back to article The good times are over, Peter Thiel tells Silicon Valley's oligarchs

Peter Thiel makes a perfect modern sinister panto villain. From investing in deep state spookware Palantir to supporting Donald S Trump, Thiel ticks all the boxes. Throw in an eccentric medical practice – like, say, a fondness for injecting himself with young people's blood – and all that's missing is an impregnable offshore …

  1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    the internet to actually fragment and not to have this historical necessity to it.

    Not really, if it fragments it stops being the internet. What is it with these people and money that turns them into pop (or should it be pot?) philosophers? I suspect it's one of the side effects of living in the VC echo chamber; the inverse of the aphorism: if you're so clever, how come you're not rich?

    1. Orv Silver badge

      I think he's wrong, but in a more subtle way -- the Internet may very well fragment into several smaller networks with only nominal connectivity, but I think that the boundaries will be along the edges of corporate walled gardens, not national borders. We're already seeing closed app "ecosystems," and most IM services that used to work with third-party clients have removed that capability. Being technically able to send packets from A to B doesn't matter if you don't know what should be in those packets.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Which wolf wins

    Which one you feed.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Gimp

      Re: Which wolf wins

      I'm Batman.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Which wolf wins

      "The one you feed"

      I like that quote. 'Tomorrowland'

      From the article: "The problem with pessimists when they reach positions of power and influence is that their pessimism is much more likely to come true"

      what if the one who rises to a position of power is an OPTIMIST?

      (obvious implications obvious)

      The only 'dark times' coming will be a general end to corporate welfare for Silly-Valley corporations. At least, that's how _I_ see it.

      And maybe another bursting bubble for "dot bomb" again.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    What?

    I cannot parse any of what he is saying.

    It seems like incoherent rambling at best.

    The average American is no longer optimistic? Gee, I wonder why?

    1. Naselus

      Re: What?

      Thiel is pretty typical of the long tradition of billionaire 'thinkers', tbh; they usually produce drivel which only emphasizes how divorced from reality the super-rich are. If anyone actually took them up on their ideas, the result would be disastrous.

      In his various essays, Thiel has also claimed that women being given the vote is caused of the decline of the West, and has postulated that a return to wealth requirements for the franchise would be a great thing. He has alternately claimed technology stopped advancing in the 1960s (neatly invalidating his own career, along with everyone else involved in the internet) and that air conditioning is one of the greatest inventions produced by mankind, on the same level as farming and the industrial revolution.

      These are the ravings of an idiot. He's effectively a male Betsy Devos.

      1. phuzz Silver badge
        IT Angle

        Re: What?

        "they usually produce drivel which only emphasizes how divorced from reality the super-rich are"

        Yes, but they know that they're cleverer than everyone else because they're rich.

        The idea that they might be lucky [instead of]/[as well as] smart, or that an intelligent person might not be interested in money has never crossed their mind.

        1. Orv Silver badge

          Re: What?

          The wealthy nearly always believe that society is a meritocracy, because if you're winning, there's a powerful incentive to believe the race was a fair one. Circular logic then leads you to believe that since you're winning a fair race, it means you/re the smartest person in the room.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    "we’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict"

    Well you certainly are well-placed to make that prediction come true.

  5. John 104

    @ecofeco

    Yea, glad it wasn't just me. Very poorly written and hard to figure out. Top notch!

    And, of course, the obligatory name calling of Trump within the first paragraph.

    Here is a hint, Reg: Stick to technology. This article barely scratches the surface of IT Angle with the mention of Silicon Valley. Beyond that?

    1. Mephistro
      Thumb Down

      "Reg: Stick to technology"

      What's the matter with so many commentards called John-something-or-another telling ElReg to "stick to technology" whenever ElReg dares to publish anything that goes against the Beloved President and his chums?

      Some hints for you, John-Whatever. Thiel was...

      - Forecasting a fragmented Internet.

      - Forecasting a stop in technological advancements.

      - Forecasting the end of Globalization.

      Can't you see it yet?

      1. Naselus

        Re: "Reg: Stick to technology"

        "Some hints for you, John-Whatever. Thiel was..."

        And he's also a tech billionaire and sits on the board of a dozen tech companies, too. So yeah, this is pretty damn tech-related.

    2. andrewj

      Well done completely missing the point. Mired in your own stereotype.

    3. phuzz Silver badge
      FAIL

      Plus, if elReg only did IT stories we'd miss out on half of the Geek's Guide To... series, a bunch of aerospace stories (such as these). We'd miss out on important news like this, or this.

      Hell, if we had it your way, we wouldn't even have a BOFH!

      Honestly, if you don't want to see people dissing trump, well, erm, I'm not sure where you should go get your news from, maybe you'll just have to make some up?

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