[inreverse]

The first paragraph is misleading enough that I stopped reading; there's no evidence that Thiel has NZ citizenship "as a hedge against the looming apocalypse" (?), and he recently sold that "500 acre estate".

He was given citizenship by a conservative-leaning Prime Minister in the hopes that he would invest in the local tech scene, which he has. The $50 million he invested is not a lot by silicon valley standards but it is a fair amount for New Zealand, and it went to some of NZ's best startups (possible bias, I worked at one).

[titzer]

> and he recently sold that "500 acre estate".

He just filed his plans for developing a massive compound in New Zealand.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/peter-thiel-files-plans-to-b...

[inreverse]

Oh eek, I retract my comment!

[coliveira]

The way he got the citizenship doesn't disprove the idea that he wanted it "as a hedge against the looming apocalypse".

[kjksf]

It also doesn't disprove the idea that he wanted it to host sex parties in NZ for people that are exactly 6 feet 3 inches tall and have green eyes.

Both are equally made up "reasons" for Thiel getting NZ citizenship.

BTW: what kind of apocalypse exactly does one hedge against with NZ citizenship? A zombie apocalypse where zombies don't like New Zealand?

[jay_kyburz]

Perhaps something like covid, but worse. NZ is doing better than Australia for containment.

We also have looming ecosystem collapse, or cascading problems in spercific ecosystems (pests and plagues) that NZ might be partially sheltered from.