From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
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From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
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Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#2I only read the chatgpt summarized version of this but it makes decent steelman points against thiel (as someone who likes him and his ideas).
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#3Sad seeing formally geeky and entrepreneurial HN being converted into political agitprop. Eternal September.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#4thiel and vance are not people that anyone should look to for any type of philosophical wisdom.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#5I only read the chatgpt summarized version of this but it makes decent steelman points against thiel (as someone who likes him and his ideas).
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Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#6Sad seeing formally geeky and entrepreneurial HN being converted into political agitprop. Eternal September.
Thiel actively attributes his entrepreneurial success to Girard’s ideas. I don’t disagree it would be nice to have less explicitly political topics but the reality is that the ideas of those who historically are the discussion of HN, Silicon Valley, and tech in general are ascendant in politics. It doesn’t strike me as off topic to critically evaluate those ideas.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#7Sad seeing formally geeky and entrepreneurial HN being converted into political agitprop. Eternal September.
How can this be avoided when the tech companies themselves, as well as their founders, are engaging in political agitprop? Of course Peter Thiel has been very active in politics for a long time. In fact the whole "PayPal mafia" is now. Elon Musk was the largest campaign contributor in the 2024 elections and has become a political appointee of sorts in the US government. Not to mention his acquisition of Twitter. Jeff Bezos acquired The Washington Post and has undermined its editorial independence. There are many other examples I could list.
The days of obscure geeks are long gone. The "geeks" have inherited the Earth. Tech has eaten the world. With great power comes great responsibility... or irresponsibility, as the case may be.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#8Sad seeing formally geeky and entrepreneurial HN being converted into political agitprop. Eternal September.
How can this be avoided when the tech companies themselves, as well as their founders, are engaging in political agitprop? Of course Peter Thiel has been very active in politics for a long time. In fact the whole "PayPal mafia" is now. Elon Musk was the largest campaign contributor in the 2024 elections and has become a political appointee of sorts in the US government. Not to mention his acquisition of Twitter. Jeff…
"no, I mean I have an income that insulates me from politics regardless so please don't make me think about the poors." - OP probably.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#9Long but very good piece, although I was surprised to not see Tolkien mentioned even once, who Thiel has given essentially the same treatment.
Tolkien like Girard was explicitly a Christian writer and if there's one message in his books it was of course: "do not take the ring". Thiel somehow turned this around into "VC fund the forging of the ring and use it against our perceived enemies".
Girard's argument was that the logical endpoint of mimetic violence and technology is apocalypse, and the only solation is love of your enemy. Likewise Tolkien points out that it is the very logic of power that destroys. Yet Thiel somehow took Tolkien's work, slapped his names on weapons and tools of surveillance. It's honestly kind of bizarre the extent to which Thiel openly twists the people he claims to admire.
Re: From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance
#10Sad seeing formally geeky and entrepreneurial HN being converted into political agitprop. Eternal September.
Sad seeing people not recognizing that this is actually the kind of topics that HN is not shy about. The site is for "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity", so critiquing someone for using the knowledge that come from that pursue, to weaponize it must be discussed. As the other commenter points out, Girard's tesis is used for political convenience. Also, if anyone saw Girad's work as apolitical, I don't think the understanding of the work was acquired.