Why Thiel is Backing JD Vance

There is a new empire forming — not through conquest, but through code. Not with armies, but with algorithms. The architects are not monarchs or generals, but venture capitalists, technologists, and digital libertarians. Their weapons are legal exemptions, crypto economies, and privatized surveillance.

They call it innovation. But what they are building — quietly, strategically — are private city-states. Charter enclaves. Experiments in control, cloaked in the language of freedom. From Honduras to Nigeria to the edges of the Pacific, a new kind of colonialism is emerging — one that doesn’t plant flags, but rewrites the rules. 

This is an exposé of those builders — and the blueprints they hope you won’t read.

PRELUDE: THE IDEOLOGY OF SILICON VALLEY

Before there are cities, there are stories — and Silicon Valley’s most powerful players hold a specific, often dehumanizing view of what it means to be human. In Gil Dubran’s research (see The Nerd Reich), we see the ideology clearly:

• Humans are flawed and irrational. We require oversight, optimization, and eventually, replacement or augmentation through AI.

• Democracy is inefficient. It slows down innovation and disrupts the natural order of meritocracy and capital.

• Surveillance is safety. Personal data is a tool for social management and behavioral prediction, not a right to be protected.

This worldview leads to an inevitable conclusion: society should be reengineered by those who "know better." The libertarian-tech alliance envisions a world governed by intelligence, not empathy — by markets, not memory.

It is this ideology that underpins their Charter Cities, their investment in surveillance tools like Palantir, and their quiet funding of authoritarian-adjacent movements.

THE PLAYERS

Peter Thiel — The philosopher-king of digital empire. Co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Thiel is the ideological and financial engine behind many of these “post-nation” projects. He bankrolls autonomy under the guise of liberty — but what emerges is often lawless elite governance.

Alex Karp — CEO of Palantir and Thiel’s longtime collaborator. Karp positions Palantir as a defense tech company, but its reach goes far beyond the battlefield. Immigration enforcement, predictive policing, and global intelligence are all part of its surveillance empire.

Pronomos Capital — A venture firm explicitly funding “startup cities.” Founded by Patri Friedman (grandson of economist Milton Friedman) and backed by Thiel, Pronomos is the wallet behind Próspera and other charter city experiments.

Balaji Srinivasan, Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman — These venture giants add ideological and financial momentum, pushing for a borderless digital society governed by code, not constitutions.

THE PROJECTS

Próspera (Roatán, Honduras) — Marketed as a self-governing hub of entrepreneurship, Próspera is in reality a privatized city carved out of Honduran territory. Locals in Crawfish Rock report exclusion, rising land prices, and loss of jurisdiction. Próspera is now suing the Honduran government for over $10 billion after new leadership rolled back ZEDE laws.

Praxis — A self-described "network state" and crypto-native utopia, Praxis markets itself through aesthetic mysticism and sovereignty rhetoric. Behind the curtain: libertarian governance, AI oversight, and plans for a city of 10,000+ managed by digital contracts.

The Seasteading Institute — An earlier experiment in autonomous floating cities. With Thiel’s seed funding, it proposed self-contained ocean-based colonies, evading national regulation. The project collapsed after local resistance in Polynesia.

Itana (Nigeria) — Another Pronomos-backed charter city in Lagos’ Free Zone. Promoted as Africa’s “Delaware for startups,” Itana imports Western legal models and private arbitration — displacing local jurisdiction and raising fears of digital colonialism.

Palantir — The connective tissue. Palantir provides data infrastructure for immigration raids, predictive policing, and military surveillance. Its tools create the informational skeletons these colonies rely on.

THE TACTICS

• Private Law — Most charter cities operate under their own legal systems. Some adopt foreign law (like Delaware’s), while others invent arbitration schemes that replace courts with investor-friendly mechanisms.

• Surveillance & Tech Infrastructure — Palantir's software and similar platforms allow governments — and private cities — to monitor populations with stunning granularity.

• “Freedom” Rhetoric — These projects frame themselves as refuges from bureaucracy. But the freedom they promise is often limited to the elite, and often comes at the cost of public accountability.

