WatchCats

Noah Kunin and Julian Sanchez

Who watches the watch DOGEs? WatchCats is dedicated to fact-checking and analyzing the new US Department of Government Efficiency Service, aka DOGE. Noah Kunin and Julian Sanchez have a combined 40 years of holding the government accountable. We chat with a broad range of experts to help create a smart blueprint to make government more efficient and effective while giving you an insider-look on everything DOGE. Want to support us? Sign up for our Substack! https://watchcats.substack.com/

  1. JUN 5

    Mike Brock: Technology, Ideology, and Neoreaction | WatchCats #14

    If you’ve been listening to WatchCats for a while, you’ve probably heard us refer in passing to “neoreaction” (sometimes pretentiously dubbed the “dark enlightenment”), a once-fringe political philosophy that holds liberal democracy is not merely dysfunctional but doomed. The only hope for “freedom,” its adherents paradoxically insist, is the installation of a monarchic executive with effectively despotic powers. If this sounds like something a cranky blogger would cook up, well… it is—but from those humble origins, this proudly authoritarian worldview has won itself a shocking degree of political influence, including over the likes of Vice President J.D. Vance, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and the techies and ideologues running the show at DOGE. So how did this unlikely stew of ideas come to hold such sway in both Silicon Valley and Washington, and how concerned ought we to be? To find out, we spoke with Mike Brock, who had a front-row seat to the spread of neoreactionary ideology as a senior executive at Block, the fintech firm behind payment platforms like Square and CashApp. These days, Brock is loudly sounding the alarm about the neoreactionary “Plot Against America” at his newsletter Notes from the Circus, which is well worth a look. ~~~ Want to support the podcast, get early episodes, and jump into our community Discord?Join our Substack! --FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS-- XBlueSky

    1h 12m
5
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

Who watches the watch DOGEs? WatchCats is dedicated to fact-checking and analyzing the new US Department of Government Efficiency Service, aka DOGE. Noah Kunin and Julian Sanchez have a combined 40 years of holding the government accountable. We chat with a broad range of experts to help create a smart blueprint to make government more efficient and effective while giving you an insider-look on everything DOGE. Want to support us? Sign up for our Substack! https://watchcats.substack.com/