Max Chafkin analyzes Mark Zuckerberg's personal political philosophy and the influence of Peter Thiel on his business approach.
Opinion
Peter Thiel's rule-breaking ethos dominates Facebook and major tech companies
“That ethos, Thielism, if you want to call it that, is Basically the main ethos of Facebook, of, you know, of most of the bigger companies in Silicon Valley. This idea that the rules yeah, just aren't that important and maybe it's best to cast them aside from t…”
Opinion
Silicon Valley's disruption culture roots in 1980s right-wing campus activism
“I think a lot of the kind of some of this kind of cult of disruption stuff that we see in, in, in Silicon Valley, probably best epitomized by like Uber or something, I think kind of has its roots in right wing activist politics, the right wing activist politic…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peter Thiel designed the Thiel Fellowship to troll his liberal critics
“It was totally designed to like, to you know, for lack of a better word, like troll the libs, right? Like they slate did a slate, you know, did like a hit piece on On the, I'm using the builder language here... They use it in their marketing. They loved it. Yo…”
Opinion
Peter Thiel is positioning himself as the patron of radical populism
“Peter Thiel's attempting to be the inheritor of that movement and to be the patron of that movement, to be the person who is behind the scenes for the 20 to 30% of the country that wants the guy who says the craziest shit in the room.”
Assertion Supported
Peter Thiel acted as patron to pro-dictatorship blogger Curtis Yarvin
“He's, you know, been a patron to this guy, Curtis Yarvin, who is you know better known as a mold bug, but you know, this blogger who is whose big idea basically is, is a dictatorship.”
Opinion
Peter Thiel has had more cultural impact on tech than anyone
“I would argue that Teal has had a bigger cultural impact on, on the tech industry than any single person.”