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Thiel vs EA (let them fight.gif) (forum.effectivealtruism.org)
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[-] scruiser@awful.systems 3 points 6 hours ago

I brought this up right when it came out: https://awful.systems/post/5244605/8335074

(Not demanding credit on keeping better up to date on hate-reading the EA forums, just sharing the previous discussion)

Highlights from the previous discussion... I had thought Thiel was entirely making up his own wacky theology (because it was a distinctly different flavor of insanity from the typical right-wing Fundamentalist/Evangelical), but actually there is a "theologian" (I use that term loosely) who developed, René Girard, who developed the theology he is describing.

[-] Soyweiser@awful.systems 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)
[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago

When reading the title, I thought it was Peter Thiel vs. Electronic Arts, but wouldn't be surprised if the neoreactionary billionaires wanted to invest even more into entertainment media, to loosen up the masses for an undemocratic world with 24/7 ever present surveillance.

[-] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 13 points 1 day ago

I know that on the American right, every accusation is a confession, but I never thought I would read a scheming cartoon villain accusing his enemies of being the Antichrist! He is even queer-coded, would do great on TV in the 1990s.

[-] blakestacey@awful.systems 16 points 1 day ago

Effective altruism has more than its share of critics. But Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal and Palantir, is unusual in that, when he describes us as the “Antichrist,” he does not mean this as a generic slur but rather as a specific claim that we oppose Jesus Christ in the Second Coming.

O-kay...

My attempted secular version of his argument:

But ... why?

[-] TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago

With his all-consuming fear of death, Thiel is about as far from being a Christian as one can get. All his antichrist talk is a nakedly transparent attempt to gas up the rubes so they remain on the side of the billionaires even after Trump gives up the ghost. He doesn't believe a single thing he's saying.

[-] zogwarg@awful.systems 13 points 22 hours ago

Having spent too much time listening to his shit, i don't think it's purely propagandistic, what he describes is too esoteric to work as effective propaganda, I think some of it is Nazi-being-drawn-to-the-occult type of shit.

[-] prw@mastodon.sdf.org 8 points 1 day ago

@TinyTimmyTokyo All-consuming fear of death is not hardly antithetical to Christianity, merely to its self-presentation. For a great many Christians the whole point of Christianity is escaping death. Fred Clark, himself a Christian, points this out as a major theme in his highly-critical review of the Left Behind books. He's hardly the only one to notice it. https://youtu.be/tLd7BuiC5co?t=162

[-] TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems 2 points 7 hours ago

I get that, but most Christians don't make plans to freeze their bodies after they die.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 22 hours ago

Plus he's gay so if he dies hell awaits, or so the evangelical worldview tends to go.

[-] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Love the Jethro Tull reference! “Not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday” - perfection.

[-] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago

Try not to steelman challenge: level EA (impossible)

[-] scruiser@awful.systems 2 points 5 hours ago

Depends what you mean by "steelman". If you take their definition at it's word, then they fail to try all the time, just look at any of their attempts at understanding leftist writing or thought. Of course, it often actually means "entirely rebuild the opposing argument into something different" (because they don't have a basic humanities education or don't want to actually properly read leftist thought) and they can't resist doing that!

[-] Soyweiser@awful.systems 7 points 16 hours ago

Steelmanning is great. We can say whatever we want against them, and when they then get mad we can just go 'well you didn't properly steelman my argument', and have them spin around in circles while we do something important, like chores in the house.

But ... why?

To avoid debates about whether Thiel actually believes in a literal Antichrist, I'd imagine. Since even if he's making a completely secular argument in metaphor his argument is still both irrational and profoundly evil. Par for the course ofc.

this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

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