What is Wrong with Democracy

The most important political thinker in the world today is Mencius Moldbug, according to a 12k word New Yorker essay. He has a lot of radical ideas.

He is most known for his critique of democracy. He has a lot of other ideas. Some of his ideas are so outlandish that it is hard to tell if he is serious, or if they would work. They are thought-provoking.

He is considered right-wing, and so he is despised by the leftists at the New Yorker. The article is a hatchet job, of course. But they must be scared of his ideas that they would bother writing such a long article about him.

See last month's debate:

Danielle Allen and Curtis Yarvin met for a debate at the Harvard Faculty Club on May 5, 2025. The event was not sponsored by the university but was a private event booked in the club by Passage Press, Mr. Yarvin's publisher. Allen and Yarvin debated two resolutions prepared by the Press:

Resolution 1: “Resolved: The long-term stability and flourishing of our society is better secured by concentrated executive authority than by egalitarian democratic institutions.” - 35 minutes

Resolution 2: “Resolved: Harvard’s model of elite formation, grounded in a contested balance between meritocratic excellence and egalitarian inclusion, undermines the democratic legitimacy of the political and cultural systems its graduates go on to shape.”

The debate lasted roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes.

As a thought experiment, Yarvin asks if moral equality should be extended to chimpanzees or to missing links, if they were not extinct. There is no good answer.