Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist | US news

Peter Thiel, the billionaire political svengali and tech investor, is frightened about the antichrist. It might be the US. It might be Greta Thunberg.

Over the previous month, Thiel has hosted a collection of 4 lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist might be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the finish of the world may already be in our midst and that issues resembling worldwide businesses, environmentalism and guardrails on expertise may quicken its rise. It is a exceptional discursion that reveals the preoccupations of considered one of the most influential folks in Silicon Valley and the US.

“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 mentioned, 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.”

Thiel was on the forefront of conservative politics lengthy earlier than the remainder of Silicon Valley took a rightward turn with Donald Trump’s second time period as president. He’s had shut ties to Trump for almost a decade, is credited with catapulting JD Vance into the workplace of vice-president, and is bankrolling Republicans’ 2026 midterm campaigns. Making his early fortune as a co-founder of PayPal, he has personally contributed to Facebook as its first outside investor, as well as to SpaceX, OpenAI and more through his investment firm, Founders Fund. Palantir, which he co-founded, has won government contracts worth billions to create software for the Pentagon, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and the National Health Service in the UK. Now, with more attention and political pull than ever, the billionaire is looking to spread his message about the antichrist, though he is better known for his savvy politics and investments than his contributions to theology.

“I’m a libertarian, or a classical liberal, who deviates in one minor detail, where I’m worried about the antichrist,” Thiel said during his third lecture.

The meandering gospel of Peter

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.

Guardian reporters did not attend the lectures or agree to the off-the-record stipulation. Recordings were provided by an attender who gave them on the condition of anonymity.

When reached for comment, Thiel’s spokesperson, Jeremiah Hall, did not dispute the veracity of the material given to the Guardian. Hall did correct a piece of the Guardian’s transcription and clarified an argument made by Thiel about Jews and the antichrist.

The Silicon Valley heavyweight drew on a wide swath of religious thinkers, including the French-American theorist René Girard, whom Thiel knew at Stanford University, and the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, whose work he said helped create the core of his own beliefs. He credited the English Catholic theologian John Henry Newman as the inspiration for his four-part series, saying: “Newman did four, so I’m doing four. I’m happy about it.”

The enterprise capitalist has hosted and attended occasions and lectured on the subject for many years, going again to the Nineties, according to a report by Wired. In current months, he has spoken to theologians and podcasters about the antichrist both publicly and in private. His beliefs are diffuse, meandering and often confusing, but one tenet he’s steadfastly maintained over the years is that the unification of the world under one global state is essentially identical to the antichrist. In his talks, he uses the term “antichrist” almost interchangeably with “one-world state”.

“One world or not, in a sense is the same as the question antichrist or Armageddon. So in one sense, it’s completely the same question,” he said.

His version of history, and its potential end, posits technology as a central driver of societal change and takes a Christianity-focused, Eurocentric view that declines to engage much with other religious movements or parts of the world.

On the day of Thiel’s final lecture in San Francisco, as the mostly young and mostly male crowd lined up to get in, a group of about 20 protesters stood out front holding anti-Palantir and anti-Ice signs that said things such as “Predatory tech”, “We do not profit from people who profit from misery” and “Not today Satan”.

A trio of self-described “satanists” dressed in black costumes with goth makeup walked up and down the line of attenders carrying a goblet of red liquid with a small plastic replica of a bone. “Will you bring our dark lord Peter Thiel this baby’s blood?” they asked. Then they performed what they called a “dark ritual”, dancing slowly in a circle to Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, which ended with them writhing on the city sidewalk, and yelling: “Take us to your personal hell … Thank you for being our dark lord.”

What do Thiel’s lectures say?

The Guardian is publishing substantial quoted passages alongside contextual annotations so that the public may be informed on what an influential figure in politics and technology was saying behind closed doors.

He believes the Armageddon will be ushered in by an antichrist-type figure who cultivates a fear of existential threats such as climate change, AI and nuclear war to amass inordinate power. The idea is this figure will convince people to do everything they can to avoid something like a third world war, including accepting a one-world order charged with protecting everyone from the apocalypse that implements a complete restriction of technological progress. In his mind, this is already happening. Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power and hastening Armageddon, saying: “It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money.”

