In the long shadow of Silicon Valley
Once dismissed as an eccentric Silicon Valley subculture, neoreactionary thought has begun to surface at the highest levels of western political debate. Rejecting democracy in favour of authoritarian rule, the “Dark Enlightenment” now influences figures in the American tech sector and government while attracting keen interest from Russian ideologues. The transnational creep of neoreactionary thought reveals a growing alignment between anti-liberal currents on both sides of the Atlantic.
February 23, 2026 -
Justin Tomczyk
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AnalysisIssue 1-2 2026Magazine
Peter Thiel is a venture capitalist and considered one of the main financiers of the Neoractionary movement. He is also considered to be the lead donor for JD Vance’s Senate campaign in 2022. He is co-founder and chairman of Palantir Technologies.
Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC) commons.wikimedia.org
In a public speech delivered on May 5th 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron referenced the coming challenge of an ideology once relegated to the fringes of Silicon Valley. Neoreaction (often abbreviated “NRx”) and the associated concept of the “Dark Enlightenment” are anti-egalitarian political concepts that emerged in the 2000s. Over the course of nearly two decades, neoreactionary thought has seeped from a pseudonymous blog and loose collection of academic writing to the upper echelons of tech, finance and government in the United States.
At its core, NRx thought is grounded in the complete rejection of democratic governance and the reforming of the state around a single monarch-like executive. Neoreactionaries are fixated on the role of the so-called “Cathedral”, a nebulous grouping of elites in government, academia, journalism and private industry that direct society and advance progressive causes. Prior to being elected to the Senate and becoming Vice President of the United States, JD Vance cited the writing of a neoreactionary writer as a potential guide for the second Trump administration. The spread of this ideology and its increase in popularity within Silicon Valley and among younger members of the American conservative movement suggest that neoreaction may maintain a presence in American and European politics for the foreseeable future.
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Dark Enlightenment, Eurasianism, neoreactionary
