10 ms·

I'm glad to see "Peter Thiel-backed" becoming a widely-recognized epithet.

metalliqaz 8mo ago
it is truly amazing how much damage one person is able to do to civilized society if you expand the scope to a handful of adjacent figures, the catastrophe is truly amazing
- pphysch 8mo ago
  Thiel is one of the more public faces of what is now known as the "Epstein class" of societal predators. But one of many and certainly not the epicenter.
  - SilverElfin 8mo ago
    Yep Epstein class. It’s a great phrase for the billionaire elites who have corrupted our society through their wealth. We need heavy taxes on them now to preserve our democracy. And also, Thiel is literally in the Epstein files. Meeting with Russian officials repeatedly on the island. One is said to be his handler so he may just be an asset tasked with destabilizing America.
  - timacles 8mo ago
    There is certainly a shadow cabal of these elite billionaire types that avoid all public exposure yet are working very hard to destroy society and profit
    - verdverm 8mo ago
      Some people are trying to use a different word than "cabal" because of the racial associations and history. Oligarchs/y are among my choices, but I have supplanted that with Epstein Class now, to be more accurate to whom I refer
      - mondomondo 8mo ago
        [dead]
- Kapura 8mo ago
  yeah, this is what unchecked wealth gives you. yay capitalism.
- EQmWgw87pw 8mo ago
  I’m hearing this a lot but never with any substance, would you care to elaborate with a hard action or idea with a direct result?
  - pfraze 8mo ago
    What are you, Thiel’s alt? The guy backed Facebook, built a mass surveillance firm, and talks about democracy as an obstacle. How do you expect people to feel about him?
    - EQmWgw87pw 8mo ago
      I would not advocate against democracy. But do you believe it is flawless?
      - e2le 8mo ago
        No system is flawless. Every democratic system has its own issues. What is increasingly clear is that the current crop of tech billionaires do not belong anywhere near a position of power. God help us. The quality of individual is disappointing.
      - metalliqaz 8mo ago
        certainly better than a feudal system being passed off as libertarian
  - tofuahdude 8mo ago
    Direct quote from Peter Thiel: > I no longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible
- p_j_w 8mo ago
  Maybe a society that can be so damaged by someone because they're incredibly wealthy shouldn't be considered civilized.
  - pluralmonad 8mo ago
    What is more civilized than concentrating large amounts of power into the hands of a few? Hierarchy and civilization seem to go hand-in-hand.
throw4847285 8mo ago
I guess we could all forgive trying to destroy western civilization under the guise of saving it, but drew the line at poor media literacy when it comes to One Piece and Watchmen. (This is a joke in case that wasn't clear)
- jordanb 8mo ago
  It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad until Thiel gave us that clip of him getting stumped by the "should humanity survive" question. I'm forever grateful to Thiel for that clip, and to Musk for his crippling Twitter addiction. It was pretty impossible to get regular people to understand that folks like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison are skinwalkers when all they ever see about these people is professionally managed public relations content.
  - timacles 8mo ago
    A lot of the older folks are also not well versed in their language or whatever you want to call it, so they can’t even connect comprehend these guys are compulsive liars and paranoid man children with no scruples. They just think they are eccentric and by the virtue of their wealth they must be smart upstanding humans with a strong character.
    - jordanb 8mo ago
      Yeah but I'd argue that the eccentric billionaire trope itself is the creation of the PR industry. "We've got this guy with rancid vibes, how do we make him palatable?"
  - heliumtera 8mo ago
    >It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad By the "greying out" of your comment, I would assume two things: First, the difficulty you describe is not on the past. Second, normies are here in much bigger proportion than a hacker would assume, and they are offended on the behalf of tech billionaires.
zoeysmithe 8mo ago
That's fine, if not very good, but the central problem remains (ignoring the capitalist corrupted business culture and its merging with the state behind much of this). We can't centralize our communications without major concessions in significant ways that non-techies seem unaware of until a big news item like this comes out. "What, they're logging my chats, and IP, voice clips, and now they want my ID for 18+ discords?" Yes, absolutely you are being logged and those logs will go places you have no control over. Maybe even to oppress you or your loved ones. Discord's entire value proposition was "Hey just click here, no need to pay for a teamspeak server or do peer-to-peer jank." Deeply personal stuff is said and posted in those spaces. Common communication should not be shared like this and we keep falling back to the "tapped my phone line" problem. The difference between then and now is that for a long time there was no alternative to POTS. You just had to use the phone to call someone. The phone company and whatever government tapping was very hard to get around. But today there are other ways to do near everything if we give up on for-profit centralized services. I think society keeps flirting with federation and other things similar to that but never quite makes the jump. The twitter exodus went back to a new centralized service like Bluesky that will one day be sold to another deep-pocketed buyer with its own agenda, thus creating this problem again. Sure, now with federation or personal servers, the privacy issue goes back to the server operator, but at least that could be someone you trust, or even you. When currently, neither of those options are possible with things like Discord or Bluesky. I'm testing moving my friends and gaming group to self-hosted teamspeak or stout or mumble or something like that. I think we'll lose some convenience, but life isn't all about gains. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things for the greater good. I also really want to start moving away from things like reddit, bluesky, HN, etc to federated services and have dipped my toes there quite a bit, but the population isn't there (yet?). I hope this is a wakeup call that people need, much like the wake-up call the fight against personal encryption was in the 90s. I think we're in a super bad place right now, and its worth discussing the elephant in the room, even to non-techies, and what alternatives there are to the current system. I think people need to get over the convivence of the current system and realize if they want privacy and safety, they may have to migrate to services built with that in mind.
SilverElfin 8mo ago
Everyone needs to cut ties with those companies. Not just with Persona but any service linked to Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Palmer Luckey, Elon Musk, David Sacks, etc. The entire MAGA cultist ecosystem. Unfortunately there will be companies that take their money and won’t care. It’ll be up to other companies and consumers to punish them for it. Maybe we need a website that lets you quickly check if you should or shouldn’t use some service based on the investors.
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  I'm getting there. Just a few more. I've found myself kicking my not so distant past self for not listening better to my even further distant past self...
- trinsic2 8mo ago
  Which is pretty much everything at this point... God help us.
lokar 8mo ago
I always explain it to recruiters contacting me from one of his companies.
- chihuahua 8mo ago
  I used to get the occasional recruiter cold-calling me and hyping up the chance to work for some Musk- or Bezos-associated entity, and for me it's not as appealing as they think it is. But I politely decline without pointing out their fallacy.
focusgroup0 8mo ago
[flagged]
- organsnyder 8mo ago
  Why should there be mass hysteria over Soros-backed entities? What entities are those?
  - nailer 8mo ago
    Open Society Foundation. You can find this and why people dislike OSF very easily using a search engine or an LLM.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
xhkkffbf 8mo ago
I think it's a bad trend. It's kind of a meta version of an ad hominem attack. The headline contained no information about why Discord is making the decision, only that there's a bad name associated with the company. The name of the company isn't even mentioned in the headline. This is prioritizing hate over information.
- mullingitover 8mo ago
  Having the name associated with the company says a lot, actually. The man is the Forrest Gump of backing creepy companies.
ducktastic 8mo ago
The (PTB) Peter Theil Be
rapnie 8mo ago
Peter Thiel Integration (PTI) halted

