Journalists will often try to attend these things to get a scoop, the other attendees will be trying to influence that scoop. That may not definitely be the case here, but it's also not given they're plants or anything.
Because he's a controlled opposition nepobaby with little actual intellectual merit, like many in the sector. Similar to Sam Harris, who's also on the list, with new atheism. Sometimes you just need some people to propagandize and all that's important is that they're loyal.
He's there just to make a certain group of people slightly more okay with some questionable views.
I am not really bothered by talking-shop nonsense like this; rich dullards with no discernible talent have always organised quiet little salons to try to seem impressive. If no young people are being sexually abused, let them talk.
For all the fuss about Bilderberg in the early 2000s, for example, it apparently was quite dull and blowhardish and achieved little; nobody who participated was particularly advantaged except for the opportunity to find out how dark-sided Henry Kissinger really was was in person. Beyond that it’s just networking; Twitter did the same job for a while, private invitation-only discussion forums online still do it.
And besides it has its own punishment built in, even I dare say for Thiel himself, who is a terrible person, but not so terrible that he should have Ted Cruz inflicted on him outside work hours.
Aside from that, aren’t people just going to come away with first-hand knowledge that Thiel is a sweaty weirdo?
I smell a word that begins with the letter 'c' and ends with 'orruption'.
Now we only need a cross-reference to all who were partying on the Epstein islands yet were not tracked by a government that is not very ... motivated to find out all who organised those parties, involving underage people (we have eye witness testimonies of that already; the current government deliberately delays any real further investigations here).
Also, Ted Cruz there - interesting how only very few politicians are on the list. Must be a close buddy. Someone should have a look at the legislation pushes by Ted.