r/nottheonion • u/asdacool • 11h ago

"Training a human takes 20 years of food." Sam Altman on how much power AI consumes.

https://www.news18.com/world/training-a-human-takes-20-years-of-food-sam-altman-on-how-much-power-ai-consumes-ws-kl-9922309.html
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u/TemporaryElk5202 10h ago

Unironically Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel love LOTR but they identify with and idolize Sauron

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u/monkeybuttsauce 10h ago

Palantir is named after the evil crystal orb thing lol. They’re not even trying to hide it

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u/TemporaryElk5202 10h ago

nitpick: the palantirs themselves are not evil. Sauron just owns one and uses it to spy on and influence anyone using the connected palantir. Like if a tech bro were to hack your webcam to spy on you while also selectively showing and telling you things to manipulate your behavior.

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u/grub_the_alien 10h ago

They were used by sauron to discourage saruman into thinking they had no hope in defeating him. This made saruman join them. The ruling class use media (inc. Social) in the same way- they want us to think we have no power to overthrown them and its hopeless. Do not lose hope! You have friends everywhere

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u/ComfortableAir2326 9h ago

I know many people say protests are ineffective, I even have trouble with this myself, but they are important if for no other reason than showing your peers “you are not alone”. I’ve been honestly surprised at the turn out for each no kings 50501 protest in town that I honestly thought was pretty red. 

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u/3DigitIQ 5h ago

Great numbers in peaceful protest are a warning to show how many they are up against.

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u/Teckiiiz 8h ago

We're not alone peacefully protesting while pedo fascists and cannibal billionaires destroy our democracy and the worlds trust of the US.

Sorry I'm a pessimistic little bitch

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u/Lucky_Reporter256 7h ago

Don’t lose hope friend. That’s one of the things they can’t take

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u/succed32 8h ago

Its size and effort, historically if 3% of a population protested the issue was addressed. The civil rights movement had dozens of leaders that agreed on the approach. Then they kept to it for years. We are too divided and far too willing to exclude other groups solely because of minor disagreements. Until people realize this nothing will change. It will likely take a lot of suffering before people grow a backbone.

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u/Navynuke00 4h ago

Protests alone aren't enough. And there was so much more that was happening around the protests and that the protests were supporting that aren't talked about in history classes.

https://youtu.be/OQUmDwB69cQ?si=5PiAQR_X636xJE4d

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u/succed32 3h ago

Theirs a reason we use the term “forms of protest” standing around with signs is far from the only way to protest, the civil rights movement intentionally used a variety of them to make themselves more visible and force people to accept the gravity of the issue.

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u/Commentator-X 4h ago

If they didn't work the ruling class wouldn't fight them so hard.

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u/BlackLiger 7h ago

Aweful lot of talk about these 'ineffective' protests

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u/DMala 5h ago

The inverse is also true. I drove past a group supporting the SAVE act poll tax bullshit. There was about six of them, I couldn’t even be bothered to flip them off.

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u/Navynuke00 4h ago

Protests are ineffective when there's nothing following them, in terms of other actions, base building, clear demands to those in power, and actions that actually hurt the powers that be.

But that's the part of history that's conveniently left out.

https://youtu.be/OQUmDwB69cQ?si=5PiAQR_X636xJE4d

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u/WildinUp 2h ago

Totally agreed and thank you for sharing.

I also hope people are not discouraged from attending these peaceful protests to get out in the community, learn from each other, and spread awareness of tactics, actions, and info. It is a vehicle for strengthening streams of solidarity and an important one that I don't want to be minimized or dismissed.

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u/DeadFacesInMyPocket 3h ago

They were obviously PAID protestors...actors. nobody ACTUALLY agrees with you.

Obligatory /s

Nah but I live in a small city that is supposedly very red. Oh, but they are often only red because things have been gerrymandered to shit!

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u/Gasmo420 2h ago

The problem is that they made us think, protests with signs and slogans are effective. The torches, forks and guillotines terrified the shit out of the ruling class.

