This may well be a good analysis of 'Thielism' but the result is (and can only be) overcomplicated vebiage. There is no need for any 'visions' of 'modern meaning' - neither Thiel's nor anyone else's. Nor will there ever be any such need. Truths about humankind (past, present and future) are enduring and much simpler:
- human DESIRE always exceeds supply; hence it comes up against SCARCITY (whether of material or emotional goods)
- humans compete against each other for these scarce goods and some do better than others (for all sorts of reasons: intelligence, 'character'. luck etc)
- most humans are a mixture of more noble and baser desires (albeit in varying proportions)
- humans gravitate towards some kind of religion (whether that be God or 'Social Justice' or 'The Environment') and leaders and followers emerge.
Burton’s decoding of Thiel’s verbiage is masterful. You’re confusing the messenger with the tangled message. I applaud her for making important sense of his confused and dangerously self-serving “philosophy” and for enunciating a clear warning of its potential consequences. The world (and humanity) does change, and Burton is a sure guide.
My point was that perhaps the best thing would be for confused, self-serving 'philosophy' to remain unexamined. With that -albeit large - constraint, I paid the piece a compliment.
agreed. i feel hypocritical in commenting because Id rather not engage, but fuck this guy, and fuck anything that mentions these lying blowhards that obly benefits themselves at the end of the day. Im lucky to have a roof over my head, and a woman who loves me, some friends and a few toys and hobbies that bring me some satisfaction and the freedom to pursue them. his only philosophy is believe in your ego, build it, and buy stuff, becuase otherwise...youre dumb and wont get laid...and be a cog and slave to other people that will do it to you...which seems to be his implication anyway.
Before you showed up, this was a polite but vigorous thread of disagreement between people who argues well and courteously for their perspectives, and acknowledged when the other made a good point. Then you came along.
However, it’s a good thing that you fling insults at people you have never interacted with. It means that no one will take your nutcase screeds seriously -- or even finish reading them. Yay!
The only differences between kosher and halal are . . . #1...in kosher slaughter, the rabbi must fellatiate all the male animals, this has a calming effect... for the rabbi... #2...in halal slaughter, the imam must lick the anus of the animal, this makes the imam slightly more agitated.
"A man can have sex with animals such as sheeps, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village; however, selling the meat to the next door village should be fine." — Ayatollah Khomeini, Tahrirolvasyleh, vol. 4, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990
If the Israelis are “God’s chosen people,” as they say, then God will protect them and doesn’t need the United States to . . . their Golden Calf has Grown up to be a hollow Bronze Bull . . .
It was the Jews who gave the communists their first atomic bomb . . . so, any rational solution to Islam would include a final solution to the Jewish question as well . . . If the Iranians nuke Israel, the Palestinian filth also dies in the fallout . . . peace at last . . . karma is a bitch.
Why are so many libertarians enamoured by Trump? The above analysis of Thiel gives us a tentative answer. Attracted to Nietzsche's critique of morality, and lost in the cult of masculine power and vitality brings one all too close to the mainstreams of Fascism: the cult of masculinity and overt violence, contempt for commoners and democratic institutions, the exaltation of elites, and the distaste and aversion to signs of physical weakness and poverty. Look no further than Ayn Rand's writings, eg: "Atlas Shrugged" to see these in explicit detail, including the obvious influence of Nietzsche.
The writings of Ayn Rand is where the majority of libertarians got their start. And her main influence is Neitzsche. You can see all the elements of Fascism in her two main works: "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead". This is not a coincidence.
Or, I can put it another way: a "minimal state" is a vacuum which attracts authoritarian tendencies like patriarchy and the cult of masculinity.
I utterly disagree. I doubt further discussion is possible. You’re free to interpret as you wish, and draw any conclusions you like, but assertions this narrow and prescriptive just aren’t persuasive.
Before you go, do you disagree that Ayn Rand has strong fascist tendencies in her writing? Or do you disagree that most Libertarians are strongly influenced by Ayn Rand?
All I can say is that if libertarians can even consider Trump as a viable candidate they have a serious problem with judgement. And the same goes for Conservative Christians. If Trump is your guy, it's because you already tend towards Fascism and Authoritarianism to begin with. Trump admires Putin and Kim. It goes without saying that he also admires Hitler. Just ask him.
