Dave5

Watching JD Vance unravel has given me lots to think about. Reflecting on the weird men that Thiel seems to boost, I’ve come to a conclusion on why he’s so bad at politics.

Money and Misanthropy

Based on image by Androidmarsexpress – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93026655

Thiel uses money has a cudgel. He did it here in NZ to secure his citizenship and our idiot politicians and his useful idiots fell into line. 12 days, $1M donation (tax deductible) and a couple of strategic investments (no capital gains tax in NZ) and bish, bosh, bash: kiwi! In low stakes engagements it has worked a treat.

Thiel and his ilk have a deep deep contempt for the great unwashed – you and me. When mouth breathers like Yarvin push forward ideals like natalism and modern Caesar – they are telling us that we’re genetically too dumb to rule ourselves. They think they are smarter than us. They are certainly more intellectual than us… but this conceit blinds them to all the other variables and that’s where it comes apart.

US politics is not low stakes and is driven by something more than money… it’s driven by power. This really struck home when I listened to AB Stoddard talk about how Pelosi was instrumental in pushing out Biden.

Here-in-lies the insurmountable problem for Thiel. He thinks he knows best and he’s richer than God. He’s trapped – his only tool is money. His track record of Vance, Masters and Weinstein show’s he’s incapable of reading people – let alone understanding non-monetary motivations. He doesn’t see that people can effect massive change by applying soft power – and real politics is that. McConnell and Pelosi are loathsome – but holy shit they can move the needle and HAVE DONE FOR DECADES. In Washington DC!

Outside his clade, Thiel only sees transactions and greedy & dumb people. Here is a great example of his inherently orthogonal social engagement:

Thiel operates on the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy. He has no concept of more complex motivators – he not only misses the game, he misses the WHOLE FUCKING BALLPARK. Politics happens at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy, power is peak self-actualization for politicians – it is their art. People like McConnell and Pelosi know that in their bones and that’s why they are so much better at it. Enduring political power comes from meeting the needs at the top of pyramid, not the bottom (or even mid way up the pyramid).

We’re 100 days out and, fuck knows, anything can happen… but Thiel is showing us the mistake a whole generation of entrepreneurs make: they think their success in one field is transferable into completely unrelated field¹. They think that because their cadre of yes-men are malleable, the whole world is.

The sad irony is that the brain trust is only capable of motivation at the basest instincts.

My gut says that even if Trump wins – Thiel will ultimately lose.

I’ll revisit in Dec², but if Trump loses then Mr Thiel’s own words “I’d rather be seen as evil than incompetent” might come back to haunt him.

1. We had this in NZ with Gareth Morgan and the TOP party (a link to Thiel because Sam Morgan was one of the sponsors of Thiels citizenship) ↩︎
2. I mean, the last few weeks have been batshit crazy… so I’m not predicting anything and I don’t underestimate the efficacy of being evil. ↩︎

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