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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

#131

Post by LogicFailsMe »

seattle_spring wrote: post #112
philipallstar wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no point misrepresenting a political stance. Well, there is a point, but it's malicious.

> There's no point misrepresenting a political stance. Well, there is a point, but it's malicious. Interesting perspective, considering that you said this only 5 minutes later in this same post: > There's a communist who's just been elected to Mayer of New York.

The weird part isn't that a socialist got elected mayor of New York. The weird part is that the Democratic party didn't have anyone better to primary him out of the nomination.

The two-party system seems pretty cooked at this point.

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

#132

Post by saati »

cbb330 wrote: post #71
jmathai wrote: post #13

Maybe 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…

Just buy your own vice president if you don't like it!

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

#133

Post by piva00 »

okokwhatever wrote: post #66
yoyohello13 wrote: post #52

I would have never believed it 10 years ago. I actually think there is a high probability the world will be ended, not by war or natural disaster, but by an honest to god trillionaire super villain. The ultra wealthy are an actual existential threat to humanity. No one can be trusted with that much money and power.

I fact I think exactly the opposite observing how the nations are ruling their people.

You gotta expand on that because it sounds ludicrous.

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

#134

Post by AlexandrB »

SimianSci wrote: post #109
cbb330 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

free speech absolutism sounds fair in a vacuum but neglects the power disparity that wealth provides in a connected world. Free Speech is not the concept of anyone can say anything without rules. Its about the ability for those without power to be able to speak on an even playing field as those with power. The Wealthy and powerful have never had to worry about the freedom of their speech in history. They determined w…

What's the alternative though? Regulation of speech is often used by those already in power to silence dissent[1]. And there's still plenty a rich person can do to hide themselves as the source of something unsavoury while making it appear "grassroots". Now more than ever, with LLMs and bots.

It's not that free speech absolutism is fair, it's that there's not really an alternative that's any more fair.

[1] https://nypost.com/2025/02/21/world-news/germans-cant-insult...

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

#135

Post by IncreasePosts »

SimianSci wrote: post #87
fastball wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power might be hard to ignore, but wealth you literally just can.

Wealth is allowing people to buy consent for their worldviews these days. this is an incredibly naiive take.

How does one buy consent for a worldview? Buying and selling require two parties - the party who is selling their viewpoint to the highest bidder isn't blameless.

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

#136

Post by hearsathought »

MiiMe19 wrote: post #43
micromacrofoot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The core belief in communism is "collective ownership for the common good" which feels like a far cry from "the literal antichrist is coming." I could follow an argument that Jacobin is naive, but it seems silly to make the direct comparison to someone who thinks we're approaching some predictable end of days and say they're the same.

100M+ dead ideology

Not sure why people keep bringing this up. Every ideology has blood on their hands, but communism is nowhere near #1. Try comparing the death tolls/genocides/etc of the capitalist/anti-communist side with the communist side.

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

#137

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

DudeOpotomus wrote: post #36

Hubris. It will end him, and his insanely stupid ideology. He is obviously a sociopath with very deep childhood trauma. Karma will get him. Probably cancer as he seems to be genially rotten soul.

I don't think cancer works that way. Also there's no such thing as karma, at least not within a person's lifetime. That much should be extremely obvious by the consequence-free success of a great many sociopaths.

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

#138

Post by bryanlarsen »

cbb330 wrote: post #71
jmathai wrote: post #13

Maybe 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…

> “collectively figure out how to take away the microphone”

Taking away the microphone is not censorship. We're not talking about taking away Thiel's right to speech, we're talking about taking away undue amplification of Thiel's speech.

You are allowed to stand on a soapbox and shout your politics.

But if you amplify your speech on that soapbox you're given a little bit of slack because of "free speech" but then are rightly arrested for public nuisance and/or noise violations.

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

#139

Post by mightyham »

gishh wrote: post #48
tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jacobin is not a whole journal on literal communism. It’s a magazine with a professed socialist view point but it’s more aligned with left-of-center American politics. Think Sanders or Mamdani rather than Stalin or Mao.

> Jacobin is not a whole journal on literal communism. It’s a magazine with a professed socialist view point but it’s more aligned with left-of-center American politics. Think Sanders or Mamdani rather than Stalin or Mao. > Sanders or Mamdani Sanders and Mamdani are about as far left of center as one can get at the moment, such that they almost meld into Stalin or Mao. The mental gymnastics you’re doing to blunt that…

> such that they almost meld into Stalin or Mao

Stalin was an ideological authoritarian that executed political rivals and used lethal force, price controls, and other governmental tools to control the economy and the general working population. The idea that Sanders and Mambani advocate anything close to that is laughable.

The rhetoric on both the right and left that liken today's politics to extremism in the 20th century is a ridiculous anachronism that needs to be called out more often.

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

#140

Post by myth_drannon »

jmathai wrote: post #13

Maybe 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 :).

Where to draw the line? Only the right-wing billionaires? What about other more left-wing like Soros.

And what about the influencers with millions of followers (recent Qatari influence campaign comes to mind)? What about Hollywood (again Qataris and their influence campaign, if you notice how some famous actors started to speak on certain topics)

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