Trad Futurism and the Multipolar Dream: Eastern Orthodox Influencers, Conspiracy Theology, and the Technological Paradox of Anti-Modernity

This paper examines a paradox at the intersection of technology, religion, and political imagination: Eastern Orthodox influencers in the United States who utilize digital media infrastructures to propagate an explicitly anti-modern vision of Christian civilization. Drawing on science and technology studies, political theology, and media theory, we analyze how these influencers synthesize patristic sources, conspiracy epistemologies, and geopolitical commentary to articulate a vision of the future that is imbued with “trad” aesthetics and anti-capitalist economic formations while also being eschatologically charged. Their use of technology is neither incidental nor contradictory in their own framing—rather, digital media becomes a weapon seized from the enemy, a temporary instrument for building the conditions under which technology's dominion might be refuted. We argue that trad futurism represents a form of religiously-motivated technological ambivalence, complicating simple Luddite or anti-modern categorizations by embedding technological critique within a constructive, if deeply illiberal, vision of future human flourishing.