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Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

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Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#251
I don't think Thiel or Schmitt (whoever that really is) are good spokesmen for the Christian doctrines of the antichrist or the restrainer, concepts that go back to the first century early church. I also don't much like the implication that believing in these Christian ideas is extremely dangerous or the undertone that believing it should probably be stopped by any means.

The restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:6&7) is a bit of an enigma, but has been variously interpreted as the Holy Spirit, the Church, human government, or the archangel Michael.

But to let Scripture speak for itself, here is an except from 2 Thessalonians 2:

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4 He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

5 Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6 And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.

9 The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10 and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11 For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12 in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#252
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Thanks. That is a very strange read.

It also explains some of the contradictions in JD Vance - if Thiel is influencing him, or if he is simply saying things to keep Thiel's donations coming in.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In NYC, billionaires are like supervillains. Nobody particularly likes them (outside of select finance bros), and people openly express disdain for them and their greed. I think you may be confusing 'power' or 'impact' with wealth in this take. Paul Graham wrote about this in a blog post [1]. In NYC, being rich is cool, even if you just inherited it all. Having lived 12 years in NYC, I agree wholeheartedly. It's wh…

It's getting harder and harder to even hazard a guess as to why a comment on HN gets downvoted. Is Paul Graham becoming persona non grata ? Is that it?

It is because it is incorrect.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#254
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s a socialist. Painting all socialism as “evil communism” is reductive and dishonest.

Mamdani has said that (1) they'll open government-run stores, and (2) the government will seize buildings from bad landlords. My family is from a communist country and I can assure you, that is communistic.

> Mamdani has said that (1) they'll open government-run stores

We've had those for ages. Called commisaries. Here's a picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_020813-N-364...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Commissary_Agency

> the government will seize buildings from bad landlords.

We've had eminent domain since the founding of the nation.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the article's second sentence: "Thiel’s lurid, apocalyptic view of world politics may be ludicrous or even deranged, but his wealth and power mean that we can’t afford to ignore it."

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…

NYC has a long history of the wealthy screwing people over. The fuck-you-pay-me has been a thing since NYC literally traded slaves.

California is/was New Money and comes with optimism and change and progress and was able to keep up the façade until fairly recently. Now the FAANG world is richer than god and has no reasons to even try to maintain illusions

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

and given the generations of terrible absolutely un-Christian behavior by Popes in the past, they have arguments to lean on.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Joe Rogan, now's mainstream media, humble brags about hanging with Thiel on show. Thiel very much plays the game in your second sentence, he's just smart about it. Thiel is gaining attention because he's put in the work, for a long time. Not because of shock value. And he's leveraging his soft power/contacts/PR sources/exposing his power level/drawing on what he built pretty hard now. Why?

because his blood-bag is currently the VP and he's angling for him to take over if/when Trump is declared unfit or just dies

he's exploring these esoteric tasks 1) cuz he wants to, and 2) because he knows they'll sell with the right demographics

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#258

His ramblings aren't that relevant. The problem is that the money is used to get influence; we could see this with Musk too. Something has to change. The superrich act as parasites and broken all inter-generational promises. The USA really messed up here - they should have put down control systems to prevent this parasitic situation.

they did. and they were undone.

propaganda works, and the US spent 80 years post-WW2 talking about how Communism = evil.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#259

And here I thought he was just trying to wrap his techno libertoonian worldview in the Book of Revelations in the hopes that the religious right would get behind it. Did I miss something?

Odd for a gay man to court those who support Leviticus stoning of gays. Self hating? Or just savvy?

the rube demographic, e.g. the ones who believe the anti-christ stuff, will eat it up.

they already pander to trump, who is about as un-christian as you can get.

thiel will make all of the right moves and do the secret "actually one of us" handshake and those idiots will eat it up; his billionaire buddies will do the rest.

Re: Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

#260

And here I thought he was just trying to wrap his techno libertoonian worldview in the Book of Revelations in the hopes that the religious right would get behind it. Did I miss something?

Not everything is a conspiracy; sometimes a crazy person is just a crazy person.

peter thiel, however, is in the business of conspiracies
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