251: Who Is Curtis Yarvin?

Conspirituality · 2025-04-03

"If Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator-phobia."

That's neo-reactionary philosopher Curtis Yarvin in 2012, when he outlined a strategy that's eerily similar to how Trump and Musk are now destroying our government. The "dark enlightenment" blogger, long a transgressive darling of the New Right, has in the last two months enjoyed a fresh round of mainstream exposure.

We look at a man who has the ear of those who are reshaping our world at breakneck speed.

Show Notes
That's Bait - by Jeff Sharlet
Kristi Noem Gets a MAGA Makeover - The New York Times
Kristi Noem’s New Teeth Are Blowing Up in Her Face | Vanity Fair
Venezuela-hired lawyers file petition in El Salvador aimed at freeing Venezuelans deported by US | AP News
Kristi Noem’s El Salvador Prison Photo Op Might Have Violated the Geneva Convention
Trump wants FEMA gone. But that could be its own kind of disaster.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posed in front of El Salvador prisoners wearing $50k watch
Will Stancil: "The El Salvador government is using its concentration camp as a kind of Disneyland thrill ride for right-wing influencers”
Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 1 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)
Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 2 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)
‘All life is a service’: The Contested Erotics of Fascism from Foucault to Frost – Retrospect Journal
Cathedrals of Erotic Misery • Ill Will
Politico Yarvin Interview
Financial Times on Dark Enlightenment
TIME on Dark Enlightenment
Common Dreams on Dark Enlightenment/DOGE
NYT Podcast End of Democracy
Jennifer Kollmer, 1971-2021 — Yarvin’s obit poem, TW on the rest of the blog!
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Conspirituality

Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.

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