With Trump’s health visibly in decline, attention is shifting to Peter Thiel’s invention, JD Vance, who may soon be president. Which means Thiel, a billionaire doomsday prepper who thinks the Anti-Christ is Greta Thunberg, could effectively rule the world. What does Thiel’s obsession with the Anti-Christ reveal about how we can resist him?
Thiel’s worldview isn’t just weird Silicon Valley paranoia; it’s vintage fascist fan fiction. His ideas trace back to Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, who justified Hitler’s violent purges as necessary for “saving civilization.” Schmitt’s argument was simple and horrifying: democracy is too weak, so we need a strongman to suspend the rules. Thiel recycles Schmitt’s logic in a twenty-first-century sermon on why democracy itself is the real threat. In Thiel’s version, collective action to solve global crises like man-made climate change is the definition of evil. So you know what to do, folks: double down on building collective action.
In Part One of our conversation with journalist Gil Duran, of the Nerd Reich newsletter, that tracks Silicon Valley’s billionaire Bond villains, we dig into Thiel’s apocalyptic delusions, how they shape his politics, and why it’s a very big deal that a man this afraid of democracy has his hands in everything from expanding government surveillance to election data. Part Two will be out this Thursday, with a special look at Thiel and Trump’s Big Brother–their latest efforts to establish a Chinese-style surveillance state.
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Show Notes:
Action alert! Send postcards to California to ensure Prop 50 passes and help support other must-win races: https://www.activateamerica.vote/postcards
Action alert! Sister District x Gaslit Nation Halloween Phonebank for VA! https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrict/event/847185/
The One Trait That Predicts Trump Support (w. Matthew MacWilliams) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp19ZKI2m2w
Gil Duran’s The Nerd Reich: Is Peter Thiel the Antichrist? NYT Didn’t Think to Ask https://www.thenerdreich.com/is-peter-thiel-the-antichrist-nyt-didnt-think-to-ask/
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession: Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since. https://www.wired.com/story/the-real-stakes-real-story-peter-thiels-antichrist-obsession/
I Worked At Palantir: The Tech Company Reshaping Reality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ95Gmvg_D4
Why Everyone Around Trump is Paranoid Now: Michael Wolff | Inside Trump's Head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HplPf8F5NaI&t=13s
Peter Thiel calls the anti-Christ as a humanitarian: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CQ5ATBoF8og
Peter Thiel compares Greta Thunberg to the Anti-Christ: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4xVOOgmH3-w
Thiel compares being woke to Saudi Arabia https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-873PUOq1s8
Trump’s Texts to CNN Host Renew Health Speculation https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-texts-to-cnn-host-renew-health-speculation/
Has Big Brother arrived? Inside the secretive Trump effort to centralize government data on millions of Americans https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-doge-palantir-data-immigration-b2761096.html
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