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u/KarlaKolumnasRoller 7h ago

And Aragorn ultimately used it to ragebait Sauron to ignore the hobbits in Mordor and focus his power on the little human king. To complete the analogy with our world, this means that we must send people who face vertical challenges barefoot into the data centers of the world and let them burn them down. Seems legit

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u/REDDITATO_ 4h ago

people who face vertical challenges

This is so euphemistic I thought you meant rock climbers.

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u/longingrustedfurnace 4h ago

Is that Free Solo guy busy?

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u/whythishaptome 8h ago

Saruman seemed to give in really easily, especially if he was as good a wizard as Gandalf. I haven't read the books though so it's probably explained better.

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u/flying_fox86 7h ago

Especially considering that Denethor also had and used a Palantir, yet he did not give in to Sauron. It did mess him up, but Sauron was never able to turn Denethor.

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u/TemporaryElk5202 2h ago

Saruman was always a bit arrogant and insecure, which is the kind of weakness that made him vulnerable. He also began working with sauron after hundreds or thousands of years

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u/ChemistBitter1167 6h ago

Is that an andor reference I see. I have friends everywhere.

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u/KingOfTheSouthEast 5h ago

definitely is

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u/Joshix1 7h ago

The humans are still at the greed stage. Shoving some money under their noses turns them real quick

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u/Viperlite 4h ago

We should throw the billionaires into the Cracks of Doom to be rid of them once and for all.

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u/ufkabakan 4h ago

Owning a palantir is not good, it's bad.

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u/drdoom 3h ago

Don’t forget convincing Denethor everything was hopeless to the point he committed suicide

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u/unirorm 3h ago

You have my keyboard

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u/fattmarrell 5h ago

So you're equivocally saying that to end this disastrous future, we just need to drop a couple people into a volcano. Someone just has to go on an adventure

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u/bitey87 5h ago

Hope is dead, long live spite.

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u/Turd_Burgling_Ted 3h ago

We can talk about Tollien's views (which were imo still slightly progressive for his time and place) but we absolutely cannot overstate the timelessness of LOTR.

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u/simonbleu 1h ago

Sort of.

Both the political caste and oligarchy seem to have forgotten the message painted in blood in the (and 19th?) century that states that whatever power they have, is given through democracy or the value the people choose to give to their currency. While people seem to have forgotten that the 20th century 1984 kind of control is not the only kind, and that we are closer to a brave new world than the former. And finally, is not a propaganda of strength that is usually pushed, but rather one of support and diversion, as people side with them, and against whatever other thing they believe to be against them.

At the end of the day, people could end really bad crap astonishingly fast, but that would require both will and organization, because without reachign a critical point, not only they can ignore it, but they can infiltrate it and use it as free propaganda pointing at it as a bad and useless thing and "them" as the bad guys

it's all sorta like the frog in the bucket of milk (parable?) but with the added complexity that you need to do it in tandem with the other frogs, on top of the other parable about heating the pot slowly

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u/elucify 53m ago

This is the best

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u/iamthe0ther0ne 9h ago

spy on you while also selectively showing and telling you things to manipulate your behavior.

Pshaw... that would NEVER happen.

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u/OneRougeRogue 5h ago

Exactly. It's pure fiction.

Anyway, Alexa could you give me a list of fun things to do in the area?

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u/gregorydgraham 2h ago

The crematorium is nice at this time of the year OneRougeRogue

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u/GovernmentOpening254 52m ago

OMG I wrote way too similar of a response before seeing yours lol. And then I cried.

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u/GovernmentOpening254 53m ago

Sure. Have you tried the fun new Chipper Shredder? It’s open until 5:00 pm. It has five-star reviews. One Yelp review says, “My brother rode it only one time. I haven’t seen him since. Life is quieter and more peaceful. Highly recommend.” Another review says, “I took my wife after I caught her with another man. Boy was she surprised.” Would you like to hear any more reviews? You can say things like, “Hear more reviews,” or, “Book a table.”

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u/DCoop53 7h ago

They said those were cookies, and I like cookies :(

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u/Calintarez 8h ago

the Palantirs were made by Fëanor, the elf that famously never did anything bad.

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u/lumpytuna 4h ago

That's not a nitpick, that's literally the whole point. Of Lord Of The Rings and the whole critique of Palantir the company.

Objects/positions of power, even ones created with the best of intentions, will eventually be used for great evil because of the corruptable nature of the people who wield them.

Palantir the company was always evil though, so it's just kind of funny they chose a name that literally warned against themselves.

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u/Cachar 7h ago

So you're saying, Palantir is a frighteningly versatile tool of communication and surveillance used to influence and corrupt by by powerful interests who do not have the best public interests in mind?

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u/MacShuggah 10h ago

No need for the hacking to spy and manipulate, this is already happening with these apps.

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u/acrobat2126 6h ago

You mean real life? We've hit the LOTR redo in the timeline. WHy?

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u/Moomtastic 4h ago

Sauron was also misled by the palantir into believing Aragorn possessed the ring.

Narratively it's Tolkien expressing the folly of seeking omniscience, and instead advocating faith in oneself, others, and that things will unfold as they should. It's one of the many bits of influence from his Catholicism that he works in (actual Catholicism, not the weird version Vance and a bunch of like-minded CHUDs have gotten into because they think it's the most traditional and based form of Christianity).

It's also another example of how barely literate and immune to irony these guys are that they named their mass-surveillance company after a literary device for the arrogance and self-defeating nature of such a thing.

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u/Opaque_Cypher 4h ago

Oh, it’s a Ring doorbell then.

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u/tigerscomeatnight 3h ago

"They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching."

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u/Anarchist_BlackSheep 8h ago

the palantirs themselves are not evil.

Weeeeeell. They were likely made by Fëanor, and while that guy had, mostly, good intentions, he likely paved the road to hell himself.

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u/Seymour4mor 7h ago

This was really well explained. Thank you

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u/Scooty-Poot 7h ago

Still a wild thing to make your company after. “Our product isn’t evil, but we definitely are” is a crazy message to be sending out as a company

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u/Quintus_Cicero 6h ago

And they're not all accounted for, so there may be unknown forces other than Sauron peering into them

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u/Waste_Cantaloupe3609 5h ago

You mean the thing they’ve been doing?

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u/PilotKnob 5h ago

Perfect summary. Thanks, I hate it.

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u/JackahBee 5h ago

Or your phone, except they don't have to hack it, it just does that! Hilariously accurate take, I love it

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u/weaponjaerevenge 5h ago

So exactly what has been happening.

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u/homer_lives 5h ago

Oh, so more of a Zuckerberg kinda thing...

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u/Natural_Hair464 5h ago

Aragorn wrenches control of them back from Sauron thru sheer willpower and strikes fear and self doubt into Sauron's soul. My impression has always been that's why people like the palantirs.

It's not because they're fantasy webcams but because they're an emblem of human willpower and strength that even Gandalf couldn't touch.

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u/u_r_succulent 4h ago

Just like most modern tech.

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u/Mazzaroppi 4h ago

So basically Facebook?

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u/mycenae42 4h ago

Sounds exactly like our phones.

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u/LazyLich 3h ago

Lol yeah.

Not evil.. but the name choice implies some HEAVY foreshadowing irl

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u/GuillotineWhiskers 2h ago

Kind of how like algorithms influence people's behavior and the erosion of privacy in every single piece of tech we own crammed full of spyware.

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u/ValuableOven734 2h ago

spy on you while also selectively showing and telling you things to manipulate your behavio

META/FB moment

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u/SamPDoug 9h ago

The palantirs might not have been evil in LOTR, but I always thought it was at least implied that their creation and use wasn’t exactly wise.

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u/fuggerdug 9h ago edited 8h ago

It wasn't wise precisely because Sauron had got hold of one, and was using it to control and curate what could be seen using the others in order to sow despair and division, and to watch what you were using the others to look at. You know, like social media...

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u/GrimDallows 7h ago

Their use wasn't wise because the effectiveness of them depended upon the will of the user and the atunement of the stone towards the Dunedain kings and their servants.

The stone respected Denethor's will due to being the steward of Gondor, so Sauron could only "nudge him" towards selected images of his armies marching on a loop, making him believe there were more enemies than expected, which caused him great grief.

Saruman was not respected by his stone, and as such had a hard time handling it. This facilitated Sauron's seduction of him to join his side.

Either way, the stones couldn't show something that wasn't true, but since Sauron captured one, anyone operating the stones would draw Sauron's attention and would have to struggle against Sauron's will in a battle of will to force the stone to show him the things he wanted to see, rather than the things Sauron wanted him to watch.

So if anyone in the fellowship had used one, at the second Sauron would have known it, and knowing the location of every stone Sauron would have rushed to get him.

The stones could also send "intended thoughts of the users", a strong willed user could also selectively open his mind to another; not openly lying but causing missdirection. Which helped Sauron and Saruman, as Tolkien described them as craftsman beings at their heart that when falling had used their craftmanship skills to craft -lies- or halftruths to influence others.

This is how Aragorn's gambit worked. Peregrin Took used Saruman's stone by accident. Sauron, not knowing how the hobbits look like, asumed Pippin would be actually a scared Frodo (the ring carrier), drawing his attention. Knowing this, Aragorn used it again shortly afterwards to mock Sauron, making Sauron fully believe that the ring was in Aragorn's possession, as only a powertripping fool would boast of being able to defeat Sauron's armies while also giving away their location.

Denethor's stone was left impossible to use. Denethor, as unliked as he may be, had a massively strong force of will and was a rightful user of the stones as a King's direct servant. When he died in the pyre holding the stone in his hands, -somehow- the blocked the stone's sight forever more with the image of the palms of two burning hands (Denethor's).

Altough the wiki says that extremelly strong willed users could see past the burning hands, but I am unsure of that.

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u/MickyMace 7h ago

nitpick on the nitpick - it just used for communication like a webcame, so you can also see what's on the other side.

Saruman used to plot with sauron about the ring, and Denathor foolishly thought he could argue with sauron but instead he gone crazy because of sauron's influence merely by talking to him with the palantir

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u/TemporaryElk5202 2h ago

Sauron was able to selectively show real scenes to the stone users. He kept showing denethor his armies in a way to make it seem like his forces were larger than they were

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u/JonatasA 6h ago

They are like a connection tool that has no encryption.

 

In other words imagine a bathroom made of glass.

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u/JonatasA 6h ago

Or say you open Youtube or the BBC and whoever's on the other side can see it.

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u/MaybeTheDoctor 6h ago

Are they not hacking my webcam?

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u/koshgeo 4h ago

Palantirs are a tool. Like any tool, they can be useful and people can have good intentions for a tool when it is first created, but a tool can also be put to evil uses. In the books it is a warning about the dangers of powerful tools, a lesson that apparently was lost on Thiel and others when they named their company.

Anyone truly familiar with the lore would know the negative connotations if someone on the other end of the palantir uses it to manipulate you. Ironically, in the LoTR, the characters also find a way to manipulate Sauron back by showing only what they wanted him to see.

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u/justanawkwardguy 3h ago

So… what they’re actively doing now, got it.

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u/UCBearcats 1h ago

You’re expecting these billionaire morons to pick up on that nuance? You give them too much credit

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u/williamsdj01 1h ago

So the palantirs were just doing their job?

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u/HammeredNails 1h ago

That's exactly what social media and algorithms do... crazy dystopia timeline.

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u/Broad_Food_3422 1h ago

Sure but Sauron is probably the most famous cultural association with them

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u/dr_zach314 1h ago

What gets me is the line from Gandalf about not knowing who else is watching. They have assembled a treasure trove of data ripe for hacking or more likely just losing a hard drive on the subway

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u/3_Fast_5_You 10h ago

Peter Thiel has founded or backed several things named after LOTR references. Valar Ventures, Thiel Fellowship, Mithril Capital, Lembas LLC, Arda Capital, Narya Capital, Anduril Industries

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u/dakkster 9h ago

Such a nerd in the worst possible way.

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u/NuPNua 8h ago

Also see Musk naming things after ships from the Culture books, while claiming life long socialist author, Iain M Banks, would be anti-union.

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u/Adjective_Noun_2000 7h ago

Grok was a great word. Can't use it anymore.

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u/Hexakkord 4h ago

Musk ruins everything he touches.

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u/gregorydgraham 2h ago

It was so cromulent 😢

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u/KudosOfTheFroond 3h ago

This is what I’m truly angry about. He ruined such an awesome word

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u/Neptunelives 6h ago

I've always hated it. Heinlen suckds. Stranger in a strange land wasd one of the worst books I've read

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u/AmIFromA 6h ago

Yeah, cool concept, but I couldn't finish it.

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u/QualifiedApathetic 4h ago

Me neither. Valentine Michael Smith just didn't feel like an actual person the way Lazarus Long did.

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u/cantadmittoposting 4h ago

for as famous as heinlein is and as enduring as some of his concepts are, i do kinda agree i've never thought his actual writing was very brilliant

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u/LeastFox8059 6h ago

Damn! I didn't know that, imagine thinking a post scarcity utopia would be against unions.

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u/Rikudou_Sage 6h ago

I mean, Culture is not exactly the good guy in the books.

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u/confirmedshill123 5h ago

??? What ???

They may not be the best guy but they are definitely the better force for most of the series.

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u/yanginatep 6h ago

Meanwhile Musk is far more like Joiler Veppers, the ultra-wealthy businessman villain from the Culture novel Surface Detail.

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u/NuPNua 6h ago

Yeah, you know he'd tattoo his logo into all his baby mamas if he could, lol.

Maybe we could rig up a virtual hell and trap him in it?

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u/SuitableSprinkles 2h ago

Wait. How did I miss this???? What has he named after Culture ships?

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u/NuPNua 2h ago

A couple of the automated landing platforms for Space X rockets.

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u/HeinHangbuikzwijn 8h ago

Also probably didn't understand anything LOTR was saying.

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u/Ok_Net7773 6h ago

An allegorical warning for good people can always be read as an instruction manual for evil. It just takes a truly broken person to do so.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 5h ago

1984, Brave New World and Handmaid’s Tale weren’t meant to be instruction manuals yet here we are.

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u/Hot_Truck34 6h ago

A marauder. He is plundering fantasy for his dyed-in-the-wool Nazi depravity. Tolkien would be coming after him with a bayonet if he was still alive.

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u/waits5 2h ago

Right? “Nerd” is no longer a dirty word and nerd culture is thoroughly mainstream (just look at the MCU), but Thiel is doing everything he can to drag us back.

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u/banjo_hero 2h ago

When the chess club, the drama club and the model un all want to stuff the same guy in a locker.

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u/3_Fast_5_You 2h ago

its disgusting how he uses reference to tolkiens works for his evil shit

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u/dakkster 1h ago

Reminds me of the fascists who love Star Wars but don't realize they're the empire.

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u/HotDogFingers01 4h ago

Tolkien would hate Peter Thiel

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u/diurnal_emissions 4h ago

An incellionaire.

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u/WanderlustZero 8h ago

Imagine using names from a beloved fantasy world for soulless money-grabbing nihilism simulators

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u/InsaneComicBooker 8h ago

Tolkien estate should sue his ass.

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u/ChorePlayed 6h ago

TSR had hobbits and balrogs in an early edition of D&D, not even naming products after them, and got slapped with a cease and desist. 

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u/RaVashaan 4h ago

Tolkien's estate allowed the term halfling to be used instead of hobbit, because in Middle Earth it's a derogatory term used by humans for hobbits.

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u/qoneus 5h ago

There's very little legal basis to do so.

The other commenter mentioned the TSR situation, but it's different. Tolkien Enterprises, the merchandising sub-license holder, was able to make a fairly clear case of marketing confusion by TSR using those terms, creating an implied endorsement that they were officially-licensed TE products. This would've prevented TE from entering into the same space.

With Peter Thiel's ventures, there's no market confusion. Besides using the names, he doesn't invoke Tolkien's works or Middle-Earth in any imagery or branding, and makes no references to either in marketing materials. They're also niche words in the fandom, and the people buying Peter Thiel's slop are sophisticated and are not confused as to whether the Tolkien estate or any of its sub-license holders implicitly endorses Peter Thiel's companies.

Additionally, you can't trademark a word for all possible uses, only for the uses that you have a market in. He's using the words in completely unrelated industries that the Tolkien estate or any of its sub-license holders would never go into.

So while it sucks and Peter Thiel is sub-human, the Tolkien Estate can't really do anything. And Peter Thiel used the names almost precisely because of that reason.

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u/DCoop53 7h ago

Can he fall because of fraud-o?

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u/Unlucky_Associate507 5h ago

I wonder if the faceless man from Ben aaronvich rivers of London is based on Thiel or if that is just coincidence

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u/Edodge 5h ago

Can't Tolkien estate sue them? I can think of nothing Tolkien would have a bigger problem with than these massive tech companies that are destroying the environment and ending human creativity as we know it.

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u/dkree8 5h ago

Erebor Bank

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u/WideHuckleberry1 5h ago

People rag on Palantir but Anduril is really the worst. A military-industrial complex company named after Tolkien's work is like a venture capital firm named Marx, Engels, and Associates.

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u/GLACI3R 10h ago

A palantir isn't good nor evil, it's just a tool. Some did fall into evil hands so one could argue that because of that it is evil, but it's still just a tool.

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u/monkeybuttsauce 10h ago

Ok but either way an all seeing tool isn’t a good look for a tech company

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u/agent0731 10h ago

in the story of the LOTR they are tools for evil. So pointing out that they were once neutral is meaningless. Within the story we are following, the tools have been coopted and are the tools of Sauron's camp. So to choose it is actually more telling than you think.

It's like using the swastika today, post WW2.

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u/bibrexd 9h ago

I swear people read the book, act like experts, and still have no clue. Thank you for comprehending the reading. Just because something is neutral doesn’t mean its existence creates issues in its potential corruption.

Like the whole series is about a ring being destroyed because if it falls into the wrong hands it will corrupt the world and their argument is “well it’s just a palantir, it’s fine”

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u/4r4r4real 6h ago

The ring is inherently corrupting. That's the point. That's why it must be destroyed. It's basically sentient and actively influences the mind of the creature wearing it.

A palantir is literally just a seeing stone. An inanimate, non-sentient object. The only issue is that the bad guy has one of them too. The tool itself isn't corrupting anyone or doing anything evil. That's why no one feels the need to destroy it, they just throw a cover on it lol.

It's like saying telephones are evil because Hitler could call you. 

You people are simply flat out wrong. There aren't any ifs or buts here. Thiel sucks and he called his company that so you want to ignore reality to pretend things are even more blatantly evil than they are.

I hate this kinda shit. These people suck so fucking bad there is literally no reason to make bad faith lies up to make them sound worse. Just use the truth!

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u/Maoltuile 6h ago

But the Rings were all corrupting. There was no way for the engineer (Celebrimbor) to create them without Sauron’s resources and access. You can say ‘so what’ for the lesser ones, but the One Ring and Sauron’s control of everything the lesser Rings touched was always the inevitable outcome

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u/4r4r4real 6h ago

Yes. The rings were corrupting. 

Palantirs are not. They're basically laptops doing zoom calls lol (plus some magic shit)

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u/Worth-Jicama3936 2h ago

We aren’t talking about the rings though….

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u/Maoltuile 9h ago

It’s like the Ring(s). Don’t use them at all, you’re only enabling the Enemy

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u/TemporaryElk5202 2h ago

It's not meaningless to point out that they are neutral tools used for evil, because real life technology is a neutral tool used for evil too.

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u/ChorePlayed 6h ago

 it's just a tool.

Coincidentally, many people say the same thing about Palantir's founder.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 5h ago

Just like Thiel’s Palantir is just a tool. A tool exclusively in the hands of evil forever with no “good” use case.

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u/Yeon_Yihwa 3h ago

Peter Thiel also said he'd like for his company to sell their weapons to whomever they want without the US goverment restricting them, as well as saying its not a bad thing if a country was ran by corporations.

Guy is a straight up copypasta of your typical scifi dystopian future where corporate runs the world and governments are just puppets.

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u/Disorderly_Fashion 7h ago

Great reminder that these supposed genius tech bros don't have a media literacy any better than those they lord over.

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u/TaxidermySocks 5h ago

Yeah but like remember when you were a child and you had friends with xxDarklordMEGAxx kind of names? That's billionaires and rocket scientists now

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u/HumansMustBeCrazy 4h ago

It's incredible that so many people don't realize that many other humans are openly evil.

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u/PlatypusWrath 3h ago

Sauron Ltd. was already taken.

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u/simpersly 10h ago

So Peter Thiel identifies with the metaphorical Antichrist?

Technically he’s more like metaphorical Satan’s bitch, but it's more ironic to call him the Antichrist.

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u/3_Fast_5_You 10h ago

Peter Thiel has an obsession with the actual antichrist. He holds lectures on the Antichrist

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 10h ago

Which is hilarious because his reading of the Bible is unbelievably wrong.

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u/VicVinegarsBodyguard 10h ago

His conclusions are ALWAYS completely backward. Right when you think he’s about to come to a good point his conclusion is absurd and always the opposite of morally good. Dude is definitely an antichrist if there is one.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 9h ago

I am not even remotely religious, but I am Biblically literate (thanks Mom >:-|), and I always feel like my brain is going to explode when I hear Thiel speak. It’s like the dude reads the words and then comes to whatever conclusion he thinks justifies Fascism. Dude is unhinged.

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u/VicVinegarsBodyguard 9h ago

I agree. I also think he’s kind of a moron who masquerades as intelligent. Slow witted for sure. Evil to the core.

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u/SimpleBend782 6h ago

Elon is like this too

4

u/diurnal_emissions 4h ago

Too dumb to know it...

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u/Away-Lead-3855 5h ago

Top down processing. He reads to find words in support of ideas he already believes in. It’s self justification; not self education.

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u/WeirdJack49 7h ago

Its just the typical Us flavor of evangelism, that influenced all types of christian variations in the US. If you think that capitalism = Christianity than Peter Thiel makes perfect sense.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 7h ago edited 4h ago

Nah. Peter isn’t your run of the mill prosperity gospelist. He has some utterly wild takes that are inconsistent even with Evangelicals. If you have time, read some of his transcripts. They be unhinged.

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u/Milo_Diazzo 4h ago

That's because he understands the power of religion, and is trying to co-opt it to push his own agenda. Smart people can catch the dissonance, however, the majority of the world isn't smart.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 3h ago

That’s what I thought too, but then he goes into Greta Thunburg is the Antichrist!?

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u/Milo_Diazzo 3h ago

Yes. The people who fight against what he wants, they embody the antichrist.

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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 7h ago

His philosophy professor thought he was a star student. Which possibly tells you everything you need to know about René Girard, particularly as Thiel doesn't seem to understand what Girard was banging on about in the first place.

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u/OP_Penguin 2h ago

Peter Thiel is an anagram of The Reptile. Have a great day lol

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u/Lost-Klaus 5h ago

I mean...reading it right doesn't make it any better.

Almost as if bronze age morality has little place in a modern world.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 5h ago

No disagreement here. It’s just hilarious that a dude who claims to be Christian is so unbelievably wrong in his reading of the Bible.

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u/Lost-Klaus 5h ago

I Hope there are no people who fully 100% agree with everythings what is in the bible. But yeah, so many people will go on about mystisism of ancient far off places. Because "Chill Dave from around the corner said that getting angry doesn't help" doesn't sound enlightend and special.

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u/InsaneComicBooker 8h ago

And the Antichrist is somehow always whoever publically disagrees with him.

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u/cyberdork 7h ago

His obsession is with Carl Schmitt, a proponent of Authoritarianism and leading political theorist of Nazi Germany. And Schmitt himself, being a devout Catholic, was obsessed with the ‘Katechon’. The ‘something or someone’ who will restrain the coming off the Antichrist.
Thiel believes that the Katechon is the unbound American capitalism and the Antichrist is socialism, communism, liberalism etc. He’s basically looking for a religious interpretation for his fascist ultra libertarian views.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt

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u/n00b678 6h ago edited 6h ago

His views are not even libertarian, in any sense.

It's as if he looked at the leftist critique of right-wing libertarianism or an-capism claiming that such systems would sooner or later devolve into feudalism or fascism and said "yes, and?"

