Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Curtis Yarvin, a conservative blogger who advocates transforming American democracy into a “monarchy,” among other political theories, has promoted ideas that have garnered support and interest from some notable Republicans, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is set to take office in two days.Newsweek has reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for comment via email on Saturday. Newsweek was unable to identify a contact email for Yarvin.Why It Matters Vance has previously referenced Yarvin by name in interviews, suggesting some of his theories have shaped some of Vance’s political thinking.As Yarvin has advocated for transforming the U.S. government from a democracy to a monarchy, some are concerned about the potential influence of his ideas on the incoming administration.Critics of President-elect Donald Trump have voiced fears about the possible erosion of democracy under his leadership, citing his repeated claims that the 2020 election was stolen, his appointment of billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser, and comments of persecuting political rivals, among other actions.Who Is Curtis Yarvin?Yarvin, 51, is a software engineer who started blogging under the pen name Mencius Moldbug in 2007. He has since started a new blog and made numerous appearances on online platforms and podcasts to discuss political theory and what is now known as “dark enlightenment” thinking.He largely argues that governmental bureaucracy should be stripped, and that the U.S. should be replaced with a more centralized “monarchy” run by as a corporation with a chief executive officer.Yarvin is critical of what he calls “the cathedral,” which he defines in his Gray Mirror Substack as, “‘journalism plus academia’—in other words, the intellectual institutions at the center of modern society, just as the Church was the intellectual institution at the center of medieval society.” His Substack has over 49,000 followers.In an interview published Saturday in The New York Times, when asked “why is democracy so bad?” Yarvin replied: “It’s not even that democracy is bad; it’s just that it’s very weak. And the fact that it’s very weak is easily seen by the fact that very unpopular policies like mass immigration persist despite strong majorities being against them.”His political thinking and ideas have reached top members of Trump’s administration, most notably Vance. However, in the recent Times’ interview Yarvin noted that their relationship is “definitely overstated.”In a 2021 podcast interview with internet personality and blogger, Jack Murphy, Vance said: “There’s this guy Curtis Yarvin who’s written about some of these things…I think that 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, replace them with our people.”Yarvin, meanwhile, has also garnered support from Silicon Valley leaders, including Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a friend of Vance’s, among others, and Trump’s incoming top State Department official Michael Anton. Yarvin spoke about installing an “American Caesar” on Anton’s podcast.
Vice President-elect JD Vance attends the Electoral College vote count during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber on January 6. Curtis Yarvin, a conservative blogger who advocates transforming American democracy into a…
Vice President-elect JD Vance attends the Electoral College vote count during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber on January 6. Curtis Yarvin, a conservative blogger who advocates transforming American democracy into a “monarchy,” among other political theories, has promoted ideas that have garnered support and interest from some notable Republicans, including Vance, who is set to take office in two days.
More
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
What People Are Saying Writer Malcolm Harris shared the Times’ interview with Yarvin in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Saturday morning and wrote: “Pathetic what passes for an intellectual on the right.”Write Jacob Silverman also shared the article on X and wrote: “Not a good writer, not a novel or interesting thinker, but he gives his tech-lord adherents a permission structure to abandon democracy and embrace their inner dictator.”Alex Tabarrok, an economist and professor at George Mason University, wrote on X on Saturday: “Whiplash. Two years ago and the mere mention of his name would get you cancelled.”Robert Evans, host of the podcast Behind the Bastards, said in a recent episode about Yarvin: “What’s unique is his way of rebranding or repackaging old reactionary ideas in a way that appealed to libertarian-minded kids in the tech industry, and in eventually getting some of them to embrace a lot of far-right ideas. That’s the novelty of Yarvin and that’s his real accomplishment.”What Happens Next Yarvin has said the time for changing American democracy into a monarchy is not yet here, telling the Times that “no one should be reading this panicking, thinking I’m about to be installed as America’s secret dictator.”Trump and Vance will take office on Monday.
