Some works are notable for the power of their ideas; others for the power of those attracted to their ideas. Curtis Yarvin (aka “moldbug”) was for many years a contrarian, libertarian-adjacent blogger calling for a new world order, unknown to most, but curiously popular with the techbro and billionaire class – Peter Thiel was an early enthusiast. With the arrival of the second Trump administration and the ascendancy of the billionaire-techbrocrats, Yarvin’s ideas have been politically mainstreamed, providing a political-theoretical lens through which many in the MAGA sphere see the world, and helping to shape the future they wish to bring about. In this episode, the first of four on Yarvin, Rolf and Reed explore the strange intellectual world that he inhabits, diving into the first section of his blog-post collection-turned-book entitled Unqualified Reservations: A Gentle Introduction to Reactionary Enlightenment, in which Yarvin exhorts us to take a red pill and follow him into the world of the darkly enlightened.

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