monica B.
This new-to-me / may-we-never-meet-again dude is so painful to listen to! I could have lived a full and happy life without ever knowing he existed hahahaha. He talks like someone on zoom who is secretly doing google searches the whole time to find the most superficial touchstones or overly specific facts listed at the top of a Wikipedia page to sound like they know what they are talking about. Also the Eastern brain thing?!?! Like there is no diversity on a quarter of the globe?! These people are terrifying in their confident banality. All that said this was a most entertaining episode, and Chris and Matt, your laughs and reactions and frustration and disgust truly spoke for us all!
Linda Sears
I can almost see him walking about in the ruffled collar and poofy pants, hose, and cape. All would be well until he got smallpox and died.
Lance
True. That kind of equivocation does so much of Peterson's work for him. Life would be so much easier if I stopped sweating the little details (like caring about being right).
Ben Godek
We can call this the Jordan Peterson transitive theory of categories: if A and B have any similarities, then A belongs in every category that B does, and vice-versa. For example, fire is a predator because it hurts you, and so do bears. QED
Bernt Goodson
I didn't know much of anything about Yarvin prior to this episode, aside from knowing that he is an influential thinker for the new right movement. I expected to find his opinions repugnant, but I also thought he would be articulate and intelligent. I was a bit surprised by how incoherent and bloviating he is
Milquetoast Ramen
It’s like he grew up watching too much of The Lion King, idolizing Simba, and now applies rose-colored glasses to historical monarchies with impressive white washing of pretty uncontroversial atrocities like that of the Uyghurs. Also does anyone else find he sounds very similar to Tim Kennedy, which makes listening to him even more unpleasant?
AnnieB
I am loving the term “Broligarchy” to describe our “uber-cool” tech overlords.
Ben Godek
Very similar to a lot of the gurus, but especially Jordan Peterson I think. The meandering answers that reference a ton of things that make him sound smart.
Guruspod 2
Haha she sure would. Probably her overall level of cleanliness also!
JustTheWorstEver
Ok, didn't think I'd be overly entertained by this after already experiencing the BtB episode on Yarvin, but I was wrong!
OR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpO8OEkiORc
Amy S
Linda Sears
I think Shakespeare was savvy enough not to get on the wrong side of the queen; celebrating England and some of its great rulers was sort of required. I really dislike the theory that Shakespeare could not have been a “common” middle class man. I don’t think he would have been able to appeal to multiple audiences had he not been middle class.
Linda Sears
What a tour de force of guru decoding! Some thoughts- I think Queen Elizabeth I would have been impressed by Queen Elizabeth II’s teeth. The rotating wafflarium (wafflerium?) is my new favorite Chrisism.
Mike Nelson
I've listened to many stupid people over the years I've enjoyed your podcast, but Curtis Yarvin actually made me dumber listening to him.
Philip Grant
It's interesting that he dodges the question about Saudi Arabia and the UAE, because those monarchies certainly have plenty of friends among western conservatives.
Philip Grant
Is it a family connection maybe? (He mentioned his grandmother a couple of times in the context of the CPUSA.)
Fredrik Gunnarson
I'd say Chris term "wafflerium" sums it up pretty neat!
John S Durst
I definitely share Matt's strange surprise/disappointment that I thought he'd be more interesting, albeit in a repellent way. JBP's pseudo-profound bullshit at least has a high WTF factor, even if it's ultimately similarly vacuous
George
Well you did it fellas: the single most infuriating episode of the year. The oratory equivalent of that game where you try and get from one Wikipedia page to another in the least number of clicks. Merry Shitmas gang.
James Watts
How anyone thinks this meandering lunatic is a heavyweight philosopher is beyond me. Both monarchy and CEO run city states are an idiotic idea on their face. Anyone advocating for a return to a single authoritarian leader is just advocating for the worst excesses and stupidities of both Maoist China and Stalinist Russia. I guess that’s why people like Thiel, Musk and Vance like him. They want unconditional power and he’s the “philosophical” backing they need to legitimize their desires.
Ymirsdreams
I'm under the impression that Yarvin got his major 'bump' from his being written about by Nick Land in the Dark Enlightenment (not that Yarvin's arguments are actually well outlined or advocated for in that book, either).
Kerena
Also that was the 'answer' to the question, 'is the civic calamity that America is facing right now the fault of democracy'? I'm not sure which 'civic calamity' the host was talking about (she and I probably have different views on what is calamitous) but in what world is his sophistry even close to relevant?
Christopher Kavanagh
I’ll check!
Christopher Kavanagh
It’s projection… I’ve played Space Marine 2 and am watching lore videos now.