• Experimental Governance — By positioning themselves as “laboratories,” these cities avoid the ethical norms and democratic processes of established nations.

THE TIMING

These projects are not emerging in a vacuum.
They are rising because of global instability — not in spite of it.

• War and migration crises justify expanded surveillance tech.

• Pandemics allow governments to experiment with data collection and restricted movement.

• Climate collapse displaces communities, opening land and contracts to foreign investors.

• Political chaos and erosion of trust in public institutions create an appetite for “alternatives.”

In moments of unraveling, these builders step in with blueprints — not to rebuild collectively, but to consolidate control.

THIEL’S TWO-FACED STRATEGY

Peter Thiel isn’t loyal to the far-right or libertarians. He’s loyal to leverage.

He backs Christian nationalists like JD Vance not because he believes in their theology — but because they’re tools. Useful instruments to weaken federal institutions, dismantle democratic guardrails, and create the legal vacuum needed for his true vision: a privatized, techno-authoritarian elite class.

He’s playing a long game:

• Use the right to destroy the system

• Use technology to replace it

• Walk away with the blueprint for power

JD Vance is a symbol of this alignment — a man once critical of Trump, now a loyal puppet, installed with Thiel’s money.

MUTUAL DEPENDENCE, MUTUAL DELUSION

The far-right thinks the tech elite will help them build a moral empire.
The tech elite thinks the far-right will burn down the institutions they no longer want to answer to.

Each side believes they will come out on top. But already, there are fractures:

• Tech leaders want transhumanism. Christian nationalists see that as godless.

• The right wants obedience. The technocrats want autonomy from everyone.

They are dancing now. But eventually, they will collide.
And the people — caught between state collapse and private empire — will be left to choose what kind of future they want.

THE DEMOCRATIC FAILURE: BLINDNESS TO EMPIRE

While the right and tech elites plot, the Democratic Party stumbles. Instead of confronting the rise of privatized governance and digital authoritarianism, they often enable it.

Why?

• Crypto Lobbying: Key Democrats now endorse cryptocurrencies, ignoring how crypto is being used to bypass regulations, fund exit economies, and displace traditional systems.

• Tech Alliances: Many liberal donors and think tanks are deeply embedded with Silicon Valley capital. This creates a blind spot in policy.

• Fear of Appearing Anti-Innovation: In trying to appear pro-future, Democrats hesitate to critique charter cities, AI militarization, or corporate surveillance.

The result? A political vacuum. One side is building a new empire. The other is offering silence, or worse — passive endorsement.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

Because it's already happening.
Because most people haven’t connected the dots.
Because the stories being told about “freedom,” “innovation,” and “sovereignty” are masking old patterns: domination, extraction, and elite rule.

This isn’t about left vs. right.
This is about who decides how we live.
And whether humanity — diverse, relational, flawed, holy — has a place in the systems being designed for us.

As you read, watch, and reflect, explore Gil Dubran’s full breakdown on the Silicon Valley ideology here:

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And visit The Nerd Reich for deeper analysis.

A COUNTER-VISION: REMEMBRANCE

What if we chose a different path?

Instead of building systems of control, we create communities of care. Instead of escaping into power and profit, we stay rooted in place, people, and purpose.

Remembrance isn’t some far-off dream — it’s a way of living that already exists in small, powerful ways. It’s what happens when we build with the land, not on top of it. Let’s focus on life, not just growth or profits.

It’s built on simple but radical ideas:

• Making decisions together, not top-down rulership.

• Living in harmony with the Earth

• Honoring culture and healing what’s been broken

• Growing our own food, sharing what we have

• Creating local economies based on trust, not speed or greed

While the empire builds high-tech labs and private cities, Remembrance grows gardens, homes, and trust.

Where they write new laws to serve the few, we return to values that protect the many.

It’s not about going backward.
It’s about remembering what matters — and building forward from there.

Speak. Share. Illuminate. The future isn't written yet — but they're already trying.
So let’s answer not with silence, but with design.
With memory.
With Remembrance.

-Bernadette Gold