4 ms·

Behind the Bastards did a good two-parter on Thiel's lectures. He sounds dangerously insane. It'd be bad enough if he was just some random crank, but the fact

Behind the Bastards did a good two-parter on Thiel's lectures. He sounds dangerously insane. It'd be bad enough if he was just some random crank, but the fact he's got the level of power and influence needed to actually make his beliefs happen makes it exponentially worse. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR7ny9TuCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR7ny9TuCY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhyx-vVG_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhyx-vVG_Y

camillomiller 7mo ago
Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?
- avidphantasm 7mo ago
  What would China do to such billionaires run amok?
  - camillomiller 7mo ago
    This is the only answer that has any reference to an actionable approach that has been proven to work.
- mattkevan 7mo ago
  Not agreeing as a society that money == speech would be a good start.
  - JKCalhoun 7mo ago
    I like that. I also like a two-pronged approach which includes taxing the billionaires out of existence. I haven't heard any significant downside to doing that. All the more so when weighed against the possible upsides. I think what frustrates me above all else is that we, as a society, as a people, could have it so much better. We could all be living in such a better world but for the allowances we make for the most sociopathic and greedy among us.
    - mattkevan 7mo ago
      I sometimes think there should be a completion state to capitalism. When you reach an arbitrary score, like $100 million, you get presented with a cup that says ‘congratulations, you won capitalism’ and are given the choice of either playing again from the start but this time on hard mode (no emerald mine or parents that are friends with the IBM chairman this time), or keeping your winnings on the condition that you and your family fuck off somewhere and are never seen or heard of again. Seriously though, that billionaires can exist, that so much power and wealth can be concentrated in the hands of so few while so many have nothing is utterly repugnant.
      - polotics 7mo ago
        Repugnant it may be, but you're leaving better sells on the table: it is extremely wasteful of human capital, both because the winners after having taken all, tend to spin out and add only negative value to societies. Also the many pre-determined losers, having to waste so much of their energy on survival, mostly cannot contribute positively either, sometimes also drifting into serious negative value generation. So yes: as a system, "wealth" is demonstrably extremely wasteful of capital, in wouldn't take much on both edges to improve it significantly.
- beezlebroxxxxxx 7mo ago
  > Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Thiel is only "relevant" because he's wealthy. In a system that allows wealth to equal political power, systematically weakening the impact of wealth on civic and political systems is an effective method. Whether that can be done in America, with the current understanding of the constitution and the current philosophy that many take towards taxation/wealth is questionable; but the idea that we can do nothing is just not true. We don't need to slide back into an era of 19th century robber barons and pseudo-aristocracy. If we do, it's because we largely gave up or allowed it to happen.
  - NalNezumi 7mo ago
    The difference to robber Baron this time is that those companies have gone global, so a new Teddy Roosevelt being elected in USA wouldn't help, because these multinationals can just extend outside jurisdiction. Which is very similar to the actual dynamic of states/federal that Teddy tackled [1] Unfortunately the political rhetoric have smeared "the globalists" and equated people that want global coordination to limit those multinationals with power, with the ones abusing it. Even the platform that was promising to drain the swamp turns out was just another swamp, so one would need to start from the scratch for that political movement. [1] https://youtu.be/ItKtQCAZHhg https://youtu.be/ItKtQCAZHhg
    - expedition32 7mo ago
      The penchant for Christ clown insanity is distinctly American though. Secularism never truly touched the hearts of Americans.
      - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
        Not sure your country but the internet isn't the USA. Secularism very much touched the hearts of Americans. Talarico's words are pretty good at embodying actual American Christian belief on it. The dixiecrats mascarading as Christian Republicans who HN treats as all American Christians don't even believe in the larger USA/Constitution/Human rights so yeah they ignore/are anti a lot of basic American beliefs. They are from a long line of loser traitors to our beliefs. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo
- yuppiepuppie 7mo ago
