Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/20/pete-buttigieg-understands-who-jd-vance-is-and-its-not-good.html
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Vance was almost custom-designed by Peter Thiel as a political vehicle for his fascist aspirations. Now more billionaire techbros are all throwing off their masks and going full-bore for the MAGA ticket – all for another tax break that will let them buy another unused yacht or supercar.
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Plus it’s important to also note outside of those execs and crypto/nft bros, silicon valley workers trend towards the left which is quite telling seeing how they interact with those folks quite a bit.
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When historians look back at this era (you know, if we survive this and humanity aren’t clinging existence on the margins, or you know… gone…), Thiel will be a pivotal figure in the rise of fascism in America. I wonder how much Gawker’s story about him drove his funding of the far right, or if it was something he was already going to be doing… I’m guessing it’s the latter, though.
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He was spouting the fascist nonsense before the Gawker case, but that was the first real public flex of his willingness to use his money to destroy a media outlet (part of a larger liberal-democratic institution).
I don’t think Hulk Hogan spoke at the RNC only on the basis of his friendship with Biff.
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Good to know! He’s always been a fascist asshole.
Oh, totally yeah… First thing I said to my family when I heard he was going to appear…
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It’s a fantasy to think we can just drop someone else into the nomination and win. He lost pretty early in the primary process. 
Go watch AOC’s video about it and I posted a Roads with Beau video over in elections about this, too. Shit doesn’t just… happen. There are processes at a campaign at this level. It can happen, but what reason do YOU have for leap-frogging the VP in the first place…
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I found a non-X version, but it includes about 45 seconds before the original clip.
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And funding it.
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I think it’s going to sound old fashioned, but this is caused by the different classes, and there’s clearly a class struggle. Using who owns the means of productions isn’t the only difference, but there’s also now to consider where one lives and the other properties one has.
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Mayor Pete has certainly impressed as SoT, but I still don’t know if he was appointed to stash him somewhere where he wouldn’t try to compete with Biden/Harris during this past primary or if the Democratic Party is actually trying to get him some federal level bonafides for a future leadership role.
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Which party is the fascist party again? And which party is the party a bit more interested in building up future leaders? 
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I don’t know. On the one hand, it’s true that one of the big knocks against him in 2020 was that he had only been a mayor, and not even of all that big a city. So it would make sense to get him some bigger experience if you want to groom him for future leadership. On the other hand, Secretary of Transportation is not, historically, the kind of position used for that. A couple of Transportation Secretaries have gone on to be White House Chiefs of Staff, and one, Elizabeth Dole, went on to be a US Senator. So it’s not a historical springboard to bigger things.
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It is possible for people to just do a good job in whatever role they end up in. It is also possible for them to have potential future roles. It’s a good sign when your party has more qualified, skilled intelligent people than high level jobs for them to fill.
On the other hand, there is the current version of the Republican party, where the ONLY qualification for a high level role is a willingness to sell your soul/go all in on the MAGA madness, and be perceived as loyal to Donald Trump.
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I love the parting line at the end of the interview when Pete said;
“I hope things work out better for JD Vance than for Mike Pence.”
(In reference the January 6th event where a mob was ready to hang Mike Pence because he had enough integrity to correctly officiate the vote certification.)
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He appears to be a good judge of character, if nothing else. Here’s hoping he can get to the bottom of this situation.
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Just took an informal poll of the household:
“Do y’all know who Hulk Hogan is?”
“Who?”
See above re: 1987 (& they don’t know who Chachi is, either)
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Curtis Yarvin is in the mix as well - blogging pseudonym was Mencius Moldbug - who is an extreme eugenicist who probably thinks that ‘white supremacy’ doesn’t go far enough.
And Eliezer Yudkowsky is part of that crowd too - he’s the guy who thinks that Bayesian probability can solve everything so long as he is the one defining the priors, and who was spooked by the idea of Roko’s Basilisk.
(Not that those two guys aren’t very smart; they clearly are. But it’s because they are smart that their tunnel visions and obsessions are infecting people who really ought to know better. Wait, what am I saying - they’re all techbros together.)
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Yudkowsky really doesn’t like the Basilisk because it’s a straightforward extrapolation of his own ideas — but he didn’t come up with it, and it makes them look bad 
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