For anyone wondering about the source, here is how Jacobin describes themselves:
“ Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. ”
Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
221–230 of 281 posts
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#222Maybe slightly off topic to the article, but I don't really care what Peter Thiel has to say. I do think we need to collectively think about how to not give these people a microphone. It's one thing to have concentrated wealth. It's a very different thing to have concentrated wealth and people's attention. I think that's a much more interesting discussion :).
"The notion that because one is rich one must be smart, however fallacious, is deeply embedded: People can equate piles of money - or the promise of it - with good sense, wisdom, and savoir faire," she wrote." (2000)
The writer who dared criticize Silicon Valley
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#223The problem that this article has is essentially this: > Thiel by contrast is profiting from the use of AI weapons targeting systems used in the Ukraine war and the genocide in Gaza. Thiel is IMO not doing this for profit. He is deeply ideological, which should be more worrisome.
What AI weapons systems are in use in Ukraine?
I don't really know, but maybe drones.
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#224Maybe slightly off topic to the article, but I don't really care what Peter Thiel has to say. I do think we need to collectively think about how to not give these people a microphone. It's one thing to have concentrated wealth. It's a very different thing to have concentrated wealth and people's attention. I think that's a much more interesting discussion :).
Sorry, but that take is complete garbage. Wanting to “collectively figure out how to take away the microphone” from rich people you dislike isn’t a brave stance against inequality, it’s straight-up authoritarian censorship based on net worth. In a free society, people choose who gets attention. If you don’t like Thiel, out-argue him or ignore him, but don’t fantasize about silencing citizens because they’re successfu…
it's not complete garbage, it's simply the cycle repeating itself.
the resort to violence can be wielded by everybody. therein lies its limitation as an unreliable means to control people and resources. power based on consent, ie, power from below, is predicated on promises proffered by patron-brokers who trade resources for allegiance. it's a comparatively stable structure until it reaches a certain scale. to get to that point, the stakes had to have been raised through manufacturing consent in the forms of ritual, ideology, capital, bureaucracy, and all the other goodies that Girard and Thiel love discussing. throw in the compounded accumulation of resources through arbitrage and leveraged betting, and you're left with social structures characterized by skewed wealth distributions and leaders who get to wield power asymmetrically. there's a clear historical and logical sequence where power by consent leads to power by coercion embodied in hegemony. given that's the current state of affairs, (and no sense in contesting this point since Thiel grapples with this fact himself in his investments and mythologizing of the US through this antichrist/katechon dialectic), it's pretty obvious what tools are left to those who no longer have any control to surrender via the consensual framework. suboptimal as it may be, at least violence-or the threat thereof-can be wielded by both sides.
now, where we land individually on the matter is one thing, but i'm afraid yours is the genteel fantasy.
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably the commenter read the article and is expressing his disagreement with the article’s second sentence.
> Presumably the commenter read the article and is expressing his disagreement with the article’s second sentence. The comment in question didn't make a point, it provided only this unsupported opinion that happens to be flatly wrong: "It's a very different thing to have concentrated wealth and people's attention." In fact, good buddies Thiel and Musk came from S Africa sharing similar librarian attitudes and both wo…
Librarians, what will they do next?!? (Typo ;)
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I think one party started it back in the '90s, both parties are mostly 2-minute hate daily talking point driven at this point. I don't think that bodes well for our geopolitical competitiveness in the long run. And you can already see it in the irrational hatred of renewables on the right and the irrational hatred of AI on the left. Meanwhile, enough of the rest of the world has better things to do that we seem…
While the Democratic party has strongly embraced the 2-minute hate in much of their propaganda, I do not think the both sidesism is warranted. The point is that Republicans have taken their 2-minute hate dynamic of the past several decades, and retconned that anger as the entirety of their policy platform. Whereas Democratic leaders are still trying for constructive policies that abide by their own ideals. We can cri…
My take on the democrats at this point is they are the party of learned helplessness. And that's just as harmful as the party of nihilism when they both drop their differences to block the emergence of new voices and new parties.
But I agree they have become the useful idiots for regulatory capture. The right's hatred of renewables is just stupid.
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
As are we all, with these people in charge.
The federal government can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent?
Longer than you can stay alive.
That's not just a statement about how long it can remain irrational. Federal irrationality can kill you in several ways.
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Odd for a gay man to court those who support Leviticus stoning of gays. Self hating? Or just savvy?
That maybe why he seems to be targetting Catholics rather than evangelicals. The problem is that in much of the world (e.g. the UK) Catholics are historically left wing, AND uninterested in apocalyptic ideas so it seems a big ask. The article does not leave me with any understanding of what his ideas actually are.
"In late modernity, where science has become scary and apocalyptic, and the legionnaires of the antichrist like Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Bostrom and Greta Thunberg argue for world government to stop science, the antichrist has somehow become anti-science."
From https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-...
#WorstAntiChristsEver
Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes we can actually. I think it has something to do with Silicon Valley's obsession with money. To SV-people, billionaires are like gods. They are worshipped and invited to all the events worth going to (meetups, hackathons, etc.). Everyone wants to be like them. And it seems to me to be a geographical problem too. In NYC, billionaires are like supervillains. Nobody particularly likes them (outside of select finance…
> I think it has something to do with Silicon Valley's obsession with money. To SV-people, billionaires are like gods. Just look at some of the comment threads here. So many replies essentially White-Knighting for a billionaire! Why does one take time out of their day to post an impassioned defense of this guy? He doesn't need your help. Do y'all think he's going to Venmo you $100 every time you defend his honor onli…
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Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy
#230Maybe slightly off topic to the article, but I don't really care what Peter Thiel has to say. I do think we need to collectively think about how to not give these people a microphone. It's one thing to have concentrated wealth. It's a very different thing to have concentrated wealth and people's attention. I think that's a much more interesting discussion :).
Fundamentally money can buy a microphone (including literally). That said, buying airtime/ads does is not sufficient to create traction with your ideas. I have worked at plenty of foundations that spend a lot of money to "raise awareness" on various issues, which ultimately goes nowhere. IMHO the zany, outlandish claims by Thiel, are gaining attention because of their inherent shock-value. I sent a text to my girlfri…
> incredulous that Thiel was reported to claim the Pope is now an antichrist (¡)
It has long been a belief of the "religious right". For decades, and their predecessors for centuries.