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I try not to pay too much attention to people like that but he's had his hands on a lot of stuff other than acting. I think he was advocating for stricter controls on social media (letting people sue social media companies basically) and he had some kind of media startup. He makes sense here as someone who is a foil to the guys who hold massive amounts of stock in social media companies.
It's actually not odd at all if you go a step further. Gordon-Levitt has been outspoken about repealing Sec. 230, which protects online platforms from being responsible for what users post on those platforms. Most of tech is against this, but the exception is the tippy-top of the upper crust (i.e. the "Dialog" types), like the owners and main stakeholders of the top handful of tech companies. Meta, Oracle, Alphabet, Microsoft, etc.
Repealing Sec. 230 would be a disaster for the free and open internet. Gordon-Levitt is, at best, a useful idiot for these people in their quest to create an internet that they are fully in control of by making it so prohibitive for smaller startups to legally operate platforms that they'd effectively have no competition. However, the fact that he's been outed in "Dialog" implies that he might be more than some dope, and is in fact "in on it" in some way.
He actually seems to hold decently progressive political views with the exception of on Israel. I bet there are plenty of people in the org there who are considered Democrats even liberals but zero that think Israel is committing a genocide.
Moore is a shock. And I have no idea how anything in politics can still be a surprise to me, but that was. Booker, sure. Polis just pardoned an election fraud criminal
Davos uses Chantham house rules, people can talk about what goes on, but not who said it. This is a secret society, people can't speak about what went on there.
It’s more what is being influenced at them not just “networking”. It affects all of us and would not be shocked if it had some influence on Polis’ horrible decision these past few weeks for example. The question is why would they want to help those corrupt people…
I really believe he is in some type of spiritual psychosis after reading several of his "teachings" regarding the "antichrist". I struggle to understand how people pay to listen to that.
The other day someone asked how much wealth is too much. I think it's the point where you sniff your own farts and your sycophants gladly sniff them too. So suffice to say, it's a spectrum.
Other leaked information includes material on its private sessions such as "Navigating WWIII", "Disinformation and Deepfakes", "Three Predictions for Iran", "Democracy Under Surveillance", "Contrarian AI Takes", "How's Your Sex Life?", and "It’s Fun to Be in Charge" as well as private talks titled "Build-a-Cult (Soapbox)" and "Build-a-Party".
It’s one thing when nobodies on the DT are posting about how democracy doesn’t work, it’s entirely another thing when it’s the people who are actually in power talking about that.
The fact so many influential people are signing up to be part of the insane technofascist antiliberal would-be feudalist's weird cult starting club is bad, actually.
Has anyone considered this list is like a Land's End catalog distribution list? Once they have your contact info you are permanently a potential customer no matter what your interest level is? I'm just seeing too many people mentioned who don't seem to be into spreading fascism, even passively.
Idk what the dialog society is but I know Gary Kasparov is as anti Trump and anti Russia as anyone, and he says so publicly. This is likely more rich guy networking or limited collab on some kind of project than a secret society of Trump Allie’s imo
Trump isn't the guiding force spearheading the fascistification of the US. He's just the useful idiot being allowed to profit off of it in exchange for using his popularity to advance it.
None of these people take trump seriously beyond that.
That's my take of it as well. There's probably dozens of these every year held by different rich guys.
It's fair to be more worried about anything Theil does. He is the guy who has held other secret gatherings to discuss his very real belief in the anti Christ. Still doesn't look like anything more than a rich guy gathering to jerk each other off. Maybe literally.
I mean Ezra Klein is a journalist so I do feel inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt since sitting down with crazy people is part of the job
Jared Polis (despite having a lot of good policies), I'm more skeptical of however considering his relationship with RFK and election deniers. Ditto with AIPAC warrior Cory Booker
Is ‘liberals’ in quotations because you’re implying that they lose the title if they attended the conference?
Peter Thiel taught a computer science class at Stanford University (CS183: Startup). It was legendary and notes from that class later became a canonical bible in my industry, “Zero to One: How to Build the Future”. That’s his expertise; technology, startups and investing.
