Max Chafkin discusses Peter Thiel's political donations to former employees Blake Masters and JD Vance in their respective US Senate campaigns.
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
Chafkin: Mark Zuckerberg's politics prioritize Facebook's growth over authorities and rules
“I think he's a libertarian and I think, which I think, you know, a hundred percent influenced by Thiel there. But I also think to some extent he has no left right politics. His politics are Whatever is going to be required to allow Facebook to grow as big as p…”
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.”