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> Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and attempts by foreign governments to penetrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly calle

> Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and attempts by foreign governments to penetrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government. Seems like a lot of words to leave this comment buried in the middle of. The story seems like a soup of hopeful political operators trying to sow chaos, and since they're all on the same side, the publisher is happy to oblige. Talking to the IC at all gives them the unlimited option to call you an informant if you ever get involved in something counter-establishment anyway. One gets the impression that part of America's new class system is whether you are connected to the intelligence community somehow, as if you have a certain level of responsibility at all, someone who knows someone always seems to be in touch or within a degree of separation.

Yeul 3y ago
[flagged]
TheCaptain4815 3y ago
And it’s working like a charm. Look at half the comments here who didn’t read the article and go off on an anti-libertarian tangent.
- colpabar 3y ago
  Anything posted here about thiel or musk (especially musk) is bound to be full of useless comments that boil down to nothing more than "i don't like him." It doesn't matter what the article is about, if the headline can be used to justify that dislike, those will be the majority of the comments.
  - ksec 3y ago
    Musk, Thiel, Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and their respective company along with Qualcomm. To the point for a number of years ycombinator wouldn't even mention Thiel or Musk at all. Things only got back a little easier in the past 12 months or so.
- oooyay 3y ago
  Frankly a good number of those same people have ideological compasses that spin at a high rate of speed. People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them.
  - ameister14 3y ago
    While I don't think that his status as an informant is particularly newsworthy, think it is nasty for this article to be published and in fact would praise his patriotism, they don't think they are punching up, they are punching up. Beyond being a gay man who got outed as a confidential source, Thiel is also one of the most powerful people in the world. He is a billionaire who bankrolled multiple people's campaigns for federal office in the last few years. Your average HN commenter does not approach that level of power and influence and never will. The problem I see is that these people think that "telling" on criminals and international intelligence operations is wrong, for some reason. That's weird and really negative for our country.
    - oooyay 3y ago
      The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point is why "punching up", which usually involves some amount of drift from norms and ethics, is problematic. The people willing to engage in that and who think doing patriotic duty is a problem is a near circle.
      - HelloMcFly 3y ago
        > The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point What arm wrestling? It's pretty simple: anyone "taking shots" at him on Hacker News is definitionally punching-up because Thiel has more power and privilege than anyone here, power and privilege he routinely exercises on local and national stages. I don't have any issue with his actions working with the FBI here for what it's worth.
        oooyay 3y ago
- MrMan 3y ago
  [dead]
silenced_trope 3y ago
Yikes is that really an "FBI informant"? It sounds logical, consider this news item from yesterday: "Five Eyes intel chiefs warn China's IP theft program now at 'unprecedented' levels" https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/18/five_eyes_china_espionage/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/18/five_eyes_china_espio... Should people here really just accept other nations blatantly stealing and "infiltrating"?
- papercrane 3y ago
  > Yikes is that really an "FBI informant"? It pretty much is a textbook definition of an FBI informant. I think the issue is people seem to put some kind of moral value on the term.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Aloha 3y ago
    People (rightly or wrongly) still conflate todays FBI, with Hoovers FBI of 50 years ago, and the tactics he used then.
- baybal2 3y ago
  [dead]
- croes 3y ago
  Should people here really just accept any nations blatantly stealing and "infiltrating"?
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tonmoy 3y ago
You conveniently left out the first part of the sentence you are quoting
- skmurphy 3y ago
  Full sentence: "Johnson, who said that he was also an informant for Buma, told Insider that he believes that Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and attempts by foreign governments to penetrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government." Can you please make the point you were trying to make more explicit? I don't understand your perspective on the impact of what was omitted.
FireBeyond 3y ago
> Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government. "Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate a company that several of his compete with, using information he is giving the FBI himself..."
- smsm42 3y ago
  That sounds like if I called the police to report something I think isva robbery, now I'm "police informant"? That's not usually what it means.

Yeul 3y ago

[flagged]

TheCaptain4815 3y ago

And it’s working like a charm. Look at half the comments here who didn’t read the article and go off on an anti-libertarian tangent.

colpabar 3y ago
Anything posted here about thiel or musk (especially musk) is bound to be full of useless comments that boil down to nothing more than "i don't like him." It doesn't matter what the article is about, if the headline can be used to justify that dislike, those will be the majority of the comments.
- ksec 3y ago
  Musk, Thiel, Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and their respective company along with Qualcomm. To the point for a number of years ycombinator wouldn't even mention Thiel or Musk at all. Things only got back a little easier in the past 12 months or so.
oooyay 3y ago
Frankly a good number of those same people have ideological compasses that spin at a high rate of speed. People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them.
- ameister14 3y ago
  While I don't think that his status as an informant is particularly newsworthy, think it is nasty for this article to be published and in fact would praise his patriotism, they don't think they are punching up, they are punching up. Beyond being a gay man who got outed as a confidential source, Thiel is also one of the most powerful people in the world. He is a billionaire who bankrolled multiple people's campaigns for federal office in the last few years. Your average HN commenter does not approach that level of power and influence and never will. The problem I see is that these people think that "telling" on criminals and international intelligence operations is wrong, for some reason. That's weird and really negative for our country.
  - oooyay 3y ago
    The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point is why "punching up", which usually involves some amount of drift from norms and ethics, is problematic. The people willing to engage in that and who think doing patriotic duty is a problem is a near circle.
    - HelloMcFly 3y ago
      > The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point What arm wrestling? It's pretty simple: anyone "taking shots" at him on Hacker News is definitionally punching-up because Thiel has more power and privilege than anyone here, power and privilege he routinely exercises on local and national stages. I don't have any issue with his actions working with the FBI here for what it's worth.
      - oooyay 3y ago
MrMan 3y ago
[dead]

silenced_trope 3y ago

Yikes is that really an "FBI informant"? It sounds logical, consider this news item from yesterday: "Five Eyes intel chiefs warn China's IP theft program now at 'unprecedented' levels" https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/18/five_eyes_china_espionage/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/18/five_eyes_china_espio... Should people here really just accept other nations blatantly stealing and "infiltrating"?

papercrane 3y ago
> Yikes is that really an "FBI informant"? It pretty much is a textbook definition of an FBI informant. I think the issue is people seem to put some kind of moral value on the term.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Aloha 3y ago
  People (rightly or wrongly) still conflate todays FBI, with Hoovers FBI of 50 years ago, and the tactics he used then.
baybal2 3y ago
[dead]
croes 3y ago
Should people here really just accept any nations blatantly stealing and "infiltrating"?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

tonmoy 3y ago

You conveniently left out the first part of the sentence you are quoting

skmurphy 3y ago
Full sentence: "Johnson, who said that he was also an informant for Buma, told Insider that he believes that Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and attempts by foreign governments to penetrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government." Can you please make the point you were trying to make more explicit? I don't understand your perspective on the impact of what was omitted.

FireBeyond 3y ago

> Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government. "Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate a company that several of his compete with, using information he is giving the FBI himself..."

smsm42 3y ago
That sounds like if I called the police to report something I think isva robbery, now I'm "police informant"? That's not usually what it means.