# Thiel Interview In New York Times **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2025, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184 "2025-06-27T04:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/21 "2025-06-28T23:12:47Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > eating grapes grown in high tech vertical farms while their Morlocks scour the surface for resources and useful artifacts to bring back to then. In that scenario they may want to check out what eventually became the Eloi-Morlock relationship. But it wouldn’t get to that since it will take a New York minute for the private paramilitaries’ officers to notice that there is no larger State power anymore to take exception to you simply murdering your patron and becoming the new Lord. But I guess that more realistically, > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > part of their goal is to collapse Western society so nations can be rebuilt as corporation-type entities with CEOs running them Just render moot the notion of a state beholden to the population. Which BTW is something about which the radical identity nationalists like Bannon have expressed concern about. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/22 "2025-06-29T05:29:59Z")
Let me offer some defense of Theil. He launched the Seasteading Institute in 2008 to my delight and amusement, since I’m a huge fan of libertarian experiments especially ones involving remote deserts, rough seas, visionary barkers, and other suitable repositories of libertarians. But he cut them off pretty soon after, showing disturbing indications of common sense. He was an early backer of Donald Trump, declaring him a more sensible choice than former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying we shouldn’t take Trump literally, but we should take him seriously. But then Theil said he would sit out the 2024 campaign financially and as far as I can tell he did. Conservatives activists typically don’t pivot and they don’t cut losses. Once they have a politician’s ear, they maintain their support never mind their stated and alleged principles. Think about the Koch Bros: the mildest taste of power keeps them in the tent. Theil seems much less gullible than the typical conservative, which is to say that while he falls for things that sensible people would not, he doesn’t invariably double down on them. Theil is not as easily manipulated as most conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/23 "2025-06-29T13:47:11Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > It’s a doomsday cult. Theil, Musk, and the rest of the billionaire tech bros all buy into this notion that humanity needs to push towards the singularity, or whatever flavor of technical utopia they ascribe to, as fast as possible. They look at all the suffering in the world today, and all the harm that’s happening to the environment, and they think, “It’s hopeless. We need to accept that things will suck and people will die but as long as we’re speeding as fast as possible towards our vision of utopia, everything is justifiable because we’re the only ones who can save humanity.” > > It’s awful but nobody can stop them, especially now that they’ve bought the republican party. Once they have AI they can simply arrange so the useless 99.99% of humanity die of starvation and pestilence. A world populated by a small coterie of ultra-rich and however many robots it takes to support them all in isolated luxury suits them just fine. This approach solves overpopulation, solves global warming, solves all other ecological devastations, solves international conflicts, solves everything. For them. And they are the only thing that matters … to them. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/24 "2025-06-29T14:19:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Once they have AI they can simply arrange so the useless 99.99% of humanity die of starvation and pestilence. Of course based on that the AI will _stay_ trained on that _they_ are the worthy 0.01% ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/25 "2025-06-29T14:29:07Z")
What Thiel seemed intent upon - and managed to do without challenge - was to equate sustainability with stagnation, and stagnation with disaster. There is no reason to believe that a sustainable median cannot be reached in which all humans live decent lifestyles. It requires only that those with several yachts settle for just one. But Thiel, of course, finds that possibility threatening and so he demonizes it in the person of Ms. Thunberg. Overall, i was annoyed by the amount of talking Douthat did. I’d be interested to see analysis of the number of words spoken by each of them. I wanted to hear Thiel speak for himself. But Thiel successfully used a trick my ex used a lot - hesitating until the other person fills in what they want to hear. Douthat helped him out every time. Honestly my impression of Thiel was that his ideas were powerpoint deep. He relied upon name dropping and other logical fallacies rather than supporting his arguments. But Douthat talked so much that it’s hard to draw conclusions. The physical changes in Thiel were concerning. The bones of his face seem to have thickened. A friend who had acromegaly went through a similar transition. I suspect in Thiel’s case he’s using hgh and testosterone as a shortcut for muscle growth. It seems to be a trend among the wealthy just now. If so it would tend to support my impression that he doesn’t look deeply into ideas before running with them. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/26 "2025-06-29T14:51:56Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Theil seems much less gullible than the typical conservative, which is to say that while he falls for things that sensible people would not, he doesn’t invariably double down on them. Theil is not as easily manipulated as most conservatives. Thiel does fool many by claiming to not help the current maladministration. Not helping Trump does not means that he is stopping his support of his or the asinine conservative agenda. > **[Peter Thiel](https://www.desmog.com/peter-thiel/)** > > Peter Thiel Credentials Background Peter A. Thiel is the billionaire president of the hedge fund Clarium Capital Management. He co-founded PayPal, Inc.3Julia Press, David Gura, and Adriana Tapia Zafra. “J.D. Vance, \[…\] > _[The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/05/peter-thiel-bankrolling-jd-vance-reactionary-nationalism/)_ and [_The New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/us/politics/jd-vance-trump-ohio-fox-news.html) reported[15](javascript:void(0)) [16](javascript:void(0)) in 2022 that Thiel played a key role in J.D. Vance’s victory in his Ohio Senate campaign. “Thiel bankrolled a pro-Vance super PAC with $15 million and brokered a meeting with Donald Trump that helped secure his endorsement, which proved decisive,” _The Washington Post_ reported.[17](javascript:void(0)) Following Trump’s endorsement of Vance, [Thiel gave another $3.5 million to Protect Ohio Values](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-20/thiel-deepens-jd-vance-bet-with-3-5-million-after-trump-backing), a Super Political Action Committee supporting Vance, in addition to another $10 million he had given in 2021.[18](javascript:void(0)) In 2012, [Thiel supported Ron Paul](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/peter-thiel-ron-pauls-billionaire-sugar-daddy/331514/) through a $1.7-million donation to the Ron Paul-supporting super PAC Endorse Liberty.[19] As for being a willful ignorant about what to do for the environment: > On Joe Rogan’s [podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klRb0_BAX9g), Thiel described climate change as “science in quotes.” He added, “I think the fact that it’s called climate science tells you that it’s more dogmatic than anything that’s truly science should be.”[31] ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/27 "2025-06-29T21:28:37Z")
