Thank you Rachel for this incredibly insightful and timely essay that hits the target on so many levels. The pronatalist anti-equity argument is essential to their ideas about consolidating power. Women should be fighting for their lives in the U.S., as I believe they have no idea the state-terrors that are coming for them.
Look up Accelerationism. It's the idea that society is already broken beyond repair - so it's better to crash it as fast as possible, and rebuild it in the image of the survivors At the same time, literally decimate the population so that the Earth's wealth can be grabbed by the few, while having enough grateful slaves around (+ robots) to do all the work Any problem with that?
It’s greed and addiction to power justified by calling it conservative and pretending to be religious as a sloppy cover everyone knows is a lie. It was planned like a serial killer plans. We knew about it and most did nothing, which is as evil as the destruction itself.
Agreed, accelerationist thinking and the ideas of Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan and, more indirectly, Nick Land are very influential on tech-oligarch figures like Musk, Peter Thiel, Brian Armstrong, Marc Andressen and others. All are committed to breaking apart the legislature, democratic accountability and governance structures of most nations. Some kind of monarch, dictator or autocracy is the aim. DOGE is arguably the infrastructure to make this happen.
Rachel, your insights are spot on. Those in power only want to keep their power and expand it.
A stream of thought brought in by your article:
If you are familiar with the movie Highlander? It has mystically powerful immortals fighting each other for dominance. The humans were meaningless pawns. When one immortal is killed by another immortal they mystically gain the other’s power.
There is a line from the movie, “There can be only one.”
I have coined the term Highlander Principle. The idea that power tends towards concentrating in fewer and fewer hands. Moving towards “there can be only one.” It takes effort to resist this trend.
I wonder if what we are seeing is Oligarchical Collectivism. (A bit tongue in cheek) from the book 1984.
I am fully engaged by your interviews, not only because the guests you bring on your ‘show’ are amazing, but just how your mind works and keeps landing on conclusions i also have come to. I suppose that is why i got hooked into your work.
I do hope you are able to interview Daniel Schmachtenberger. I fear he has retreated from the lime light. But if possible, i hope you can get him to return to public speaking or interviews. So much of the conclusions you come to are in line with his conclusions. The wisdom, courageous heart and willingness to not mince words is refreshing.
I know you have said as much, i just want to echo the observation. We have been a fascist nation for a long time if one uses the original meaning of the word: an economics blending corporate and state power. Sometime in the 1980s the word started to get defined more by authoritarian tactics of the Nazis. Now we have those too. Or perhaps Orwell was right. It is Oligarchical Collectivism.
Hitler did not play golf, build golf courses or have dozens of failed cons in his past…make no mistake The current occasional resident of the White House is NOT IN CHARGE. He is a stooge placed in power by international oligarchs..Whose sole purpose is to destroy the idea that a government of laws NOT MEN will fail and Democracy is not a path to personal freedom. Our enemies have not fired a single shot, they just had to buy the right politicians and prop up the right narcissistic stooge.
If history truly repeats itself, the peons will revolt here in the former United States, but only when they realize how much we have all lost.
While there are many possibilities, the paradoxical world you describe is only one of those possibilities…I think state secession is more likely and many of us may just relocate and fight to protect our freedoms in a state that still supports and respects its citizens.
I'm not sure there is any real big plan for them. I think they are just so self absorbed and both of them like to be the center of attention and feel in power, and completely lack empathy about the impact they have on people who will/are suffering because of their policies, and that's about it. Could be wrong though and I appreciate the theorizing.
The paradoxes and contradictions are interesting and challenging, but most successful political groups and politicians can hold together contradictions and strange alliances. Neither consistency nor truth tend to have much political currency/value, except in so far as they can be mobilized for political affect and votes.
I find the intersections and areas of agreement between the groups around President Trump far more revealing at the moment. Project 2025 and the tech-oligarchs, for example, aren’t natural allies by many metrics. Project 2025’s ultimate endgame is a Christian theocratic state, while for the tech-oligarchs it’s some form of trans-national corporate feudalism or technocratic state. Both, however, want to dismantle the government and any legal or Constitutional constraints which are in the way of their objectives. So you have a strange alliance that is intent on maximum breakage and the destruction of the old “elites” ("deep state", bureaucracy, education, media) and their replacement with a new order / “elite” / sovereign.
