Recent Entries

Although trump won the 2024 presidential election, and he is quickly implementing far right policies since his inauguration, the core ideology behind his misrule isn’t really “Project 2025”. It is a neo-fascist playbook by people working behind-the-scenes, inspired in particular by a schlubby nerd by the name of Curtis Yarvin, a fairly obscure software developer. He has had a lot of influence on “Broligarchs”, techbros and politicians affiliated with them, primarily Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, J D Vance, Josh Hawley, and the grandson of Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman. Sometimes they are called “The Nerd Reich”.

The core of the ideology, called the NRx (Neo-Reactionary ) or “Dark Enlightenment” movement, is that democracy is outdated and needs to be replaced. An amalgamation of corporate power and political government, controlled by a non-elected “monarch” (ie dictator) and business/tech elites, is desirable and inevitable. Instead of large nation-states, there would be city-states (“The Network State”, “Freedom Cities”). They would be anti-democratic, autocratic, with minimal civil rights and no social rights.

The society most like this already is Singapore, which has pretend elections that only one party can win, and where the government controls the media "softly", and sues the hell out of anybody who dares to oppose the government. Thiel points to Singapore as a place he'd love to replicate, but by comparison to what the broligarchs would like to create, Singapore is more like a kind of Sweden...

Although they like to think of themselves as “libertarian” it is not that in the slightest, it's all about control. That's what the oligarchs crave and that's what the ideologues like Curtis Yarvin and Thiel are trying to create.

The Republican Party, MAGA, and especially trump, are simply TOOLS for them to access the power they want to have. Elon Musk is a sui generis fascist, only distantly connected to Yarvin and Thiel, but his general ideas are aligned with theirs. He is the most dangerous of all of them currently, because he is unelected and his behavior in the current trump Administration is autocratic.

As far as trump's imperialist fantasies of annexing Canada, Gaza, Panama, Greenland, any other valuable land he might want, the broligarchs think they are old-fashioned and useful only to be disruptive. They feel city-states will be easier to control, with corporate-dominated non-elected rulers, with no elections at any level of government.

If people don't like that, they can EMIGRATE. The ideologues ultimately guarantee that is the ONLY civil right a person will have in their envisioned society...the Right to Exit. Otherwise they are expected to shut-up and do as they are told.

The MAGA masses would be irrelevant. Most of them would be replaced by AI within a few decades, and they would be a very large “lumpy” proletariat controlled by AI-generated bread and circuses. When necessary they would be used as orcs in wars to distract any discontent domestically. It would be a techno-feudalist order, with “monarchs” ruling in perpetuity.

Where would dissenters go, to exercise their only civil right? Perhaps they’d flee to city states built up according to Solarpunk or Hopepunk ideals, in isolated parts of the world, or in spots where they could buy off local technofascist entities in order to be left alone. And some traditional countries along authoritarian NATIONALIST lines would likely survive, such as Russia and China.

Technofascist city-states could very well replace the EU and the USA though, which would survive only as loose economic and military alliances of smaller “countries”. The Broligarchs have no real need for the gigantic United States or the EU, at least politically. They'd prefer to have fiefdoms with hundreds of mini-Musks subjecting the population to Caligula-style dictatorships.

Like fascist regimes of yore, this system would be unstable. The Nazis begin in 1923 and were defeated in 1945, Mussolini ruled for about 20 years as well. Such tight control breeds resentment and is never based on popularity. Not everyone opposing the New Order would emigrate and there would be opposition no matter what. A repressive apparatus would need to use totalitarian methods to ensure compliance. A society of bee-like drones might satisfy the tiny ruling elite, but is not a long-term guarantee of stability. Far from it.

The ideology has many contradictions. Techno-capitalism is not “green”, so of course such a system would continue to rape the environment and exploit resources until they are exhausted. Such a system would be extremely corrupt at every level of society since there would be no rule of law, except the whims of the dictator issuing edicts. And the city-states of course would fight amongst themselves, and mini-wars would inevitably erupt. China and Russia would never give up nuclear weapons, and neither would any replacement entities for the USA.

It's a very Grimdark future, but the people behind this (particularly like Yarvin)...Thiel, Vance, Andreessen, non-tech bros like Steve Bannon, Project 25 apparatchiks, and other far right allies...they all want that. They want power for themselves and domination over all the rest of us. All these toxic MEN (and the vast majority of them ARE males) are fascist to the core. The Nerd Reich would ultimately fail, if it doesn’t destroy the world first.