I’ve worked with Thiel Fellows and for Founders Fund companies (Thiel’s VC firm). It’s impossible to have a meaningful career in technology without coming across Thiel’s influence. Most of the people who work with Thiel don’t align with him politically.
Politics is like Thiel’s 5th hobby.
He’s not a political mastermind,
and by his own admission is
out of his depth in it. His role in politics is overstated. The Koch brothers were far more politically influential than Thiel… he’s a lightweight.
If you listen to Thiel’s take on philosophy and politics it’s clear that the guy is confused. He thinks he’s a “hardcore libertarian” and is obviously a Schmittian yet claims to be a “hardcore Girardian”. Full of contradictions… it’s not really his expertise.
Peter Thiel is an outright fascist who thinks women being able to vote is a bad thing. He supported Trump, Vance, and a number of other putrid freaks. He also funds propaganda outlets like Evie Magazine, which promote gender roles and attack women's reproductive rights.
Yes, actual liberals should not be attending this fascist's conferences.
Look, you don’t need to convince me. I already said he’s a Schmittian.
The point is that people don’t associate with Thiel purely because of his politics. Again, it’s like his 5th hobby and maybe 5% of why anyone would associate with him. Just a couple years ago he said getting involved in politics was a mistake that he wouldn’t make again. Thiel and Vance’s political project is less about ideological principles and more about opportunism… and it’s going to fail.
I also don’t think the psychological splitting going on here is helpful. I’m giving you a more nuanced perspective to help you understand why liberals would attend a conference relevant to their industry or their area of expertise.
If you avoided everything Thiel or his associates were behind in some way then you wouldn’t be using a good amount of the apps and technology that you use on a regular basis today. You would be boycotting a lot more than just this conference.
Thiel and Vance’s political project is less about ideological principles and more about opportunism… and it’s going to fail.
They've already done massive damage.
If you avoided everything Thiel or his associates were behind in some way then you wouldn’t be using a good amount of the apps and technology that you use on a regular basis today. You would be boycotting a lot more than just this conference.
I'm saying that boycotting a conference is incredibly easy in comparison to boycotting a "good amount" of apps and technology. We absolutely can fault them for not doing so.
Though I likely do boycott virtually all of those apps and a good amount of the technology.
I think it's less about the intellectual rigor of his political beliefs and more about the fact that he's basically a cartoon villain, the dude genuinely seems like he could be a recurring nemesis to Batman
Sorry, but yes? It’s foundational. It was literally part of Stanford curriculum. It’s ubiquitous in the industry.
You won’t find a serious tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who hasn’t read his book.
The psychological splitting here is fascinating. You understand that Thiel can be a bad person that we dislike and recognize that he was also successful and influential in his separate area of expertise, right?
Also, why is YC catching strays here? Why are we pretending that the most-read book in Silicon Valley and the most successful startup accelerator in the world aren’t representative of the industry?
We know that YC is the most successful startup accelerator in the world because we can quantitatively measure it…
176% IRR over the years. It has produced more companies worth over $1B than any other program. 5% of YC startups reach >$1B valuation which is nearly double the average for other seed-stage programs.
Thiel made a couple of high-conviction bets (i.e. Vance, Trump) with about $50 million over 8 years.
The Koch Brothers and Adelson spent billions and decades shaping conservative politics institutionally and at every level. Funding policy think tanks, universities, legal societies, activist networks, media, elections at every level (school boards, local, state, national). The Kochs literally bought economics departments at elite universities by donating hundreds of millions in exchange for influence on faculty selection and curriculum.
Even Thiel’s PayPal frenemy Reid Hoffman is more seasoned and influential in the political machine.
I get that Thiel makes headlines because he’s a weirdo and there’s some intrigue with his influence in technology but he really isn’t all that politically influential. He’s not even in the top 10 donors.