It’s as a result of the antichrist talks about Armageddon noncease. We’re all scared to dying that we’re sleepwalking into Armageddon. And then as a result of we all know world warfare three will probably be an unjust warfare, that pushes us. We’re going onerous in direction of peace at any worth.

What I fear about in that kind of scenario is you don’t assume too onerous about the particulars of the peace and it turns into more likely that you just get an unjust peace. This is, by the means, the slogan of the antichrist: 1 Thessalonians 5:3. It’s peace and security, kind of the unjust peace.

Let me conclude on this selection of antichrist or Armageddon. And once more, in some methods the stagnation and the existential dangers are complementary, not contradictory. The existential danger pushes us in direction of stagnation and distracts us from it.

How does Thiel assume Armageddon will occur?

Thiel hardly ever provides a definitive reply about who precisely the antichrist could be or how Armageddon may come about – a central level throughout his lectures is that nothing is written in stone or inevitable – however he does give the contours of what a worldwide battle that would result in Armageddon may appear to be.

There’s all types of various methods, one world or none, antichrist or Armageddon, that I’m tempted to assume about this, and right here’s one kind of utility. In phrases of how does one assume about the present geopolitical second. How does one assume about the nature of the battle between the United States and China, the west and China. You don’t actually know the way it’s going to go. You can ask, are we heading for world warfare three or chilly warfare two? And in case you kind of replicate on the historical past of the two world wars and the first chilly warfare. But first, if there ever was an unjust warfare, world warfare one is an unjust warfare. If there ever was a simply warfare, world warfare two was most likely a simply warfare, with sure caveats. World warfare one is absolutely insane. World warfare two was about as justified as a warfare may be. I feel we are able to say that in case you had an all-out world warfare three or warfare between nuclear powers involving nuclear weapons, it could merely be an unjust warfare. A complete disaster, presumably literal Armageddon, the finish of the world. So world warfare three will probably be an unjust warfare. But then in case you have a chilly warfare, you must distinguish between – can you’ve a simply peace and an unjust peace?

Somehow, it’s very unusual how the first chilly warfare from ‘49 to ‘89 ended. But it ended with roughly what I think of as a just peace, where somehow you didn’t have a nuclear warfare. And in some way our facet, which I feel was extra the good facet, mainly received. And you ended up not with an ideal peace, however roughly a simply peace. And so if we now have world warfare three, it will likely be an unjust warfare. If we now have chilly warfare two, possibly it might probably finish in a simply peace or an unjust peace. Reflecting on this materials and considering about it, it’s clearly not written in stone and there’s loads of alternative ways these things can go. But I hold considering that, in case you needed to put odds on it, aren’t the odds that we’re trending in direction of the fourth quadrant this time. The fourth chance that chilly warfare two will finish an unjust peace.

Thiel devotes a big part of his second lecture to a quote from the Book of Daniel that entails a prophecy about the finish occasions, which he equates to trendy advances in expertise and globalization.

Let’s go on to ‘many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.’ It means science progressing, expertise enhancing, globalization, folks touring round the world. Of course in some sense, I feel this stuff … I’m undecided they’re utterly inevitable, however there may be some course to it. Where there’s a linear development of data and one thing like globalization that occurs. But after all, the particulars matter rather a lot. Knowledge growing, science progressing, expertise enhancing could be a excellent factor. No illness, dying, shield folks from pure disasters. Then, after all, we are able to destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons, bioweapons, and many others. And equally, globalization is … you’ve commerce in items and providers. There’s sure methods to flee from tyrannical governments. And after all there may be hazard in the one-world state of the antichrist.

As the antichrist is synonymous with a one-world state for Thiel, he additionally believes that worldwide our bodies together with the United Nations and the worldwide prison court docket (ICC) hasten the coming of Armageddon. Throughout his lectures, he warns of what he sees as the hazard of those our bodies and the harms they’ve already triggered. In the following quotes, he’s lamenting the actions of the ICC:

They’ve began arresting increasingly more folks. Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested this yr. They had arrest warrants out for Netanyahu and Gallant.

When I met Netanyahu early in 2024, about a yr and a half in the past, we talked about what he’s doing in Gaza, and the one-liner he had was: ‘I can’t simply Dresdenize Gaza – you may’t simply firebomb them.’ So it’s like, come on, ‘I’m much less of a warfare prison than Winston Churchill. Why am I in a lot hassle?’