  Ask yourself - where does his wealth (power) come from and how do you stop that? In his case - I assume most of it is from Palantir these days. Therefore stop your governments from contracting with them.
  - anaksjz 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    - yuppiepuppie 7mo ago
      > Voting, debate, democracy are for people that are on the same team. Im sorry, but I dont agree with this one bit. Debate and the spread of ideas that you think are good is really the only thing that is lasting, regardless of which "team" you are on. I also dont think America(ns) have been on the same team for its entire history. Its not a very recent phenomenon that neocons have pioneered. > You do not vote your way out of these problems. Are you suggesting something else?
    - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
      Republicans/dixiecrats push these kinds of attacks undermining our systems/institutions. The message we should give them: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo If voting didn't work dixiecrats wouldn't be pushing the new voter ID law. Billionaires wouldn't be spending so much on elections. The entire premise/fantasy of 'elections don't work' is traitor/disenfranchisement/give up BS. We voted our way out of the 1800s, our way to the New Deal. There have always been rich pushing un-American ideas. We didn't go 'welp, I guess the hyper rich plantation owners win, dissolve the country and continue slavery'. We beat the robber barons. We defeated the slavers. Time to feed the rich billionaires what we gave those that chose to be traitors before them. Fuck traitors. They win when we don't vote. Don't be the surrender meme: https://x.com/LinkofSunshine/status/1720538218628558969 https://x.com/LinkofSunshine/status/1720538218628558969
    - malfist 7mo ago
      I'm sorry, a catholic and an lutheran is the face of jewish power?
- athrowaway3z 7mo ago
  https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0?t=20 https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0?t=20
- jackmott42 7mo ago
  We are not in a democratic setting in America any more, the people in power are willing to start wars to protect pedophiles, they are willing to hire Nazi thugs to shoot your wives in the face. They are willing to bribe supreme court justices and dismantle democracy, and they will if not stopped by force. Thiel has been obviously and evil sack of shit for decades but more than half of HN viewers revere him. I fear we have no hope, and the good people asking how we can democratically solve this problem makes me feel even more hopeless. Yall don't get it.
  - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
    We defeated the incredibly rich southern slave owners. We can defeat these shitty traitors. If voting didn't work, they wouldn't poor money into it. If voting didn't work, they wouldn't be trying to force their horrible new ID poll tax laws.
    - matt343 7mo ago
      It wasn't voting that "defeated" southern slave owners, it was a war. A war that leveled cities and killed more Americans than any before or since. Also, I'm pretty sure this man and everyone in his class control a larger percentage of the economy than any plantation owners. Saying we should just vote out way out of oligarchy ignores the history of every oligarchy in the world, and makes you at best and unwitting pawn of the pedophile ruling class.
      - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
        LOL. I'm no pawn. I'm at best a democracy supporting, western Liberal society loving American. Spreading fear in this way since 9/11 has dramatically changed America into something worse. I'm sad you've lost faith in Liberal thought and are preaching replacing it with reactionary nothingness. We literally defeated the people who owned the system AND owned the workers, because we elected the right people and we fought. If we had instead burnt the system down how the heck would we win the war? This system was build for people like us. The first of it's kind. We aren't going to get a better playing field. The oligarchy WANT it burnt down. Stop doing their work and put your effort/energy into useful change, don't be a tool for them. It's sucks we have to fight, but it's idiotic to seed the best battlefield we are going to get to fight them on to some nebulous, reactionary unknown one like you seem to want. Don't give up! And fuck the anti-American traitors! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKu3Jh5IAs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKu3Jh5IAs
- heresie-dabord 7mo ago
  > what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? What are you prepared to do to contain/restrain a person who is non compos mentis?
aaron695 7mo ago
[dead]
patrec 7mo ago
Is there some more concise and ideally written summary of Thiel's lectures? One that doesn't require sitting through 3h of video? I've only got some superficial acquaintance with Thiel's ideas, but he's been objectively correct on enough contrarian stuff (Thiel fellowships) that I'd like to at least have some rough, non-distorted understanding of what the anti-christ stuff is about even if it sounds a bit crazy.

