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Since people always do this when Thiel comes up, here's the actual quote: >The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuine

Since people always do this when Thiel comes up, here's the actual quote: >The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron. I think what he's lamenting is that women tend to find libertarian policies unappealing, and, judging by who publicly brands themselves as a libertarian, this seems like a fairly uncontroversial observation (there just aren't very many women in that cohort).

EGreg 7y ago
That’s basically what I said. Anyway even Thiel as a “libertarian” is very unique in his thinking. Not many libertarians I know turn around and start companies like Palantir to help governments and police departments build a precog surveillance state. I wonder how he justifies that one given his claims of being libertarian-leaning. https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir-predictive-policing-tool-new-orleans-nopd https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/2/27/17054740/pal... I disagree with the OP article, I don’t think there is anything AT ALL wrong with Mark Zuckerberg being friends with Republicans. However, the real shame of Mark Z’s association with Peter Thiel is the professional one. Peter was the first check in after Eduardo, $500K. His views would make most capitalists blush, eg “competition is for losers, build a monopoly and extract rents!” He writes as much in his book Zero to One. I bet that had a big effect on what Facebook has become and its view of taking the entire social networking space under itself, and its tactics of taking any data it can and storing it to give itself an advantage (eg in Friends you may Know). Oh sure it may apologize if caught but will continue to store the data. Mark Z’s earlier attitude of “I dunno why they share the data, those dumb f-cks, they ‘trust me’” found a mentor in Peter Thiel early on to retain that militant guerilla approach even as Facebook had to turn into something more respectable and corporate. “Move fast and break things” gave them all the license they needed.

EGreg 7y ago

That’s basically what I said. Anyway even Thiel as a “libertarian” is very unique in his thinking. Not many libertarians I know turn around and start companies like Palantir to help governments and police departments build a precog surveillance state. I wonder how he justifies that one given his claims of being libertarian-leaning. https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir-predictive-policing-tool-new-orleans-nopd https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/2/27/17054740/pal... I disagree with the OP article, I don’t think there is anything AT ALL wrong with Mark Zuckerberg being friends with Republicans. However, the real shame of Mark Z’s association with Peter Thiel is the professional one. Peter was the first check in after Eduardo, $500K. His views would make most capitalists blush, eg “competition is for losers, build a monopoly and extract rents!” He writes as much in his book Zero to One. I bet that had a big effect on what Facebook has become and its view of taking the entire social networking space under itself, and its tactics of taking any data it can and storing it to give itself an advantage (eg in Friends you may Know). Oh sure it may apologize if caught but will continue to store the data. Mark Z’s earlier attitude of “I dunno why they share the data, those dumb f-cks, they ‘trust me’” found a mentor in Peter Thiel early on to retain that militant guerilla approach even as Facebook had to turn into something more respectable and corporate. “Move fast and break things” gave them all the license they needed.