it is truly amazing how much damage one person is able to do to civilized society if you expand the scope to a handful of adjacent figures, the catastrophe is truly amazing

pphysch 8mo ago
Thiel is one of the more public faces of what is now known as the "Epstein class" of societal predators. But one of many and certainly not the epicenter.
- SilverElfin 8mo ago
  Yep Epstein class. It’s a great phrase for the billionaire elites who have corrupted our society through their wealth. We need heavy taxes on them now to preserve our democracy. And also, Thiel is literally in the Epstein files. Meeting with Russian officials repeatedly on the island. One is said to be his handler so he may just be an asset tasked with destabilizing America.
- timacles 8mo ago
  There is certainly a shadow cabal of these elite billionaire types that avoid all public exposure yet are working very hard to destroy society and profit
  - verdverm 8mo ago
    Some people are trying to use a different word than "cabal" because of the racial associations and history. Oligarchs/y are among my choices, but I have supplanted that with Epstein Class now, to be more accurate to whom I refer
    - mondomondo 8mo ago
      [dead]
Kapura 8mo ago
yeah, this is what unchecked wealth gives you. yay capitalism.
EQmWgw87pw 8mo ago
I’m hearing this a lot but never with any substance, would you care to elaborate with a hard action or idea with a direct result?
- pfraze 8mo ago
  What are you, Thiel’s alt? The guy backed Facebook, built a mass surveillance firm, and talks about democracy as an obstacle. How do you expect people to feel about him?
  - EQmWgw87pw 8mo ago
    I would not advocate against democracy. But do you believe it is flawless?
    - e2le 8mo ago
      No system is flawless. Every democratic system has its own issues. What is increasingly clear is that the current crop of tech billionaires do not belong anywhere near a position of power. God help us. The quality of individual is disappointing.
    - metalliqaz 8mo ago
      certainly better than a feudal system being passed off as libertarian
- tofuahdude 8mo ago
  Direct quote from Peter Thiel: > I no longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible
p_j_w 8mo ago
Maybe a society that can be so damaged by someone because they're incredibly wealthy shouldn't be considered civilized.
- pluralmonad 8mo ago
  What is more civilized than concentrating large amounts of power into the hands of a few? Hierarchy and civilization seem to go hand-in-hand.

