Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.

Depending on who you are, you may find it hilarious, fascinating, insufferable, or horrifying that one of the world’s most powerful men is obsessing over a figure from sermons and horror movies. But the ideas and influences behind these talks are key to understanding how Thiel sees his own massive role in the world—in politics, technology, and the fate of the species. And to really grasp Thiel’s katechon-and-Antichrist schtick, you need to go back to the first major lecture of his doomsday road show—which took place on an unusually hot day in Paris in 2023. No video cameras recorded the event, and no reporters wrote about it, but I’ve been able to reconstruct it by talking to people who were there.

  • masterofn001
    1·
    8 hours ago

    Don’t forget that thiel likely had his gay lover killed because of being gay (and probably the Epstein stuff)

    https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/

    And when you get to the part when you find out that they’re all fans or friends with Alexander Dugin - Putin’s philosopher and absolute psychopath, things get even more fun.

    Warning: this is a nutjob extreme rw site that is host to writings by dugin (and others). Enter at the expense of your hope for humanity.

    https://arktos.com/2025/03/18/an-even-deeper-state-and-the-dark-enlightenment/

    https://arktos.com/2024/09/19/lacan-and-psychedelic-trumpism/

    Figures like Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin (Mencius Moldbug), and the brilliant French philosopher René Girard (who wrote on sacred violence) are atypical for classic right-wing Republicans. They cannot be used to illustrate the Imaginary (which the progressives supposedly aim to dismantle in the name of the Symbolic). In Vance, the Democrats’ psychoanalytic strategy fails, as Vance himself embodies the atypical right-wing Symbolic pole. It is even possible that he understands this and is familiar with Lacan. Thus, choosing Vance as vice president is a key move in Trump’s campaign. Once again, the magic of chaos — represented by the Borromean rings and their connection to dreamlike psychedelia — comes into play, but this time more systematically.

    Like wtf ? People actually listen and worship this guy.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      …and people called postmodernism a lot of masturbatory gibberish. Seeing the RW trying to rationalize their psychopathy is another thing altogether…

      I’m still making my way through The Sovereign Individual, speaking of trying to rationalize psychopathy.

      This thing reads like some programmer that got their first paycheck in their teens-to-early-20s, and because they are outraged at the government “taking” from them, and since they read Ayn Rand at 15 (and never really shrugged it off), they decided to open their word processor and start writing a manifesto about how things are supposed to work according to someone with permanent arrested development shaking their fist at having to pay taxes. In this case, it’s two authors, so they actually had a little circle jerk as they wrote this mess, I take it. I’m wondering if they sat there goading each other on, crafting more and more ways to express their absolute loathing of labor, government, any form of collectivism whatsoever, etc…