camillomiller 7mo ago

Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Who should take into their hands the job to stop him, and to what lengths should they push themselves?

avidphantasm 7mo ago
What would China do to such billionaires run amok?
- camillomiller 7mo ago
  This is the only answer that has any reference to an actionable approach that has been proven to work.
mattkevan 7mo ago
Not agreeing as a society that money == speech would be a good start.
- JKCalhoun 7mo ago
  I like that. I also like a two-pronged approach which includes taxing the billionaires out of existence. I haven't heard any significant downside to doing that. All the more so when weighed against the possible upsides. I think what frustrates me above all else is that we, as a society, as a people, could have it so much better. We could all be living in such a better world but for the allowances we make for the most sociopathic and greedy among us.
  - mattkevan 7mo ago
    I sometimes think there should be a completion state to capitalism. When you reach an arbitrary score, like $100 million, you get presented with a cup that says ‘congratulations, you won capitalism’ and are given the choice of either playing again from the start but this time on hard mode (no emerald mine or parents that are friends with the IBM chairman this time), or keeping your winnings on the condition that you and your family fuck off somewhere and are never seen or heard of again. Seriously though, that billionaires can exist, that so much power and wealth can be concentrated in the hands of so few while so many have nothing is utterly repugnant.
    - polotics 7mo ago
      Repugnant it may be, but you're leaving better sells on the table: it is extremely wasteful of human capital, both because the winners after having taken all, tend to spin out and add only negative value to societies. Also the many pre-determined losers, having to waste so much of their energy on survival, mostly cannot contribute positively either, sometimes also drifting into serious negative value generation. So yes: as a system, "wealth" is demonstrably extremely wasteful of capital, in wouldn't take much on both edges to improve it significantly.
beezlebroxxxxxx 7mo ago
> Genuine questions: what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? Thiel is only "relevant" because he's wealthy. In a system that allows wealth to equal political power, systematically weakening the impact of wealth on civic and political systems is an effective method. Whether that can be done in America, with the current understanding of the constitution and the current philosophy that many take towards taxation/wealth is questionable; but the idea that we can do nothing is just not true. We don't need to slide back into an era of 19th century robber barons and pseudo-aristocracy. If we do, it's because we largely gave up or allowed it to happen.
- NalNezumi 7mo ago
  The difference to robber Baron this time is that those companies have gone global, so a new Teddy Roosevelt being elected in USA wouldn't help, because these multinationals can just extend outside jurisdiction. Which is very similar to the actual dynamic of states/federal that Teddy tackled [1] Unfortunately the political rhetoric have smeared "the globalists" and equated people that want global coordination to limit those multinationals with power, with the ones abusing it. Even the platform that was promising to drain the swamp turns out was just another swamp, so one would need to start from the scratch for that political movement. [1] https://youtu.be/ItKtQCAZHhg https://youtu.be/ItKtQCAZHhg
  - expedition32 7mo ago
    The penchant for Christ clown insanity is distinctly American though. Secularism never truly touched the hearts of Americans.
    - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
      Not sure your country but the internet isn't the USA. Secularism very much touched the hearts of Americans. Talarico's words are pretty good at embodying actual American Christian belief on it. The dixiecrats mascarading as Christian Republicans who HN treats as all American Christians don't even believe in the larger USA/Constitution/Human rights so yeah they ignore/are anti a lot of basic American beliefs. They are from a long line of loser traitors to our beliefs. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo
yuppiepuppie 7mo ago
Ask yourself - where does his wealth (power) come from and how do you stop that? In his case - I assume most of it is from Palantir these days. Therefore stop your governments from contracting with them.
- anaksjz 7mo ago
  [flagged]
  - yuppiepuppie 7mo ago
