Posted on 11/09/2023 2:28:06 PM PST by thegagline
wasn’t clear at first why Peter Thiel agreed to talk to me.
He is, famously, no friend of the media. But Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, avatar of techno-libertarianism, bogeyman of the left—consented to a series of long interviews at his home and office in Los Angeles. He was more open than I expected him to be, and he had a lot to say.
But the impetus for these conversations? He wanted me to publish a promise he was going to make, so that he would not be tempted to go back on his word. And what was that thing he needed to say, loudly? That he wouldn’t be giving money to any politician, including Donald Trump, in the next presidential campaign.
Already, he has endured the wrath of Trump. Thiel tried to duck Trump’s calls for a while, but in late April the former president managed to get him on the phone. Trump reminded Thiel that he had backed two of Thiel’s protégés, Blake Masters and J. D. Vance, in their Senate races last year. Thiel had given each of them more than $10 million; now Trump wanted Thiel to give the same to him.
When Thiel declined, Trump “told me that he was very sad, very sad to hear that,” Thiel recounted. “He had expected way more of me. And that’s how the call ended.”
Months later, word got back to Thiel that Trump had called Masters to discourage him from running for Senate again, and had called Thiel a “fucking scumbag.”
Thiel’s hope was that this article would “lock me into not giving any money to Republican politicians in 2024,” he said. “There’s always a chance I might change my mind. But by talking to you, it makes it hard for me to change my mind. My husband doesn’t want me to give them any more money, and he’s right. I know they’re going to be pestering me like crazy. And by talking to you, it’s going to lock me out of the cycle for 2024.”
This matters because of Thiel’s unique role in the American political ecosystem. He is the techiest of tech evangelists, the purest distillation of Silicon Valley’s reigning ethos. As such, he has become the embodiment of a strain of thinking that is pronounced—and growing—among tech founders.
And why does he want to cut off politicians? It’s not that they are mediocre as individuals, and therefore incapable of bringing about the kinds of civilization-defining changes a man like him would expect to see. His disappointment runs deeper than that. Their failure to make the world conform to his vision has soured him on the entire enterprise—to the point where he no longer thinks it matters very much who wins the next election.
Not for the first time, Peter Thiel has lost interest in democracy.
Thiel’s decision to endorse Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 surprised some of his closest friends. Thiel has cultivated an image as a man of ideas, an intellectual who studied philosophy with René Girard and owns first editions of Leo Strauss in English and German. Trump quite obviously did not share these interests, or Thiel’s libertarian principles.
government by kompromat....
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/business/jeffrey-epstein-peter-thiel.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/kompromat-trump-dossier/512891/
How Soviet...how progressive we’ve “grown”.....
“...he no longer thinks it matters very much who wins the next election. “
Thiel is certainly right about that, if the idea is winning elections will change the policies and behaviors of the Federal bureaucracy, Swamp and Deep State.
What Trump winning can do is push the Regime into a self destructive spiral of legitimacy destruction, where their own corruption, incompetence and futility creates a feedback loop that they just collapse.
Great time to crawl under the bed.
Homosexuality is a mental illness.
He’ll be back once he gets divorced.
Is he married?
How about immersing yourself in a REPUBLIC which is what America is according to her constitutional law and structure.
Oh, so he is playing the good wife and doing what his husband says. LOL
If so, then the Founding Fathers have been successful.
"Not for the first time, Peter Thiel has lost interest in democracy."
Perhaps Thiel needs to actually study what the Founding Fathers had to say about "democracy".
"Trump quite obviously did not share these interests, or Thiel’s libertarian principles."
I can guarantee that Trump shares those interests a lot better than the denizens of the Biden administration and/or his supporters.
Theil’s HUSBAND ???????????????/
Thiel has made numerous large donations to Republicans and Republican causes
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?cand=&cycle=&employ=&jurisdiction=&name=Peter+thiel&occupation=&order=desc&sort=D&state=&type=&zip=
He’s my #1 prospect for the Anti-Christ. He checks all the boxes.
Yes, to his proclaimed husband, as it says in the article.
My husband doesn’t want me to give them any more money, and he’s right.
“husband”
Yup—billionaires and perversions go together like a horse and carriage these days.
Palantir isn’t exactly “friendly” as I would bet that A LOT of the stuff that Snowden talks about with regards to massive data collection, and processing, is developed by Palantir.
“My husband doesn’t want me to give them any more money, “
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