During a Q&A portion of considered one of the lectures, an attender requested particularly about Thiel’s ideas on abolishing the ICC, saying: “If we get rid of the ICC or other organizations that exist to bring, in theory, justice, how can we right crimes? Should we not have prosecuted Nazi criminals?” Thiel responded:

I feel there was actually loads of totally different views on what ought to be completed with the Nuremberg trials. It was kind of the US that pushed for the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet Union simply wished to have present trials. I feel Churchill simply wished abstract executions of fifty,000 high Nazis and not using a trial. And I don’t like the Soviet method, however I ponder if the Churchill one would have really been more healthy than the American one.

Who might be Thiel’s antichrist?

Thiel believes that the antichrist could be a single evil tyrant. He mentions a number of figures he believes are significantly harmful and, whereas he by no means definitively says who the antichrist is, he makes solutions about how some folks might be antichrist-type figures.

A primary definition of the antichrist. Some folks consider it as a kind of very dangerous particular person. Sometimes it’s used extra typically as a religious descriptor of the forces of evil. What I’ll give attention to is the most typical and most dramatic interpretation of antichrist: an evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who seems in the finish occasions.

Specifically, he suggests the antichrist could be a “luddite who wants to stop all science”, referencing Thunberg, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Marc Andreessen.

My thesis is that in the seventeenth, 18th century, the antichrist would have been a Dr Strangelove, a scientist who did all this kind of evil loopy science. In the twenty first century, the antichrist is a luddite who needs to cease all science. It’s somebody like Greta or Eliezer.

It’s not Andreessen, by the means. I feel Andreessen isn’t the antichrist. Because you already know, the antichrist is widespread. I’m attempting to say some good issues about Andreessen right here, come on.

During a question-and-answer session, Thiel was requested to reply to a quote from fellow investor Andreessen – a reputation he audibly bristled at. He mentioned Andreessen was engaged in hyperbole and “gobbledygook propaganda” with regards to the guarantees of AI.

Where ought to I begin? I’m tempted to be triggered in some nasty advert hominem argument, however I can’t resist so I’ll do this. I don’t know, that is simply pure Silicon Valley gobbledygook propaganda. I wouldn’t give somebody who mentioned issues like that an excessive amount of cash to speculate.

Later, he returns to those “legionnaires of the antichrist”.

In late modernity, the place science has turn out to be scary and apocalyptic, and the legionnaires of the antichrist like Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Bostrom and Greta Thunberg argue for world authorities to cease science, the antichrist has in some way turn out to be anti-science.

Gates, the philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, is excessive on the listing of individuals Thiel doesn’t like.

One of my buddies was telling me that I shouldn’t go up on the alternative to inform these folks in San Francisco that Bill Gates is the antichrist. I’ll concede that he’s actually a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-type character. The public Mr Rogers, the neighborhood character. I noticed the Mr Hyde model about a yr in the past, the place it was only a noncease, Tourette’s, yelling swear phrases, virtually incomprehensible what was happening.

Ultimately, Thiel concedes Gates can’t be the antichrist, citing the subject greater than as soon as:

He’s not a political chief, he’s not broadly widespread, and once more, maybe to Gates’s credit score, he’s nonetheless caught in the 18th century alongside folks like Richard Dawkins who imagine that science and atheism are appropriate.

I don’t assume even somebody like Bill Gates, who I feel is a really, very terrible particular person, is remotely capable of be the antichrist.

Pope Benedict XVI is somebody who Thiel admired as a result of he was considered one of the few popes who referenced the chance of an antichrist:

The tl;dr: my perception is that Benedict actually thought that the historic falling away from the church throughout his papacy was an indication of the finish occasions.

However, Thiel mentioned Benedict failed at spreading the message of the antichrist as a result of he “was not very courageous”.

I typically wish to say libertarianism and marijuana are each gateway medication to alt-right, different concepts. The hazard of the crimson capsule is you progress on the black capsule. And in some way Benedict overdosed on crimson drugs.