Also, eschatologically, the Project 2025 and tech-oligarch’s are both conjoined around a notion of approaching end times. For most of the Christian Project 2025 movement this is a Tribulation and Rapture apocalypticism in the near-future. For them, forthcoming wars, social and religious upheaval and eco-catastrophism are all signs of times (and in a sense desirable), but it is vitally important to put one’s house and nation in order first (i.e. under God). For many of the tech-oligarch’s there is a recognition of approaching resource limits, tipping points, future war(s) and class conflict, so there is a planning to insulate themselves from and manage the storm (under corporate or AI control). So they have very different rationales but are both committed to overturning the current order of governance. They are strange religious and secular bedfellows and coup-buddies.
As to the population/reproductive point, for most of the Project 2025 people children are morally required for theological and Biblical reasons, while for the tech-oligarch’s you can only sustain economic growth with more people (consumers/workers/slaves), although their health certainly isn’t an immediate matter of concern.
Suffice it to say, I agree with most of your ruminations and worries here Rachel.
I was going to add that Vice President Vance is an interesting intersectional figure between the tech-oligarchs and Project 2025 Christians (but the post was already getting too long), given that he is an advocate for Curtis Yarvin and also leans heavily into Christian rationalisations for political decisions. It was, though, fascinating to see a recent letter from Pope Francis responding to and correcting Vance's reading of ordo amoris as a basis for immigration laws.
Drawing out the tensions between and contradictions within the various elements of the current administration (assuming one has problems with its direction of travel and autocratic endgame) will be an important activity going forwards.
You are certainly right that they are fouling their nest and killing the goose that laid the eggs in it.
The pattern might be closer to Russia post 1991 then Hitler. I believe is where Trump learned his trade.
The resentment that feeds their insecurity is the loss of S. Africa and slavery after the civil war and civil rights. A good question that you asked. ....
I am still struggling to understand and appreciate your query and essay very much.
Authoritarians want to control, not destroy, the levers of power. But why are they destroying the government itself? Incompetence? Or malice?
Trump's connections to Russia, along with former KGB witnesses, established that he's been a Russian asset--perhaps unwittingly at one point-- for decades.
Musks investors in X include 8VC, a US venture capital firm that employs the sons of two inner circle, Russian oligarchs. Remember that musk impulsively agreed to buy the company at roughly twice its actual value. He needed investors willing to lose money. Immediately after the purchase, Musk turned X into a Russian propaganda machine, and he began meeting with Putin regularly without disclosing those contacts to the United States government despite his legal obligations as high-level, security- cleared defense contractor. X is now worth less than 1/4 of the original purchase price. Tesla is tanking. All of it because Musk went fash, and yet he persists despite his stock fortune tanking.
And remember that Musk "donated" starlink to Ukraine prior to completing the Twitter purchase, but then he blocked or disconnected Ukrainian frontline comms in the middle of active operations. He intentionally left the Ukrainian military blind during a Ukraine stone assault, admitting that he unilaterally decided to halt the operation. That was intentional. And now there are reports that the Russian military is using starlink. He denies it, but he's hardly credible.
Does he really not care about the money at all, or does he have an alternate funding source to keep him flush? The Russian connections are overwhelming. Nearly every appointed executive position is staffed with somebody with Russian connections. All of them.
So yes, their own personal megalomania may be a factor, but the rapid and intentional destruction of our entire treasury system, dismantling of intelligence services, law enforcement, none of that makes sense. Economic or social collapse does not serve them them any purpose as either American despots or government executives. Despot's need loyal law enforcement for crackdown. They need intelligence so they can make decisions with information, no matter how malicious they may use that data. It seems like incompetence of the highest order, even for fascist autocrat. All of their actions, however, accomplish everything that Russia has always hoped for.
Where do the priorities align? That's where we need to look.
I think that you might be right about the ideological background of their policies, but in the real world, ideologies do not seem to have any significance (anymore at least). There are communist capitalist-nations (see China), neo-liberal oligarchies (US) and so on.
So I believe all this is just another distraction. It will definitely have the consequences that you describe, but it's only a tool to increase the power of the few.
All these billionaires know that the state's power is vastly superior to their wealth. A nation can seize all their wealth if required, and any resistance could be bent by the mighty force of the military. Covid, reminded us the true power of the state. It can shut down the entire show at will, and no one can do anything about it.
So I think that they are trying to grab as much power as they can from the state, so that they keep their own personal wealth and power, as long as they can, while the world around them collapses.
Yes, the insecurities of straight White men were deliberately played on by Dick and Muttley using the alleged 'woke mind virus', tactical funding of transactivism for political gain https://thegrayzone.com/2025/02/07/republicans-transgender-dance-bangladesh/ and a 'return' (the patriarchy never left) to 'family values', where the men are in charge. The provoking of anti-wokism was obvious and behind the swing right.
