ABSTRACT
Much right-wing and far-right discontent in Western liberal democracies is fueled by perceptions that they are failing in their promise to be liberal or democratic. This chapter focuses upon what I call the tech right. Members of the tech right, far from being neo-reactionaries who look to premodernity for ideal politics, are enthusiastic about the potential for technology to solve political problems. I focus upon two networks in particular. One network is more statist and nationalist; its central figure is Peter Thiel. The other network is anti-statist and unconcerned with nationality; its central figures are partisans of Bitcoin and other cryptographically secured technologies, the Bitcoin bros. I also touch upon a third network I call cryptopartisans: figures and movements identified not by shared beliefs but by shared experiences of exclusion from mainstream platforms and services in Western liberal democracies. All three networks are exercised by the increasing role in liberal democracy of what Carl Schmitt calls the “state of exception”—as seen in national security and financial emergencies, in particular.