Musk, a longtime pal and ally of Thiel, got here up throughout considered one of the lectures in the context of the Giving Pledge, a pact Gates based in 2010 the place billionaires pledged to donate the majority of their cash to philanthropy. Here is Thiel recapping the dialog:

If I needed to choose a bit of bit on Elon – and I’m going to choose on him as a result of I consider him as considered one of the smarter, extra considerate folks …

This is a dialog I had with him a number of months in the past, and it was like: ‘I want you to unsign that silly Giving Pledge you signed back in 2012, where you promised to give away half your money. You have, like, $400bn. Yes, you gave $200m to Mr Trump, but $200bn – if you’re not cautious – goes to leftwing non-profits that will probably be chosen by Bill Gates.’

And then I – one step forward – rethought it and mentioned: ‘You don’t assume about this a lot since you don’t anticipate to die anytime quickly, however you’re 54 years outdated. I seemed up the actuarial tables: at 54, you’ve a 0.7% likelihood of dying in the subsequent yr. And 0.7% of $200bn is $1.4bn – about seven occasions what you gave to Trump. So Mr Gates is successfully anticipating $1.4bn from you in the subsequent yr.’

And to his credit score, Elon was, properly, fairly fluid on it. He mentioned: ‘Actually, I think the odds of me dying are higher than 70 basis points.’ A stunning explosion of self-awareness. Then: ‘What am I supposed to do – give it to my children? I certainly can’t give it to my trans daughter; that may be dangerous. You know, it could be a lot worse to offer it to Bill Gates.’

When requested about the slain far-right commentator Charlie Kirk’s memorial in reference to the function of Christianity in American politics, Thiel initially demurred saying it was “above his pay grade”. When additional prompted, he described what he noticed as two variations of Christianity on show at the occasion:

I feel, um – what to say – I used to be considering about, you already know, I had the chart: the katechon pagan Christianity versus the eschaton – the Christianity of Constantine versus that of Mother Teresa. We had an illustration of that with Kirk’s spouse saying that she forgave the murderers as a result of that’s what Christ would do. This was an extremely saintly type of Christianity. And then, you already know, President Trump – I don’t know, I neglect the language precisely – however, you already know, Charlie was into forgiving, being good to his enemies. He doesn’t imagine in being good to his enemies; he needs to harm his enemies. And that’s kind of the pagan Christian view. And the drawback – the naive view – is: there must be one thing someplace in between, proper? But how do you concretize that? What’s the factor that’s in between Mother Teresa and Constantine – between forgiving the assassin and delighting in punishing your enemies?

Perhaps, I don’t know, maybe the in-between factor I believed was that possibly Trump and Elon have been capable of forgive one another.

Thiel argues that, to ensure that the antichrist to have the ability to pull off the Armageddon in a single lifetime, they should be younger immediately – he factors to 33 as an auspicious quantity. In these quotes, he attracts parallels to highly effective figures who died at the age of 33, together with Jesus, Buddha and a few literary characters:

Christ solely lived to age 33 and have become historical past’s best man. The antichrist has to in some way outdo this. I don’t wish to be means too literal on the 33 quantity – I’d slightly stress the antichrist will probably be a youthful conqueror; possibly in our gerontocracy, 66 is the new 33. But one thing like these numbers do happen virtually mystically by quite a few totally different contexts.

Buddha begins his travels at age 30 and experiences Nirvana, ego dying, at age 33. But I needed to be ecumenical and say one thing good about Islam. One concept that’s fairly cool is, while you’re reborn into your afterlife, you’re born into your 33-year-old self. Your 33-year-old self is your finest self. Livy’s – the Roman historian’s thirty third chapter of the thirty third e book – it pronounces this 33-year-old conqueror. It’s like Alexander at the peak of his energy. Or even in Tolkien, the hobbits have a coming-of-age ceremony at 33. That’s how outdated Frodo is when he inherits the ring.

By the identical token, people who find themselves older can’t be Thiel’s antichrist. Here Thiel provides some examples:

Trajan, a Roman emperor, wept when he reached the Persian Gulf in AD115 at the age of 65. He’s too outdated to beat Alexander the Great’s achievements in India. He died two years later. Hitler is 50 by the time world warfare two begins – he mimetically loses to Napoleon, who’s solely 30 when he grew to become first consul of the French Republic. That goes on to the identical drawback for a seventyone thing Xi Jinping. Racist, sexist, nationalist, possibly the second coming of Hitler. But not even the second coming of Genghis Khan. Past the sell-by date.

