Following the calamitous end of a star-crossed relationship that imploded with the magnitude of a supernova, Elon Musk’s departure from the inner circle of President Donald Trump may serve as the line of demarcation for a new chapter in American history. According to Musk’s recent announcement of his intention to fund a new third party that will run candidates for congressional offices as soon as the 2026 Midterm Elections, his goal is aimed at disrupting the false dichotomy of the two-party political construct that many Americans are no longer fooled by the illusion of. Although the majority of Americans are still beholden to the Democrat-Republican axis, a growing demographic of the electorate that sees through its facade looks to galvanize itself against the uniparty under the auspices of Musk’s America Party. That optimism may be premature following a revelation about the ideologue Musk has tapped into for guidance on the formation of his populist political vehicle. That influence over Musk’s decision making serves as an ominous portent foreshadowing what may be the futile fate of the people who hope the America Party will free them from the shackles imposed by a ruling elite operating in a manner antithetical to the American ethos.
Peter Thiel and JD Vance love a strange blogger. His name is Curtis Yarvin and he wants to replace democracy with a tech CEO dictatorship. pic.twitter.com/EmS44PhnTm
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) June 18, 2025
Although Musk has declared that the impetus of his drive to launch a new option for American voters is to put democracy back into their hands, the brain trust guiding his mission espouses a political philosophy diametrically opposed to that aim. Musk has turned to Curtis Yarvin for advice on the direction to take the America Party in. Yarvin, a far-right political theorist and software developer, who has gone by the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug for some God forsaken reason, is known for his role in founding a technocratic neo-fascist philosophical movement referred to as the Dark Enlightenment. The Dark Enlightenment has served as the basis for the vision driving a new technocratic class of elitists whose growing imprint is evident on the newly emerging American political landscape.
The anti-democratic principles of Yarvin’s political ideology are so evident that he has openly stated his belief that American democracy is a failed experiment that should be replaced by an technocratic monarchy which he believes could be held to a higher standard of accountability. In proclaiming that view, Yarvin has claimed that America needs a CEO to run it, equating a CEO with a dictator by stating there is no difference between the two concepts. Yarvin has gone as far as stating that “if Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.”
While parts of Yarvin’s criticism of democracy may be valid in-and-of themselves, they are entirely at odds with what Musk has described as his motivations for forming the America Party. That contradiction raises serious doubts over the authenticity of Musk’s purported mission to serve the American people by starting a third party to disrupt business as usual in the corrupt cesspool that is Washington DC.
In a January interview with the New York Times, Yarvin stated “I can’t really resist trolling Elon Musk,” making the America Party founder’s decision to entrust the equally enigmatic and controversial political theorist a perplexing exercise of judgment. Yarvin has been outspoken about his criticism of the Musk-led efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency, stating that it did not do enough to deconstruct the bureaucracy undermining the American people. However, the constraints placed on DOGE also played a profound role on the deterioration of the relationship between Musk and President Trump, signalling that the Tesla CEO shares Yarvin’s sentiment.
If you’ve never heard of Curtis Yarvin, this is all you need to know about him pic.twitter.com/4ticjaDCIa
— GoyaBeanGroyper (@goyabeangroyper) January 18, 2025
Musk is not the only prominent technocratic magnate shaping the next generation of America’s political landscape who Yarvin has helped shape the worldview of. Republican megadonor and longtime Trump supporter Peter Thiel has also expressed support for Yarvin and his political theories. In 2013, Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund funded Tlon Corp, a San Fransisco-based startup founded to advance a decentralized computer platform co-founded by Yarvin. In 2016, Yarvin boasted that he had been coaching Thiel on his efforts to expand his influence within the conservative faction of the US political paradigm. Yarvin admitted that Thiel’s influence on him was reciprocal as Thiel was formative on the development of Yarvin’s own political philosophy, citing a 2009 essay by the Palantir co-founder in which he wrote “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” a message that succinctly summarizes the foundational tenet of the Dark Enlightenment.
The idea that democracy is not compatible with freedom is an ages-old belief with as much merit as it has history. In the present epoch, the dictatorship of the majority makes democratic systems like that of the American Republic self defeating, as the 51% or more in power leverage their hegemony to rule with the same iron first of a tyrant. Many of history’s greatest minds, whose influence has transcended states and even whole civilizations, have lamented the perils of democracy and the fallacy of the sanctity it has been regarded with.
Ancient Greek thinkers like Socrates and Plato hated democratic elections.
They saw democracy as part of an endless cycle of regimes — destined to slip into mob rule.
