What Is the Dark Enlightenment?

The Lonely Liberal

A strange new buzzword has been floating from obscure blogs into elite political circles: The Dark Enlightenment. In this episode, I dig into where it came from, who coined it, and why it matters now.

We’ll cover:

• The origins — Curtis Yarvin’s 2007 blog and Nick Land’s 2012 essays.
• Core ideas — the “Cathedral,” running a state like a company, and why they think exit is better than voice.
• The key players — Yarvin, Land, Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, Patri Friedman, Balaji Srinivasan, and more.
• The numbers — $10–15M in Thiel PAC funding to Vance, 2.2M federal employees targeted by “fire-the-bureaucracy” talk, and early seasteading investments of ~$500k.
• Critiques — why strong democracies like the Nordics contradict the theory, and the risks of a “CEO state.”
• What to watch — staffing, policy drafts, and new “exit” experiments like charter cities or network states.

By the end, you’ll see how a once-fringe internet philosophy went from blogs to salons to inauguration parties—and why it’s suddenly brushing up against the halls of power.

Also, thoughts for Charlie Kirk and his family.