Tucker Carlson? Joe Rogan? Posters of Trump as a muscled warrior? Howard Roark? John Galt? Proud Boys? Josh Hawley? Or are those examples simply obsessing with masculinity but not really a "cult" of masculinity?
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
God told me that I can't change a man who is interested in his own life and personal gains and abandoning our nation and country who are not honest and certainly do not belong in Washington DC
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
Trump supporter (not sycophant) here. He is not a politician. He tried to do everything that he said he would do but underestimated how complicated that would be & how powerful the liberal resistance would be. I always do what I say I am going to do. I hate people who say one thing & when push comes do whatever is blowing in the wind. Be well.
Thankfully he was not able to do “what he said he would do.” Let us hope in the next round he does not get a chance to do what he is saying what he will do. No one, even his present supporters, will becsafe.
I have heard more principled libertarians say that some of Trump’s notions wouldn’t be all bad if actually implemented. The “just tear it all down” part appeals. But that’s not what he actually does, so I haven’t heard a principled libertarian endorse Trump broadly. I don’t think Thiel is anything like a principled libertarian. I don’t know what he is, and there are libertarian strains in what he says, but I don’t see a principled libertarian there. (Also, I’m not one, but I was one and know some.)
Is it possible that Trump is a bombastic businessman disgusted by the current ruling class? He’s got a lot of company in that. Since they show not an ounce of concern for ordinary folks living in this country, when someone comes along who does, well it’s kind of a big deal. Spin all your fancy theories but that’s what it comes down to: an obviously corrupt oligarchy making bank on permanent war and cracking down with the national security state while ordinary people are crushed. If you really want to know why people support Trump, ask someone who does. Someone who lives in a flyover state just trying to get by, watching millions of dollars going out the door to cronies abroad. Ask yourself why you are so afraid of Trump and by extension ordinary Americans. Is it possible neither is as dumb as you think?
It’s clear that Trump’s people understand the importance of making this message, but it’s also clear that that is only that: a message to potential voters as an avenue to achieving power. Trump and Trumpism stands for ordinary Americans about as much as any of the other of his plutocratic cohort… all with a dash of fascism, to boot.
I’m assuming that you must be referring to the original comment, not mine. I was trying to rebut the notion that libertarians are enamored of Trump. I don’t think that’s his core constituency, though there are some libertarian strains among his supporters.
I do know quite a few Trump supporters, including some who no longer are and some who weren’t but are now. I live in flyover country. And I’m not afraid of Trump. And I don’t think Trump supporters are dumb. I do t think I said anything supporting those notions? So I think you must be talking to Charles Justice?
Yes. But I think you underestimate Trump’s appeal to libertarians. Although you’re undoubtedly correct that it’s not really a good fit. While I don’t see Trump as the authoritarian the left projects onto him, he’s obviously not for a minimal state apparatus. His appeal is simply that, if you are genuinely opposed to authoritarianism, you can see that the power of the state is currently being used to take him down. If you’re against state power you have to be appalled. Voting for Trump is a giant FU to this kind of state power.
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
I got interested in Girard a few years ago and read The Scapegoat and most of Thing Hidden and found his ideas profound. I naturally heard about Thiel when researching about Girard and how Thiel believed Thing Hidden to be the most influential book he’d read. But upon looking more into Thiel I quickly realized that he and I had a vastly different view of Girard’s mimetic desire. For one, I read Girard and saw how mimetic desire was a trap we all lived in - and the way out of the trap was being aware of the trap’s existence so that we could recognize and combat it. It seems that Thiel read it and realized he could play puppet master and could improve the trap we were already stuck in on unsuspecting millions - with investments in Social Media being a huge part of that. I think Thiel is a shoddy representative of Girardian theory (and theology) and is straight up evil for abusing the ideas of mimetic desire for personal gain and power.
I don’t care that much about Thielism either way, except as a billionaire he is in a position to push his nihilistic babble onto society in inevitably destructive ways. It’s the outsized power he holds to effect change that’s scary, more than his kooky and intellectually shallow views.
(There are a lot of nutballs out there. Only a few of them are multi-millionaires and billionaires.)
It all comes down to their inability to accept that they are not fundamentally special. They must invent inane, dead-end “philosophy” and wallow in it with the other resource hoarders and their sycophants.