    > Voting, debate, democracy are for people that are on the same team. Im sorry, but I dont agree with this one bit. Debate and the spread of ideas that you think are good is really the only thing that is lasting, regardless of which "team" you are on. I also dont think America(ns) have been on the same team for its entire history. Its not a very recent phenomenon that neocons have pioneered. > You do not vote your way out of these problems. Are you suggesting something else?
  - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
    Republicans/dixiecrats push these kinds of attacks undermining our systems/institutions. The message we should give them: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kjah99E1fIo If voting didn't work dixiecrats wouldn't be pushing the new voter ID law. Billionaires wouldn't be spending so much on elections. The entire premise/fantasy of 'elections don't work' is traitor/disenfranchisement/give up BS. We voted our way out of the 1800s, our way to the New Deal. There have always been rich pushing un-American ideas. We didn't go 'welp, I guess the hyper rich plantation owners win, dissolve the country and continue slavery'. We beat the robber barons. We defeated the slavers. Time to feed the rich billionaires what we gave those that chose to be traitors before them. Fuck traitors. They win when we don't vote. Don't be the surrender meme: https://x.com/LinkofSunshine/status/1720538218628558969 https://x.com/LinkofSunshine/status/1720538218628558969
  - malfist 7mo ago
    I'm sorry, a catholic and an lutheran is the face of jewish power?
athrowaway3z 7mo ago
https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0?t=20 https://youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0?t=20
jackmott42 7mo ago
We are not in a democratic setting in America any more, the people in power are willing to start wars to protect pedophiles, they are willing to hire Nazi thugs to shoot your wives in the face. They are willing to bribe supreme court justices and dismantle democracy, and they will if not stopped by force. Thiel has been obviously and evil sack of shit for decades but more than half of HN viewers revere him. I fear we have no hope, and the good people asking how we can democratically solve this problem makes me feel even more hopeless. Yall don't get it.
- _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
  We defeated the incredibly rich southern slave owners. We can defeat these shitty traitors. If voting didn't work, they wouldn't poor money into it. If voting didn't work, they wouldn't be trying to force their horrible new ID poll tax laws.
  - matt343 7mo ago
    It wasn't voting that "defeated" southern slave owners, it was a war. A war that leveled cities and killed more Americans than any before or since. Also, I'm pretty sure this man and everyone in his class control a larger percentage of the economy than any plantation owners. Saying we should just vote out way out of oligarchy ignores the history of every oligarchy in the world, and makes you at best and unwitting pawn of the pedophile ruling class.
    - _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
      LOL. I'm no pawn. I'm at best a democracy supporting, western Liberal society loving American. Spreading fear in this way since 9/11 has dramatically changed America into something worse. I'm sad you've lost faith in Liberal thought and are preaching replacing it with reactionary nothingness. We literally defeated the people who owned the system AND owned the workers, because we elected the right people and we fought. If we had instead burnt the system down how the heck would we win the war? This system was build for people like us. The first of it's kind. We aren't going to get a better playing field. The oligarchy WANT it burnt down. Stop doing their work and put your effort/energy into useful change, don't be a tool for them. It's sucks we have to fight, but it's idiotic to seed the best battlefield we are going to get to fight them on to some nebulous, reactionary unknown one like you seem to want. Don't give up! And fuck the anti-American traitors! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKu3Jh5IAs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKu3Jh5IAs
heresie-dabord 7mo ago
> what can be done in a democratic setting to stop him? What are you prepared to do to contain/restrain a person who is non compos mentis?

aaron695 7mo ago

[dead]

patrec 7mo ago

Is there some more concise and ideally written summary of Thiel's lectures? One that doesn't require sitting through 3h of video? I've only got some superficial acquaintance with Thiel's ideas, but he's been objectively correct on enough contrarian stuff (Thiel fellowships) that I'd like to at least have some rough, non-distorted understanding of what the anti-christ stuff is about even if it sounds a bit crazy.