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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#721

Post by glitchdout »

AJ007 wrote: post #667
meritt wrote: post #21

This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified…

Here is what I said 25 days ago: > I think Thiel is hedging for both himself and as a proxy for Facebook. If Trump wins, Facebook gets the most favored corporation status currently awarded to Google. If Trump loses, Thiel perhaps assumes everyone will forget soon enough and Zuckerberg can diss-avow any Facebook connection. In retrospect, the one thing I think I was wrong about were the odds. I thought it was a long s…

So Facebook (& Thiel) is to Trump what Pollyhop is to Conway on House of Cards.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#722

Post by masondixon »

59nadir wrote: post #655
masondixon wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So is your argument that "statesmen" have failed to avoid crisis, therefore someone who is not a "statesman" will be able to better avoid crisis? Nope. Only the fact that a "statesman" doesn't imply good foreign policy. Trump does imply more uncertainty though I would say. We will see. Its worth trying out. Unless you think he will launch the nukes. Which is a big part of the liberal narrative.

> Its worth trying out. I think this sums most of it up. People think things are getting worse and their lives very likely are, so why not try something different? It's the reason for most "unforeseen" results for ultrarightwing parties in Europe, I imagine. People want "someone who'll stir the pot". I've never felt like that, but I can understand the sentiment, after hearing it so many times.

> People want "someone who'll stir the pot".

I think Europe is stirring the pot right now. Zero border control. Horrific terrorist attacks. Its genuinely scary.

Its more a question of how can it get worse?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#723

Post by minikites »

minikites wrote: post #233
jbpetersen wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any specific highlights?

He's essentially a vampire: http://www.inc.com/jeff-bercovici/peter-thiel-young-blood.ht... http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/08/peter-thiel-wants-to-... http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2016/08/02/peter-thiel-...

To the downvoters who seem to think I used that word in jest:

> A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living.

The desire to extend your life at the expense of other people is incredibly disturbing to me and I'm not sure how it's a defensible position.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#724

Post by BurningFrog »

dev1n wrote: post #697
thecopy wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He has built no ideological framework for future policies Sounds like a positive thing

Not when you are getting strong-armed by the likes of Putin. I can only imagine how Trumps "business-sense" will fail him upon entering Beijing, much like Bush and Clinton failed to keep their resounding statements of "strategic competitors" and "butchers of Beijing"[1] after arriving during their respective terms. Trump has even less foreign policy acumen than the other two and I can only imagine he will bow down to…

> I can only imagine he will bow down to both Russian and Chinese demands

My worry is the opposite.

Trump's style is furious counter attack at the slightest provocation. That's obnoxious when you're a jerk billionaire. It's more serious when you control the deadliest military machine in history.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#725

Post by ant6n »

threeseed wrote: post #292
reflexive wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From all accounts he simply doesn't have the intellectual stamina Can you elaborate on what accounts these are? The only estimate I've seen of his intelligence was based the school he graduated from.

Intellectual stamina != Intelligence. I am referring to the fact that the Presidency has been described as far more an exercise in patience, absorbing information and careful deliberation than say running a typical business especially a dynamic one like Trump used to. He is by all accounts a very smart guy. But by all accounts he isn't a particularly patient one.

I wonder whether you are getting voted down because you're suggesting Trump is smart, or because you're saying he's impatient.

This account [1] by the ghostwriter who wrote 'Art of the deal', who spent months with him, suggests that he is neither smart nor patient. Over his long life, starting with a very silver spoon that he wasn't able to destroy, he effectively focussed most of his energy to coming up with a couple of heuristics for making deals and communication. I get the impression he spent most of his life's effort on something that might be called 'social hacking' here.

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-g...