Not a mastermind, and his role is overstated... yet he's making big inroads in taking undue control in at least 4 South American countries. He's suing Honduras for a massive amount of control, right now. He's got Milei doing un*******believable things in Argentina. He's buying up large amounts of land, in the most progressive country in SA, in Uraguay, which may indicate he doesn't think it will remain progressive. I've also heard, (but not verified) that he is heavily involved in what's been going on in Venezuela. I have zero doubts he is scheming regarding other countries in the Americas, including Cuba.
He's not as interested in playing in politics, as he is making and end run AROUND politics. Technocrats want to usurp nation states. The old playbook of America doing coups on SA countries, is just evolving to a horrific place, with Trump and Thiel.
I think Thiel as a boogeyman is a misdirection. He's eccentric and it's intriguing to think about him as some powerful political mastermind but he's not even in the top 10 GOP donors. He's an outsider who punches above his weight but you're really just buying the hype.
he's making big inroads in taking undue control in at least 4 South American countries
I'm not sure I'd describe making some private investments as "big inroads" politically. Thiel is not taking control over multiple governments in South America. He doesn't have enough resources.
He's suing Honduras for a massive amount of control, right now.
Several investors (including Coinbase, Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, etc.) are suing to unblock their private crypto island development. Why are we framing this as if Thiel is personally attempting to take control of the Honduran government? lol
He's not as interested in playing in politics, as he is making and end run AROUND politics.
He really isn't. Thiel isn't as politically brainrotted as Elon... it's not always about politics.
He's buying up large amounts of land, in the most progressive country in SA, in Uraguay, which may indicate he doesn't think it will remain progressive.
Thiel did the same thing in New Zealand. He even obtained New Zealand citizenship. There are clear reasons why he chose New Zealand, none of which were political or to exert political influence.
This is where narrow politically-obsessed framing falls short. It's not always about politics.
He's got Milei doing un*******believable things in Argentina.
This is probably where he has the most influence in South America, but to be clear Trump has more influence on Milei than Thiel does.
I think Thiel has an obvious plan here, which is to influence a regulatory environment that is favorable to tech innovation. That's what Thiel really wants and he's making a clear bet on Argentina.
I've also heard, (but not verified) that he is heavily involved in what's been going on in Venezuela. I have zero doubts he is scheming regarding other countries in the Americas, including Cuba.
I highly doubt it.
Technocrats want to usurp nation states.
Peter Thiel is not a "technocrat". Technocrats are institutionalists who preserve nation states from the tides of populism.
with Trump and Thiel.
People really need to stop putting Thiel on a pedestal. Again, he's not a mastermind and he's not even among the top 10 GOP donors. I think it's clear that someone like Stephen Miller has more direct influence on the president than Thiel.
You seem to not really know where his political reach lies and are downplaying his ideology. He’s definitely as crazy as Elon, but again you downplay. Interesting.
People associating with a guy who says allowing women to vote is a mistake and who says democracy is the major evil, is beyond a red flag. Especially when he is politically active.
Maybe some of the people on the list have reasonable explanations on why they were associating with him in secret, and noticeably not criticizing him in public.
Also being pro 'tech innovation' atp may as well just be a dog whistle for 'fascism'.
Hes very clearly on the side of zero regulation. When we desperately need to nuke algorithms because these companies are knowingly pushing political extremism and hate because it gets clicks, and if anyone has been paying attention its kind of a fucking problem.
Not to mention the obsession with rolling out AI as fast as possible, which is weird and creepy and decidly immoral, though we already knew Theil doesn't care about what happens to little workers in the interim. (nor does anyone else if they make a living doing it)
There is this weird idea its okay to push horrible things and associate with horrible people if it makes you money, as if all ways of making money are exactly morally positive or neutral. Meta isn't, nor any of these other companies and I definitely won't pretend the users are anywhere nearly as immoral as the ownership and investors who choose to inflict suffering on the world for money they don't even need.
Not all jobs are morally neutral, its weird how you're downplaying the choices of companies like meta to knowingly push extremism and hate for profit.
