Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 160 posts

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#71

Post by hattmall »

frereubu wrote: post #37

The thing that really worries me about these kinds of beliefs in some kind of a god or gods is that they can provide a get-out clause for existential risks to humanity. If this physical universe is just one manifestation of existence, then there's less to worry about because there will be some kind of existence afterwards if you screw it up. But in my view the universe is all there is, and it very definitely doesn't…

>If that's your view, the first priority of every single person should be to work towards stabilising the climate and reduce our impact on the enviromnent

But why though? If that's what you believe and there's nothing more, we know the sun is going to explode and destroy everything and an asteroid impact is likely to happen that destroys even sooner than that, so why does that matter?

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#72

Post by yuppiepuppie »

camillomiller wrote: post #46
mattkevan wrote: post #34

Behind the Bastards did a good two-parter on Thiel's lectures. He sounds dangerously insane. It'd be bad enough if he was just some random crank, but the fact he's got the level of power and influence needed to actually make his beliefs happen makes it exponentially worse. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR7ny9TuCY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhyx-vVG_Y

Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?

Ask yourself - where does his wealth (power) come from and how do you stop that?

In his case - I assume most of it is from Palantir these days. Therefore stop your governments from contracting with them.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#73

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

camillomiller wrote: post #46
mattkevan wrote: post #34

Behind the Bastards did a good two-parter on Thiel's lectures. He sounds dangerously insane. It'd be bad enough if he was just some random crank, but the fact he's got the level of power and influence needed to actually make his beliefs happen makes it exponentially worse. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR7ny9TuCY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhyx-vVG_Y

Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?

> Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him?

Thiel is only "relevant" because he's wealthy.

In a system that allows wealth to equal political power, systematically weakening the impact of wealth on civic and political systems is an effective method. Whether that can be done in America, with the current understanding of the constitution and the current philosophy that many take towards taxation/wealth is questionable; but the idea that we can do nothing is just not true. We don't need to slide back into an era of 19th century robber barons and pseudo-aristocracy. If we do, it's because we largely gave up or allowed it to happen.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#76

Post by itsthecourier »

graemep wrote: post #26
seanalltogether wrote: post #25

I grew up in a pretty religious household and my parents fully believed that Armageddon would happen in our lifetime. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there were a lot of American Christians that secretly held this belief, and that it has a meaningful influence on how voters want American politicians to deal with Israel and the Middle East in general.

It depends on the religion in the religious household. Its common among American evangelicals, but (unless American Catholics are very different from Catholics in the rest of the world) its not a common belief among Catholics, and its rarely discussed by them. Why is Thiel, whose parents were American evangelical and whose own beliefs are described as "heterodox", trying to sell this in Catholic packaging outside the…

there was a Catholic reason for this, the Fatima Sheppards. there was an "apparition" of Virgin Mary and some "Prophecies" that were really imprinted on all Catholics over 50 years old. pretty much anti-russian propaganda. they silently pedal back from them in the last 25 years. but last time I visited sn important catholic monument internationally, most of the people in the bus knew about them, how they talk about the end of the world but never realized the Vatican already made them public all and it was a sham.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Secrets_of_F%C3%A1tima

also end of the world prophecies are a Catholic meme

my favorite is Pope Sylvester II in 1000 AD

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

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#77

Post by frereubu »

hattmall wrote: post #71
frereubu wrote: post #37

The thing that really worries me about these kinds of beliefs in some kind of a god or gods is that they can provide a get-out clause for existential risks to humanity. If this physical universe is just one manifestation of existence, then there's less to worry about because there will be some kind of existence afterwards if you screw it up. But in my view the universe is all there is, and it very definitely doesn't…

>If that's your view, the first priority of every single person should be to work towards stabilising the climate and reduce our impact on the enviromnent But why though? If that's what you believe and there's nothing more, we know the sun is going to explode and destroy everything and an asteroid impact is likely to happen that destroys even sooner than that, so why does that matter?

Because we could cook the planet in a matter of decades or centuries rather than waiting ~5 billion years for the sun to explode, which would give us plenty of time to figure out how to explore space sustainably rather than some kind of delusional Musk-like sci-fi fantasy of bases on Mars in the next decade.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#78

Post by JamesTRexx »

frereubu wrote: post #37

The thing that really worries me about these kinds of beliefs in some kind of a god or gods is that they can provide a get-out clause for existential risks to humanity. If this physical universe is just one manifestation of existence, then there's less to worry about because there will be some kind of existence afterwards if you screw it up. But in my view the universe is all there is, and it very definitely doesn't…

Religion is just one of the excuses/covers used to grab more power and/or shiny baubles by psychopatic people. And there are the ones who just want to see others suffer no matter what. Most of the people that are left don't feel like lifting a finger unless it directly endangers their own comfortable life.

Call me cynical, but I haven't seen any improvement in human nature in 50 years.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#79

Post by akimbostrawman »

nisegami wrote: post #62
dgxyz wrote: post #17

If he was on a park bench covered in his own piss no one would pay any attention to the same words.

Unfortunately, he's not on a park bench covered in his own piss and is instead the puppet master behind the VP of the US and a large chunk of the tech sector.

He's not the master merely another puppet controlling puppets. If you want to get closer to the masters read the epstein files.

Re: Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures

#80

Post by camillomiller »

avidphantasm wrote: post #48
camillomiller wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?

What would China do to such billionaires run amok?

This is the only answer that has any reference to an actionable approach that has been proven to work.
Post reply on HN