Am always struck by how much these esoteric right-wing types love lambasting the supposedly slavish, impressionable masses, while failing to acknowledge that they themselves might be just as caught up in the dynamics they purport to identify. Even Peter Thiel is human, it turns out - and maybe his desires and projects are just as base, narcissistic and self-indulgent as those possessed by the rest of us.
So, the lost man-child tech bros are going to save us from the nihilism of technology. What could possibly go wrong?
"The apocalypse with which he tempts those disaffected by “liberal modernity” is no closer to real transcendence than pornography is to real sex. And if we were to worry about a totalitarian unifying force meme-ing us all into submission there are worse places to see the shadow of an Antichrist than on the half-eaten apple on the back of our iPhones."
The only reason anyone pays attention to Thiel’s drivel is that he is very, very rich.
On one hand we have a handful of bros rich enough to buy whole countries who seem to have contempt for most of humanity, and on the other hand we have about half of this humanity adoring populist thugs (a dozen names from various countries spring to mind.) It is a powerful and destructive alliance. Woe to the rest of us.
This is mind reading. It’s not an honest reckoning with another person’s ideas, but the author’s projection of them. I learned nothing about Peter Theil, but I did learn a lot about how to dress the anxieties of “progressives” in fancy prose. Let me translate into reactionary hate speech for you. “How dare Theil question our pieties, our received wisdom? How dare he look for a different paradigm? We already know what to think, thank you very much! We don’t need no stinking tech bro to weigh in! We’ve got all the other tech bros, you, you, you reactionary! There!”
On another note.....I'd say Peter was pretty pissed off when he gave that speech. Was he having a little entitled tantie at the bureaucrats of this world? The NZ Environmental Court had just rejected yet another application he had submitted to build a 1165sqm luxury lodge in an area of "Outstanding Natural Beauty" here in Wanaka. Ever been here? It's pretty special. Behind his constant purporting to have "genuine ideals" there has been a clear sense he has been trying to use his "power to shape and subdue a fundamentally stupid and innately violent populace." He is determined to fight the decision. In the mean time he'll have to dig his bolthole from the apocalypse in his own back yard. Thanks for the great article Tara.
Another recent sub stack illustrates the obscene distribution of wealth in the U.S. right now. These “lost man-child tech bros” have amassed obscene wealth, but the ability to amass wealth does not recommend one for political leadership any more than the accident of birth into the regal aristocracy. We have empowered the wrong echelon of society; our true leaders mired in wage-slavery. Neo-liberalism seems to have produced an all too unsurprising form of decadent neo-feudalism. As a colleague of mine wrote back in the 1980’s, “modernity is in a headlong rush back to the metaphysics of the middle-ages “. In short, Thielism seems to be a regurgitation of Rand, 30’s fascism, and good-old fashioned 21st Century InCel pouting powered by wealth. What these folks dislike is the way that liberal democratic institutions, various contemporary social movements, and a Christ-centered spirituality give voice to the silenced and empower communities. Any true notion of justice undercuts their self-referential bombast. They may rail against the movements that liberal democracies produce, but isn’t that the whole purpose of liberal democracies, to produce movements doomed to failure as a mechanism of increased awareness, justice, and tolerance? Messy business, but as we see well described herein, the alternative is a world led to ruin by perverted despots.
Thanks for your provocative review for those of us wedged in between the now past 'Age Of Reason' and, summarily, 'New Age' thinking and the expectations of a form of decadence and end times that result in part from a divergence from pursuing true spiritual understandings, those apart from the "rules-based' Christianity formed by the Church of Rome, that promise a much more truthful understanding of humanity's potential as a fully evolved being. If I might paraphrase the main teaching of the man we have come to call Christ did actually explain how to go about it: 'Look within..." Thanks for including a hint of skeptical forbearance.
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
Thanks, Clarence. My sentiments exactly. No more optimistic longing for peaceful resolutions with the Satanic KM. With the NY National Guard occupying every available room in Manhattan, they know It's going to get real ugly. Even the formerly legalistic Juan O. Savin has come out swinging. You may wish to read any of of number of essays on my website: www.lightningonthemoon.com. I most recently added one on the long suspected DARPA work on recovered anti-gravity propulsion engines: '1980s Silicon Valley Air Force Retro-Engineering of a UFO Engine'. Thanks again for the comment. May I quote you?
