He wants to return to a glorified past that never existed by tearing down the current system, a return to where everyone is living off the land like early humans ("climbing the vines growing along the Sears tower"). He promotes the idea that men must return to being warriors, and something about the modern world has made them "weak." He promotes that such strength must be used to dominate, and claims it can be used to improve people's lives, as he claims with Raymond K. Hessel (whom Tyler threatens to murder if Hessel does not follow his dreams), despite the fact that Hessel is most likely left devastated with trauma and unable to move forward due to fear of being murdered. We never see Hessel's outcome, so Tyler gets to pretend he "helped" by completely traumatizing a person (reminds me of Trump bragging about "lifting people off of food stamps" when he actually kicked them off and made them more hungry, his followers don't see the outcome so they just believe the lie). Tyler captures the attention of disaffected, alienated young men and brings them under his wing to become part of their in-group, making them more likely to go along with extreme demands because now they have found family in Project Mayhem. He literally beats the living shit out of one of his men, destroying his pretty face, and yet still commands the respect of his men while disfiguring one of them potentially permanently. With Project Mayhem he intends to bring about his ideal world by force.

So we have numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 of Umberto Eco's 14 features of Ur-Fascism in Tyler and Project Mayhem, in my opinion.

But sure, he's not a fascist.

In 2007 I was in the passenger seat of my girlfriend's shitty Kia because I didn't have a car.

We stop at a stoplight and up next to us pulls up a shiny new blue Audi, and two fratbros with popped collars and sporting Oakleys.

Their speakers are on extremely loud and blasting System of a Down, specifically "Fuck the System."

I couldn't help but think "Man, I'm pretty sure these guys are the system."

Curiously, we live in an age in which billionaires are glad to broadcast every whimsical thought they have to the rest of the world. Tycoons of previous ages didn't have that capacity even when they wanted it, and the best they could do is hire a biographer.

But because of this, we are certain of how our billionaires today have gone mad with power, believe that somehow they've earned their lucre, and have total disregard of the well-being of the working class, even those whom they've hired and depend upon. They seem entirely oblivious to the possibility of revolt of the masses, or believe that robust surveillance and security will be enough to stop the onslaught. So, too, believed the French aristocracy in King Louis XVI's court.

Stark-raving-mad billionaires are not really a new phenomenon. Andrew Carnegie once got a chill when he realised that J. P. Morgan would totally shank him to take is assets if he could. Carnegie was only slightly less ruthless, himself.

This has created a dilemma for many of them since they want mercenaries and servants to support them in their apocalypse bunkers, but don't want to be at their mercy when suddenly the billionaire, himself, is no longer useful to the killers that he's hired. The only solution that has emerged from futurologists is maybe be nice to them so they don't turn on you. But rare is the billionaire who is capable of actually doing that.