Kerena
Does anyone know why he's so obsessed with the history of the CPUSA? I mean it does have a very interesting history and at certain time periods was closer to a mass party and had influence or a least a role in labor, social movements, working class (especially immigrant) culture and the intellectual left. Like all parties there's factions and splits and whatnot and then there's the relationship with Moscow. It's not uninteresting. But I'm a former member of this party (in a very mild incarnation) and lemme tell you it has absolutely no influence even on the left currently. I really have no idea why ol Curtis keeps bringing it up.
Hayden Setlik
I didn’t expect Yarvin to win me over to his worldview in this ep but WOW that “democracy and politics are the same thing yet ppl say democracy good and politics bad hmmm checkmate libs 😏” argument is the stupidest thing I’ve heard a person say out loud in a while. Stunning stuff.
Kerena
His approach really makes the case for academia. He thinks he's doing what an academic does by reading six books and trying to shove vaguely remembered points from those books into supporting bland pre-conceived anti-'woke' talking points. That's just the sort of thing I did as an undergraduate. Came to understand that decent academics have a wide reading and understanding of their fields; are conversant with different methodologies; deliberately choose and explain their methodology; are constantly humbled by their peers. I didn't want to do any of that and became a lawyer.
Kerena
Thank you phanatic for this phact!
Unfitforpurpose
He's boring and lacks any substance but his ideas are ultimately convenient to someone like Thiel because just justify what he was going to do anyway. Billionaires who believe they should be allowed to do whatever they want regardless of the cost to everyone else promote him to justify their existence.
Unfitforpurpose
I can deal with the constant attacks on nebulous "humanities" graduates from Matt. But I was listening to this while painting my miniatures and quite frankly I feel attacked.
Maytree
The comment from Chris about K not entirely agreeing he is a “classical liberal” comes a clip or two BEFORE the relevant clip, so there is an out-of-order edit, at least on the public version I listened to today. Just FYI Chris.
Trees
The Warhammer 40k vibes are indeed strong. This guy takes me back to age 11, arguing with friends over which army is better based on lore and pretty pictures before I actually understood the game mechanics.
Lance
I'd never heard of Curtis Yarvin before (and thank god for that he's a waste of time!) Like Chris and Matt said, I wish he was edgier so I had something to pay attention to. I found myself tuning out whenever Curtis got going. Like Peterson and Pageau, he seems to love whether something is "really" something which is such a snoozefest of a topic every time I hear about it "That's not 'really' democracy". It just. Doesn't. Stop. "What does 'mean' mean?"
Chomagerider
Utterly insufferable but one interesting observation: JBP's long journeys into the lands of myths, dragons and other fantasies, while mostly exhausting, can be entertaining, fun little mental gymnastics. The same cannot be said for this clown's BS. It just doesn't work when you journey into the lands of facts and reality (be it political, historical or whatever). The results are different . JBP looks like a maniac. This guy just looks like a baffoon...
Adam Sher
Simple Jack, in this case, should go full retard and insist Yarvin to explain it that way.
Shaggy Rabbit
“I think he’s describing YouTube…” [chef’s kiss]
Ben Godek
He kept saying that he’s “looking into the past” but he never once explained WHY the past is preferable. On the Shakespeare point, there are plenty of pro-monarchy speeches in Shakespeare, but there are plenty of examples of bad rulers causing a lot of suffering too…
Ben Godek
I mean you could compare and contrast Uyghurs and Afghans as two central Asian Muslim cultures, but his point was ultimately just racist drivel so he doesn’t deserve any credit.
Podcast Phanatic
Vast majority of afghan peoples are from Iranian cultural groups. 11% are Turkic, like Uyghurs. And of the Iranian groups there are groups like Hazara who speak an Iranian language but has a big Turkic influence and they have a lot of Turkic genetic ancestors. So it’s not wrong to say Uyghurs and Afghans have a shared history and lots of cultural connections. That said, I don’t see any real connection though between PRC in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and the US in Afghanistan. The PRC has a colonial project, the US had a regime change project. The Turkic minorities were generally supportive of the US, the Taliban is Pashtun and tries (maybe less now back in power) to impose Pashtunwali (pashtun social code). One of the biggest US allies was militia leader Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek (Turkic) who defected from the Soviet backed government to the mujahideen after the USSR collapsed. TBH I think Curtis really just wanted to say “I think what the PRC is doing in Xinjiang is good.” He thinks might makes right. I don’t get the impression that either him or Konstantin really cares about Uyghurs or Afghans so it’s gross to see them used as a prop.
Jen
He has a Ben Shapiro-esque delivery when he gets going. That must be the mechanism that lures in the followers. Certainly certain about everything. 🙄
Podcast Phanatic
“The idea a professor should run the government was absurd in 1900” - the president of the US in 1913 was Woodrow Wilson a political science professor and former Princeton university professor. Maybe he’s referring to this but his style of speaking is so convoluted it’s unclear? But to me his point just sounded completely nonsensical.
