Every time a Brooklynite goes to California to “infiltrate” the tech capitalists there’s a good chance they’ll write a book about it, and every time they do, that book will include a chapter about the deep roots of the Thiel Foundation and this enigmatic figure who used to get speaking engagements, a certain Curtis Yarvin. The chances of the author reading any of Yarvin’s seminal writings are slim, the chances of the author understanding them, any slimmer. Most are content to throw out an association to HBD, or monarchism, and then run quickly in the other direction. But Yarvin is undeniably there, and still lurking in silicon corridors. And none of the techies who associate with him or read him are very eager to talk about it, for obvious reasons.
Read this article. Reactionary libertarians aside, note the tone. Mocking, derisive and totally ineffectual. No amount of Graun sneering will discourage the technocapitalists in California — the Silicon Valley whispernet sits far upstream. Moldbug still gets invited to private dinner parties, despite years of exposés. The neoreaction is neither dead nor forgotten.
area man channels moldbug
Nor are its ideas. Andrew Yang talks about government as a public business, which should set off alarm bells in anyone who used to read Unqualified Reservations. His “get to higher ground” response to climate change questions spawned this article, speculating about his connection to an online ethos rather than the usual political mindset. The capital acceleration that Land sees as inevitable looms behind Yang’s policy platform. But unlike Land, Yang wants to attack this acceleration, not to stop it, but at least guide it.
Yang began trying to fix the country with Venture For America, a program that funds tech industry in inland cities — St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit. The method of tech is solutions for problems, and after VFA failed to make a significant impact on the development of US technocapital, Yang decided to take more radical action. To Yang, an imbalanced economy is destroying the American psyche, and consuming American culture. He is racing against the clock to prevent the decline and fall of the American Empire. Yang is not reactionary, nor accelerationist, but he sees the world through the same lens. Check this quote from an Atlantic article back in August:
The picture that the data paints is quite clear and dark and dystopian. Unfortunately, the dystopia is set to accelerate, because we’re just now having artificial intelligence leave the lab and hitting our big businesses … It’s about to get really hairy and nasty.
the hat is a joke. the horror is not
Yang’s public image is bipolar. The man who feuds with MSNBC is not the same man who cries when asked to comment on a recent shooting. He is unquestionably acquainted with racial stereotyping in his career, yet he leans into those stereotypes to an almost obscene degree. #MATH? Come on. This is a smokescreen. Yang is not a leader, not a politician, not a public speaker. He does these things adequately, but his primary skill set is centered around solutions for problems, seeing the world as both abstract and malleable, in a way that only computer geeks fully understand. He knows how easy it is to edit the social fabric of the country — that’s how he made his fortune in the first place. He puts on the act to hide the worst of his pessimism from his audience, putting on a brave face for the reddit stoners who are blind to the egregores that stalk the earth. He provides an outlet, a safe, non-extreme way to talk about the impending apocalypse. The people who resonate subconsciously with his worry for the future can be caught up in his fight to prevent it, without having to sign their names next to Moldbug himself.
Anyone who reads into neoreaction will end up a little disturbed. Anyone who takes it seriously, much more so. It makes little sense to chalk Yang’s success up to dumb luck, or fortuitous timing. Much more likely that he hides his guile, calculating his public appearance to broaden his appeal, and that beneath the facade is a disturbed man racing against the clock to change American politics before complete collapse. And there’s no reason to believe he’ll stop after (inevitably) losing the race for the nomination. He didn’t stop after VFA. It’s still unclear whether Yang’s crusade against the acceleration will be successful, or whether he will be relevant after this election, but I feel confident in saying that he will not give up his attempts to lash down the helm of American culture, only change tactics.
