The Plot Against America

[EarthFirst]

The cast of characters: Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan and Elon Musk…

As I write this in early 2025, a quiet revolution is unfolding within the U.S. government. Inside the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), teams of young tech operatives are systematically dismantling democratic institutions and replacing them with proprietary artificial intelligence systems. Civil servants who raise legal objections are being removed. Government databases are being migrated to private servers. Decision-making power is being transferred from elected officials and career bureaucrats to algorithms controlled by a small network of Silicon Valley elites. This isn't a spontaneous coup—it's the culmination of a dangerous ideology that has been meticulously developed since the 2008 financial crisis, one that sees democracy itself as obsolete technology ready to be “disrupted.” To understand how we reached this critical moment, and why it threatens the very foundation of democratic governance, we need to trace the evolution of an idea: that democracy is not just inefficient, but fundamentally incompatible with technological progress.
DOGE is not about efficiency. It is about erasure.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mikebrock/p/the-plot-against-america?r=k0so9&utm_medium=ios

[Biophilic]

1. This gives me answers to a lot of my questions.

But, I’m going to have to read this in pieces. I knew I was missing out on some important background history.

[liberalla]

2. Bookmarking!

This looks very good but I need to find my glasses before I can read the whole thing.

[creon]

3. Defacto president Musk

It is mostly President in fact Musk.

Trump is gaga.

[lastlib]

4. tRump is merely the Crime Minister. n/t

[creon]

19. yes

Just an old fool

[GiqueCee]

5. At last!

Someone has pulled back the curtain! "Technological progress" is a bullshit euphemism for total dominion over the lives of others. POWER for short.
Conservatives have always hated democracy. That shitweasel, Mike Lee (R) Utah, said the quiet part out loud a couple of years ago:
“... democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”
By "human condition", Lee undoubtedly meant, the untrammeled "liberty" of oligarchs to strip away any and all liberty, peace and prosperity of working folks, and transfer it to the overprivileged, greedy swine who just aren't satisfied with having more money than they can spend in twenty lifetimes; they begrudge the rest of us ANY fruits of our labors. With these people – and I use the term loosely – it's "all for me, and none for thee". They want Feudalism 2.0.

[modrepub]

6. History Rhymes

I usually cringe when folks compare our current predicament to 1930s Germany. Bringing Hitler's name up in comparison often seems to be an exercise in hyperbole. But in this case, if the tech bros really disparage democratic rule of law, then they really share one of Hitler's core beliefs. In Mein Kampf, Hitler, an Austrian, didn't hold back his distain for Parliamentarians, elected representatives in charge of Austria at the time. This belief should have alerted the German people as to what Hitler intended to do once put in a position of power.

[NJCher]

7. I said this a long time ago

Later I’ll find my post to see how much detail I got right.

And really, it’s no great feat of reasoning. Just look at who is involved and use the old adage of “follow the money.”

[leftgirl]

8. Almost sounds like techno applicafion of Khmer Rouge regime philosophy. Destroy it all..rebuild as ??

Why does this elitist group get to put this forward? and actually get a party to implement this in some form or fashion

We need MSnbc and cnn Hartmann and others to bring up and discuss repeatedly ..to at least get people familiar with this ideology.

All the above media report on events happening but don't tell us why. This puts some of this into context
This is frightening!!!

[Amaryllis]

13. RAchel has talked about Yarvin and that JD Vance is a follower of Yarvin.

[Lonestarblue]

9. These tech billionaires are the US version of Russian oligarchs who gained immense wealth after the USSR breakup.

The Russian oligarchs accumulated wealth by privatizing state assets. Musk’s comment that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme is merely a prelude to privatizing it “for the benefit of its participants.” Of course, once in private hands, all decisions about who gets benefits and how much is then made by private managers who will also set extravagant fees for their management of the program. The USPS has long been a target for privatization, and I believe that will happen within a year. Half of Medicare has already been privatized through the Advantage plans. The support for the guy who murdered the United Healthcare CEO demonstrated how frustrated many Americans are with insurance executives denying medical care, but I expect Trump to force everyone into Advantage plans.

Musk has already said he wants to replace air traffic control with his Starlink system, and when he gets around to decimating NASA, he’ll ensure that his company replaces them. Techies like Peter Thiel are salivating at monetizing all the private data on every American that they will now have access to. And the AI folks are equally salivating about replacing the majority of government workers who make decisions that affect people’s lives with algorithms to make those decisions. You never see any media person ask what happens to all those people who no longer have jobs and aren’t paying taxes that support the government and indeed the country. AI doesn’t pay taxes.

I wish I had more optimism, but Trump/Musk and the lack of effective pushback are discouraging.

