Should America bring back slavery? Views differ

Now of course Curtis Yarvin is just some random nut on the internet so . . . excuse me folks I’m getting an update here:

Curtis Yarvin, the computer engineer turned neo-monarchist blogger, seems to be everywhere these days.

His argument that American democracy has exhausted itself and needs to be replaced by a form of one-man rule has made him a star on the right, reportedly catching the ear of powerful figures like Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel and JD Vance. Since the re-election of President Trump, he has drawn increasing attention from mainstream outlets, including this one.

And on Monday night, he seemed to have arrived at the heart of “the Cathedral,” as he calls the intertwined elite intellectual institutions that shape our society.

“I want to thank Harvard University,” Mr. Yarvin said to a standing-room crowd of about 100 at the university’s faculty club, before correcting himself. “I mean, the school where we are.”

Mr. Yarvin was in town to debate Danielle Allen, a prominent political theorist and democracy advocate at Harvard. From the moment the event was announced, some wondered why Professor Allen would risk lending legitimacy to such an extreme figure by debating him. Others rushed to snap up the limited tickets.

So edgy! This is obviously a product of the University Must Encourage Intellectual Diversity Inc., a Bari Weiss Joint (not applicable in Florida, Texas, and 23 other states; other exceptions apply; see below).

I spent several hours last week interviewing a University of Florida law student, who got academic honors for a couple of papers arguing that much of the 14th and all of the 15th amendments shouldn’t be enforced, given the white supremacist essence of the original Constitution. I asked him specifically about the 13th amendment, and he had no problem with it, given that there were genuine divisions of opinion among the framers regarding slavery, unlike white supremacy per se. So I guess he will soon be a voice of moderation in GOP debates regarding a revival of the peculiar institution, if he isn’t already.

I kind of dislike sentences that start “As a” but as a person who spoke only Spanish when I started kindergarten on the fringes of the Old Confederacy (Gaithersburg, Maryland), this whole “I will pay unlimited sums for the privilege of never hearing the Spanish language in public again” discourse makes me somewhat uncomfortable, although probably not as uncomfortable as the thought of a debate about Palestinian rights at the University of Austin would make its founder.