HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ 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.

⬐ 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.

⬐ 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.

⬐ stcredzero

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

⬐ thecolorblue

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

⬐ nikolay

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

⬐ J_Darnley

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

⬐ nikolay

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

⬐ maxblackwood

Traitor.

⬐ 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).

⬐ pugs_be_sold

"floppy disks"?...scary

⬐ 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.