I hope you're right, but I'm not so confident. People as a whole are not systems thinkers. We tend to take systems for granted, and assume they are eternal and

I hope you're right, but I'm not so confident. People as a whole are not systems thinkers. We tend to take systems for granted, and assume they are eternal and unchangeable. I think this case is a perfect example. It's hard to mobilize the masses behind something boring and complex like court reform. It's easy, however, to incite them to hate an individual person, especially if he's a billionaire. Even on HN, it's mostly people attacking/defending Thiel himself. Also, for what it's worth, the fact that something backfires in the court of public opinion doesn't mean that it's bad. It could just mean the public is under-informed or easily deceived.