
Peter Thiel Endorses Trump at RNC [video] - armenarmen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9RPNa5dhCM
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gizmo
Some years ago Peter Thiel observed (correctly, I think) that capitalism and
democracy are fundamentally at odds. Where democracy seeks to give everybody a
voice in how society is structured, in capitalism you can only vote with your
dollars. Instead of one one-person-one-vote some people get a billion votes
and other people get none.

When faced with this contradiction Peter Thiel decided that capitalism should
be preserved (and strengthened) and that democracy should be discarded. He
doesn't feel bad about this because in his view most people contribute nothing
of value to society anyway; society's real advances are the product of
exceptional work by Nietzschean men.

So his support for an antidemocratic and authoritarian figure such as Trump is
entirely consistent with his worldview. What is surprising is that other
figures in Silicon Valley don't recognize this. Max Levchin (his old pal from
Paypal) thought Thiel's support for Trump was a prank of some sort! Silicon
valley insiders are either completely blind to these reactionary forces
bubbling up around them or they strategically choose to stay silent. I'm not
sure which is worse.

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quantumhobbit
He complains about high tech jobs outside of Silicon Valley being scarce
relative to inside the valley but the reason for that is decades of VC's like
him insisting every company they fund relocate to the valley. He is literally
part of the problem that he proposes Trump as the solution to.

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arel
My evaluation of Thiel's ability to think intelligently, critically, with
reason, nuance and with empathy just plummeted.

You want to change the world for the better Peter? Don't support a vitriolic
demagogue.

I hope other leaders of our industry are able to show some backbone and
standup to this idiocy.

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DelaneyM
I could forgive him for the Gawker lawsuit. Outing someone is a terrible thing
to do and worthy of a grudge, and by funding legitimate cases he was arguably
just democratizing justice.

This was where he lost my respect and interest.

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stcredzero
Look at his entire record. He has a "batting average."

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thecolorblue
Gawker headline: "Peter Thiel is totally republican, people"

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nikolay
I wonder how the tolerant (really?) SV crowd will now react to its (former?)
idol's speech...

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J_Darnley
They already hate him for funding the Gawker lawsuit. Coming out as Republican
probably can't make it worse.

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nikolay
Tolerant people should not hate those who they don't agree with, who they
don't understand, like, and so on.

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maxblackwood
Traitor.

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calbear81
I'm pretty sure Thiel sees a huge new market opening up for the privatization
of formerly public services if Trump wins. I'm not a big fan of the
inefficiency of big gov but you can't not mention the fact that Thiel has a
lot to gain in such a scenario (Palantir contracts).

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pugs_be_sold
"floppy disks"?...scary

