The Business Plot 2.0: When Oligarchs Fail Upward

Let’s rewind to 1933. While you were not yet born, Wall Street’s finest were busy scheming to replace FDR with a military dictatorship run like a corporate board meeting. It wasn’t a Marvel plot twist. It was the Business Plot. Yes, actual titans of industry, actual Wall Street bankers, and actual fascist fanboys decided democracy was a bit too inconvenient for their portfolios. Their plan? Recruit General Smedley Butler to lead a coup, install a front-man dictatorship, and use disaffected veterans as shock troops. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Smedley had more spine than synergy, and he blew the whistle. Congress confirmed the plot was real. No one went to jail. Surprise!

Fast forward 90 years and we’re watching Business Plot 2.0 unfold in high resolution. Only this time, the fascists wear hoodies, run tech startups, and tweet about governance like it’s a GitHub project.

A Recap for the Fascism-Curious

The original Business Plot wasn’t just a “chatty little misunderstanding.” It was:

But let’s ask the forbidden question: Was the Business Plot real, or was it just Butler going full tinfoil?

The evidence is stronger than most people realize:

Historians remain split. Some call it a drunken fantasy among angry rich guys. Others, including Denton and Archer, argue it could have worked if Butler hadn’t had ethics and a functioning moral compass. No one ever proved troop mobilizations or weapons transfers, but the financial backing and ideological alignment with European fascists were documented. If it was all fake, it was one hell of a coordinated hallucination across multiple witnesses, bank ledgers, and committee findings.

Enter the Broligarchy: 21st Century Rebrand

Now let’s roll the clock forward. Today’s plotters don’t need coups. They have startups, Super PACs, and Substacks.

Meet the new suspects, same as the old suspects:

  • Peter Thiel : Billionaire and ideological libertarian who thinks “freedom and democracy are incompatible.” Big fan of Caesar, not so much of Congress. He said that .
  • Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug) : Blogger-turned-philosopher-king of the neo-reactionary right. Advocates monarchy, hates democracy, and loves the smell of hierarchy in the morning. We covered his ramblings here .
  • Aleksandr Dugin : Russian fascist cosplayer and self-proclaimed philosopher of the new multipolar world. Wants to destroy liberal democracy in a holy war of traditionalism. His Fourth Political Theory should come with a hazmat label.

All these men, along with their wallets, are ideological descendants of the Business Plotters. Instead of using Remington Arms, they use crypto, algorithms, and memes. Same game. Different apps.

Techno-Fascism with Better Branding

The Business Plotters wanted to install a “Secretary of General Affairs” to neuter Roosevelt. Curtis Yarvin literally wants a CEO-monarch. Thiel bankrolls candidates who aim to “shut it all down.” Sound familiar?

  • Project 2025 is a modern Liberty League, prepped to replace bureaucrats with loyalist lackeys.
  • : Instead of Butler stopping a coup, the ex-president incited one.

And yet, despite clear anti-democratic intentions, the new plotters enjoy speaking gigs, book deals, and Twitter followers, not subpoenas.

Historical Echoes: Business Plot DNA

Some themes haven’t aged a day:

The Business Plot was buried in time, but its spirit lives on in the algorithms of authoritarian fanboys with VC funding. We’re not facing tanks in the streets. We’re facing terms of service, shareholder revolts, and ideology wrapped in venture capital.

And just like in 1934, the most dangerous actors aren’t waving banners. They’re writing checks.

Authoritarianism 2.0 doesn’t wear armbands. It wears a podcast mic and thinks it’s the hero in ‘The Fountainhead.’

Link List for the Deep Divers:

Originally published at https://vagabondvisions.beehiiv.com.