I agree with Russ Douthat that, “there’s a good case that he’s the most influential right-wing intellectual of the last 20 years.” Theil represents the very best they could come up with. However ignorant, unoriginal, and _gullible_, he towers over most modern conservative thinkers. > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Thiel’s yammerings about “stagnation” show that he is neither knowledgeable nor serious. Even setting aside the glaring No True Scotsman fallacy noted in that last sentence, he supports his thesis with a few cherry-picked examples of problems that turned out to be harder than expected (e.g. curing Alzheimer’s) while ignoring obvious signs of major prgress (e.g. the development of biotech such as CRISPR, mRNA vaccines\*, etc). Not to mention [Rare-earth permanent magnets, Gallium nitride and silicon carbide transistors, and Lithium-ion batteries](https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/is-the-us-in-a-high-level-equilibrium). Superpowerful magnets permit the creation of powerful engines to drive EV cars, which can accelerate faster than internal combustion engines. “GaN and SiC transistors are able to operate at much higher levels of current and voltage than the transistors that run your computer or your phone. This allows them to work in things like cars and drones that operate at very high power”. All were invented in the US, and all are being aggressively exploited and developed by China. AFAICT Theil’s investment concerns do little or nothing with them. He’s leaving money on the table, while his futurism seems to be derived from a combination of Mad Max, Terminator 2, and the Jetsons. Serious or semi-serious people interested in the challenges of building a post-industrial technological civilization should read [Brian Potter at Construction Physics](https://www.construction-physics.com/). > **[Construction Physics | Brian Potter | Substack](https://www.construction-physics.com/)** > > Essays about buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. Click to read Construction Physics, by Brian Potter, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers. Those interested in a more reformist oriented take on building the future should read Works in Progress: > **[The Works in Progress Newsletter | Substack](https://www.worksinprogress.news/)** > > New and underrated ideas to improve the world. Visit our website: worksinprogress.co. Click to read The Works in Progress Newsletter, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers. Conservatives vastly over-estimate the quality of their own ideas, which makes them reluctant to apply sufficient effort to stay informed or engage in actual reporting if they are journalists. They prefer _commentary_. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/28 "2025-06-29T21:56:07Z")
The results of Thatcherism and Reganomics, which sizeed upon the stagflation of the 1970s as proof that the management of society as a collective per Keynesian economics would suck everyone down the drain; so let’s pivot to Objectivism where a de-regulated (unconstrained) elite would prosper from the turbines powered by everyone else being sucked down the drain. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/29 "2025-06-30T00:41:32Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I agree with Russ Douthat that, “there’s a good case that he’s the most influential right-wing intellectual of the last 20 years.” I think this is probably true. FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/30 "2025-06-30T01:02:32Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I agree with Russ Douthat that, “there’s a good case that he’s the most influential right-wing intellectual of the last 20 years.” Theil represents the very best they could come up with. Newt Gingrich is “the most influential right-wing intellectual of the last 20 years,” at least for certain values of ‘intellectual’. He taught the GOP how to use language as a weapon, how to co-opt the media as a facilitator of their ‘message’, how to turn minor disagreements that don’t impact the finances or well-being of most people into a ‘culture war’, and he was essentially the first prominent Republican to embrace Donald Trump. Thiel wishes he were that influential but his major accomplishment is getting JD Vance into the Vice President slot. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/31 "2025-06-30T01:11:16Z")
Grover Norquist, Steve Bannon and Frank Luntz, though less influential, probably think they deserve more credit. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/32 "2025-06-30T04:50:15Z")
Nitpicking, I would say that Gingrich is the most influential conservative of the past 40 years. _Language, A Key Mechanism of Control_ was penned in 1990, and his GOP training tapes were recorded in 1986-1994. But yes, he is far more influential than Theil. > **[GOPAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOPAC)** > > GOPAC is a Republican (GOP) state and local political training organization. Although often thought of as a PAC, or political action committee, it is actually a 527 organization. > GOPAC was founded by Delaware Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV in 1978 in "an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later". On February 1, 2007, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele became the chairman and served until his election a... Al Franken synthesized the advice given as follows: ““Go Negative Early”; “Don’t Try to Educate”; “Never Back Off”. Minor details were relevant only to ‘demolish the opposition’.” Gingrich’s intellect is very much exaggerated, but his advice with regards to the dark art of propaganda is sound. The GOP has ratcheted downwards since 1964, but I would say the focal moment of decline was the election of Gingrich to Speaker of the House. Here, have a link (gifted): > **[The Man Who Broke Politics](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/?gift=s7DDLI2XYvYNmCybhIIlrg5sfVCq5CqXmSUGCdpQEOI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share)** > > Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise. Now he’s reveling in his achievements. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184/33 "2025-06-30T05:07:55Z")
Many of Gingrich’s “accomplishments” were over two decades ago. He did write a book about China in 2019. Do people still read books? (Goodreads readers gave it an improbable 4.24/5. Gingrich ‘s write-up there is worth a read, but keep some insulin handy.) > **[Trump vs. China: Facing America's Greatest Threat](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43886107-trump-vs-china)** > > Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich sounds the wa… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thiel-interview-in-new-york-times/1020184.md?page=1)