Kyle Wilson
My god he is preternaturally insufferable
John Pohl
Two things: 1) I would say this guy is an idiot but that's an insult to all idiots. 2) I hate that pseudo-academic voice that is so common in people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
Melissa Eldridge
Jesus Christ, I’m fully dead from listening to his voice. How is it that men with this tone of voice are allowed to bloviate endlessly?!? And men don’t MIND the tone?!? They can pay attention? And people made fun of Kamala’s LAUGH??? I truly don’t get it.
teethgrinder
He and others like Thiel or Musk basically want a weak figurehead like Trump that they can manipulate to fulfill their agenda. So i guess he ultimatley wants a system like Russia - with fake elections and some sort of Oligarchy in the background. Of course saying these things outright would probably cause too much of an outcry at the moment - hence all the obfuscation and evasion.
Ben Godek
His voice sounds a bit like Michael O’Fallon to me. Maybe old school right wing authoritarians gravitate towards talking like that.
Dada de Broglie
A laboured exchange of something but I wouldn’t call them ideas.
Kgar
“It is such a waste of time…I’m so sorry to everyone for having to subject you to this…but it has to be done”—Matt FTW! 😁👍 Well done, you two🙏
Kyle H
Lol… You know damn well that, if Eric W did LSD, he would not make any more sense 🤣
Spartacus Mills
"Intellectual powerhouses of the centre left"! Love this description of the triggernometry boys
Jack
You know when you're a first year university student, and you think you know everything, have all the solutions and can reference lots of things you've heard your lecturers say?
Nina Davies
Most historians think themselves into the past don't they? Surely there is nobody who likes history that doesn't try to understand the points of view of the people who lived there? Who is he talking to exactly??? People who like technology so much they have never considered anything else?
Majestic Syrnicki
Found myself thinking, 'wait does china share a border with Afghanistan?'. Turns out he's not wrong.. there is a skinny strip of land the extends east from Afghanistan to China.. with a 90km border. Thin grounds for a cultural connection
Natasha Bride
Why does this guy talk like he's singing? How does that happen? Also, I've never heard such nonsense in my life.
Natasha Bride
In my experience, people on LSD make a lot more sense than this guy. I'm offended on behalf of LSD lol. I think he's just really stupid.
Stephen McGlinchey
Yes. He's a big influence on the "network states" advocates, one of whom I heard rabbiting on about "philosopher kings"
Protagonist Science
Fuck this guy is boring. Insubstantial lightweight
Jennifer Nelson
When projecting himself into the past Yarvin assumes he’d be an Elizabethan courtier or member of the Prussian aristocracy. I’d like someone to ask him to imagine himself as a rag seller, chimney sweep, or scullery maid
Kyle H
This guy kind of seems like Eric W did some LSD.
Brice F
Matt’s assessment is on point. Yarvin seems to be the authoritarian-conservative response to Fukuyama’s case for liberalism without Fukuyama’s actual intellectual heft.
Robert Andrews
What about Magna Carta? Did she die in vain? /JK
Robert Andrews
Yeah, I think it was in Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad (or Montefiore's Court of the Red Tsar), where, on the eve of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, a German soldier defects by jumping into a river and swimming across to the Soviet soldiers and shows them a phrasebook with phrases like "Hands up!" "Surrender!" "Identify your commissar" etc.... but when he got there and the message went up the command, I think (probably shouldn't be doing all this from memory), that Stalin told them to have him shot. There were warnings coming from all over the place, including Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy working in the German embassy in Japan and even Mao and Kim Il-Sung knew about the impending invasion which Stalin stubbornly refused to believe putting his faith in one of the most obviously untrustworthy humans in history.
Mark Francis
Apparently the vast bulk of food stuff for the German army was being imported from soviet Ukraine which was immediately cut off. This lose of calories had an influence on German food policies and hastened the attitude to who was to be fed and not. Seriously sad game
Mark Francis
Yes fascinating for sure. Synders pretty much says what your saying… Hitler is (luckily) the ultimate Hedgehog from Isaiah Berlins essay The hedgehog and the fox. Hitler knew one big thing, where as Foxes know many things. You would think that Hitler would of read Tolstoy or at least aware of Napoleon’s rush at Moscow?!
Vee
Love the mighty boosh shout out lol. "We are.. looking backwards". Phenomenal reference.
Brice F
The defeat of France convinced the OKH that they could rapidly defeat Russia in just a few months. Gorodersky also has Stalin being caught off guard, but also Stalin knew he was the source for raw materials for Germany so it would’ve been counterproductive for the German war against the Brits. Stalin was acting like a 19th century realpolitik statesman taking advantage, but didn’t realize the seriousness of Nazi ideology. Tooze and Maiolo’s books (Wages/Cry Havoc) point that Hitler thought he could quickly knock out the Soviets to incorporate their economic resources in order to focus on gaining dominance over the Anglo-Americans. It’s a fascinating subject!
