@brivael, your thread is one of the more thoughtful takes on this topic. Girard’s scapegoating mechanism, Hayek’s spontaneous orders, C.S. Lewis on well-intentioned tyranny, and Solzhenitsyn’s line through every heart are all sharp observations.
Many people are sincere in their roles—bureaucrats, journalists, activists, HR managers—and complex systems often produce outcomes no single person designs. Languages and starling flocks don’t need a CEO.
That said, the “no pilot whatsoever” conclusion UNDERSTATES real, documented agency and concentrated influence. *Spontaneous emergence* doesn’t mean *zero steering,* especially when billions of dollars, networks of NGOs, media, academia, and policy shops are deliberately funding and amplifying specific ideas and policies over decades.
George Soros has transferred over $32 billion of his fortune to the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and related entities since the 1980s. OSF operates openly and publishes grant data. Their explicit mission is advancing “open society” values: challenging traditional institutions, promoting expansive immigration and criminal justice “reform,” racial equity frameworks, and reducing national sovereignty in favor of transnational norms.
Key documented examples (public grants and reporting):
• 2020 racial justice push: OSF committed $220 million — $150 million in multi-year grants to Black-led racial justice organizations and $70 million for local criminal justice reform and civic engagement.
• Criminal justice / progressive prosecutors: Soros and affiliated PACs spent tens of millions (reports cite ~$40 million ) helping elect ~75 “social justice” district attorneys and circuit attorneys across the US. These DAs now oversee jurisdictions covering roughly 1 in 5 Americans and about 40% of US homicides.
• Philadelphia (Larry Krasner): Soros-linked PAC spent ~$1.7 million on his campaign. Homicides rose sharply afterward (from ~271/year pre-2018 to averages over 450 in subsequent years in some analyses; property crime and carjackings also surged).
• Chicago (Kim Foxx), Los Angeles (George Gascón), and others showed similar patterns of reduced prosecutions for certain crimes correlating with rises in murders, retail theft, and auto theft in multiple independent reports.
• Immigration advocacy: In the 1990s, Soros created the $50 million Emma Lazarus Fund specifically to support immigrant services and legal/advocacy work after welfare reform restricted benefits for legal immigrants. OSF has continued funding pro-migration NGOs and policy efforts across Europe and the US.
• BLM-adjacent and police reform networks: OSF and pass-throughs (Tides, Borealis Philanthropy, etc.) directed tens of millions to groups tied to the Movement for Black Lives, anti-policing initiatives, and “defund” or reimagine-policing efforts, especially post-2020.
• Media and narrative influence: Analyses document over $131 million from OSF-linked entities to 253 journalism and activist media organizations (2016–2020) promoting aligned viewpoints on these topics.
These are not shadowy plots revealed in secret memos. They are public grants, disclosed PAC spending, and stated philanthropic goals. Soros has written extensively advocating open borders-style policies, criticizing “closed societies,” and viewing nationalism/populism as threats. His son Alex now leads much of the operation with the same priorities.
Why this matters for the “no pilot” claim:
You’re right that ideas (Foucault, Marcuse, critical theory strains, etc.) spread culturally and that many participants believe they’re doing good. But money and institutions don’t just passively follow spontaneous orders—they amplify and institutionalize certain ideas while crowding out others.
• Elite networks (foundations, conferences, revolving doors between NGOs/government/academia/media) create feedback loops and shared incentives.