The Business Plot 2.0: When Oligarchs Fail Upward
Smedley Called. He Wants His Fascist Plot Back.
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:
A Wall Street-funded, fascism-flavored coup plan.
Featuring financiers from J.P. Morgan, DuPont, and friends.
With an honest-to-god fascist fanboy (Gerald MacGuire) recruiting Butler.
Directly inspired by Mussolini and Hitler’s veterans-backed strongman rise.
Congressional confirmation: Yes, it was real. No, we didn’t prosecute anyone. Too rich to jail, too white to fail.
Relevant reading: Jules Archer’s The Plot to Seize the White House, Sally Denton’s The Plots Against the President, and Butler’s own testimony via Congressional Archives.
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:
Congressional testimony from Butler and journalist Paul French documented consistent, corroborated details.
The McCormack–Dickstein Committee officially stated there was an attempt to create a fascist organization in the United States.
MacGuire admitted to parts of the plan, then conveniently died of pneumonia.
The final report quietly confirmed the plot's existence, just not the names.
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?
Trump was their chaos grenade. Bannon, Mercer, and Thiel all helped build the foundation.
Project 2025 is a modern Liberty League, prepped to replace bureaucrats with loyalist lackeys.
January 6: 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:
Use of veterans: 1933 wanted to weaponize the American Legion. 2021 featured vets storming the Capitol.
Fear of the Left: Then, it was FDR. Now, it’s any hint of universal healthcare or taxing billionaires.
Rhetoric of tyranny: FDR was called a dictator. Obama was labeled a socialist. Biden? Puppet of the globalists. Cue the tinfoil.
Faith in Strongmen: Mussolini then. Orbán and Putin now.
Why It Still Matters
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:
