The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’
That photo of Trump with horns reminded me of wacko MAGA broligarch Peter Thiel. He has been getting increasingly obsessed with the Antichrist. Seriously.
Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable discursion that reveals the preoccupations of one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and the US.
Being a dyspeptic greedy multi-billionaire, Thiel regards anybody who suggests that he should pay his fair share of taxes as demonic or worse.
“A basic definition of the antichrist: some people think of it as a type of very bad person. Sometimes it’s used more generally as a spiritual descriptor of the forces of evil,” Thiel said, kicking off his first lecture. “What I will focus on is the most common and most dramatic interpretation of antichrist: an evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times.”
He's been giving lectures about the Antichrist. Attending them cost $200. Attendees are not allowed to record or even take notes. When you rant fanatical gibberish, you probably don't want mainstream Americans to know exactly what you're spewing. But some attendees have recorded him despite the restrictions. That's the basis for much of the linked article.
Thiel’s talks, which began on 15 September and ended on Monday, were long and sweeping, mingling biblical passages, recent history and philosophy and sometimes deviating into conspiracy theories. He peppered them with references to video games and TV shows along with musings on JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He likewise recalled conversations with Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu and spoke at length about how he thinks Bill Gates is “a very, very awful person”. Tickets for the series went for $200, selling out within hours. Attenders were told that the lectures were strictly off the record and that they were forbidden from taking photos, videos or audio recordings. At least one person who took notes and published them had his ticket revoked by a post on X.
For more on his bizarre rantings, read the Guardian article at the top of this post. In case Thiel tries to get the Guardian article suppressed, it has been archived here.
Thiel is one of the big financiers of MAGA. It's ironic that this is a more likely candidate for the title of Antichrist.
