(Techno)Fascists: Racism, Surveillance, and Biopolitics Will Save Civilization
As Trump declines, they sharpen their swords
Many of you have been asking for commentary on technofascism, prompted by concerns over the protagonists of the movement sharpening their swords as President Trump declines and their proxy Vice President J.D. Vance loses whatever legitimacy he once had.
So I want to re-up the video of my December 2025 conversation with tech journalist Gil Durán, who was recently suspended from X for calling Palantir’s just-published manifesto a Fascist document.
Alex Karp, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and others are on edge and on the warpath right now. They have invested billions of dollars and huge amounts of time and social capital in the project of capturing a superpower and using the information ecosystem to spread racism, biopolitics, and versions of Fascist and other authoritarian systems of rule.
Their goal has been to burrow into informational, economic, administrative, and media systems of democracies and turn them to their own purposes so they may create a paradise of moral and every other form of deregulation: a world where rules and the rule of law do not apply.
These are people who are not used to failure, who truly believe they are superior to all others and have a biological, racial, and historical right to dominate. MAGA was one of their main vehicles for this project, but MAGA is fragmenting and its figurehead and leader is failing them before his usefulness to them has ended.
So they are going on the offensive.
Palantir’s document argues for an authoritarian military-and-tech alliance under the guise of a moral duty to save civilization. It advocates “hard power” in the world, and the further fusion of surveillance and AI technologies and law enforcement for domestic control (“Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime”).
As populism expert Cas Mudde commented, this declaration of technofascism should disqualify Palantir as a business partner. Palantir could be seen as less a business enterprise at this point than a front for a project of dystopian domination of societies who are short-sighted enough to allow it access to national security structures and assets.
As for Elon Musk, his manic inundation of his X platform with racist comments in recent months speaks to his seeming fear that the space for consolidation of power might be shrinking a bit, necessitating some acceleration(ism). A Washington Post investigation found that Musk posted 850 times on the topic in recent months, almost triple his rate in the previous 2 years.
It should be no surprise that someone who performed a Nazi-style salute in public and supports so many far-right and autocratic parties and states wants to convince the world that “[w]hites are a rapidly dying minority” and believes this supposed fact constitutes an existential threat. Such ideas, which have been part of Fascist ideology and Great Replacement Theory for a century, have inspired large-scale physical and legal repression around the world.
As this next chapter of the technofascists’ crusade unfolds, I thought it would be helpful to have some context on the host environments they have been operating in, the histories of the ideologies they are supporting, and where DOGE fits in with this.
So here is a roundup of some of my essays and interviews on these subjects.
Cheeto’s Vigilante Voter Challenge: Voter Suppression
In every state by law any registered voter can challenge the validity of another registered voter’s right to cast a qualified vote in an election This has been termed a vigilante challenge
The Nazi Republicans are hard at work to get at states’ registered voter data so they can make this a nationwide project The Georgia Nazi Republicans beta tested vigilante challenges to registered voters in 2024 and were successful so they want to take the process nationwide but they need registered voter data to do it This is why the voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act which the Nazis are trying to get through the Senate has the specific demand that the states turn over their registered voter information And Peter Theil and Palantir are ready to create a database
This was initially reported by investigative journalist Greg Palast in the lead up to the 2024 election in a documentary Vigilante Challenge(bit.ly/41UelTx) and he then felt based on its success the Nazi Republicans would try to pull off this voter suppression tactic nationally in the next election, midterms 2026 Democracy Docket also covered this in 2022(https://bit.ly/4uc9E4c)
And no state election will be immune from such registered voter challenges Here’s an NCSL(National Conference of State Legislatures) link(bit.ly/41QB17R) as to how you can look up what laws your local state legislature has on the books And how you can be affected by vigilante Republicans who having all the data on voters will to try to disenfranchise Democratic and Independent voters with “legal challenges” as to the legitimacy of the voters challenged BTW the provisional ballots solution mentioned are not often counted
The solution: VOTE EARLY and make sure your vote is counted
Ruth Ben ghiat standing up for democracy, thanks