Phillipines
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mpu 6 26 mpu
Peter Thiel's Plan To Replace Democracy (And Profit Off What Comes Next)
milton grandson 
lonsdale
gil duran: 9
In 1997, there was a book that came out called “The Sovereign Individual.”
3:03
It argued that in the 21st century, two technologies would result basically in the overthrow of democracy
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and the demise of nations like the United States.
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Cyber currency, which we would call crypto today.
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And the other one was advanced automation that would create a world without jobs,
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and that wealthy individuals who were savvy investors could profit from this coming doom
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and prepare for it by making the right investments.
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This book had a major impact on Peter Thiel.
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And of course, it influenced the people Thiel was paying.
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Joe Lansdale got to work.
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He started a nonprofit, California Common Sense , allegedly dedicated to transparency and government
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spending, so that voters could make a difference if they found things they were unhappy with.
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On the surface, that sounds great, but two founders of that nonprofit started a for-profit:
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OpenGOV.
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OpenGOV is a software service for government agencies to manage data.
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The idea of replacing democratic processes in the hands of all of us
GHIS MAXWELL!
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But the think tanks would herald a few successful versions of their privatization plan.
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Like Sandy Springs, Georgia, famously the first city in America
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to privatize nearly all government services.
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It was the darling of the libertarian press.
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Everything for-profit, nothing public.
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And a consulting firm making a little cash off the taxpayers at every juncture.
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Those extra taxes for corporate profit started adding up, though.
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Eventually, Sandy Springs unprivatized
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saving taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
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There were also nascent communities focused on Christian values
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that the network state media heralds.
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Battle Ground, Washington,
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where a data center billionaire is buying up all the property to own the town,
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the mayor is on his payroll,
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and Highland Rim, a series of developments in Appalachia
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run by the investment firm New Founding.
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And that's not even including the California Forever Project,
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a proposed tech city in Solano County
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funded by Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman and other billionaires.
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But what if this was never really about these little mini governments?
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Here's Peter Thiel saying the quiet part out loud in 2010.
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[Thiel] Technology is this incredible alternative to politics.
...
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You could pass laws, know, Cicero's in 15 states, we're getting dozens of laws passed.
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And then we're going to teach people that and go to the national level.
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[Gil] Riling people up is definitely part of their game plan.
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That's what we saw in the San Francisco recalls.
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San Francisco had a spike in crime during the pandemic,
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but so did almost every big city in the United States.
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Only in San Francisco,
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which has extremely low crime rates compared to most cities in red states,
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did they create this massive panic using social media and doom influencers
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to convince everybody that everything was worse than it ever been.
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And as Lonsdale got into nonprofits and think tanks,
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Patri Friedman – remember him?
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Milton Friedman's grandson?
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Started his own VC firm with backing from Peter Thiel
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called Pronomos Capital, existing entirely for investing in privatized governments.
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In Honduras, Pronomos invested in the first government
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run entirely by a for-profit corporation: Prospera.
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[Gil] Prospera is this little enclave on the island of Roatan in Honduras
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That claims to be its own little charter city
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that was funded by American venture capitalists and has been touted
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as the flagship project of the network state movement.
...
lonsdale
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But the real flagship project is something bigger:
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the entire United States government.
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It shows in policy.
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Remember the whole thing about taking over Greenland?
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That idea emerged and was celebrated by the people we've been talking about.
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I think having a frontier is very healthy.
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I think part of America being great is that it's is growing and creating more wealth for everyone.
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If the people in Greenland want to be part of us, if we can use those resources
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better and make sure Russia and China don't get advantages in the Arctic.
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The Freedom City as a name didn't really gain momentum,
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but the idea is there, and the influence in the administration is clear.
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Joe Lansdale helped staff up the Trump administration
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and just recently accompanied administration officials to the Philippines
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to christen a new regulatory zone.
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Just last week, we signed a historic deal with the Philippines, 4000 acres
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right next to Subic Bay, where we're going to build a
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first-of-its-kind, AI-native industrial park.
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I was there for a day in the Philippines with everyone.
