THE BRAIN BEHIND THE COUP

Curtis Yarvin

On the weekend of the Enshittification, Curtis Yarvin traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Coronation Ball, a glitzy inaugural gala hosted by the ultraconservative publishing house Passage Press. The gathering, hosted in the ballroom of the Watergate Hotel, was designed to celebrate the ascent of the new conservative counter-elite. Yarvin was an informal guest of honor.

Curtis Yarvin, whose early ideas were developed on a blog called Unqualified Reservations in 2007 and 2008, where he wrote under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug, has been a far-right public “intellectual” of sorts for going on 20-plus years.

Yarvin has argued that American democracy is irrevocably broken and ought to be replaced with a monarchy styled after a Silicon Valley tech start-up. This past week and most especially over this weekend, we are seeing the result of this. The young reactionaries who grew up reading his blogs are now entering Maladministration II.

His schtick includes blathering about the correlation between race and IQ, calls for a “national CEO... a benevolent dictator” to run the United States, a plan to Retire All Government Employees (RAGE), and statements that all of the “current regime” - universities, non-profits, government agencies - need to be destroyed so that the Glorious Techie-Authoritarian Government can be proclaimed and take power here.

What’s unique is his ability to rebrand and repackage reactionary ideas in a way that appeals to libertarian-minded kids in Silly Con Valley, and in getting them to embrace a lot far-right ideas. That’s Yarvin’s real accomplishment

It’s hard to take a crank like Yarvin seriously; it sounds inherently ridiculous to issue warnings about a guy who writes long essays about how Anders Breivik “didn’t kill enough of them.” If you do take these people seriously and call them out on their crazy bullshit, they’ll say they were just trolling. Yarvin is proud of being an “Edgelord” the way “Edgelord” Elmo is proud of that Nazi salute he threw twice last week. Yarvin has spent the last ten years clearly describing what he wants: a totalitarian technological dictatorship.

Yarvin is most commonly associated with the Neoreactionary Movement, the people who agree with what Thiel wrote in 2009 - that freedom and democracy are incompatible and democratic governments with their bloated bureaucracies should be replaced by enlightened autocratic regimes. He’s a believer that we are in a “Late Republic era,” That’s as in the end times of the American Constitutional Democratic Republic. Many of his “coreligionists” openly call for an “American Caesar.”

Indeed, Yarvin’s soul mate Michael Anton, wrote about “Caesarism” thus: “Caesarism is not tyranny, which, strictly understood, is a regime that usurps a legitimate and functioning government, whereas Caesarism implements authoritarian one-man rule partially legitimized by necessity – that is, the breakdown of republican, constitutional rul. A nation no longer capable of ruling itself must yet be ruled.” This guy was appointed last week to a senior position in the State Department.

Yarvin is Corporal Couchfucker’s guru. And Corporal Couchfucker is now one step away from the ultimate power of the presidency. In that 2021 interview, he said, “The task of conservatives right now is to preserve as much as can be preserved and then when the inevitable collapse comes you build back the country in a way that’s actually better.” In August 2024, Vance said, “There is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless we’re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. That’s the universities.” (Recall that Vance is a Yalie.)

Yarvin’s ideas about undercutting democratic checks on authoritarian power have struck a chord with the current White House occupier. His philosophy has guided each and every one of the Executive Orders published in the past ten days that together constitute a planned coup d’etat against Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution.

Curtis Yarvin became a Serious National Threat yesterday, January 28, 2025, when he moved from being the political guru of Nazi-lover Peter Thiel and Corporal Couchfucker and became the political seer of President Blowhard J. Blatherer, who believes “Hitler had some good ideas.”

The OMB memo released Tuesday night stopping all funding of every government agency and program in a coup against Article I of the Constitution vesting power of the purse in the House of Representatives and replacing that with the authority of the “unitary executive”? A Yarvin idea.

The Executive Order removing all federal employees involved in “DEI” and ending all government “DEI” programs?

A Yarvin idea.

An Executive Order destroying all environmental programs?

A Yarvin idea.

Elmo installing his people in control of the Office of Personnel Management?

A Yarvin idea.

Memos to Federal employees telling them to resign or be fired?

A Yarvin idea.

Executive Orders killing DEI, downplaying sexual harassment in sports, and taking control of federally-supported research to be sure it aligns with NewThink?

A Yarvin idea.

Cancel LBJ’s 1965 order that federal contractors must not discriminate on race when hiring employees?

A Yarvin idea.

Elmo’s takeover of the federal payment system to block payments?

A Yarvin idea.

The list goes on.

Every. Single. Crazy. Thing.

A Yarvin idea.

In a 2021 interview at a far right Neoreactionary Movement podcast, Corporal Couchfucker name-checked Yarvin as his primary political influence and then went on to explain how former President Sedition J. Inciter should remake the federal bureaucracy if reelected. “I think what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, and replace them with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

This week, Yarvin acolyte Elmo and his crew of infiltrators who have taken control of OPM, sent a memo to every “midlevel bureaucrat” in Federal Service - titled “A Fork In the Road”, the same words used by Elmo when he got rid of most Twitter employees when he took over - telling them that it would not be possible going forward to “guarantee your continued employment,” and offering then the chance to take an early resignation, “with full pay and benefits” through September 2025; the offer was good between January 28-February 6, 2025. The email offered 9 months’ severance if they replied “RESIGN” to the email, thereby tendering their resignation; this mirrors what Elon Musk offered to employees when he took over Twitter. The end included the threat that those who did not accept the generous offer and whose jobs were subsequently terminated would not receive such “transition support.”

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo looked at the buyout proposal and noted that “zero legal authority exists to do this.”

Senator Kaine called on federal employees not to take the offer, noting that it had no legal basis and telling them that the White House occupier “will stiff you like he stiffed construction workers when he was a property developer.”offered them. Late Tuesday evening, agencies within the federal government were warning their employees not to respond to the email until questions about its authenticity, legality, and effect on federal pensions could be determined.

Joyce Vance referenced the firing of career federal prosecutors who worked on the ConvictedFelon34 prosecutions for election interference and document theft, pointing out that “The real witch hunt is here. And it’s a warning to all other federal employees to mind their loyalty if they want to keep their jobs. That’s the point. Trump knows he can’t lawfully fire these people in this manner. He wants to make the point that he’s willing to do it, in hopes others will stay in line.”

All this followed the illegal move over the first weekend after the Enshittification, when the Wjhite House occupier openly broke a law passed by Congress in 2022 to limit his ability to fire inspectors general; when that was met with shrugs by Republican enablers, the administration moved to these bigger power grabs.

Now they have fired over 30 federal prosecutors, are threatening to fire possibily thousands of FBI agents who have had any involvement in investigating the many crimes of Un-President Buford P. Crimelord, told senior FBI leaders they have until next Monday to resign or be fired. Elmo has sent a memo very similar to the one sent to the federal bureaucracy to Air Traffic Controllers telling them to resign - this happened less than 24 hours after the crash in Washington D.C. Wednesday night.

They are moving fast and they are willing to break things.

In a recent interview, Yarvin said, “Every time the old Republicans wanted to do something, it was like the nebbish guy asking the hot prom queen out for a date - they were just terrified that they were going to ask and the answer is going to be ‘no,.’ That attitude does not seem to be present here.”

These people have planned their coup against the Constitution for a long time. That’s why they can move with what looks like a political blitzkrieg.

The only thing restraining them right now is the Rule of Law and the fact a majority of Americans still believe in it. But there will be a time when they finally get frustrated with being smacked across their nose with Temporary Restraining Orders and say “fuck it.”

We have to be ready for that day.

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