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Why did this article get flagged? Peter Thiel is a creature of Silcon Valley's old guard and is making a public proclamation.

ceejayoz 3y ago
Probably because of the misleading title. "Peter Thiel is taking a break from funding right-wing political campaigns to work on his goal of becoming a vampire" might've been a better framing.
- weatherlight 3y ago
  Is it really that misleading? “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” "It was a striking declaration. An even more notable one followed: “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.” (He elaborated, after some backlash, that he did not literally oppose women’s suffrage, but neither did he affirm his support for it.) Thiel laid out a plan, for himself and others, “to find an escape from politics in all its forms.” He wanted to create new spaces for personal freedom that governments could not reach—spheres where the choices of one great man could still be paramount. “The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom,” he wrote. His manifesto has since become legendary in Silicon Valley, where his worldview is shared by other powerful men..."
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    Yes, it's misleading; he gave up on democracy long ago. He's not taking a break now. Your cite's from his 2009 essay. He wasn't funding political campaigns out of a love for democracy.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    Yes, his 2009 public and complete abandonment of democracy (which the quotes you cite here are from and/or refer to), which was never when he went on to donate to some (of the most anti-democracy) US political candidates, illustrates why the headline about him taking a break from democracy is misleading. He's publicly trying (but admitting that he is unlikely to succeed unless the article about it itself makes people unwilling to accept donations from him) to stop giving money to political candidates, not taking a break from democracy, which he long ago abandoned and hasn't looked back.
  - yetanother12345 3y ago
    > The fate of our world may depend ... Two observations here: 1) "our world" is an illusion, no matter who utters these words. The "world" does not "belong" to any specific target demographic. On the contrary, it always belongs to *everyone else* that is *not* you. 2) using the term "world" at all. This is about finding sanctuary for some kind of ideology shared by a select group of individuals, which is the main trait of *a cult*. A cult is not the world, rather; a cult finds a minor physical or virtual space in which it can go about minding it's business(es) without interfering more than necessary with the surrounding *world*. TL;DR: "You" != "World" (for all cases of "You") -- (edit: text formatting seems to not work)
dragonwriter 3y ago
“Peter Thiel is still opposed to democracy” is neither news nor particularly engaging to intellectual curiosity. I'm not surprised people see it as not particularly high value for HN, which is not intended as a simply a megaphone for thr public pronouncements of the Silicon Valley old guard elite, who have plenty of media reach outside of HN.

ceejayoz 3y ago

Probably because of the misleading title. "Peter Thiel is taking a break from funding right-wing political campaigns to work on his goal of becoming a vampire" might've been a better framing.

weatherlight 3y ago
Is it really that misleading? “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” "It was a striking declaration. An even more notable one followed: “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.” (He elaborated, after some backlash, that he did not literally oppose women’s suffrage, but neither did he affirm his support for it.) Thiel laid out a plan, for himself and others, “to find an escape from politics in all its forms.” He wanted to create new spaces for personal freedom that governments could not reach—spheres where the choices of one great man could still be paramount. “The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom,” he wrote. His manifesto has since become legendary in Silicon Valley, where his worldview is shared by other powerful men..."
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  Yes, it's misleading; he gave up on democracy long ago. He's not taking a break now. Your cite's from his 2009 essay. He wasn't funding political campaigns out of a love for democracy.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  Yes, his 2009 public and complete abandonment of democracy (which the quotes you cite here are from and/or refer to), which was never when he went on to donate to some (of the most anti-democracy) US political candidates, illustrates why the headline about him taking a break from democracy is misleading. He's publicly trying (but admitting that he is unlikely to succeed unless the article about it itself makes people unwilling to accept donations from him) to stop giving money to political candidates, not taking a break from democracy, which he long ago abandoned and hasn't looked back.
- yetanother12345 3y ago
  > The fate of our world may depend ... Two observations here: 1) "our world" is an illusion, no matter who utters these words. The "world" does not "belong" to any specific target demographic. On the contrary, it always belongs to *everyone else* that is *not* you. 2) using the term "world" at all. This is about finding sanctuary for some kind of ideology shared by a select group of individuals, which is the main trait of *a cult*. A cult is not the world, rather; a cult finds a minor physical or virtual space in which it can go about minding it's business(es) without interfering more than necessary with the surrounding *world*. TL;DR: "You" != "World" (for all cases of "You") -- (edit: text formatting seems to not work)

dragonwriter 3y ago

“Peter Thiel is still opposed to democracy” is neither news nor particularly engaging to intellectual curiosity. I'm not surprised people see it as not particularly high value for HN, which is not intended as a simply a megaphone for thr public pronouncements of the Silicon Valley old guard elite, who have plenty of media reach outside of HN.