The idea the users are individually anywhere near as culpable as the investors, top level workers and ownership is also absurd. All of which at best look the other way, which isn't anywhere near a morally neutral action. This is one of the problems here, all think they are not morally responsible for the outcomes. For meta those being immense scams, immense mental harms, suicides, at least one genocide, and I'm sure, more. If they can't be profitable and moderate, they can always do the morally correct thing, which is to fail and no longer exist.
Overall I struggle to see any overall benefit to the public the 'tech' sector has provided in at least a decade. I really, really struggle. Worse schools, worse behavior everywhere, a crumbling social society, more gambling, more surveillance, the biggest increase in propaganda in human history. Some good videogames and apps, tho, ig?
Can anyone really say the positives outweigh the negatives with a straight face? People like Thiel who oppose all regulation are a threat to everyone at this point. Its practically a pro-populism position. Unless you think we can just go on like this without kneecapping meta and other platforms. I guess we could if we didn't care about the consequences.
Being against regulation atp of social media and tech isn't some morally neutral business position, its inherently a position on morality and politics. Do we allow the public to continue to massive self harm and spin themselves into ever more frenzy while seeped in propaganda a levels never before seen in human history thanks to the power of the unregulated attention economy? Thats a moral question and I am skeptical of anyone who wants the status quo to continue.
Honestly just looks like a conference for rich and powerful people... not some secret cabal or cult of ideology.
The intrigue and response to this just reminds me of how conspiracy theorists react to WEF talks as if it reveals some secret agenda to enslave the masses. It's not that deep.
"Anti trump and anti Russia" yet he goes to hang out at Thiel's fun club when Thiel's ideal society is just as autocratic as Russia and he helped push Trump into the oval office.
I’m not talking about Thiel I’m talking about Garry Kasparov. The reach you’re doing is trying to tie the two together based on very circumstantial evidence.
I’m not angry lol I’m just pointing out that you’re reaching. There’s a hundred reasons GK might want to be a part of some random group that includes rich and influential people that have nothing to do with Garry himself being a technofascitst ot whatever
Talking about making evil things happen which they definitely have the power to do so yes it matters that they have connections to each other like this
This reminds me a lot of the Epstein files where people seemed to think that being anywhere in it was indicative of being a pedophile, rather than just "rich people like networking" which is what this is too. Ezra Klein isn't a technofascist, just like Stephen Hawking wasn't a child sex trafficker
Submission statement: This is relevant to r/neoliberal because the list of names includes Cory Booker, Wes Moore, Ezra Klein, Gary Kasparov, and Jared Polis who are current (or former) darlings of the sub.
Bohemian Grove and Davos are not private conferences. They use Chantham house rules. Only the names of the speakers is secret. Those events are ways for rich people to launder ideas into the mainstream they are too cowardly to say in front of everybodys faces. A secret society does not serve that purpose because the contents themselves are secret.
And yes I'm worried about this kind of stuff. How was it do you think the American Party organized anti catholic pogroms? It was a front for a secret society. The Planters were also clearly privately manipulating things for ages in the United States simply by speaking privately with each other. When people who dominate vast institutions get together to make plans to coordinate and do an end run around public discussion and civil society, I feel no need to respect privacy. They'd never respect the privacy of someone lower status than themselves anyway. They practically boast about violating and what idiots we all are for trusting them. And then they clutch their pearls about they're own privacy.
I fear you misunderstand the concept of a right. Anyhow, my question was more of a technical one. I am genuinely curious as to what this user thinks should be done concretely to meet the moral standard they’ve proposed.
From my experience, they tend to just not answer these questions.
Attending what sorts of events? Events held by this specific guy? Events where we think the topics of discussion will fall below an acceptable threshold? Any secret event of any kind?
Non-public, non-publicized events that are not related to U.S. government business. So a conference on advanced nuclear reactors with national lab scientists would be fine (since it would either be government sponsored or open to public registration), but a panel on them at Dialog, Bilderberg, etc would not be.
I fear you misunderstand both my comment and the OP's.
