Did you listen to his remarks? He was talking about the cost of prosecuting the Gawker case. Since he funded the case, he knows the cost. Apparently it was out-of-budget for a single digit millionaire.

Did you listen to his remarks? He was speaking from the perspective of the American precariat. He highlighted these statistics:

1. 64% of Americans over 55 have less than a year's worth of living expenses saved. (Amid massive looming health care costs.)
2. In real dollars, the median household makes less than it did twenty years ago. (Despite exploding education and child-care costs.)
3. Half of American households would struggle to cover an unexpected $400 expense.

He didn't mention obesity or other, numerous profound drains on quality of life, but his point is clear: The political establishment has done little more than optimize around the margins, while a majority of the country is completely ****ed. (Not including people ITT, mostly.)

And HRC does represents the establishment. That works for me. But it's easy to understand why people who feel they have nothing at risk could rationally ignore Trump's personality while lashing out at the establishment.

Since when is actually listening to someone talk and reading their biography "hero worship"?

So Subfallen is yet another dude who when reading about Jesus throwing the wicked moneychangers out of the temple, thought Jesus was the total a-hole in that story?

"Jesus, buddy, I know you got your whole thing here, but those guys have visibility into the most important institutions in the world. Also, their strategies are hella lucid."

Don't worry though, the billionaire real estate developer and the billionaire moneychanger will save the day. That's why one doesn't charge rent for those people in need and the other made paypal a free service.

HOLY **** SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT PETER THIEL. JESUS ****ING CHRIST.

You're trying to consider his strengths fairly when you 'should' just be considering his flaws and concludign he is an idiot.

Must be hero worship. It's like considering both sides makes us think we are '****ing superheroes' as fly puts it.

Lol sorry but objectivism gets my lawnmower going and this self-deluded neo-objectivism sends that mother****er into orbit.

Deus ex chezlaw officially invoked, this topic has run its course. Until next time.

I asked it before, but how is it not incredibly topical?

What in god's name are you talking about? All Thiel has done is offend various people because he doesn't share their moral priorities; he's not extorting the poor.

Hold that thought, I need a green light here or we're gonna get yelled at again.

Nobody is going to save the day for middle-class America given our current institutions and norms!

There will have to be a sea change, or tens of millions of Americans are just completely ****ed. That's kind of the point.

Based on his remarks, Thiel is supporting Trump in solidarity with the people who are completely ****ed. Take that for what you will.

How's downballot looking for the Dems?

Thiel is worth billions. He uses that money to donate to Donald Trump and various firms and venture ideas that would help Peter Thiel or personal grudges against media companies. He can whine all he want about the average american getting screwed over, but he has billions of dollars and has done ??? to help the situation? He's spent tens of millions on seasteading and trying to live forever, yet you believe he is some altruist trying to help the average joe? How gullible are you? He is a dude who said letting women vote was a bad idea. He is again, not a smart person. https://www.wired.com/2016/10/no-fac...support-thiel/


For anyone beyond Subfallen, don't read the top part and just enjoy the rest of this post because the rest doesn't suck.

Considering his strengths fairly = he's probably a smart VC guy with possibly greater strategic insight into investing/tech trends than most VC guys, but his political views and personal values are apparently irredeemable dog ****. I can't quite figure out why that's not an acceptable compromise position for both sides of this pressing disputation.

Lol. This obviously isn't about Peter Thiel, it's about how people prioritize the relative urgency of two valid courses of action:

1. Questioning the basic assumptions behind modern America's institutions and norms (e.g. free trade, immigration policy, foreign policy), on the grounds of their profound failure to improve average quality of life; vs.
2. Protecting the incremental progress that has been made within those institutions and norms.

Greater social justice for minorities is the most significant form of incremental progress being made within our current paradigm. So I understand why people want to police discourse that prioritizes skepticism. (And, indeed, I like the establishment just fine).

But I think it's obvious that there is a strong argument to be made that progress in social justice is somewhat illusory if we do not have reality-based institutions and norms that empower a rising standard of life.

Furthermore, I think it's obvious that Thiel is making this case.

These are not the remarks of a moron, or a sociopath. They are the remarks of a thinking person with an agenda. If you disagree---fine!

The interesting part is you say the moneychangers were extorting the poor and not just being Good Capitalists. They just had a BC style analog Paypal going.



I feel like if I make the obvious response here, you're gonna say, "economy is not a zero-sum game," so should we just skip to that part?

Those are moronic remarks.

Trump has not questioned the core concept of American exceptionalism.

Trump's agenda is not about making America any more of a "normal" country.

Trump's proposals will explode the deficit by drastically cutting revenue and he still wants to increase military spending.

Trump hasn't talked about any of that grand building stuff, unless it's the absurd wall which will not be built, would not lead to an increase in productivity and would even be counterproductive for its intended mission as explained by the very morons at ICE who endorsed him anyway.

Just because Theil made a little speech in complete sentences that sounded cool doesn't mean it was a work of genius. It was idiotic.

I'm grunching a bit, but if your point was that he was saying that idiotic stuff in some clever way to try to get people to vote Trump so he can pay less taxes, then sociopath.

To add one thing: In an ideal world, there would be no reason to worry about losing social justice while rebalancing institutional power and norms away from the elites towards the masses.

But in reality, obviously there are a lot of crazy people and racial identity politics that could endanger minorities during a populist power transfer.

I like the idea that she laughed so hard at his pardon joke because she has knowledge that this will happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOUFsCS7xYE#t=7m40s

This isn't even the most plausible defense of Thiel! Some people have speculated he's doing some sort of Dark Enlightenment accelerationist ploy and he thinks Trump will cause the collapse of American democracy, so it can be replaced with Thiel's preferred feudalism where the elites can harvest the blood of the proles to stay eternally young.

But this ****, man, Thiel is paraphrasing Trump's stump speeches and you're just astounded by his INSIGHTS.

P.S. Actual poor people, actual people with precarious lives... they are voting for Clinton. ****ing hell, man, what is wrong with you? You're in such a bubble of being ill-informed about the world you see this **** from Thiel has somehow groundbreaking. Do you know what Clinton surrogates say about the middle class?

People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet donate hundreds of millions to poor and average people. Donald Trump and Peter Thiel do not, but publicly make statements and lies about how much they're doing for those people. The same people fall for it over and over. That you believe he is supporting Trump because they'll band together to lift the nation's struggling class is the dumbest thing you could believe. A flat earth is literally more believable.

Subfallen with some sort of reverse Scott Adams thing going on where he literally cannot do anything but take people at exactly their word. No ability to determine if they are incorrect factually(can't fact check a billionaire! He's rich!) or potentially lying(he can't be lying, he's rich!).

It's embarrassing.

Do you know that for us normals we have ways of learning about Donald Trump's candidate BEYOND listening to Peter Thiel? It's true! And we do. And then we disagree with you, a man who knows literally nothing, and get pushback. That people who are better informed that you(~everyone) disagree with you is not cause to think they are jealous or impotent(???), it's cause for you to re-evaluate your current method of learning about politics.

"Trumpf will 'bring' 'back' 'jobs' bigly and make our military 'powerful' 'again' and then defeat ISIS without a war, plus recess will be twice as long and the lunchroom will serve ice cream, wicked moneychanger technoprogressive visionary Peter Thiel agrees!"

Nice, very nice.