He continuously oscillates between speaking about the antichrist and the katechon – a time period very briefly utilized in the Bible that refers to one thing holding again the coming of the antichrist. In one instance, he describes a post-cold warfare shift to embracing neoliberalism and forms for instance of antichrist-like authorities.

Of course, you’ve all these examples the place it’s one toggle swap from katechon to the antichristic factor. Claudius to Nero, Charlemagne to Napoleon, anti-communism after the Berlin Wall comes down, it will get changed by neoliberalism. Which is, you already know, the Bush 41 new world order, which you’ll be able to consider as anti-communism the place there’s no communists left. Or Christian democracy, which is kind of the European type of the katechontic, transnational anti-communism. Once the communists are gone, it kind of decays into the Brussels forms. All sorts of various riffs one may do with this. Or to go even additional, if one thing isn’t highly effective sufficient to doubtlessly turn out to be the antichrist, it most likely isn’t that good as a katechon.

In his final lecture, Thiel additionally responds throughout the Q&A portion to a query about potential 2028 presidential candidates and whether or not they’re antichrist or katechon. When requested about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Thiel says that he worries about there being a “woke American pope”– Pope Leo XIV – and a “woke American president”, making a “Caesar-Papist fusion”. He goes on to speak about Ocasio-Cortez in relation to Thunberg:

One of the methods this stuff at all times get reported is, I denounce Greta as an antichrist. And I wish to be very clear: Greta is, I imply she’s possibly kind of a kind or a shadow of an antichrist of a kind that may be tempting. But I don’t wish to flatter her an excessive amount of. So with Greta, you shouldn’t take her as the antichrist for certain. With AOC, you may select whether or not or not you wish to imagine this disclaimer that I simply gave.

What does he say about Trump and politics?

Thiel is requested a number of occasions about Trump and the way he matches into his creativeness of what kind Armageddon may take. In one occasion, he’s requested whether or not Trump’s opposition to world governance makes Thiel really feel any reduction about the hastening of a one-world order.

At the easiest, you shouldn’t have even the most fanatical Trump supporter. You know, no politician, not even Reagan, will resolve all issues forever. Maybe we each have been kind of delusional about Reagan in the 80s. There was some second in the Eighties once we thought that Reagan had completely solved the deepest issues in the world forever. And that’s too excessive a bar. That was too excessive a bar for Reagan. That’s an unfairly excessive bar you’re giving to Mr Trump. You’re simply attempting to make a refined anti-Trump argument and I’m not going to allow you to do this.

One of Thiel’s longstanding political affiliations has been anti-communism, and in his fourth lecture, he means that opposition to communism following the second world warfare is one thing that held again the antichrist. At different occasions, he’s vital of post-cold warfare presidents and authorities order.

I at all times kind of surprise what features as the katechon in the world after 1945. This is Schmitt’s 1947 diary. ‘I believe in the katechons, for me the only possible way to understand Christian history and find it meaningful. The katechon needs to named for every epoch for the past 1948 years.’ The means I interpret that is that sotto voce, Schmitt is saying he has no concept what the katechon is. And possibly, the New Dealers are working the complete planet. Then after all, 1949 the Soviets get the bomb, and my kind of provisional reply is that the katechon for 40 years, from ’49 to ’89, is anti-communism. Which is in some methods is considerably violent, not purely Christian however very, very highly effective.

I’ve argued that the katechon, or one thing like this, is critical however not ample. And I wish to end by stressing the place one goes improper with it. If we neglect its important function, which is to restrain the antichrist, the antichrist may even current himself or itself or herself as the katechon, or hijack the katechon. This is sort of a memetic model. A similarity between the antichrist and the katechon, they’re each kind of political figures. The katechon is tied in with empire and politics. If the antichrist goes to take over the world, you want one thing very highly effective to cease it.

Thiel additionally opines on modern-day Russia and gives his views on Vladimir Putin:

In some sense, there are maybe two candidates for the successors to Rome. For all types of causes, I don’t significantly like the Russian theories of all these methods the place you’ve Putin describing himself as the katechon and the final Christian chief in the world. It’s onerous to look into somebody’s coronary heart. I at all times suspect he’s extra of a KGB agent than a Christian. And then, after all, to be a katechon, you must be sturdy sufficient to presumably turn out to be the antichrist. And Russia isn’t almost highly effective sufficient to take over the world. It can’t merely be the katechon or the new Rome.

Thiel additionally feedback on the relation between Jewish folks and the antichrist. He argued towards medieval theologians’ concept that the antichrist could be Jewish.

There’s most likely rather a lot I can say about the relation of the Jews to the antichrist. The philo-semitic rebuttal, simply to get it on the desk, is that the Jews in the Bible are described as a cussed and stiff-necked folks. Which is usually a bug, however possibly in the finish occasions, it’s a function as a result of – that is kind of the means [Vladimir] Solovyov phrased it – that they’re too cussed to simply accept Christ, they are going to be too cussed to be charmed by the antichrist. And so, they turn out to be the middle of resistance to the antichrist in the Solovyov narrative.

In response, Thiel’s spokesperson mentioned: “Peter was arguing against medieval, antisemitic theologians who suggested that the antichrist will be Jewish,” citing Solovyov.

Thiel’s last lecture dedicates a big portion of its time to speaking about empires and what function the US authorities performs in holding again or advancing the antichrist. He is characteristically noncommittal, describing the nation as having traits of a one-world authorities and in addition being exterior it:

Now this isn’t meant to be an anti-British or anti-American lecture. It’s simply that America is, at this level, the pure candidate for katechon and antichrist, floor zero of the one-world state, floor zero of the resistance to the one–world state. The US world police is the one actually sovereign nation. They at all times say the president is the mayor of the US and the dictator of the world. International legislation will get outlined by the US. That’s kind of Nato’s prime, to see in some methods, coordination of the world’s intelligence businesses.

Then after all, the world monetary structure we mentioned isn’t actually run by shadowy worldwide organizations, it’s mainly American. And maybe at all times an important function is the reserve foreign money standing of the greenback, the place it’s kind of the backstop for all the cash. The petrogreenback regime, there’s kind of loopy methods you’ve commerce deficits, present account deficits, however then in all these methods, the cash will get recycled into the US.

Then after all, there’s kind of a means the place from a sure perspective, the US can also be the place that’s the most exterior the world state. In some ways, it’s most likely considered one of the finest tax havens, a minimum of in case you’re not a US citizen. And then there are all these methods the US is a form of ideological superpower. Christian, ultra-Christian, anti-Christian sense, woke Protestant liberation theology, social gospel, social justice. City on a hill, this establishment serves as a beacon of sunshine for different nations and honor.

At one other level in his last lecture, he appears to recommend that when issues are codified or formalized they have a tendency to lose their energy or skill to function. He selects Guantánamo Bay detention camp for instance:

By 2005 in Guantánamo, you have been means higher off as a Muslim terrorist in Guantánamo, the liberal legal professionals had taken it over by 2005, than as a suspected cop killer in Manhattan. In Manhattan in case you have been a suspected cop killer again in 2005, you already know, there was some casual course of that they had for coping with you. Guantánamo, it was formalized. Initially, they did some dangerous issues after which in a short time, they weren’t capable of do something, any extra. And that is once more a kind of revelatory unraveling course of.

During the Q&A piece, Peter Robinson talks about John Henry Newman’s description of the antichrist promising folks issues like civil liberty and equality. “He offers you baits to tempt you,” Robinson mentioned, quoting Newman. Then, Robinson says to Thiel: “The antichrist is a really cool, glamorous hip operator. Is that Zohran Mamdani?” Thiel doesn’t immediately reply the query, however does provide his tackle the younger, progressive mayoral candidate:

I don’t assume Mamdani may be president as a result of he’s not a pure-born citizen. So he’s capped out at mayor. I additionally don’t assume he’s actually promised to cut back my taxes.

In his last lecture, Thiel was requested to touch upon varied potential 2028 presidential candidates and whether or not they’d be extra of an antichrist determine or a katechon.

Thiel says he’s “very pro-JD Vance”. But he has some issues about his allegiance to the pope.