Christ did not invent the idea to “look within”. Gnothi Seauton was written long before the itinerant magician and others like him spouting out regurgitations of amazing ancient philosophy.
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
No one wants to be lectured to about how much smarter you are than everyone else when the left has been in complete cultural control of this country going on 20 years, and we're looking at the economic, political & legal collapse of our republic. Because the left ideology is based on cultural destruction, not creation. If all you do is "break barriers," you end up in a broken society.
It could be interesting for you to cross-reference the cultural control you mentioned with not only the left but also baby-boomer generational power, the rise of neo-liberalism/conservatism, and the removal of anti-trust laws. The left has some cultural control but it's largely a boogeyman. The left is really bad at acquiring political power (we don't have a noteworthy leftist political party, for example) and they're usually restricted to weak cultural influence.
Thank you for noting this. There are many of us who grow tired and discouraged by the “left ideology” talking point endlessly droned in the media by right-wing pundits as the national and global polities drift ever further to the right.
This may well be a good analysis of 'Thielism' but the result is (and can only be) overcomplicated vebiage. There is no need for any 'visions' of 'modern meaning' - neither Thiel's nor anyone else's. Nor will there ever be any such need. Truths about humankind (past, present and future) are enduring and much simpler:
- human DESIRE always exceeds supply; hence it comes up against SCARCITY (whether of material or emotional goods)
- humans compete against each other for these scarce goods and some do better than others (for all sorts of reasons: intelligence, 'character'. luck etc)
- most humans are a mixture of more noble and baser desires (albeit in varying proportions)
- humans gravitate towards some kind of religion (whether that be God or 'Social Justice' or 'The Environment') and leaders and followers emerge.
Burton’s decoding of Thiel’s verbiage is masterful. You’re confusing the messenger with the tangled message. I applaud her for making important sense of his confused and dangerously self-serving “philosophy” and for enunciating a clear warning of its potential consequences. The world (and humanity) does change, and Burton is a sure guide.
My point was that perhaps the best thing would be for confused, self-serving 'philosophy' to remain unexamined. With that -albeit large - constraint, I paid the piece a compliment.
agreed. i feel hypocritical in commenting because Id rather not engage, but fuck this guy, and fuck anything that mentions these lying blowhards that obly benefits themselves at the end of the day. Im lucky to have a roof over my head, and a woman who loves me, some friends and a few toys and hobbies that bring me some satisfaction and the freedom to pursue them. his only philosophy is believe in your ego, build it, and buy stuff, becuase otherwise...youre dumb and wont get laid...and be a cog and slave to other people that will do it to you...which seems to be his implication anyway.
Before you showed up, this was a polite but vigorous thread of disagreement between people who argues well and courteously for their perspectives, and acknowledged when the other made a good point. Then you came along.
However, it’s a good thing that you fling insults at people you have never interacted with. It means that no one will take your nutcase screeds seriously -- or even finish reading them. Yay!
good dialogue between you both :)
Gays for Palestine? Allah Fagbar!
The only differences between kosher and halal are . . . #1...in kosher slaughter, the rabbi must fellatiate all the male animals, this has a calming effect... for the rabbi... #2...in halal slaughter, the imam must lick the anus of the animal, this makes the imam slightly more agitated.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
"A man can have sex with animals such as sheeps, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village; however, selling the meat to the next door village should be fine." — Ayatollah Khomeini, Tahrirolvasyleh, vol. 4, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990
__________________________________________________________________________________________
If the Israelis are “God’s chosen people,” as they say, then God will protect them and doesn’t need the United States to . . . their Golden Calf has Grown up to be a hollow Bronze Bull . . .
It was the Jews who gave the communists their first atomic bomb . . . so, any rational solution to Islam would include a final solution to the Jewish question as well . . . If the Iranians nuke Israel, the Palestinian filth also dies in the fallout . . . peace at last . . . karma is a bitch.
Why are so many libertarians enamoured by Trump? The above analysis of Thiel gives us a tentative answer. Attracted to Nietzsche's critique of morality, and lost in the cult of masculine power and vitality brings one all too close to the mainstreams of Fascism: the cult of masculinity and overt violence, contempt for commoners and democratic institutions, the exaltation of elites, and the distaste and aversion to signs of physical weakness and poverty. Look no further than Ayn Rand's writings, eg: "Atlas Shrugged" to see these in explicit detail, including the obvious influence of Nietzsche.
