I did not know, but am not surprised, that Palladium takes Thiel funding. That greatly clarifies this article’s purpose for me. It seemed odd to see another think piece about the NFT trend when it has already largely burned itself out, but Davis here is acting as something of a “party whip” for Thiel’s nascent political movement. The message of the article is much more aimed at the people being described in the article than it is at you or I: be less like these insipid Twitter personalities, be more like JD Vance and Blake Masters.

I disagree. I also think there is more value in debating the message rather than the outlet.

Exactly. It's also particularly concerning to see them increasingly adopt the esoteric, syncretic style of reactionary writing.

>Thiel-backed

I think that's in fact a reason why, and even the article itself is aware of this, these subcultures and the commentary on it seem so banal in real life. In reality it's more or less an economic grift to get funded by ideologically motivated venture capitalists, and everything centers around this. In Germany we call it "Hofberichterstattung". something like royal court reporting.