throw4847285 8mo ago

I guess we could all forgive trying to destroy western civilization under the guise of saving it, but drew the line at poor media literacy when it comes to One Piece and Watchmen. (This is a joke in case that wasn't clear)

jordanb 8mo ago
It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad until Thiel gave us that clip of him getting stumped by the "should humanity survive" question. I'm forever grateful to Thiel for that clip, and to Musk for his crippling Twitter addiction. It was pretty impossible to get regular people to understand that folks like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison are skinwalkers when all they ever see about these people is professionally managed public relations content.
- timacles 8mo ago
  A lot of the older folks are also not well versed in their language or whatever you want to call it, so they can’t even connect comprehend these guys are compulsive liars and paranoid man children with no scruples. They just think they are eccentric and by the virtue of their wealth they must be smart upstanding humans with a strong character.
  - jordanb 8mo ago
    Yeah but I'd argue that the eccentric billionaire trope itself is the creation of the PR industry. "We've got this guy with rancid vibes, how do we make him palatable?"
- heliumtera 8mo ago
  >It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad By the "greying out" of your comment, I would assume two things: First, the difficulty you describe is not on the past. Second, normies are here in much bigger proportion than a hacker would assume, and they are offended on the behalf of tech billionaires.

zoeysmithe 8mo ago

That's fine, if not very good, but the central problem remains (ignoring the capitalist corrupted business culture and its merging with the state behind much of this). We can't centralize our communications without major concessions in significant ways that non-techies seem unaware of until a big news item like this comes out. "What, they're logging my chats, and IP, voice clips, and now they want my ID for 18+ discords?" Yes, absolutely you are being logged and those logs will go places you have no control over. Maybe even to oppress you or your loved ones. Discord's entire value proposition was "Hey just click here, no need to pay for a teamspeak server or do peer-to-peer jank." Deeply personal stuff is said and posted in those spaces. Common communication should not be shared like this and we keep falling back to the "tapped my phone line" problem. The difference between then and now is that for a long time there was no alternative to POTS. You just had to use the phone to call someone. The phone company and whatever government tapping was very hard to get around. But today there are other ways to do near everything if we give up on for-profit centralized services. I think society keeps flirting with federation and other things similar to that but never quite makes the jump. The twitter exodus went back to a new centralized service like Bluesky that will one day be sold to another deep-pocketed buyer with its own agenda, thus creating this problem again. Sure, now with federation or personal servers, the privacy issue goes back to the server operator, but at least that could be someone you trust, or even you. When currently, neither of those options are possible with things like Discord or Bluesky. I'm testing moving my friends and gaming group to self-hosted teamspeak or stout or mumble or something like that. I think we'll lose some convenience, but life isn't all about gains. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things for the greater good. I also really want to start moving away from things like reddit, bluesky, HN, etc to federated services and have dipped my toes there quite a bit, but the population isn't there (yet?). I hope this is a wakeup call that people need, much like the wake-up call the fight against personal encryption was in the 90s. I think we're in a super bad place right now, and its worth discussing the elephant in the room, even to non-techies, and what alternatives there are to the current system. I think people need to get over the convivence of the current system and realize if they want privacy and safety, they may have to migrate to services built with that in mind.

SilverElfin 8mo ago

Everyone needs to cut ties with those companies. Not just with Persona but any service linked to Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Palmer Luckey, Elon Musk, David Sacks, etc. The entire MAGA cultist ecosystem. Unfortunately there will be companies that take their money and won’t care. It’ll be up to other companies and consumers to punish them for it. Maybe we need a website that lets you quickly check if you should or shouldn’t use some service based on the investors.

jacquesm 8mo ago
I'm getting there. Just a few more. I've found myself kicking my not so distant past self for not listening better to my even further distant past self...
trinsic2 8mo ago
Which is pretty much everything at this point... God help us.

lokar 8mo ago

I always explain it to recruiters contacting me from one of his companies.

chihuahua 8mo ago
I used to get the occasional recruiter cold-calling me and hyping up the chance to work for some Musk- or Bezos-associated entity, and for me it's not as appealing as they think it is. But I politely decline without pointing out their fallacy.

focusgroup0 8mo ago

[flagged]

organsnyder 8mo ago
Why should there be mass hysteria over Soros-backed entities? What entities are those?
- nailer 8mo ago
  Open Society Foundation. You can find this and why people dislike OSF very easily using a search engine or an LLM.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]

xhkkffbf 8mo ago

I think it's a bad trend. It's kind of a meta version of an ad hominem attack. The headline contained no information about why Discord is making the decision, only that there's a bad name associated with the company. The name of the company isn't even mentioned in the headline. This is prioritizing hate over information.

mullingitover 8mo ago
Having the name associated with the company says a lot, actually. The man is the Forrest Gump of backing creepy companies.

ducktastic 8mo ago

The (PTB) Peter Theil Be

rapnie 8mo ago

Peter Thiel Integration (PTI) halted