Pure mind reading. I suggest you talk to some real people with whom you disagree.
The writings of Ayn Rand is where the majority of libertarians got their start. And her main influence is Neitzsche. You can see all the elements of Fascism in her two main works: "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead". This is not a coincidence.
Or, I can put it another way: a "minimal state" is a vacuum which attracts authoritarian tendencies like patriarchy and the cult of masculinity.
I utterly disagree. I doubt further discussion is possible. You’re free to interpret as you wish, and draw any conclusions you like, but assertions this narrow and prescriptive just aren’t persuasive.
Before you go, do you disagree that Ayn Rand has strong fascist tendencies in her writing? Or do you disagree that most Libertarians are strongly influenced by Ayn Rand?
Disagree about fascist tendencies. But not interested in a discussion over what constitutes fascism.
All I can say is that if libertarians can even consider Trump as a viable candidate they have a serious problem with judgement. And the same goes for Conservative Christians. If Trump is your guy, it's because you already tend towards Fascism and Authoritarianism to begin with. Trump admires Putin and Kim. It goes without saying that he also admires Hitler. Just ask him.
Cult of masculinity? I think you've made that up. No such thing exist outside your perspective. Think about that.
Tucker Carlson? Joe Rogan? Posters of Trump as a muscled warrior? Howard Roark? John Galt? Proud Boys? Josh Hawley? Or are those examples simply obsessing with masculinity but not really a "cult" of masculinity?
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
Wrong place for such drivel, Bub.
God told me that I can't change a man who is interested in his own life and personal gains and abandoning our nation and country who are not honest and certainly do not belong in Washington DC
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
If “pure mind-reading,” then complete and accurate mind-reading.
Trump supporter (not sycophant) here. He is not a politician. He tried to do everything that he said he would do but underestimated how complicated that would be & how powerful the liberal resistance would be. I always do what I say I am going to do. I hate people who say one thing & when push comes do whatever is blowing in the wind. Be well.
Thankfully he was not able to do “what he said he would do.” Let us hope in the next round he does not get a chance to do what he is saying what he will do. No one, even his present supporters, will becsafe.
I know you think you know what you are talking about, but I don’t know what you are talking about.
What ARE you talking about?
I have heard more principled libertarians say that some of Trump’s notions wouldn’t be all bad if actually implemented. The “just tear it all down” part appeals. But that’s not what he actually does, so I haven’t heard a principled libertarian endorse Trump broadly. I don’t think Thiel is anything like a principled libertarian. I don’t know what he is, and there are libertarian strains in what he says, but I don’t see a principled libertarian there. (Also, I’m not one, but I was one and know some.)
Is it possible that Trump is a bombastic businessman disgusted by the current ruling class? He’s got a lot of company in that. Since they show not an ounce of concern for ordinary folks living in this country, when someone comes along who does, well it’s kind of a big deal. Spin all your fancy theories but that’s what it comes down to: an obviously corrupt oligarchy making bank on permanent war and cracking down with the national security state while ordinary people are crushed. If you really want to know why people support Trump, ask someone who does. Someone who lives in a flyover state just trying to get by, watching millions of dollars going out the door to cronies abroad. Ask yourself why you are so afraid of Trump and by extension ordinary Americans. Is it possible neither is as dumb as you think?
It’s clear that Trump’s people understand the importance of making this message, but it’s also clear that that is only that: a message to potential voters as an avenue to achieving power. Trump and Trumpism stands for ordinary Americans about as much as any of the other of his plutocratic cohort… all with a dash of fascism, to boot.
I’m assuming that you must be referring to the original comment, not mine. I was trying to rebut the notion that libertarians are enamored of Trump. I don’t think that’s his core constituency, though there are some libertarian strains among his supporters.
I do know quite a few Trump supporters, including some who no longer are and some who weren’t but are now. I live in flyover country. And I’m not afraid of Trump. And I don’t think Trump supporters are dumb. I do t think I said anything supporting those notions? So I think you must be talking to Charles Justice?