Mark Francis
And thought no one was crazy enough to run at Moscow in the winter without the necessary gear
Mark Francis
I just finished Snyder’s Bloodlands. He commented that Stalin was caught off guard about Hitlers invasion because his intelligence sources said that the German Army were not issuing winter gear to the troops at the time
Rambo Billy
Is his gibberish basically a 14 year olds red pill take on plato's idea of a philiopher king?
Kelley
You know it’s bad when the decoders are rooting for Francis
Brice F
Icebreaker refers to Suvorov, a Soviet Cold War dissident who claimed that the Soviets were going to attack Germany first so Barbarossa was just self defense (German propaganda made this case during the war). Gorodetsky’s Grand Delusion is the best breakdown of the icebreaker idea and other conceptions of the origins of the invasion of the Soviets in 1941. McMeekin’s book is pretty polarizing among WW2 historians too. Wouldn’t vault it over others unless blaming communism for WW2 is just that much more psychologically soothing
commutercomputer
It's baffling that intellectual powerhouse of modern far-right is this hollow. Previous generations had ideologues like Marx and Evola who at least wrote complete books where they laid down their ideology like it or not. If I interpreted the Yarvins ramblings correctly he likes Monarchy because he believes that he will be part of the ruling elite and it will be magically aligned with his opinions. edit. Probably closest thing to Yarvins ideal ruler is Genghis Khan, but I doubt that many people think that Mongol Empire was an ideal form of governance.
boo
groan- that last bit about how tech is making people useless. its hilarious how much the godfather of the dark enlightenment or whatever the they call him really is just a sophmoric fanboy
Marfolini
Meandering through his blog, I found some weird stuff: The day after the terror attacks in Norway (22.07.2011) he wrote a blog post where he condemned the mass murderer… on grounds of being ineffectual. He seems to use a lot of false equivalence, and selective and often times outright false reading of history. I think maybe he’s the closest (at least from the episodes I’ve heard) to just being an outright fascist/neo-nazi.
Emma
OMG I never thought I would hear the Chinese authorities response to the Uyghurs population as an example of good government. In that case Hitler built a lot of roads.
Nancy Hale
A Christmas gift for all the good little patrons & decoders! Will be interesting to compare your take to Robert Evans ‘ & BtB’s, I liked those episodes. Thanks!
boo
oh wow yea - a curious artifact of the era to be sure. 'Plastic Surgery' from the soundtrack goes so hard
Jenson
I’m only a little ways in, but I’m already annoyed. Of course Elizabeth I and Shakespeare etc weren’t into democracy. They were pre enlightenment. Democracy as it’s currently conceived didn’t exist yet!
Gungy
Big thanks for getting this uploaded today! Listening while I prepare some Bitterballen.
Chris Clark
“More radical than a Nazi.”Woah dude 🤯
Mark Francis
Jeez he is playing dungeons and dragons, meanwhile… Trump is playing Risk. Elon is trying to win the science victory in Civilization, Putin is playing 5D chess and Xi is playing Go. All very poorly too
Cate Kneale
Hang on, I'm two hours in and I'm now wondering if Yarvin wants an AI monarch and maybe some techno-priests to keep it accountable? I may just be losing my mind though.
Kgar
What a Christmas gift. A decoding ep from our dynamic duo 😝❤️
Kgar
Merry Christmas gents! And fellow DGTers
Kgar
Wow I’m glad I’ve never heard this guy. Insufferable bullshit artist.
Cate Kneale
Every time Curtis Yarvin references Elizabeth the First and what she'd think of our society I can't stop thinking about Derek Jarman's Jubilee. But I really don't think that they share a philosophy.
Empty_Cognizance
Burn it straight to CD! 👴🏻
boo
kamala's word salads immediately came to mind when moldbug began frantically meandering after being asked for a cogent argument for monarchism
Gearóid
This guy has made my brain hurt. My God he's painful..
Lillie
Thank you for the Christmas poddie, always on point with your gift giving 🥰 Happy Christmas everyone!
JACK VAUL
All good! Didn't mean to be snarky but maybe it was. I dunno, it's Christmas, who's to say. Listening now, great ep 🖤
Christopher Kavanagh
I'll fix that. Thanks for the heads up!
JACK VAUL
A wav file! I'm going to have to listen to this on the good speakers. The 816mb download was a slog for the podcast app but I'm keen to hear you two legends in uncompressed form.
Gearóid
Christmas day listening to this podcast is something I never realised I needed.