For some strange reason, there is a certain minority of libertarians out there who think that Curtis Yarvin is some sort of libertarian—or at least some kind of pro-freedom intellectual. Much of this stems from the fact that so many libertarians are gullible and always eager to gush with praise in favor of anyone who even mentions Murray Rothbard in a favorable light once or twice. Yarvin has referred to Rothbard in this way a time or two, and some libertarians ridiculously reacted like Yarvin was the next Lew Rockwell.
But, if one actually looks into Yarvin’s work, it is abundantly clear that Yarvin has no interest in freedom or even a robust civil society. Rather, he as an advocate for an authoritarian state under a thin patina of supporting property rights.)
Now in order to see this, one has to read Yarvin’s writings, which are tiresome in the extreme and remind me of the sorts of papers submitted by pretentious college freshman and which, as a college instructor, I had to grade. That is, Yarvin’s writing is extremely long-winded and filled with references to a variety of philosophers in a way that is designed to make the reader think “golly, this writer is very smart!” rather than to actually communicate useful information. 18-year-old philosophy students like to write those kinds of papers. So does, apparently, Curtis Yarvin.
But if one manages to slog through his stuff, it becomes apparent that Yarvin’s goal is little more than a dictatorship run by his friends in the degenerate, anti-family, anti-Christian, transhumanist techno-elite. Peter Thiel is one example of the sort of person who would be running Yarvin’s ideal techno-regime. Lying underneath thousands of words of textual theatrics lies Yarvin’s real agenda, which is a centralized state that will magically establish property rights and law and order.
How exactly this is to be accomplished remains a mystery, however, since Yarvin supports inflation, taxes, and various types of wealth redistribution. He claims that libertarianism fails because libertarians don’t believe in the use of force. This claim certainly doesn’t apply to Murray Rothbard who has never claimed that the use of force is never justified. Rothbard always supported the use of force in self defense, and also sided with the Americans in the American Revolution. The American revolutionaries were hardly pacifists. Yarvin’s claim on this topic is mostly a series of straw men.
And now it’s clear that he also supports mass surveillance. In an X/Twitter post on Tuesday, Yarvin writes:
Flockophobia the ultimate retard right. Actually collaborating in anarchotyranny.
Yes let’s make everyone less safe so we can put on tri-cornered hats and play pretend we live in a Free Community of Citizens and not a GTA VI slave labor hellscape. Now where did I put my musket [sic]
This was in response to Gov., Ron DeSantis’ laudable efforts to remove all the Flock cameras from Florida. Yarvin is apparently very upset that some people are opposing the creation of Yarvin’s much desired panopticon.
There is not really anything unsurprising in Yarvin’s claim here. It’s just reflects his usual cheerleading for more state power. His reference to “anarchotyranny” is part of his usual ploy in which he tries to convince people to give the state total power.
He then tries to support his position by saying that the US is a “slave labor hellscape.” On this, I largely agree. (Although “hellscape” might be overstating it a little, and reflective of the fact that Yarvin chooses to live among his fellow debauched “elites” near the dump that is San Francisco.)
Yarvin is apparently saying that the fact that many Americans are largely enslaved by their regime somehow justifies building an even bigger surveillance state. That’s an incoherent position to say the least. But it does make sense when we consider that Yarvin’s disciple Marc Andreesen is a large backer of Flock Safety corp. The techno-despots like to stick together.
But Yarvin’s position also illustrates just how out of touch with reality Yarvin is. Anyone who has been paying attention in recent years knows that the Flock cameras will not be used to prosecute rapists and murders and crazed meth-heads who want to stab you on the street for no apparent reason. Unlike Yarvin, who lives in an elite gated community, many ordinary people are aware of how government police agencies really work. Many people can already see that Flock cameras will be overwhelmingly used to fine and harass law-abiding citizens. It will be mostly peaceful middle-class people who will feel the brunt of the Flock surveillance state. This is because law-abiding middle-class people are easy target for the regime. Actual criminals pose a threat to “officer safety” and therefore the focus is on the soft targets driving their kids to soccer practice. They’ll pay the tickets which will be automatically mailed to the suburban mom who parked illegally for five minutes, or who was a few days late on renewing her auto registration.
Meanwhile, victims of actual thieves and rapists will be told by police “there’s not much we can do.” We see this even when the crime is caught on camera. On this, the United Kingdom has already shown us where it all goes. As Auton MacIntyre said in response to Yarvin’s post favoring more Flock cameras: “The UK has a huge network of CCTV cameras, those cameras weren’t used to stop the rape of tens of millions of white women They were used to track down and destroy every Englishman that protested those rapes Why would this be different Curtis?”
Yarvin, of course, offered no response—although he may be, at this minute, writing up a 10,000 word unreadable response quoting Kant and Aristotle and Mosca.
Apparently, the fact that we already live in a surveillance state with cameras everywhere, with intelligence agencies tracking every phone, isn’t enough for Yarvin who would have us believe that “anarchotyranny” will be defeated if only the local police department can incessantly fine, tax, and punish you for minor traffic infractions.
Truly, this Yarvin guy is quite the visionary.
(Image credit: Elekes Andor, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia.)
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