“The place that I might fear about is that he’s too near the pope. And so we now have all these studies of fights between him and the pope. I hope there are much more. It’s the Caesar-Papist fusion that I at all times fear about. By the means, I’ve given him this suggestions over time. And you already know with the kind of … I don’t like his popeism, however there’s kind of a means if I metal manned it. It’s at all times, you must assume about whether or not in case you say you’re doing one thing good, whether or not it’s a command, a normal or a restrict, or whether or not in philosophical language, is it obligatory or ample. And so when JD Vance mentioned that he was praying for Pope Francis’s well being, it’s as a command, as a obligatory factor. OK, that’s … in case you’re much more in case you’re a very good Catholic. But what I hope it actually means is that it’s ample, and that he’s setting a very good instance for conservative Catholics such as you, Peter, who take heed to the pope an excessive amount of. And maybe all you must do to be a very good Catholic is pray for the pope. You don’t actually need to take heed to him on anything. And if that’s what JD Vance is doing, that’s actually good. I’m frightened about the Caesar-Papist fusion.

Thiel additionally spoke about San Francisco and his views on Gavin Newsom, the California governor.

​​I might say that if we go to the katechontic factor and the US is that, tech and politics are radically separate, Silicon Valley is absolutely, actually separate from DC in an excessive means. If this stuff might be fused, … somebody like that maybe represents a means to do this. That’s the half the place, if there was a option to … you already know, he was the governor of California, he was the mayor of San Francisco. In a means, San Francisco is extra essential than California. The world metropolis is extra essential than simply this kind of foolish province referred to as California. And in case you may fuse Washington and San Francisco, that’s a really harmful factor. It’s form of, it’s kind of in a means the final precedent the place such a fusion of types occurred. I feel it was FDR with New York and DC. So that’s the piece that may be difficult.

And you already know, by the means, this stuff have been very, very unfused traditionally. Back in 2008, considered one of my liberal buddies was attempting to get 75 tech-type folks to endorse Obama they usually acquired like 68, 69 and thought possibly they might get me. I instructed them, man, if there are solely six or seven, you wish to be in the minority. It’s extra helpful to be considered one of the seven than considered one of the 68. And then his counterpoint was, properly, you already know, we have to all get on board with Obama as a result of he’s going to win after which we’ll have an affect. And then, the actually loopy … after which in a means, Obama … in case you assume about the major in 2008, the Democratic major, Obama had the college students, the minorities, the younger folks. Hillary was the finance world in New York, the unions. Hollywood was kind of cut up 50/50 between Obama and Hillary.

But Silicon Valley was the one sector of the economic system that went all in for Obama. But it didn’t work in any respect. And then in case you quick ahead to the Obama cupboard, there have been zero folks from Silicon Valley. There was no illustration in any respect. And so, even Obama was very removed from something resembling a fusion. And then the query is whether or not Newsom will probably be like that or totally different.

Why is he fixated on stagnation?

Chief amongst Thiel’s issues about how shortly the world is hurtling towards an Armageddon is what he describes as a stagnation or slowing down of technological and scientific progress. He attributes a part of that to the use of science and expertise – as soon as largely seen as a power for good, in his telling – for hurt.

The creation of the gun and the machine gun “wounded our faith in science and tech”, he mentioned. “And then the atom bomb somehow blew it up entirely. And in some sense in 1945, science and tech became apocalyptic. It left us with a question.” This worry of tech is what the antichrist will seize on to achieve energy, he says.

During the Q&A portion of the first lecture, Thiel is requested about how artificial intelligence (AI) – the much-hyped darling of his fellow Silicon Valley buyers – matches into this bigger narrative of technological stagnation. Thiel mentioned AI was a symptom of the bigger tech stagnation and that folks together with Andreessen wanted to spice up its guarantees as a result of there’s nothing else happening.

If we’re going to not have this kind of crazed company utopianism versus efficient altruist luddism, luddite factor. If you attempt to have some extra nuanced model of this, you attempt to quantify it. How large is the AI revolution? How a lot is it going so as to add to GDP? Add to residing requirements? Things like that. My placeholder is, it’s wanting most likely on roughly the scale of the web from 1990 to the late 90s. Maybe it might probably add 1% a yr to GDP. There are large error bars round that. And I feel the web was fairly important. People talked about the web in very comparable phrases in 1999. That’s one other means the place it seems like roughly the proper scale.