Yes. But I think you underestimate Trump’s appeal to libertarians. Although you’re undoubtedly correct that it’s not really a good fit. While I don’t see Trump as the authoritarian the left projects onto him, he’s obviously not for a minimal state apparatus. His appeal is simply that, if you are genuinely opposed to authoritarianism, you can see that the power of the state is currently being used to take him down. If you’re against state power you have to be appalled. Voting for Trump is a giant FU to this kind of state power.
Yeah, agreed. That’s what I was trying to say with “The “just tear it all down” part appeals.”
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
I got interested in Girard a few years ago and read The Scapegoat and most of Thing Hidden and found his ideas profound. I naturally heard about Thiel when researching about Girard and how Thiel believed Thing Hidden to be the most influential book he’d read. But upon looking more into Thiel I quickly realized that he and I had a vastly different view of Girard’s mimetic desire. For one, I read Girard and saw how mimetic desire was a trap we all lived in - and the way out of the trap was being aware of the trap’s existence so that we could recognize and combat it. It seems that Thiel read it and realized he could play puppet master and could improve the trap we were already stuck in on unsuspecting millions - with investments in Social Media being a huge part of that. I think Thiel is a shoddy representative of Girardian theory (and theology) and is straight up evil for abusing the ideas of mimetic desire for personal gain and power.
I don’t care that much about Thielism either way, except as a billionaire he is in a position to push his nihilistic babble onto society in inevitably destructive ways. It’s the outsized power he holds to effect change that’s scary, more than his kooky and intellectually shallow views.
(There are a lot of nutballs out there. Only a few of them are multi-millionaires and billionaires.)
All billionaires are nut balls. Prove me wrong
It all comes down to their inability to accept that they are not fundamentally special. They must invent inane, dead-end “philosophy” and wallow in it with the other resource hoarders and their sycophants.
Am always struck by how much these esoteric right-wing types love lambasting the supposedly slavish, impressionable masses, while failing to acknowledge that they themselves might be just as caught up in the dynamics they purport to identify. Even Peter Thiel is human, it turns out - and maybe his desires and projects are just as base, narcissistic and self-indulgent as those possessed by the rest of us.
So, the lost man-child tech bros are going to save us from the nihilism of technology. What could possibly go wrong?
"The apocalypse with which he tempts those disaffected by “liberal modernity” is no closer to real transcendence than pornography is to real sex. And if we were to worry about a totalitarian unifying force meme-ing us all into submission there are worse places to see the shadow of an Antichrist than on the half-eaten apple on the back of our iPhones."
That would be ”…the nihilism of technology they avidly helped to construct…”
…Ultimately an instance of deep hypocrisy as well as what you note.
The only reason anyone pays attention to Thiel’s drivel is that he is very, very rich.
On one hand we have a handful of bros rich enough to buy whole countries who seem to have contempt for most of humanity, and on the other hand we have about half of this humanity adoring populist thugs (a dozen names from various countries spring to mind.) It is a powerful and destructive alliance. Woe to the rest of us.
That applies to everyone. Not just one faction
Thiel is an idiot
Yeah maybe but make the case. Ad hominem is the very definition of lame.
There are simple truths, but no simple answers. Thank you for your clear and succinct assessment!
This is mind reading. It’s not an honest reckoning with another person’s ideas, but the author’s projection of them. I learned nothing about Peter Theil, but I did learn a lot about how to dress the anxieties of “progressives” in fancy prose. Let me translate into reactionary hate speech for you. “How dare Theil question our pieties, our received wisdom? How dare he look for a different paradigm? We already know what to think, thank you very much! We don’t need no stinking tech bro to weigh in! We’ve got all the other tech bros, you, you, you reactionary! There!”
LOL
On another note.....I'd say Peter was pretty pissed off when he gave that speech. Was he having a little entitled tantie at the bureaucrats of this world? The NZ Environmental Court had just rejected yet another application he had submitted to build a 1165sqm luxury lodge in an area of "Outstanding Natural Beauty" here in Wanaka. Ever been here? It's pretty special. Behind his constant purporting to have "genuine ideals" there has been a clear sense he has been trying to use his "power to shape and subdue a fundamentally stupid and innately violent populace." He is determined to fight the decision. In the mean time he'll have to dig his bolthole from the apocalypse in his own back yard. Thanks for the great article Tara.
