Chuck Darwin<p>The single most troubling thing about Senator JD Vance<br> — his bizarre understanding of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien notwithstanding<br> — is his close relationship with some of the <a href="https://c.im/tags/most" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>most</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/extreme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>extreme</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/elements" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>elements</span></a> of the American right.</p><p>When asked to explain his worldview, Vance has cited his former boss, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Peter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Peter</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Thiel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Thiel</span></a>, <br>the billionaire venture capitalist who has written passionately against democracy <br>(“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”), <br>and <a href="https://c.im/tags/Curtis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Curtis</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Yarvin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Yarvin</span></a>, a software developer turned blogger and provocateur <br>who believes the United States should transition to monarchy<br> (“If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia”). </p><p>Yarvin has also written favorably of human bondage <br>(slavery, he once wrote, “is a natural human relationship”) <br>and wondered aloud if apartheid wasn’t better for Black South Africans.</p><p>While Vance’s admirers see him as a uniquely intellectual presence in American politics<br> — a thinker as much as a politician <br>— his right-wing, <a href="https://c.im/tags/authoritarian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>authoritarian</span></a> views are largely derivative of the views and preoccupations of Thiel, Yarvin and their community of “<a href="https://c.im/tags/postliberal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>postliberal</span></a>” ideologues and <a href="https://c.im/tags/reactionary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>reactionary</span></a> venture capitalists. </p><p>Take Vance’s view that the United States is in a period of Romanesque decline. <br>“We are in a late republican period,” Vance said on a podcast in 2021. </p><p>⚠️“If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, <br>and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.”</p><p>Compare this to 👉Thiel’s view that “liberalism” and “democracy” are “<a href="https://c.im/tags/exhausted" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>exhausted</span></a>,” <br>and that to restore the nation <br>“we have to ask some questions very far outside the Overton window.” </p><p>❓Is this a call for new tax cuts, or does it represent a fundamental hostility toward popular constitutional government in the United States?❓</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/10/opinion/jd-vance-right-wing-intellectual.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nytimes.com/2024/08/10/opinion</span><span class="invisible">/jd-vance-right-wing-intellectual.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare</span></a></p>