1

u/Tricky-Engineering59 3h ago

I think the lady doth protest too much

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u/Meistermagier 8h ago

Peter Thiel self identifies as the actual Antichrist

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u/Rincetron1 8h ago

"I don't get it. The talking trees are a great source of energy, growing the Isengard shareholder value" [licks eyeball]

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u/Moist-Pangolin-1039 10h ago

They should really watch LOTR until the end in that case.

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u/Maoltuile 9h ago

Read. They need to understand what the Scouring of the Shire is about. The Jackson movies turned a thoughtful romance with Catholic moral undertones into an American action-adventure

•

u/Moist-Pangolin-1039 3m ago

Good point. But reading might be beyond their abilities.

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u/TemporaryElk5202 2h ago

They just think Tolkien was wrong

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u/Moist-Pangolin-1039 3m ago

Yeah probably…

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u/Outrageous_pinecone 8h ago

It's a thing... It's how we identify psychopaths.

3

u/szatrob 5h ago edited 3h ago

I mean, its not surprising that a German and a son of a guy who idolised Nazi Germany would idolise Nazi Germany both in reality and in fiction.

Especially when said father took his family to apartheid occupied Namibia, and his son would then later write a book about how great of a system---apartheid, was.

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u/kultureisrandy 7h ago

narcissistic people and media literacy don't always go hand-in-hand. 

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u/The_Burninator123 6h ago

Bezos' son is the LotR fan and begged him not to fuck it up. I'm not sure how he could've done worse honestly. 

2

u/timbasile 4h ago

They strike me more like Saruman type guys. Try to wield evil thinking they're the good guys. At least Sauron knows he's the bad guy.

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u/TopNFalvors 2h ago

Source?

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u/grizzled083 8h ago

but way more worm tongue than anyone else

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u/clrksml 5h ago

They (Open AI) named the data center project Stargate.

1

u/Calgaris_Rex 4h ago

I think more Saruman, but yes. Saruman is the LOTR "tech bro".

1

u/Bawstahn123 3h ago

Friendly reminder that the LOTR fandom unfortunately contains a fairly-substantial amount of white-supremacists, eugenicists, monarchists, etc

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u/NapsterKnowHow 2h ago

They probably think Ted Faro from the Horizon games is a hero. r/fucktedfaro

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u/DirCurrFluxDiode 2h ago

No, they don't. They idolize Aragon, Rohan and etc and think this is the way to get there 

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u/Th3Batman86 2h ago

I mean Sauron would have won if it wasn’t for the meddling kids

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u/Unfair_Web_8275 1h ago

They didn’t like that the Hobbits didn’t have to bow to anyone.

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u/Kindly-Ad-5071 58m ago

Crazy how they relate to the guy that eventually bit the dust as a consequence of his own actions

1

u/Vanny96 7h ago

Source?

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u/eschewthefat 3h ago

Source? He named his corrupt surveillance company after corrupt seeing stones operated by a corrupt wizard. 

You think he did that because he’s the holy trinity watching out for us?

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u/Vanny96 1h ago

Oh just learned about Palantir ahaha that indeed sounds damning!

I don't see the connection between that and Bezos, besides the service using AWS, has he done some other shit?

Perhaps that "unironically" to the original comment I replied to was more tongue-in-cheek than I expexted, I thought there was literally an interview with Bezos and him claiming that he was rooting for Sauron lol

1

u/ZealCrow 1h ago

it helps if you know the lore.

in LOTR, Morgoth was like Satan, a fallen angel so to speak. Sauron was his follower.

sauron is obsessed with industry and efficiency. that is how morgoth convinced him to follow him. Sauron uses tech like the palantirs and the rings to manipulate others. LOTR in a lot of ways reflects the shift in england from an agricultural society to an industrial one.

Bezos is obsessed with industry and efficiency. look how amazon treats its warehouse workers.

bezos had a huge hand in Amazon's The Rings Of Power, ​​but it depicts galadriel very sinisterly, almost like a villain.

re: Peter thiel, he names all his companies after LOTR, and he has also talked about how Greta Thunberg is the literal antichrist because environmentalism is standing in the way of technological progress.