I've no idea what gender non conforming political identities are, I am so confused by people using gender (a social construct) when they mean sex, but transactivism is also a war on women. If the 'left' hadn't campaigned so hard to remove women and girl's protected rights we wouldn't have sickening photos or memes of Trump, surrounded by girls, as the hero; banning men from women's sport.
Of course, the 'depopulation' threat is the threat to the number of White babies in the world. It's not subtle nor a secret.
The swing against the 'State' and the UN that the 'covid' debacle, deliberately caused, enables oligarchs direct control (unregulated by climate, animal, environmental or employee protections) allowing them to profit from special economic zones like Haiti, or within former 'kingdoms'. Starmer has already sold parts of the Uk to Blackrock. https://europeanpowell.substack.com/p/people-need-to-understand-that-infrastructure
This is very fine writing indeed, which I would quote & share (on BlueSky) … but for the accompanying image. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but haven’t we all seen ‘that salute’ too many times already? I have a red line, and just can’t bring myself to repost it. But, as I said, this is a great piece.
One ideological revolution deserves another. Stay tuned as the Republican party rolls out it's plan for dealing with the coming Climate Catastrophe (see Peter Carter's Oct 17, 2024 YouTube posting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk9vulmEbqc ) with intimidation and encroachment.
It seems plausible that Trump and Musk fear the collapse of the dollar, as widely predicted, while still seeking to extend the tax cut for the wealthy, which will cumulatively add a reported $11 trillion to US debt - further endangering financial stability. So, taking a chainsaw to all programs that don't benefit the 1% is also motivated by their aim to compensate for the risks of the cushy tax cut.
As for promoting more births while depriving citizens of social benefits like childcare and school lunches, it seems likely that they are seeking to build the base of vulnerable, unwary voters who also serve as a readily exploited, underpaid workforce. Note that the turmoil caused by the wage stagnation of that working class has helped create T-2.0, yet conservative politics propagated that very stagnation. Under-educated 'commoners' are a prized economic and political resource of the ruthless oligarchy.
Thank you Rachel for this incredibly insightful and timely essay that hits the target on so many levels. The pronatalist anti-equity argument is essential to their ideas about consolidating power. Women should be fighting for their lives in the U.S., as I believe they have no idea the state-terrors that are coming for them.
Look up Accelerationism. It's the idea that society is already broken beyond repair - so it's better to crash it as fast as possible, and rebuild it in the image of the survivors At the same time, literally decimate the population so that the Earth's wealth can be grabbed by the few, while having enough grateful slaves around (+ robots) to do all the work Any problem with that?
It’s greed and addiction to power justified by calling it conservative and pretending to be religious as a sloppy cover everyone knows is a lie. It was planned like a serial killer plans. We knew about it and most did nothing, which is as evil as the destruction itself.
Tend to agree. That's almost certainly Musk's vision.
Agreed, accelerationist thinking and the ideas of Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan and, more indirectly, Nick Land are very influential on tech-oligarch figures like Musk, Peter Thiel, Brian Armstrong, Marc Andressen and others. All are committed to breaking apart the legislature, democratic accountability and governance structures of most nations. Some kind of monarch, dictator or autocracy is the aim. DOGE is arguably the infrastructure to make this happen.
If I may be so bold as to also offer these perspectives to the idea of accelerationism:
https://globalnews.ca/news/11005023/steve-bannon-donald-trump-tariffs-canada-arctic-interview/
and
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge/
Rachel, your insights are spot on. Those in power only want to keep their power and expand it.
A stream of thought brought in by your article:
If you are familiar with the movie Highlander? It has mystically powerful immortals fighting each other for dominance. The humans were meaningless pawns. When one immortal is killed by another immortal they mystically gain the other’s power.
There is a line from the movie, “There can be only one.”
I have coined the term Highlander Principle. The idea that power tends towards concentrating in fewer and fewer hands. Moving towards “there can be only one.” It takes effort to resist this trend.
I wonder if what we are seeing is Oligarchical Collectivism. (A bit tongue in cheek) from the book 1984.
I am fully engaged by your interviews, not only because the guests you bring on your ‘show’ are amazing, but just how your mind works and keeps landing on conclusions i also have come to. I suppose that is why i got hooked into your work.
I do hope you are able to interview Daniel Schmachtenberger. I fear he has retreated from the lime light. But if possible, i hope you can get him to return to public speaking or interviews. So much of the conclusions you come to are in line with his conclusions. The wisdom, courageous heart and willingness to not mince words is refreshing.
I know you have said as much, i just want to echo the observation. We have been a fascist nation for a long time if one uses the original meaning of the word: an economics blending corporate and state power. Sometime in the 1980s the word started to get defined more by authoritarian tactics of the Nazis. Now we have those too. Or perhaps Orwell was right. It is Oligarchical Collectivism.