[MadameButterfly]

25. Please repost as an OP

Last edited Mon Mar 17, 2025, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Your are at the heart of the matter. But we have not lost. It takes time to organize.
Effective pushback is not so easy. None of us were prepared for the speed, the insanity, of this.
We are barely taking it in, less knowing how to respond.
Now it's all theoretical unless you are a fired federal worker. The rest will become mobilized when it hits them.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

10. It's time to name the names

Responsible for attempting to destroy our republic and removing them.

[CaptainTruth]

11. Dept Of Govt Elimination

DOGE = Department Of Government Elimination

[liberalgunwilltravel]

12. Although I am loathe to appear as homophobic

As I am not. I think it’s time to fight fire with fire. The MAGAts need to be informed that the Nazi, Thiel is a homosexual. It needs to be pounded into their heads their lives are not being ruined by leftist, DEI, LGBTQ+ individuals, but rather by a band of right wing, foreign, homosexual Nazis and incels who will eventually demand they give up their girlfriends and wives, because their AI bots demand it!

OK. A bit off on the hyperbolic rails, but the message has to be something the MAGAts think they understand.

[sarchasm]

14. a heady, but necessary read on anti-democratic "techno-libertarianism"

"This intellectual throughline—from Mises to Hoppe to figures like Yarvin and Thiel—helps explain the emergence of what some have called “techno-libertarianism.” It represents a dangerous alignment of anti-democratic thought with immense technological and financial resources, posing significant challenges to traditional conceptions of democratic governance and civic responsibility." ...

"Silicon Valley elites who had built successful companies began to view democratic processes not just as inefficient, but as fundamentally irrational—the product of what they saw as emotional decision-making by non-technical people."

---

I have never felt like finding a cabin in the woods more than I have after reading this. I'm smelling blood in the air, or the potential of bloodshed anyway, and that's precisely what they want you to feel. I believe these techno-fascists are fundamentally cowards, hiding behind their algorithms. But then, in today's world, those that control the algorithms ...

[superpatriotman]

15. Please do yourself a favor and read every entry on this website

https://www.vcinfodocs.com/what-is-the-network-state

Highly informative. Scary. Happening unless we stop it.

[Amaryllis]

17. You should post this as a separate op. It;s important.

[superpatriotman]

20. Already did. It sank as informative posts often do on DU.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220055482

[EarthFirst]

18. Much obliged.

That’s going to take some time to wade though…

I appreciate the link and the awareness you’ve brought to the discussion.

I agree with Amaryllis; this should be an OP of its own.

Be well!

[dajoki]

16. I'd argue that it goes a lot farther back than 2008

They hated the New Deal and have been steadily plotting to undo it's policies ever since they became law, what they're doing today just shows how successful they've been in eroding the institutions and laws that are meant to protect all of us. There's plenty of examples throughout history that shows exactly how right wingers have been undermining democracy and buying the system they want, and their propaganda convinced a lot of people to go along with it.

[pat_k]

21. It's the "friction" through which collective will is made manifest.

The tech obsession with "frictionless" systems and breaking the means by which we the people influence the levers of power has a single goal: Render our system of government incapable of making our collective will manifest and incapable of execution and enforcement.

We the People must be cut out of the equation as "friction" because we may be apt to do things like reverse the vast accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Those at the pinnacle of the power/wealth pyramid who believe their place there is theirs by right are using any and every means at their disposal to break us.

We WILL not let them. I choose to pin my hopes on my fellow Americans, however misguided so many of them are right now. I think that truly lasting change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. And more and more of us at the bottom are entering the arena and saying "hell no" to their wrecking ball.

[PufPuf23]

22. Have thought that the powers behind the screen have been re-arranging the deck chairs,

positioning for a general collapse of human society; environmental degradation and over population coming to a head.

The OP is a techno-fascist dream, most everyone else's nightmare.

Nature and humanity are destined to reduce the human footprint on Earth; how is the mystery.

[pat_k]

23. Seriously kicked off with the Contract on America

I highly recommend Dana Millbank's The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party.

In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.

Dana Milbank sees a clear line from the Contract with America to the coup attempt. In the quarter century in between, Americans have witnessed the crackup of the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to its current iteration as a haven for white supremacists, political violence, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism.

What we need is a Joint House/Senate Document -- A Letter to America (or whatever they call it) as described in this excerpt:

There is a desperate need for Democrats in Congress to open a Second Front and pen A Letter to America that borrows from the Declaration of Independence and clearly, simply makes the case for why what Trump and Musk are doing is an unprecedented, illegal attack on our Constitutional order. This has to be job 1. I’ve written extensively about the need for this letter, and the need as our Founders put it to “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” Here is how I wrote about it recently:

There needs to be a clear statement from half the Congress that they believe that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional, illegal, wrong and an extraordinary betrayal of our Constitutional order and all of us.

This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “Letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.

More here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220146722

[Figarosmom]

24. Russian ideas

These tech guys were easily manipulated