Joe Lonsdale, a billionaire member of the “PayPal Mafia” who is also a co-founder of Palantir, wants a return to draconian punishment and public executions in the United States.
Wrote Lonsdale on X yesterday:
If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law. We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others.
Our society needs balance. It’s time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.
The venture capitalist was responding to a writer who had criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s enthusiastic tweets about murdering people on boats in the Caribbean.
On December 4, Andrew Kolvet—a spokesman for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA—praised Hegseth for his bombing campaign against fishing boats, which he accuses of drug smuggling. Critics say the bombings, which have killed scores of people without due process, may constitute murder or war crimes.
“Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean,” wrote Kolvet.
“Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat,” replied Hegseth.
When Australian writer Claire Lehmann criticized Hegseth’s post as “grotesque,” Lonsdale responded, declaring that sinking the boats “helps publicly deter others” and “killing bad guys” is Hegseth’s job.
“Masculine truth: bold, virtuous men deter evil,” wrote Lonsdale.
In his subsequent post, he unveiled his fantasy of a future in which he, put in charge, erodes due process, expands the use of the death penalty, and revives public hangings.
This public fetishization of state violence—framed explicitly as “masculine truth” and virtuous protection—suggests tech elites are entering a more dangerous and desperate phase of radicalization.
For months, Peter Thiel guru Curtis Yarvin has been squawking about the need for more severe measures to cement Trump’s authoritarian rule. Peter Thiel is ranting about the Antichrist in a global tour. And now Lonsdale—a Thiel protégé—is fantasizing about a future in which he will have the power to unleash state violence at mass scale.
The meme is spreading. Where is it heading?
What is it with these guys fixation on weird masculinity takes? True masculinity isn’t about chest-thumping and dick-waving. It’s about self-control and maturity. And that in turn is reflected in wisdom, calmness, and respect for others, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, identity, or whatever.
This strikes me as the sign of a very insecure person. The gentleman doeth protest too much.
It’s like they never left their rebellious teenage phase, with wild ideas on how to “fix” the world; except they combine it with a frightening amount of power and influence to execute those wild ideas.