Keep up the amazing work!
Hitler did not play golf, build golf courses or have dozens of failed cons in his past…make no mistake The current occasional resident of the White House is NOT IN CHARGE. He is a stooge placed in power by international oligarchs..Whose sole purpose is to destroy the idea that a government of laws NOT MEN will fail and Democracy is not a path to personal freedom. Our enemies have not fired a single shot, they just had to buy the right politicians and prop up the right narcissistic stooge.
If history truly repeats itself, the peons will revolt here in the former United States, but only when they realize how much we have all lost.
While there are many possibilities, the paradoxical world you describe is only one of those possibilities…I think state secession is more likely and many of us may just relocate and fight to protect our freedoms in a state that still supports and respects its citizens.
I'm not sure there is any real big plan for them. I think they are just so self absorbed and both of them like to be the center of attention and feel in power, and completely lack empathy about the impact they have on people who will/are suffering because of their policies, and that's about it. Could be wrong though and I appreciate the theorizing.
The paradoxes and contradictions are interesting and challenging, but most successful political groups and politicians can hold together contradictions and strange alliances. Neither consistency nor truth tend to have much political currency/value, except in so far as they can be mobilized for political affect and votes.
I find the intersections and areas of agreement between the groups around President Trump far more revealing at the moment. Project 2025 and the tech-oligarchs, for example, aren’t natural allies by many metrics. Project 2025’s ultimate endgame is a Christian theocratic state, while for the tech-oligarchs it’s some form of trans-national corporate feudalism or technocratic state. Both, however, want to dismantle the government and any legal or Constitutional constraints which are in the way of their objectives. So you have a strange alliance that is intent on maximum breakage and the destruction of the old “elites” ("deep state", bureaucracy, education, media) and their replacement with a new order / “elite” / sovereign.
Also, eschatologically, the Project 2025 and tech-oligarch’s are both conjoined around a notion of approaching end times. For most of the Christian Project 2025 movement this is a Tribulation and Rapture apocalypticism in the near-future. For them, forthcoming wars, social and religious upheaval and eco-catastrophism are all signs of times (and in a sense desirable), but it is vitally important to put one’s house and nation in order first (i.e. under God). For many of the tech-oligarch’s there is a recognition of approaching resource limits, tipping points, future war(s) and class conflict, so there is a planning to insulate themselves from and manage the storm (under corporate or AI control). So they have very different rationales but are both committed to overturning the current order of governance. They are strange religious and secular bedfellows and coup-buddies.
As to the population/reproductive point, for most of the Project 2025 people children are morally required for theological and Biblical reasons, while for the tech-oligarch’s you can only sustain economic growth with more people (consumers/workers/slaves), although their health certainly isn’t an immediate matter of concern.
Suffice it to say, I agree with most of your ruminations and worries here Rachel.
I was going to add that Vice President Vance is an interesting intersectional figure between the tech-oligarchs and Project 2025 Christians (but the post was already getting too long), given that he is an advocate for Curtis Yarvin and also leans heavily into Christian rationalisations for political decisions. It was, though, fascinating to see a recent letter from Pope Francis responding to and correcting Vance's reading of ordo amoris as a basis for immigration laws.
Drawing out the tensions between and contradictions within the various elements of the current administration (assuming one has problems with its direction of travel and autocratic endgame) will be an important activity going forwards.
See https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2025/documents/20250210-lettera-vescovi-usa.html
You are certainly right that they are fouling their nest and killing the goose that laid the eggs in it.
The pattern might be closer to Russia post 1991 then Hitler. I believe is where Trump learned his trade.
The resentment that feeds their insecurity is the loss of S. Africa and slavery after the civil war and civil rights. A good question that you asked. ....
I am still struggling to understand and appreciate your query and essay very much.
One article that helped me is:
https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/accelerationism-ai-and-dark-maga
Authoritarians want to control, not destroy, the levers of power. But why are they destroying the government itself? Incompetence? Or malice?
Trump's connections to Russia, along with former KGB witnesses, established that he's been a Russian asset--perhaps unwittingly at one point-- for decades.
Musks investors in X include 8VC, a US venture capital firm that employs the sons of two inner circle, Russian oligarchs. Remember that musk impulsively agreed to buy the company at roughly twice its actual value. He needed investors willing to lose money. Immediately after the purchase, Musk turned X into a Russian propaganda machine, and he began meeting with Putin regularly without disclosing those contacts to the United States government despite his legal obligations as high-level, security- cleared defense contractor. X is now worth less than 1/4 of the original purchase price. Tesla is tanking. All of it because Musk went fash, and yet he persists despite his stock fortune tanking.