The place the place it’s very totally different, the place it feels each true of the web and possibly it’s true of AI, possibly a spot the place I might agree with Andreessen. The unfavorable a part of the assertion is: ‘But for AI, nothing else is going on.’ He’s not speaking about going to Mars, so it doesn’t sound like he believes Elon’s about to go to Mars. I feel there’s a unfavorable half, if AI was not taking place, wow, we’re actually caught. Things are actually stagnant. And possibly that’s why folks should be so excited about this one particular vector of technological progress. Because exterior of that, to a primary approximation, issues are completely, completely stagnant. Maybe even the web has run out of steam however for AI. So that’s one other framing. Now, the factor that strikes me may be very totally different from ’99, if I needed to give a distinction, once more I’m too anchored and rooted in the late 90s. But the late 90s, it was broadly optimistic. And there have been lots of people who thought about it identical to Andreessen does. Nobody feels that personally. You can’t begin a dotcom firm out of your basement in Sacramento. You can’t begin an AI firm, you must do it in San Francisco. You should do it in Silicon Valley. It must be at an unlimited scale. Most issues aren’t large enough. And then there are layers and layers and layers the place it feels extremely non-inclusive. Maybe folks simply up to date from the web as a result of possibly the web turned out to have loads of winner-take-all dynamics.

In considered one of the lectures, Thiel performs a video of a 60 Minutes segment about a German legislation that cracks down on on-line hate speech. He’s attempting to point out an instance of the place tech regulation goes too far – therefore giving energy to the antichrist:

This form of video is ridiculous however, after all, indicative of this bigger pattern. There is that this loopy decide in Brazil who’s arresting everyone. Australia has roughly ended web anonymity with age verification required for all social media. The UK is arresting 30 folks a day for offensive speech. I’m kind of at all times in favor of maximal free speech, however my one concrete take a look at is whether or not I can speak about the antichrist. If I can’t, that’s too restrictive.

In his fourth lecture, he additionally means that his beliefs about the finish of the world knowledgeable his personal work in tech at corporations resembling PayPal:

I used to be working at PayPal at the time attempting to construct the expertise to evade these insurance policies of the world’s powers and principalities. So it was pure to assume about the antichrist in the context of the world of economic structure. I’ll nonetheless defend PayPal as extra good than dangerous.

References to popular culture and literature

Thiel peppered his lectures with references to popular culture, calling out YouTube influencers like MrBeast and throwing out phrases like “libtard” – a rightwing slur for folks with progressive political beliefs. Sometimes these references pertained to the antichrist; at different occasions, Thiel was simply giving his views on politics, trendy society and Silicon Valley, like right here:

The Succession TV present about the Murdochs is unthinkably retro in Silicon Valley. Only a twentieth-century media firm might be handed off to somebody’s youngsters. If you assume about the tech corporations, I don’t know, would anyone title an organization after themselves? The final tech one who did this was, I feel, Dell in the mid-Eighties. This is like in case you’re a retro Republican from Texas. It is so unthinkable to do that.

In his second lecture, Thiel additionally explores the concept of the antichrist by 4 works of literature – Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Alan Moore’s Watchmen graphic novel and Eiichiro Oda’s manga collection One Piece. Thiel states that figuring out the antichrist is presumably “hard to do in the present and always sort of controversial”, however that “you at least identify the antichrist in literature”.

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with ethical questions about humanity towards the backdrop of impending nuclear warfare:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type determine, is kind of an early-modern particular person. He believes this will probably be a timeless and everlasting answer – everlasting world peace. Moore is kind of a late-modern. In early modernity, you’ve superb options, ‘perfect’ options to calculus. In late modernity, issues are kind of probabilistic. And sooner or later, he asks Dr Manhattan whether or not the world authorities goes to final. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it nonetheless doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical that means in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future the place an antichrist-like one-world authorities has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike determine.

In One Piece, you’re set in a fantasy world, once more kind of an alternate earth, however it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, step by step will get darker and darker. You kind of notice, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s one thing like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a crimson straw hat, kind of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then in direction of the finish of the story, transforms right into a determine who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, together with a researcher and author at Thiel Capital, explored these concepts at better size in an essay for the spiritual journal First Things earlier this month.

Do Thiel’s arguments make sense?

In a phrase, no. For one consultant instance, look to his muddled, contradictory summation of who the antichrist could also be:

There is a option to assume that the antichrist represents the finish of philosophy – end result, termination. He is the particular person who removes all people; the thinker who ends all philosophers; the Caesar who ends all rulers; the one who understands all secrets and techniques. How is that this doable in late modernity, the place we don’t imagine a philosopher-king, tyrant or ruler can come to energy?