Alphistia is an imagined country for sure, but in recent years I imagine it as a place that could very well exist in the near/mid future, maybe 10-20 years down the road. I probably won’t make it to live there, as I am 67 years old. And even if I do, I would not be anyone more than its Founder. I have no political skills, and just have to leave that to those who do, along with fundraising skills, diplomatic skills, and economics skills 🙂

Right now, there are “two Alphistias” projected…a small one-mile square community of about 2000 people, who would live according to Alphistian ideals and plan the creation of the Alphistian homeland, a country of about 350 square miles and about 250,000 people. There would be no Alphistian Empire. It would be a microstate, bigger than San Marino or Liechtenstein, but smaller than Luxembourg or Malta. Where? That is to be determined as history proceeds.

It would have a mixed economy, primarily made up of for-profit (and non-profit!) co-operatives plus private small businesses. As small businesses grow, they would transform into co-ops. This would allow for innovation but avoid the evils of oligarchy.

You may have heard of the Mondragon co-operatives of Spain? They were founded by a priest in the Basque region in the 1950s, when Franco allowed a slight liberalization of his fascist rule. Mondragon has grown from a small company making primitive stoves to a very large network of companies. All employees are members of the “board” in that they democratically elect their Board of Directors. The CEO does not make a fantastical amount of money, and cannot rule like a dictator (like say, Elon Musk or any other capitalist CEO).

Alphistia’s companies would be about 70% co-ops, 20% state-owned (mostly natural resources and infrastructure), and 10% small private businesses.

Alphistia’s economy would be focused on being sustainably green. It would use carbon-based energy at an absolute minimum, and would instead focus on hydropower, solar power, and wind power. Its railways would be electrified, as would all motor transport. Most Alphistians would use the trains, trams (in the three largest cities) and e-buses to get around, as well as bicycles and walking for their daily tasks. Few would find it necessary to own a car, since transit and the small geography of the country would make that impractical. E-car rentals would be easy to use by the hour or overnight.

Alphistian workers would have trade unions, even though many workers would be paid-up co-op members. That’s because unions provide group clout, instead of the atomized individuals trying to protect their economic and social rights as is the “norm” in countries like the US, with very low union membership rates.

Alphistia would be a traditional social-democratic welfare state the way Sweden and the Netherlands were before the neo-liberal fads since the 1980s. Access to healthcare would be universal and not related to work, all would have insurance through the national health service. The normal workweek would be 4 days per week, 7 or 8 hours per day. The minimum annual vacation would be 20 working days (5 weeks per year). All would have pensions at retirement, or disability pensions if due to illness or accident they cannot work.

Housing would consist largely of non-profit apartments built by co-ops. This would make up about 90% of the country’s homes. About 10% would be privately owned apartments or individual houses, mostly in rural areas and small towns. There would not be many high-rise towers. Most Alphistians would prefer to live in smaller apartment buildings (garden style)...the “quad” apartments are most popular…two bedroom apartments in two floor buildings of four units each, grouped around inner gardens, circles, or squares. Very human-scaled, just like Alphistia’s towns.

Within the next 5-10 years upheaval will continue worldwide. We live in a uniquely evil period of history, not unlike the 1930s and 40s. I do believe trump will be dead within 5 years (perhaps sooner) and that his dreadful VP will be marginalized due to his character defects and lack of “charisma”. With any luck, Musk will be “neutralized” by his own flaws: corruption leading to exile or prison (Mars or St. Helena) or he will overdose on ketamine. Putin too will not live forever, Russian men have very low life expectancies after all.

However, “losing” these particular kakistocrats does not mean others won’t take their place. There are so many of them, and every country has a varying percent of it population willing to follow these sociopaths, vote them in, or support them in the fake elections like in Russia. The Far Far Right has a pet theory that nation-states as we know them can be transformed into a myriad of smaller city-states, which they can run like “monarchies” (actually corporate fascist states ruled by oligarchic autocrats). While this faction (it include J D Vance and Peter Thiel) would not likely be able to take over the entire world, they could conceivably created a network of city-states: fiefdoms really, with a “symbolic” national state perhaps still called The United States of America. But all power would derive from these mini-fascist states. There would be political democracy, human rights, or social welfare. The only “right” this form of the Far Right acknowledges is the Right to Exit, i.e. make yourself a refugee.

This must assume that OTHER models will still exist, and they probably will. Whether any non-fascist city-states can exist in a world of aggressive fascist entities would be like any era in human history…warfare would of course not go away.

But in theory, some nation-states would probably survive, like ethno-states like China, multi-ethnic unitary dictatorships like Russia, perhaps even something like the EU, but with many more smaller states as members. And theoretically, a country like Alphistia, somethere in the margins, under the radar.

So that is my perspective in short. In the meantime, to divert my attention from the dystopia of the current United States, I will continue to draw and write about Alphistia, small and large. Thanks very much for your support and interest through the years! :)

The Nerd Reich

Future Scenarios