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This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Trump has staked out policy positions that provoke a much stronger central government. To be specifi

This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Trump has staked out policy positions that provoke a much stronger central government. To be specific. - Increased federal regulation. Especially especially around restrictions of foreign trade. China/ Korea etc. -Speech restrictions. Trump has advocated new laws against the press and others than disparage him (i.e. those small hands jokes for example or like Bill Maher- called him son of a chimp and was sued- trump lost and wants to change the laws so he'd win) -Intervention in leading American business sourcing and investment decisions. Carrier AC is an example and of course Apple. - Pro Gun control. This is in direct contrast to libertarian views. They dont want any rules from the government on gun control. Now one could argue that Trump has a non interventionist military policy which is a traditional libertarian view. However, Bush ran on that platform in 2000 but becasue he was so inexperienced he ended up started several large wars including Iraq which was a dramatic failure. Trump is less experienced than Bush was so it's possible he is at a high risk of entering new wars as well. There is zero about trump that has anything to do with being a libertarian. That's the puzzling part.

LyndsySimon 10y ago
> Pro Gun control. This is in direct contrast to libertarian views. They dont want any rules from the government on gun control. While he has certainly made pro-gun-control statements in the past, Trump's currently stated position on guns is fairly strongly pro-gun.
tryitnow 10y ago
My best guess is that Thiel secretly supports neoreactionary politics. He's gone on record saying he's opposed to democracy and thinks things started to decline when women got the vote. Neoreactionaries like the idea of government by CEO. So Trump's strongman misogynistic views would be a natural fit if Thiel has indeed become more neoreactionary. The problem is that neoreactionaries are secretive, so Thiel is never going to come out and say he's a neoreactionary.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Its not that surprising. While there is a lot of genuine libertarianism, there are also plenty of what superficially seem to be libertarians that don't really oppose authoritarian government, they only oppose the way they perceive their present government using authority, and would be quite happy with an authoritarian government that also shared their policy preferences. Right-libertarians that turn out to really be right-authoritarians that just don't want a government left of their own position to exercise authority are common enough that I'm not surprised when another one pops up.
jsprogrammer 10y ago
> This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Where do you get this characterization from? His own words? Thiel has been arming secretive states with high-tech software for a while now. Thiel's prior actions revealed him to be a statist. Supporting a candidate who wants to build a large border wall and wants to kick people out of the country based on their thoughts (religion, for example) while claiming to be a libertarian is laughable (I hope you are laughing now too).

LyndsySimon 10y ago

> Pro Gun control. This is in direct contrast to libertarian views. They dont want any rules from the government on gun control. While he has certainly made pro-gun-control statements in the past, Trump's currently stated position on guns is fairly strongly pro-gun.

tryitnow 10y ago

My best guess is that Thiel secretly supports neoreactionary politics. He's gone on record saying he's opposed to democracy and thinks things started to decline when women got the vote. Neoreactionaries like the idea of government by CEO. So Trump's strongman misogynistic views would be a natural fit if Thiel has indeed become more neoreactionary. The problem is that neoreactionaries are secretive, so Thiel is never going to come out and say he's a neoreactionary.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Its not that surprising. While there is a lot of genuine libertarianism, there are also plenty of what superficially seem to be libertarians that don't really oppose authoritarian government, they only oppose the way they perceive their present government using authority, and would be quite happy with an authoritarian government that also shared their policy preferences. Right-libertarians that turn out to really be right-authoritarians that just don't want a government left of their own position to exercise authority are common enough that I'm not surprised when another one pops up.

jsprogrammer 10y ago

> This is surprising mostly because Thiel is a libertarian. Where do you get this characterization from? His own words? Thiel has been arming secretive states with high-tech software for a while now. Thiel's prior actions revealed him to be a statist. Supporting a candidate who wants to build a large border wall and wants to kick people out of the country based on their thoughts (religion, for example) while claiming to be a libertarian is laughable (I hope you are laughing now too).