In 2009, Honduras found itself in turmoil after a military coup destabilized the country leading to unprecedented levels of violence and repression. Taking a page out of the “shock doctrine” playbook, the elite political actors behind the coup (including narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández, now pardoned by Donald Trump after being sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and weapons charges) watered down environmental protections on Honduran land and approved illegal contracts to sell Indigenous and protected land to the highest bidder.
Among other corrupt dealings and land grabs, the government approved a law that enabled the creation of Peter Thiel’s Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs). ZEDEs derive from the idea of “charter cities.” Proposed by former World Bank executive and economist Paul Romer, these proposed cities are enclaves within lower-income nations that “promote economic growth” through privatization and the disposal of national regulations, while gifting major tax incentives for foreign nations to invest in businesses. Special economic zones in Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia have faced criticism due to low wages, harsh working conditions, and threats to rights to free association and collective bargaining. Romer, one of the initial proponents of ZEDEs in Honduras, expressed criticism in 2015 regarding the Honduran ZEDEs and their lack of accountability to local laws, and anti-democratic governance.
These ZEDEs are a project of Praxis, a tech billionaire-funded start-up that aims to create libertarian city-states to “restore Western Civilization.” The ZEDEs are allowed to have their own government, police force, courts, laws, and any taxes collected would not be paid to the Honduran government but to the ZEDEs themselves. ZEDEs are a tech billionaire’s dream: unbridled power, tech fantasy, and resource hoarding, where the government is run by AI and cryptocurrency is the main currency.
21st century banana republics. When can we have this bastard’s head in a basket?
Not soon enough!
Bring back the good old days, when billionaires lost everything, then leapt to their death from skyscrapers.
he already tried his island full of young men/boys, it failed.
libertarian city-states to “restore Western Civilization.”
These grasping neo-feudalist motherfuckers need a boot lodged somewhere dark and moist. And despite his delusions of being some kind of master of the universe, someone needs to break it to Thiel he ain’t the incarnation of Moore’s Ozymandias, despite the fact he clearly thinks dollars = ‘smart boy points’ that automatically confer genius on any topic his greasy, Zippy-the-Pinhead-esque noggin puts its mind to.
Huh, this is basically the bad guy shit from “The Rundown.” Modern mining towns with company scrip and infinite debt slavery and guys with whips. But with the added bonus of ultra surveillance tech. Fan-freaking-tastic.
Exactly. Why would you want to vote when you can just owe your soul to the company store?
It’s amazing how people like Thiel want to reinvent the wheel, and then pat themselves on the back for being so clever. Clearly this is why they were meant to be the leaders controlling us all /s
Broke: Little Saint James
Bespoke: Big Tegucigalpa
Slaps hood of fascist hellscape
You can fit so much child rape in here
Never gonna happen, Peter. And you’re going to end up hurting a lot of people (hopefully yourself too) in the process.
Idk he’s already established the zoning to make it happen.
This is what I assume the plan is for the U.S. if when he and Vance successfully destroy the remainder of the federal government.
When people say we should just burn it all down and start from scratch I feel like people have to know they’re just handing the right wing anarchists who call themselves “libertarians” exactly what they’ve always wanted, right?
Nothing about what they’re doing resembles anarchy. It’s straight autocracy.
Anarchy is the opposite of what they want. Anarchy means no person is artificially elevated into hierarchy over others, and then where would they be? Treated equal? To the rest of us plebs? What a horrifying thought!
The nation’s turn toward anarcho-totalitarianism, which is based on radical anti-government and anti-democratic principles intended to ensure that capital has free rein in the economy, is rooted in the anti-socialist ideas of the first part of the 20th century. The intellectual heroes of anarcho-totalitarianism are the Austrian economists, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard, and American thinkers, Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Robert Nozick, Robert LeFevre, and several others. Barry Goldwater was the first libertarian to rise as a major candidate seeking the U.S. presidency, but it was Ronald Reagan who welcomed the anarchists to the White House, granting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Friedman. A few years later, George H. W. Bush followed by granting it to Hayek.
Words have meaning and right winged ideology and totalitarianism (same thing let’s be honest) are incomparable with the anarcho philosophy.
Right winged governments started linking it to terrorism and created the far right winged libertarian. Who are so stupid and brainwashed they think they can survive without any societal structure (read a libertarian walks into a bear for a good case study on them getting exactly what they wanted).
But the anarchists that have more than two braincells to rub together know that society is needed and a blessing. Pre colonial Americans are a good example of what they are after. No threats of state violence, no leaders ruling by edict, and they would band together to defend their sovereignty.
I was, like I assume you are, thought it was just “everybody do whatever”. But I was educated by an unlikely source Benn Jordan https://youtu.be/W_F4rEaRduk
Even if you’re not into the tech segments, I highly recommend the video if only for his history of the movement.
Words have meaning and right winged ideology and totalitarianism (same thing let’s be honest) are incomparable with the anarcho philosophy.