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They’re, they’re excited, what you guys are doing.
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That sounds a lot like a startup city....
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that this stuff could travel to the White House.
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[Gil] In September 2024, there was a conference at Fort Mason
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in San Francisco called Reboot 2024,
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and its website announced that we are now in a new reality.
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And that Silicon Valley was waking up and about to become this powerful force in politics.
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And the guest speaker was Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation
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who was the guy who had shepherded Project 2025.
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So here you had tech VCs in San Francisco...
kishner
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for maritime prosperity zones,
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districts on American soil with fewer regulations
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for corporations to build ships and reinvigorate the industrial base.
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Then there's the New American Industrial Alliance,
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a tech industry interest group pushing for unrestricted data center growth.
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They were listed as co-sponsors of the Blueprint for America,
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lobbying for prosperity zones on American soil.
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A plan to sell federal and public land to private companies
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to build low regulation, low tax havens for progress.
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Their co-sponsor on the Blueprint was the company behind Prospera in Honduras,
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whose lobbying disclosures show they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
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pushing for prosperity zones.
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But they also spent big on begging the American government for handouts of your money.
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They've lobbied on refunding the US International Development Financial Corporation,
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a government organization run by Epstein associate Ben Black
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that uses tax dollars to invest in American companies abroad.
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That's privatized foreign aid.
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And they might finally get their way.
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Black went to Honduras and promised investment in real estate and technology there,
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including an investment in La Ceiba, which is slated to be absorbed by Prospera.
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But it's more than just government handouts.
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It's war crimes.
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So we did a master plan.
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And we've developed ways to redevelop Gaza.
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Gaza is President Trump's and saying has amazing potential.
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And this is for the people of Gaza.
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We've developed it into zones.
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[Gil] It was sort of insane to see it all come together in this way.
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there's always the idea of a new city that they're proposing.
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And it's not clear why we need these new cities.
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You know, Gaza should be rebuilt for for the Palestinians.
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But these guys see it as an opportunity to take the land.
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And so that shows you the degree to which this thinking is starting to imbue everything that they do.
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[Sean] Look at how the people in this fringe movement
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reacted to other invasions.
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In 2019, Mark Lutter, leader of a Peter Thiel funded new city think tank, said that
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overthrowing the Venezuelan government would be an opportunity for these projects.
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And when the invasion did happen, Lutter suggested America
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establish a Florida or Texas style government there.
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He cites America paying for a wholesale development plan after regime change.
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Which is exactly what we're doing in Iran today,
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to the tune of $300 billion.
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Palmer Luckey, Lonsdale and Thiel associate, and founder of AI defense contractor Anduril,
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pictured here in cosplay,
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suggested a privatized city on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
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which President Trump also threatened with invasion.
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Again, nobody wants this.
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They know that.
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That's why they hate populism.
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That's why they hate democratic representation
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despite all of this being couched in freedom.
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What they're asking for is to exit entirely from any government structure.
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But that's just not how it works,
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especially when most of these guys are government contractors, and are still wanting
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to have the benefits of our society without having the responsibilities of our society.
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These are people who don't like being told “no.”
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They're angry at the pushback against data centers, that we don't want AI to take over everything,
gil
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that no one supports annihilating a civilization to replace it with one they can profit from.
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People need to understand that the billionaires have become radicalized against democracy,
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and they're in the process of using everything they have to try to destroy it.
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And that's the battle of our moment.
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That's the battle of our time.
...
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It's not too late to push back.
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Public response to data centers works.
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Many of the governance as a service startups are starting their work
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in towns and states where you can still have a voice to stop them.
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The billionaire class wants to turn your home into their playland,
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completely change how everything is run to funnel more wealth to themselves,
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create chaos,
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and then when everything is all f*cked up,
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walk away with their winnings to their own private enclaves,
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all under the guise of fixing a broken government.
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A government that they broke.
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And yeah, sure, the government is broken,
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but it's not because of democracy or lack of corporate privatization.
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It's because of corporate power.
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We need more democracy and less corporate control.
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