Ruth Ben-Ghiat

And now the thing about Catholicism, he doesn't seem to have very good instincts, like taking on the Pope really and lecturing the Pope.

right and saying also the his words he chooses this where he's very smart in his in book way right and he chooses his words carefully but issuing something that to many of us who study autocracy sounded like a veiled threat to the pope he said you should be careful the pope should be careful in choosing you know something like he should be careful in choosing his words what he says

And that's like kind of how like mafia bosses talk.

You better be careful.

You better watch what he's saying.

It's not a good PR strategy, shall we say?

So there's all that.

But it is complicated because we all know that why is Vance there?

He's a proxy for Peter Thiel and the wider tech community.

Just remember, Peter Thiel bankrolled his Senate race and his businesses, Vance's private businesses.

So they have a long history.

And these tech billionaires are on the offense right now.

You saw that the head of Palantir, Alex Karp, who keeps appearing in public,

in some kind of drugs seemingly drug state yeah why i don't know but he issued a manifesto and musk has been the washington post reported he has upped the amount of his posting on race issues um he's in some kind of manic seeming manic um thing about posting about race to indoctrinate people about white supremacy so there's something going on with these people they're like panicked

And maybe that's because they see that their guy is being set up to fail, as you say.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I just published my latest essay on Lucid is about this techno-fascist and how they seem to, I said they're sharpening their swords.

There's something going on.

Why release your 22-point manifesto right now if you're Palantir?