Another recent sub stack illustrates the obscene distribution of wealth in the U.S. right now. These “lost man-child tech bros” have amassed obscene wealth, but the ability to amass wealth does not recommend one for political leadership any more than the accident of birth into the regal aristocracy. We have empowered the wrong echelon of society; our true leaders mired in wage-slavery. Neo-liberalism seems to have produced an all too unsurprising form of decadent neo-feudalism. As a colleague of mine wrote back in the 1980’s, “modernity is in a headlong rush back to the metaphysics of the middle-ages “. In short, Thielism seems to be a regurgitation of Rand, 30’s fascism, and good-old fashioned 21st Century InCel pouting powered by wealth. What these folks dislike is the way that liberal democratic institutions, various contemporary social movements, and a Christ-centered spirituality give voice to the silenced and empower communities. Any true notion of justice undercuts their self-referential bombast. They may rail against the movements that liberal democracies produce, but isn’t that the whole purpose of liberal democracies, to produce movements doomed to failure as a mechanism of increased awareness, justice, and tolerance? Messy business, but as we see well described herein, the alternative is a world led to ruin by perverted despots.
We already have rule by perverted despots
Jesus what a load. If Thiel isn’t the dumbest rich guy who thinks he’s smart since W and what’s his face, then chaos is indeed come again.
How can we get him to SHUT UP?
Ignore him.
Thanks for your provocative review for those of us wedged in between the now past 'Age Of Reason' and, summarily, 'New Age' thinking and the expectations of a form of decadence and end times that result in part from a divergence from pursuing true spiritual understandings, those apart from the "rules-based' Christianity formed by the Church of Rome, that promise a much more truthful understanding of humanity's potential as a fully evolved being. If I might paraphrase the main teaching of the man we have come to call Christ did actually explain how to go about it: 'Look within..." Thanks for including a hint of skeptical forbearance.
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
Thanks, Clarence. My sentiments exactly. No more optimistic longing for peaceful resolutions with the Satanic KM. With the NY National Guard occupying every available room in Manhattan, they know It's going to get real ugly. Even the formerly legalistic Juan O. Savin has come out swinging. You may wish to read any of of number of essays on my website: www.lightningonthemoon.com. I most recently added one on the long suspected DARPA work on recovered anti-gravity propulsion engines: '1980s Silicon Valley Air Force Retro-Engineering of a UFO Engine'. Thanks again for the comment. May I quote you?
Christ did not invent the idea to “look within”. Gnothi Seauton was written long before the itinerant magician and others like him spouting out regurgitations of amazing ancient philosophy.
Fight your own wars, you kikesucking Zionist ass-whore . . . The United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
Nobody is going to fight a war for Biden, he is dumber than Bush . . . Nobody is going to fight a war for that kikesucking Zionist ass-whore Nikki Haley . . .
The fat, bulbous curry nigger, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, was telling everyone how the army is full of bad racist white men, and now the Army is doing ads begging for more young white men?
What happened?
Even with a full-on declaration of war from Congress, and even if Gavin Jewsome could be cheated in by ZOG somehow, with Globohomo brigades going door-to-door looking to impress white American children into military service, they will be met with armed, well-trained opposition.
White people are done fighting wars for you kikesucking Zionist ass-whores . . . With the border wide open, open warfare at home within the USA is a certainty if a foreign war is declared.
Get ready for it fuckface, you fat old fags are in no shape to fight a war.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
No one wants to be lectured to about how much smarter you are than everyone else when the left has been in complete cultural control of this country going on 20 years, and we're looking at the economic, political & legal collapse of our republic. Because the left ideology is based on cultural destruction, not creation. If all you do is "break barriers," you end up in a broken society.
It could be interesting for you to cross-reference the cultural control you mentioned with not only the left but also baby-boomer generational power, the rise of neo-liberalism/conservatism, and the removal of anti-trust laws. The left has some cultural control but it's largely a boogeyman. The left is really bad at acquiring political power (we don't have a noteworthy leftist political party, for example) and they're usually restricted to weak cultural influence.
Thank you for noting this. There are many of us who grow tired and discouraged by the “left ideology” talking point endlessly droned in the media by right-wing pundits as the national and global polities drift ever further to the right.