Would Be Kings - Curtis Yarvin

There have been a fair number of pieces published lately regarding Curtis Yarvin, AKA Mencius Moldbug – the blogger, computer programmer turned amateur “philosopher”, and co-creator of the Neoreaction Movement, or NRx. Best known for Unqualified Reservations, which he wrote from 2007 to 2014 and Gray Mirror, which he started in 2020, Yarvin has recently made considerable inroads into the world of far right politics, including the current executive regime. Pretty good for a coder who flunked out of a UCB graduate program and cast his lot as a mediocre online writer – but deeply concerning none the less.

Nothing prepares you for how terrible the ramblings of Curtis Yarvin are. An editor’s nightmare, he routinely represents his random musings (rife with logical fallacies, sweeping judgments, wild speculations and biased opinions) as history and civics. A self-identified “crack philosopher”, he drones on at a tenth grade level, wherefrom he attempts to get you to abandon your humanity for a hollow sense of superiority. Every argument is mythical, purported, merely an assertion hoping to become social theory. His best known literary device, the thing for which he is perhaps most famous, is seizing upon a metaphor that isn’t his and isn’t accurate: perhaps the king of the alt right standby “redpilling” didn’t know that the pills in the movie The Matrix were a metaphor for coming out as transgender, or perhaps he just didn’t care. His job is to make people feel highly intelligent for reading his blogs – which is exactly how his audience wants to feel about themselves. If you happen to disagree with him it’s because you’re stupid, he asserts, as he childishly insults opposing points of view as “mystical horseradish”, and generally makes you wonder how on Earth he managed to inspire a movement.

And then there’s how tiresome the rhetoric of NRx/formalism/tech monarchism/Dark Enlightenment followers really is. Its progenitors would have us believe that there is an elite who are fit to rule, and that elite is comprised mostly of self-selected tech bros.”Things” are going badly, “liberal institutions” are to blame, and the US would be better off with a CEO as a national leader, accountable only to the biggest (richest) “shareholders”. Authority is the solution – their authority, of course. Life and society are just like corporations or computers, to be fixed with a reboot. Proposed rulers would look and act just like them – predominantly white men on an oligarchic crusade for unlimited power and an obscenely escalating amount of money.

NRx is tech monarchism – it’s essentialism and the myth of meritocratic wealth in the form of absolute worship of technology and its purveyors. We are purportedly being offered an upgrade “to reduce violence” – as though taking away people’s autonomy, consent and agency isn’t a form of violence. The average person doesn’t fare well in a dystopian autocracy, but this isn’t a credo built to benefit the vast majority of people. There’s also the idea that it will “reduce bureaucracy”, as though totalitarianism doesn’t require surveillance, crackdown, imprisonment, and increased implementation/maintenance personnel all the way around. It’s basically might makes right – in this case, technological (and economic) might. Or rather, “rich makes right”. It’s one wealthy dweeb’s attempt to make the myth of meritocratic wealth unassailable.

The most insidious parts of their “philosophy” are obvious – it’s an elitist political movement of tech oligarchs to seize even more power. It’s dark money with a god complex. It’s racist, sexist, eugenicist – like a caste system that starts with economic hierarchy and then integrates every system of oppression known to humankind. Yarvin’s encouraged “alien perspective” is an age-old way of estimating oneself as elite, and of having powers of discernment not available to the average person. And what a surprise – a scapegoat! (or two: “liberal media” and “marxist” universities). Bottom line, NRx adherents are setting the stage to take agency out of society and impose an autocratic order where they make the rules in their favor. Yarvin argues that democracy is to the detriment of progress, probably because it involves too many people he doesn’t like, which seems to be the vast majority of people. He is also a blatant bigot who has defended slavery, has argued that whites have higher IQs than black people, and that immigration will lead to a machete-wielding pogrom against white Americans. He has made the case that Hitler was only engaged in self defense.

The thing that keeps this from being just pissing into the wind is the audience of wealthy tech workers looking to have their worldview affirmed. Gray Mirror: “a Portal to the Next Regime” has 60K+ Substack subscribers and Yarvin has 62K X followers. He’s fulfilling obscenely rich people’s need to be absolved of guilt – to feel that their greed and (often) cruelty are wholly justified. The internet is the radio, film and tv of the current era, with an equivalent amount of influence. In this case, it serves up insidious fascist theory development presented as intellectual musings. The definition of fascism is racism + authoritarianism, and sadly the champion of this overtly fascist worldview is bending the ear of the rich and powerful with increasing force. Nothing outlined here is theoretical – it’s happening in real time. Yarvin has blatantly spread his take on authoritarianism/tech oligarchy through the internet, well established local channels, international tours, podcast appearances and “debates”, meetings with top officials, and more. His “mentorship” of Vice President JD Vance essentially means that he’s inserted himself into the inner workings of the Executive Branch. Such noteworthy quotes as, “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.”, and “It should be obvious that, although I am not a white nationalist, I am not exactly allergic to the stuff.”, and “In this house we believe in science – race science.” are making their way into the most powerful ears in the country.

We’ve borne witness to the consequences of allowing dark money to affect political outcomes – from subsidies and deregulation to Musk and DOGE (which is a version of Yarvin’s RAGE, or Retire Every Government Employee), lucrative public contracts awarded to Peter Thiel (a close personal associate of Yarvin), Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison, and proposed “Freedom Cities” and “exit” spaces beyond any accountability. Further deregulation and neoliberalism will inevitably have a disastrous effect on the environment, housing, employment, healthcare and other crucial aspects of life. There’s also the matter of how disastrously it dovetails with theocracy – both Thiel and Vance are ready to see the US ruled by fundamentalist doctrine. It’s understood at this point that we’re already well down the path to explicit rule by mega-donors, but in January 2025 Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington as an honored guest, indicating his desire and ability to bring his bigoted and autocratic message directly to the halls of power.

Curtis Yarvin’s goal is your complete disenfranchisement and subjugation to him and his wealthy cohorts. He would happily bring back feudalism, seeing himself as safely on the side of nobility. For all of the reasons stated, we believe that Curtis Yarvin is a danger to society and to humanity – certainly to the freedom and autonomy of the average person. While not proven interpersonally violent, he espouses and actively works toward the implementation of an ideology that is inherently violent. Berkeley, California residents should be warned that he is your neighbor, who lives at 2940 Avalon Drive and drives a red Genesis G80, CA license plate number 9MYP554.

For photos, visit https://xnrx.net/