Thiel, the far-right billionaire investor, adheres to an overarching philosophy power.
The mansplaining billionaire is a new phenomenon of this decade, The Code author Margaret OMara told me.
After Gawker outed him in 2007, Thiel became more public about his extremist politics.
Peter Thiel speaks at The Cambridge Union on May 08, 2024 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.Nordin Catic/Getty Images/The Cambridge Union
No longer even nominally a libertarian, he now adhered to more of an Objectivist philosophy.
In 2012, he returned to Stanford to teach a course on startups.
In the 2012 GOP presidential primary, Thiel backed Ron Paul.
The Paul campaign was confused; there was basically no communication with the Thiel-backed super PAC Endorse Liberty.
But for Thiel, the point was not to support Paul it was to push his own political agenda.
That November, Thiel helped get Ted Cruz elected to the Senate, a long shot that paid off.
Thiel was thinking about slashing federal bureaucracy and developing a stable of high-powered politicians to help him do so.
Obamas close ties with Silicon Valley had brought the industry and Washington together.
Trump was already surrounded by people who had dabbled in the tech world.
He was part of techs far-right underbelly.
After Trumps victory, tech leaders came to kiss the ring.
Thiel was at his side for the December 14, 2016, meeting.
The tech CEOs flattered and praised Trump.
Business interests were simply more important than politics.
If anything, the president was more excited about meeting the tech leaders than they were about meeting him.
Theres nobody like you in the world, the president-elect said.
Theres nobody like the people in this room.
Thiels money is often found on the fringes of the right.
The billionaire has spread his wealth so widely across the conservative discourse sphere that its almost impossible to track.
He is taking strong sniper shots for people and things he cares about.
He is more like a professor.
But intellectually, he is in battle mode.
That April, aVanity Fairstory by James Pogue examined how the billionaire was funding a New Right revamp.
but theres also a highly online set of Substack writers, podcasters, and anonymous Twitter posters.
This new political alignment, funded by Thiel, is a combination of intelligentsia-style academics and online influencers.
Among those building careers around versions of this platform in the United States are J.D.
Very similar versions of electoral diagonalism have taken root in countries around the world, from Sweden to Brazil.
The success of the conservative ideology hes pushed hasnt filled Thiel with much satisfaction.
By talking to you, Thiel told Gellman, it makes it hard for me to change my mind.
He wasnt alone in his political discontent.
We dont care about [transgender] kids going to bathrooms.
We care about dismantling the regulatory state.
Excerpted fromOwned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Leftby Eoin Higgins.
Copyright 2025 by Eoin Higgins.
