The Dark Enlightenment: Silicon Valley, Anti-Democracy, and the Future of Power

Send us Fan Mail*Sorry about the audio on this one, folks! Things got a little wonky! Today’s episode is… heavy. We’re diving into something that sounds like a sci-fi dystopia, but is very real: The Dark Enlightenment. Also known as NRx, or neoreactionary thought. And if you’ve never heard of it before, you’re not alone—but its influence is quietly growing in tech, politics, and online spaces. This is not just fringe internet philosophy. It intersects with power, wealth, and governance—and challenges the core assumption that democracy is the best system we’ve got. We’re going to discuss where it came from, what it believes, why it’s appealing to some, and why critics say it’s deeply dangerous.Brown, W. – Undoing the DemosMüller, J.W. – What is Populism?Nature Genetics (re: race & genetics)Hirschman, A.O. – Exit, Voice, and LoyaltyPiketty, T. – inequality and political systemsLevitsky & Ziblatt – How Democracies DieBrown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. Zone Books.Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Harvard University Press.Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. Crown.Müller, J.-W. (2016). What is populism? University of Pennsylvania Press.Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Harper & Row.Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209.Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum.Freyd, J. J. (1996). Betrayal trauma: The logic of forgetting childhood abuse. Harvard University Press.Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Harvard University Press.Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189–212). Springer-Verlag.hooks, b. (2004). The will to change: Men, masculinity, and love. Atria Books.Jost, J. T., & Banaji, M. R. (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33(1), 1–27.Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297–314.Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (1996). Motivated closing of the mind: "Seizing" and "freezing." Psychological Review, 103(2), 263–283.Real, T. (1997)