[funkythingss]

I don't understand the medias obsession with Thiel since Trumps election.

He's a republican. K

He's gay. K

He's critical of the Silicon Valley echo chamber. K

He's a great businessman. K

There's not really a great boogieman story to make from. this.

[stryk]

Him and Hulk Hogan got in a tag team fight versus the online version of a supermarket checkout aisle tabloid. And won! That's pretty cool I guess...

I agree the obsession with the guy is weird, but then the entire cult of celebrity thing never really made a lot of sense, imho.

[Mountain_Skies]

Think it is his refusal to toe the valley's ideological line that's causing the obsession. He's pretty much the same guy he has always been but the landscape around him has changed. He refuses to change with it. That makes him confusing to those who have successfully bullied everyone else into groupthink compliance. Why won't he just submit to the hive?

[narrator]

I think being at the head of Palantir maybe gave him a deep understanding of what's really going on inside the federal government and he's a believer that there is indeed a swamp.

This seems to be one of the big issues that separates the Trump supporters from everyone else. Everyone else seems to think the government was run perfectly under Obama's presidency and Hillary's state department and Trump threw the whole world into chaos.

[carlmr]

People are bad at thinking in absolutes. Humans always think in relative terms. Our perception of how well the government operates is in relation to how we perceive the change to previous governments. Obama, Bush, Clinton, Old Bush, Reagan all seemed kind of like a natural progression with some ups and downs. Trump is a breaking change . People are noticing it.

I see leftists posting articles about how normal Bush was. Do you remember Bush being Hitler just 15 years ago? I remember. It's all about comparison.

Obama was a scandal free presidency! Do you remember Obama getting a Nobel Peace Prize and then proceed to bomb 7 countries? Whatever happened to closing Guantanamo? Enabling the greatest surveillance state ever conceived? That's scandalous.

It's all normal now.

[specialist]

Believe me when I tell you that no one misremembers the Cheney Administration. We just didn't think it could get any worse.

[specialist]

"Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line."

[vkou]

If you're concerned with draining the swamp, Trump is the last individual you should be endorsing.

[rapsey]

The choice was between him and Clinton. She sure as hell would not be a better choice.

[carlmr]

Now we all need to look at the design problem here. We have a choice architecture implying there are only two possibilities. Both of which don't represent the people.

The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can develop empathy for the other 50% of people. They're not so different from you. They don't feel represented properly either. But by virtue of the team 1 vs team 2 dynamic they still identify strongly with their candidate. We as a whole need to stop denigrating the other 50%; The idiots, the people that want to ruin your country. We need to see that they have the same wants and needs, and slightly different preferences, and just want to live a good life. We need to stop dividing. That's the game they want us to play. We shall not play it.

[vkou]

> She sure as hell would not be a better choice.

That's not at all clear. His appointments were full of people with horrifying conflicts of interest, to the point that his own party didn't support some of them.

[funkythingss]

And I guess the medias head exploded when everyone clapped at the RNC when he said "I'm proud to be gay, a republican and an American". Didn't you know republicans hate everything that moves, especially gays, womyn and African Americans?

[sgift]

What does that remind me of ... right: "Hey, I'm not a racist, I have many black friends."

[funkythingss]

oh yeah, the Gawker thing was pretty awesome actually. Gawker got what he deserved

[kosei]

He's a lightning rod of political opinions where pretty much all others (wisely) stay quiet.

He and Mark Cuban should have their own reality TV show.

[godzillabrennus]

I think they'll call it the 2024 election cycle coverage.

[etoir]

You forgot:

A website published a story about him being gay and he spent an 8 figure sum to shut down that whole company and ruin everyone involved.

and:

He controls a company which builds mass surveillance technology for the government and selected private companies.