But the anarchists that have more than two braincells to rub together know that society is needed and a blessing
These people very much believe in a society, they just support the abolition of government because they believe capitalists (like Peter Thiel) were born to be placed above the rest of society and control society via privatization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism
a political ideology and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of all government-maintained (public sector) institutions and services, including law enforcement, in favour of replacing them with private providers.[3] Anarcho-capitalism argues that a society can function without a state through voluntary exchange and private institutions that provide law and security. This would result in a voluntary society, based on concepts and models such as the non-aggression principle, free markets, and self-ownership. In the absence of statute, private defense agencies and/or insurance companies would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police, similar to those performed by a state apparatus.
They call it a “voluntary” society bc their argument is you could just go somewhere else if you’re not happy with the society they offer.
But this is the same logic that applies to any capitalist monopoly. If you don’t like the only option being forced on you, you can just go somewhere else… Except realistically it’s your only option (other than potentially a different “voluntary” society run by a different billionaire where democracy has also been abolished) so take it or leave it.
Amid the inflation crisis of the 1970s, the Austrian School economist F. A. Hayek presented a radical proposal to solve inflation: the denationalization of currency and the introduction of competing currencies into the monetary system. While Hayek’s proposal proved too radical for mainstream economists, Hayek found support within the American libertarian movement. Libertarians realized that Hayek’s radical proposal would limit state control over the monetary system and allow for the free exchange of gold. Even though libertarians were not immediately successful in bringing Hayek’s plan to fruition, their continued activism paved the way for the creation of cryptocurrency in 2009.
I don’t know what you are trying to argue with this response.
I’m responding to your statements
right winged ideology and totalitarianism (same thing let’s be honest) are incomparable with the anarcho philosophy
But the anarchists that have more than two braincells to rub together know that society is needed and a blessing
Anarchocapitalism is a branch of a anarcho philosophy favored by many right wing billionaires such as the Koch brothers. It’s not an abolition of society it’s an abolition of government so that society can be controlled by the elite. I’m not lumping all anarchists in with these people, I’m just warning right wing anarchists do exist.
Thiel’s approach is very similar to the emphasis placed by the John Birch Society on stealth and subterfuge, today the “trademark” approach of the Kochtopus.
There are right wing disinformation campaigns being used against society in the hopes they will do the bulk of the work of dismantling the government and any remaining protections of democracy, so that billionaires can then swoop in and purchase control when society is left in a desperate and vulnerable position.
Putting such incompetent people in charge during the Trump administration was no accident, neither is exposing the weaknesses of American democracy and democratic leadership in its current state. Many of these weaknesses have been intentionally created by the right over the last 50+ years. The entire point is for government to fail and do as much damage as possible, so that society loses all trust in any government regulation and control. In other words, it’s a pattern of destabilization just like we’ve seen in other countries countless times before including Honduras.
Or as it was put regarding Thiel and Epstein’s plans to destabilize the middle east: “The more of a mess, with just lots of bad guys on different sides, the less we will do.”
Guarantee you 100% this will be an utter failure. This is typical tech oligarch hubris, if he is even successful at getting something started it will end just like the Peoples Church, aka a bunch of dumbasses dead in the jungle.
DOGE is a way smaller scale but perfectly applicable example. Musk thought he could swoop in, probably had been running his mouth to all his friends about how the fed govt is ‘stupid’ and he could fix it all in 90 days or whatever. And what happened? Utter failure. He left with his tail between his legs. It clearly did not humble him but we have not even begun to see the fallout from what they did and as a started he killed what like 1 million people? So ya… These techtards need to stay in the lane.
The existing system cannot be repaired, if that’s what you’re implying
People are surprisingly very good at rebuilding. We hate doing it, we drag our heels and refuse to until we’re left no other choice, but we’re generally very good at it when we’re forced to.
Could these be hijacked to create autonomous leftist city states? I’d be down for that but I’m not sure the fascists will just let it happen.
They will have their own laws, law enforcement, and courts, and they will pay all their taxes to the Oligarch. It will be a 21st version of the old mining towns, complete with their own currency.
It will be turbocharged techno-slavery, and at some point, they will have to be stopped.
Oh I agree totally. I’m just wondering if this legal structure could be hijacked to build a leftist city state instead though. The independence from the existing state could be very helpful, if you can get them to let you make one.
Leftists usually aren’t big into bribing corrupt politicians. So “legally”? Very unlikely. But together we can achieve it via force.
You mean there’s a Billionaire Pedophile destabilizing Governments so HE can Rule over the Ruins? And he’s a REPUBLICAN? I can’t BELIEVE how WRONG we were!
-QAnon!
Wouldn’t it be ZEEDs?
Pretty sure it’s en Español…
Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico
Ooooooh… Ya that makes sense. It seems obvious now.
I read that so many fucking times… ZEDE doesn’t make any sense.
That sounds awfully familiar: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no