But Polybius knew how to break the cycle… (thread)
pic.twitter.com/yeZUKGiSrq
— The Culturist (@the_culturist_) November 1, 2024
The immortal Greek philosopher Plato rued democracy under the pretense that the general populous was not equipped to make informed decisions, a belief his student Aristotle carried on, albeit from a more moderate position than his predecessor. Thucydides, the Greek historian who chronicled the Peloponnesian War which led to the downfall of the Athenian democracy foreshadowed the perils of democracy that have befallen the American experiment over 2 millennia ago. He wrote that one of democracy’s fatal flaws was that it failed to exalt the truth above all else, instead favoring demagoguery that empowered itself by manipulating the will of the masses that democracy vested its legitimacy upon. Those words characterize the modern state of western civilization prophetically, giving momentum to the emergence of iconoclasts like Yarvin.
Despite the valid criticisms of democracy echoed throughout the ages, a new paradigm that seeks to replace a democratic system is not immunized against those same flaws simply because democracy itself is fundamentally problematic. The fact that democracy is deeply flawed does not inherently make the vision held by the likes of Yarvin and his acolytes a panacea for those ills. If anything, the emergence of the influence of the Dark Enlightenment on the landscape of American politics has amplified the forces that have eroded the fabric of the American ideal. Palantir and its increasing influence over both the second Trump administration and America’s new right-wing has led to an expansion of the surveillance state as well as empowered the bureaucracy that the likes of Yarvin are so critical of by placing its power into the hands of a technocratic elite who have done more to use the flaws of democracy to their advantage than to rectify the social ills that metastasize from it.
CIA can’t operate without it.
Pentagon can’t function without it.
And Wall Street can’t trade without it.Yet most people have no idea about what Palantir does.
How the Government let a $300 Billion surveillance company track you everywhere
— Alex Vacca (@itsalexvacca) June 4, 2025
The meeting of the minds between Musk and Yarvin is a microcosm of the paradoxical relationship between the Dark Enlightenment and the emergence of a populist third party designed to put power back into the hands of the common man. That contradiction is apparent as many of the views Yarvin is a proponent of have already taken shape under the second Trump administration, which is evident by the emergence of technocratic influence over its policymaking and key figures within the Executive Branch, including Vice President JD Vance, who himself has admitted to being heavily influenced by Yarvin’s philosophy and whose political ascent was made possible by Thiel.
In 2021, then-Senator JD Vance spoke glowingly of Yarvin en route to solidifying his claim to the vice presidency, stating “There’s this guy Curtis Yarvin, who has written about some of these things” before explaining how he thought Yarvin’s views should shape the next presidential administration. “I think Trump is going to run again in 2024 and I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” Those remarks highlight how reshaping America’s political system is less about instilling a paradigm shift aimed at advancing humanity and more about creating upheaval in the system in place by merely putting it into the hands of a new ruling class. That aim proves how the philosophy of the Dark Enlightenment is not based in a noble ideal but instead in the pursuit of consolidating power under the hegemony of its visionaries and their puppets.
Q: “Aside from elections, how do we rip out this leadership class?”
JD Vance: “There’s this guy, Curtis Yarvin…”
Curtis Yarvin: “If Americans want to change their government they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” pic.twitter.com/rjzPOvR82g
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) April 15, 2025
While the likes of Yarvin and Thiel grandiosely see themselves as the vanguard leading the charge to save humanity, that inflated sense of self-worth deludes them from seeing how the worldview they express is not as original as they believe it to be. Musk himself proved how stale the ideas driving the Dark Enlightenment are at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit in 2020, which he took part in shortly after casting his ballot in the 2020 Presidential Election for Joe Biden, when he said “I think its a false dichotomy to look at government and sort of industry as separate….government is….the ultimate corporation.”
Musks remarks at the WSJ summit highlight how the Dark Enlightenment is less of a new political vision and more of a repackaged version of fascism designed by a cadre of semi-autistic tech bros who would be incels if not for amassing enormous fortunes which have allowed them to attain whatever their hearts desire. As they set those desires on even more control over the social systems determining the course of history, they have signaled that doing so is predicated upon advancing a technocratic form of neo-fascism that has gained support by concealing itself behind the American flag. That dynamic raises insurmountable doubt over the legitimacy of the cause Musk has stated is behind the America Party, indicating that him taking up a patriotic tone is more deeply rooted in a sense of political expediency than a love for his country.
Ironically, that hypocrisy is equally as evident in the crumbling facade that Trump’s Make America Great Again movement has hidden behind, which has seen itself go from promising to eliminate the Deep State to instead co-opting it to serve its own agenda. While Trump was able to maintain that facade long enough to see himself elected to the White House twice, it seems that Elon Musk’s America Party has already shown that fatal flaw before it has even started.