And remember that Musk "donated" starlink to Ukraine prior to completing the Twitter purchase, but then he blocked or disconnected Ukrainian frontline comms in the middle of active operations. He intentionally left the Ukrainian military blind during a Ukraine stone assault, admitting that he unilaterally decided to halt the operation. That was intentional. And now there are reports that the Russian military is using starlink. He denies it, but he's hardly credible.
https://cepa.org/article/should-elon-musk-decide-who-wins-wars/
Does he really not care about the money at all, or does he have an alternate funding source to keep him flush? The Russian connections are overwhelming. Nearly every appointed executive position is staffed with somebody with Russian connections. All of them.
So yes, their own personal megalomania may be a factor, but the rapid and intentional destruction of our entire treasury system, dismantling of intelligence services, law enforcement, none of that makes sense. Economic or social collapse does not serve them them any purpose as either American despots or government executives. Despot's need loyal law enforcement for crackdown. They need intelligence so they can make decisions with information, no matter how malicious they may use that data. It seems like incompetence of the highest order, even for fascist autocrat. All of their actions, however, accomplish everything that Russia has always hoped for.
Where do the priorities align? That's where we need to look.
Thank you Rachel, for this insightful piece.
I think that you might be right about the ideological background of their policies, but in the real world, ideologies do not seem to have any significance (anymore at least). There are communist capitalist-nations (see China), neo-liberal oligarchies (US) and so on.
So I believe all this is just another distraction. It will definitely have the consequences that you describe, but it's only a tool to increase the power of the few.
All these billionaires know that the state's power is vastly superior to their wealth. A nation can seize all their wealth if required, and any resistance could be bent by the mighty force of the military. Covid, reminded us the true power of the state. It can shut down the entire show at will, and no one can do anything about it.
So I think that they are trying to grab as much power as they can from the state, so that they keep their own personal wealth and power, as long as they can, while the world around them collapses.
Yes, the insecurities of straight White men were deliberately played on by Dick and Muttley using the alleged 'woke mind virus', tactical funding of transactivism for political gain https://thegrayzone.com/2025/02/07/republicans-transgender-dance-bangladesh/ and a 'return' (the patriarchy never left) to 'family values', where the men are in charge. The provoking of anti-wokism was obvious and behind the swing right.
I've no idea what gender non conforming political identities are, I am so confused by people using gender (a social construct) when they mean sex, but transactivism is also a war on women. If the 'left' hadn't campaigned so hard to remove women and girl's protected rights we wouldn't have sickening photos or memes of Trump, surrounded by girls, as the hero; banning men from women's sport.
Of course, the 'depopulation' threat is the threat to the number of White babies in the world. It's not subtle nor a secret.
The swing against the 'State' and the UN that the 'covid' debacle, deliberately caused, enables oligarchs direct control (unregulated by climate, animal, environmental or employee protections) allowing them to profit from special economic zones like Haiti, or within former 'kingdoms'. Starmer has already sold parts of the Uk to Blackrock. https://europeanpowell.substack.com/p/people-need-to-understand-that-infrastructure
This is very fine writing indeed, which I would quote & share (on BlueSky) … but for the accompanying image. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but haven’t we all seen ‘that salute’ too many times already? I have a red line, and just can’t bring myself to repost it. But, as I said, this is a great piece.
I see fear masquerading as destruction, when looking at the new administration. Hard on the stomach. Must digest.
Gosh, ya think he has a plan, he can barely read, everything is a judgement.
One ideological revolution deserves another. Stay tuned as the Republican party rolls out it's plan for dealing with the coming Climate Catastrophe (see Peter Carter's Oct 17, 2024 YouTube posting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk9vulmEbqc ) with intimidation and encroachment.
Its easy to be confused when you are on a different planet.
Did you listen to his inauguration speech.?. that’s the plan.. It was clear..
It seems plausible that Trump and Musk fear the collapse of the dollar, as widely predicted, while still seeking to extend the tax cut for the wealthy, which will cumulatively add a reported $11 trillion to US debt - further endangering financial stability. So, taking a chainsaw to all programs that don't benefit the 1% is also motivated by their aim to compensate for the risks of the cushy tax cut.
As for promoting more births while depriving citizens of social benefits like childcare and school lunches, it seems likely that they are seeking to build the base of vulnerable, unwary voters who also serve as a readily exploited, underpaid workforce. Note that the turmoil caused by the wage stagnation of that working class has helped create T-2.0, yet conservative politics propagated that very stagnation. Under-educated 'commoners' are a prized economic and political resource of the ruthless oligarchy.