No, Curtis Yarvin. Totalitarian Fascism is Bad, Actually.

A letter to Curtis Yarvin on monarchy, part II

Curtis Yarvin writes under the pen name Mencius Moldbug and is the author of the newsletter Gray Mirror. This exchange began with my letter and his response.

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Dear Mencius,

In a recent essay, “America’s Best Test of Truth: The birth of the ACLU and the limits of free speech,” I told how the U.S. War Department enlisted director Frank Capra to create a response to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, and how he shocked his supervisors with the film series Why We Fight by including clips of Nazi speeches and films. Why amplify their lies? But Capra believed the best rebuttal to fascism was fascism itself. You only had to hold up a mirror for the public to see, as Vice President Wallace put it, that this was “a fight between a free world and a slave world.” So here’s my mirror, in the form of an imaginary interview. My questions are fabricated, but your answers are actual quotes taken from your recent letter to me.

Mencius, you say you want to do away with checks and balances so that the future ruler of the United States has unlimited power. Would you want this ruler to be entirely above the law?

An executive “under law” is not an executive at all.

By what principle should any individual have that kind of power over us?

The wise, subtle, and permanent principle that Might makes Right.

Once this dictator is in place, what will prevent him from remaining in power forever?

The bareback President makes exactly one promise: he will hold himself accountable to the people who elected him, by holding a free and fair national election in four years. In all other matters, he will exercise unconditional executive authority over the whole American government.

I see, so he’s going to pinky promise. I also noticed that when you described the unlimited power you want this dictator to have, you fittingly quoted Stalin, who said, ‘quantity has a quality all its own.’ Can you specify just how much power we’re talking about here?

The new President will not just take over the federal government—but also state, local and tribal government. Moreover, inasmuch as he finds any organization, public or private, to have become a de facto state agency, he will nationalize and restructure it.

In other words, a totalitarian dictator. Stalin would be proud. But how will he do this without the people rising up against him?

Direct command of the police to maintain public stability.

Aha, a totalitarian police state. You know, that would turn into a bloodbath real fast.

The entire transition must remain orderly … No one is being dragged away and shot. It is not the 20th century.

So what you’re saying is, this totalitarian dictator who is entirely above the law will not abuse the power of his police state to murder his political opponents because, like, that’s old school? Putting that aside, there will be massive protests before this tyrant ever secures such power.

At most a week of Covid-style lockdown should be enough to secure the new regime.

Americans will not stand for this. They will rise up.

Not only are the Americans of today, especially the blue-state ones, no Minutemen, but unlike most historical urban populations they do not even know how to be a mob.

Maybe not, but they will fight back nonetheless. And that will result in untold bloodshed. A massacre of the American people.

Nobody needs to get shot … Arbitrary level of structural change can be achieved without severing any heads … The new President is as ruthless as Stalin yet as nice as Jimmy Carter.

As ruthless as Stalin, you say. Tell me about this police state. How will our new Stalin run it?

Direct command of every law enforcement officer in the United States.

What if some police officers decide to grow a conscience?

Ideally, within a week, every law enforcement officer in America is wearing a red armband to show that he follows the new President’s direct, unconditional command. Forces, units, or individuals who resist this order need to be stripped of their badges immediately.

Jesus Christ. So, a totalitarian dictator rises to power, is entirely above the law, and runs a police states where officers in armbands have every U.S. citizen under lockdown. What about our institutions of democracy?

It is not even enough to dissolve the organizational structures of the old regime, or even demolish its physical buildings.

Okay, lots of bulldozing or perhaps bombing of our institutions. What about the First Amendment? Surely, as this new American Stalin sends his death squads out to do their noble work, reporters like myself will have something to say about that, and when—not if—the mass executions begin, surely this will make headlines.

The mainstream press can and must be abolished within a week.

Of course, why didn’t I think of that? But the truth will out. Leaks will be inevitable.

Under the new regime, there are no leaks. Rather, media and intelligence are unified—the government makes sure it always knows the truth, and says as much of it as it can.

I wonder, is this a fascist state or will capitalism be permitted by our new overlord?

As soon as possible, the President takes unilateral control of the Federal Reserve … Organizations and persons hostile to the new President will find it hard to operate with their accounts frozen … Everyone’s financial portfolio is automatically sold across the board to the Fed … And the Fed owns all financial assets. Your house is sold to the Fed at the Zillow price. Your mortgage is now rent.

What about business leaders? Will they simply capitulate to this new hell?

The President does not feel like executing them. Maybe they should be happy about this, but they won’t be.

No, I imagine they won’t.

Be thankful you’re not in Rome—in Rome, proscription meant you would have been killed with your family.

Be thankful we’re not slaughtering your children? Look, I really don’t have much of a response to this. Fascist totalitarianism is the motherlode of shit ideas. I had thought maybe you had some interesting take on monarchy. Not this. And let’s not even get into your views on slavery.

The essential problem with the David Volodzko worldview … [is you’re] always ready to believe that real liberalism has never been tried—no, baby, it’s real fascism that has never been tried.

Well, you got me there. I do believe in liberal values. And I thank you for your time. And, of course, your honesty.