[_DeadFred_]

Joe Rogan, now's mainstream media, humble brags about hanging with Thiel on show.

Thiel very much plays the game in your second sentence, he's just smart about it. Thiel is gaining attention because he's put in the work, for a long time. Not because of shock value. And he's leveraging his soft power/contacts/PR sources/exposing his power level/drawing on what he built pretty hard now. Why?

[red-iron-pine]

because his blood-bag is currently the VP and he's angling for him to take over if/when Trump is declared unfit or just dies

he's exploring these esoteric tasks 1) cuz he wants to, and 2) because he knows they'll sell with the right demographics