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#726

Post by masondixon »

user837387 wrote: post #704
masondixon wrote: post #575

A huge issue today is the lack of calm, reasoned debate. As a Trump supporter I have never been able to properly explain the rationale to a liberal. I believe there is a worthy debate beneath all the political smear, but it is never reached. I believe the reason for this is the liberal media and the incredibly effective Democratic party election machine. The argument stays at the high level of "how could you vote for…

You are lying to yourself. I think that you don't even realize that you are doing it it. I guess this explains how somebody can vote for Trump. And if Trump screws up the country you will again lie to yourself as to why you are not responsible. Why your vote for Trump did not matter. And then you will blame everybody else.

And if he doesn't?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#727

Post by riazrizvi »

te_chris wrote: post #627
masondixon wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this is what everyone missed. If you watched South Park over the past 3 seasons, or watched Milo Yiannopolous' videos on YouTube, there is a battle going on against the progressive movement. Its about freedom of speech. But the liberals failed to see this, because they were too busy labelling everyone misogynist and racist.

Yes, the rising up of embittered masculinity is a hell of a sight.

Sure there are these guys, they are online in reddit's /r/pussypassdenied, they might froth at the mouth when they say 'lock her up'. These guys have always been easy to hear, those voices are still coming from inside the bubble of firstworldproblems. This is not what Thiel seems to be talking about, or what Trump has put up on his website. Perhaps Trump's personality faults are being used to keep us on this narrative that the modern economic progressive movement is working for all of us, and anyone who says differently is intellectually or morally flawed? This might explain why we have managed to leave half the population in our economic trail dust for 25 odd years.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#728

Post by torrances »

system16 wrote: post #503
edblarney wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Peter Thiel wrote a book called The Diversity Myth where he said that race mixing would destroy white culture" This is a lie, and it's exactly the kind of lie that Thiel is trying to call out as insufferable oppression on campus and in intellectual discussion. Having lived in very 'multicultural' places, and fairly homogeneous places, it's clear to me that there are both advantages and disadvantages to each - and to…

> Japan is the most orderly and civilized place on planet earth It's certainly the safest. #2 is Singapore, which also happens to be one of the most multi-cultural places on planet earth.

Singapore is definitely multi-cultural, but it's also about 75% Han Chinese.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#729

Post by carapace »

masondixon wrote: post #632
cyphax wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Such as? Well, I'm thinking mostly same sex marriage, maybe the freedom of religion (which seems to be OK for most, unless you're a muslim). Trump promises a conservative SCOTUS nomination, so everything that comes out of that as a side effect has a risk of people's rights being take away, mostly the progress made under the Obama administration > I'm not talking about Trump listening. I'm talking about liberals lis…

> Same sex marriage Trump: The Supreme Court has issued an opinion on this. Same-sex marriage is an issue that should have been decided by the states. There are many LGBT supporters of Trump. Milo Yiannopolous is a hero amongst all Trump supporters, and he is gay. The world has moved on - Democrats just want something to be angry about. > Freedom of religion It is about terrorism and not about religion. > He would "s…

Okay, this is why people don't want to listen and debate you: you're living in a weird cartoon universe where "President Trump" isn't a sick joke.

Just to take one minor example: Milo Yiannopolous is a racist bully. That's literally the only thing most people who have heard about him know about him. "Milo Yiannopolous? Isn't he that racist bully who picked on the actress from the 'Ghostbusters' movie?"

You calling that "bro" a hero is a racist thing to do: congratulations you're being racist on the Internet.

PLONK

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#730

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

masondixon wrote: post #710
robinwarren wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not have a go here, I'd be interested to hear your rationale. On a less important note, re the argument being at a level of "how could you vote for someone who said that". That may not be people refusing to engage with what you see as the important points, but them focusing on what they see as the most important points. That doesn't make it right but if it is the case you may do well to understand their point of…

> they may see everything else as somewhat irrelevant Yep. But this is what made everyone miss what was happening. It was an emotional response. But in this case Clinton provided so many analogous examples, which were ignored, which is just plain bias. As bad as someone is you always have to ask: could the same be said as my candidate? And with Hillary is was a yes on everything. It was always a question of "How coul…

> Yep. But this is what made everyone miss what was happening.

What is it that you think was happening?

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