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It isn't that Thiel thinks 'Capitalism and Democracy are incompatible' that makes him right-wing, it is that given he believes they are incompatible, he conclud
by pryce 9y ago
It isn't that Thiel thinks 'Capitalism and Democracy are incompatible' that makes him right-wing, it is that given he believes they are incompatible, he concludes Democracy should be discarded to preserve Capitalism, rather than the other way around. This is a far-right view.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y agoNot necessarily far-right because the political spectrum has more than one dimension.
- throwawayknecht 9y agoSo first, this retort is vacuous because the whole point of Thiel's supposition is that the dimensions are not orthogonal. The meaning of the quote is that he is willing to move right on others (political structure, social issues, surveillance state, etc) to be able to move right on another (economic policy). But even putting that aside, on which dimension is Thiel not on the far-right? He's hardcore capitalist who supports (self-described!) monopolist policies; he sits on the board of a public surveillance company and is the chairman of a second military-industrial one; he published a book in which he called a substantial portion of rape victims liars; and we're talking about him getting an appointment in a right-wing movement in the federal government.
- remarkEon 9y agoInteresting. Can you link something that more explicitly explains this view? I've long been skeptical of the virtue of Capitalism so I'm open to exploring the other end of that spectrum.
- asddddd 9y agoThe general school of thought (that Thiel is linked to) is called neoreaction or the Dark Enlightenment. Here's a fairly good intro by Scott Alexander: http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-philosophy-in-an-enormous-planet-sized-nutshell/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-philosophy-...