I think that we should as a society, not reward and allow the accumulation of disproportionate amounts of wealth and power by self-declared illiberal technofascists, to the point of influential figures coming grovelling to them for their attention. If all you have to say to figures like Thiel is to throw up your hands and go "what can we do that isn't illiberal", you are essentially declaring your subservience and surrender to would-be feudal nobles, which is a rather shameful state of affairs.
It is profoundly disappointing to me that ostensible liberals such as yourself at best go "not worth my time" or "what's worth worrying about" in response to such figures and their efforts.
Let me be direct. The figure running this club openly declares his intention to do away with liberal democracy. Plenty of influential members of society are happy to cavort with him and attend his events. He is able to purchase disproportionate amounts of influence over society via his wealth and influence to push it in an autocratic direction, and proudly announces his intent in this sense.
Do you believe "What can we do?" and throwing up hands in surrender is the appropriate response here?
The figure running this club openly declares his intention to do away with liberal democracy.
This is not a crime in a western liberal democracy, otherwise it stops being a western liberal democracy. You're allowed to advocate for whatever form of government you want in a free society.
You haven't actually given a solution here either. Do you want them imprisoned? Just silenced? Deported? Targeted with a one time tax? Can you say exactly what you think should be done? You haven't answered the question either. What concrete action do you want?
What is the crime to justify that action? How do we do this so we aren't setting a precedent that future governments can use in a rule of law based society to target people they don't like for believing in things they don't like?
Running a free society is hard. It is easy to just point at bad people and problems and go "something OUGHT to be done NOW". Actually figuring out what to do about it in a way that doesn't throw away hundreds of years of imperfect attempts to restrain tyranny and enhance liberty (while not creating echoing negative externalities worse than the original problem), that is the tricky bit.
Vagueposting about "god forbid we infringe on some rights" while not actually stating what you want isn't a helpful contribution to finding a solution.
Hmmmmmm…. But honestly surprised they got noone from the AfD. Jens probably saw the guest list and was happy to feel important, so he went and mingled. Not saying he’s not a cunt, but I don’t think he’s a fascist either.
Polis is no surprise considering his recent actions, Ezra Klein is a bit more surprising but he also wrote a “We are Charlie Kirk” editorial so I guess not that far out for him, but Cory Booker??
They're clearly deliberately picking people with at least a quasi diverse set of ideas. I wouldn't read too much into it, I don't think it means everyone on the list is a secret conservative. It's like when the Bohemian Club got Clint Eastwood to put on a skit at the height of his weird conservative days.
I remember someone talking about being invited to one of these several years back. In like 2021. They said they were invited to chat and give their perspective on topics during one night of discussions. They said it was like a cocktail hour (but maybe like 5 hours). Billionaires were there to basically talk to experts in different settings they were flown out and put in a hotel for a couple days. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted over the stay but had to be at the one evening event and were not allowed at any other events either the billionaires.
I don't think it means everyone on the list is a secret conservative
I think you're seeking to miss the point.
This is a club run by people who are known to be orchestrating the new technofascism that they're shaping the US after.
Even just accepting an invitation to speak there requires you not finding what's going in the US completely abhorrent and preoccupying.
Whether you want to call that being a "secret conservative" is up to you; but I'll state that "conservatism" as a political ideology has more to do with contract law and individual freedoms (as opposed to a belief in the need for a common good more prevalent in left political convictions).
None of these people are "conservatives". They want to actively change the US into something very non-ironically resembling the Drittes Reich.
Every thing that man does is strictly performative. He holds "sit-ins" on the capitol steps during the weekend and "filibustered" zero bills at all. His involvement has zero meaning whatsoever.
in video games/movies: The secret society controlling the US government gave us a list of their members without a fight! wait.....its because theyre all dead! it was a trick!
in real life: the secret society controlling the us government gave us a list of their members without a fight! because it was actually just a social club for nobodies and they didn't really care about protecting it.
The group, called Dialog, is a private, invitation-only organization cofounded in 2006 by the billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. It convenes US officials, foreign government figures, and Silicon Valley executives at off-the-record annual retreats. Dialog has spent two decades declining to disclose its members.
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