Peter Thiel Calls Google 'Treasonous' and Says CIA Should Investigate

https://gizmodo.com/facebook-board-member-peter-thiel-calls-google-treasono-1836370398

by rbanffy • 7 years ago

68 66 7 years ago

At this point Peter is only pointing out the obvious. YC isn't that innocent either regarding influence from China https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/1/18511540/silicon-valley-...

moccachino4• 7 years ago

Pot calling the kettle black!

mrkeen• 7 years ago

Neither Google nor a representative for Mr. Thiel responded to a request for comment early Monday.

Too bad, he could have spelled out in what way Google are helping the Chinese military.

schappim• 7 years ago

It might have had something to do with the reports of Google helping the Chinese with touchscreen tools used in PLA fighter jets.

Google denied these reports.

Barrin92• 7 years ago

According to other attendees at the conference on Sunday, Thiel also said that Americans were too fat and addicted to drugs, adding that, “the biggest problem in our society is the problem of political correctness.”[...] Thiel said that any links between Google and China, “need to be asked by the FBI, by the CIA, and I’m not sure quite how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner.”

No offense, but has Thiel completely lost it? He's starting to sound deranged. Is he seriously suggesting civilian Google employees should be interrogated by three letter agencies to institute some sort of state capitalism in the US? For all the scaremongering about China he doesn't seem to have a lot of problems with applying their methods

maze-le2• 7 years ago

Not to mention, that they are direct competitors of Palantir.

JaimeThompson6• 7 years ago

I believe "not excessively gentle manner" may refer to actual torture sorry "enhanced integration"

vikramkr• 7 years ago

I thought he was some sort of ultra libertarian- apparently he isn't since he's pushing for the government to interfere with business and interrogate civilians over a perceived threat.

notahacker• 7 years ago

He cofounded Palantir. Not sure his libertarianism goes much beyond a desire to reduce his tax bill.

JaimeThompson6• 7 years ago

He appears to like Ron Paul who had no trouble at all using government to help the businesses in his district. He appear to support Libertarian ideas only as long as they don't cost him profit.

C1sc0cat2• 7 years ago

Yes using dog whistle terms like "political correctness" is a bit of a bad sign.

in the future I could see some tech companies being considered CNI requiring security vetting - for senior / sensitive jobs.

Which of course would suck for those who came in via h1b and of course Mr Thiel who is a first gen immigrant would have a hard time passing DV / TS clearance.

scruple• 7 years ago

"Political correctness" is a dog whistle now? For what, exactly?

empath75• 7 years ago

He’s always been that way. He’s a vindictive asshole.

blaser-waffle3• 7 years ago

See also: Hulk Hogan v Gawker

maze-le2• 7 years ago

Calling the biggest gang around the block... interesting way to get rid of an competitor -- tried and tested through the ages.

neilv• 7 years ago

They've both built crazy imminent totalitarian nightmares for everyone.

The disagreement here seems to concern appearances atop that.

Or merely competitive rivalry, in the dystopia engineering business.

linkregister• 7 years ago

There is almost no substance to this news story, or of the quote's newsworthiness. Taken in context, Thiel is employing speculative rhetoric.

Pandabob• 7 years ago

More thorough notes from Thiel's speech by Bonnie Kavoussi (via Marginal Revolution): https://medium.com/@bonniekavoussi/notes-from-peter-thiels-s...

playing_colours4• 7 years ago

Sorry for this off-topic comment, I am not pro-Trump and not American, but I cannot help but have negative feelings towards the obvious grains of bias against Trump and Thiel in the article. Probably, because I am from an ex-Soviet bloc country and sensitive to the media propaganda language. Examples:

- “the Trump regime”. We use “regime” for the countries led by dictators who are not friends of USA, right? Since when Trump is a dictator?

- Mentioning Thiel’s comments about fat people, etc. How does it contribute to the main problem? It looks like another cheap manipulation - like “boo, see, Thiel is crazy!”

mises2• 7 years ago

Your point about "regime" is dead on. I never heard the phrase "Obama regime"; it was always "administration". Our media has a sickeningly blatant leftward bias, unless you go to fringe conspiracy sites which are no news at all. There are a few good ones, but not many.

moccachino4• 7 years ago

I don't want to get into politics much here but I have to respond to this. I'm not American but from where I stand I see that Trump is trying his best to turn his presidency into a dictatorship. He also admires and enjoys the company of actual dictators. So using this word as a form of criticism is not unfounded.

Also, it's not the general rule, most articles I see use 'administration'.

And I don't think it's the media who has a leftward bias, rather the Republican Party has moved way way out on the fringe. If you look globally, the average Democratic office holder would be a right wing politician in most other countries.

happytoexplain2• 7 years ago

You're implying that treating two politicians from the left and the right differently is intrinsically a symptom of "sickening" political bias, when in fact truly unbiased objectivity will always make one of those people look worse than the other. What I find more sickening is how often people hide behind the idea of neutrality when, hypocritically, expressing their hatred for the media and people of the opposite political party. I think it's a much worse problem.

JaimeThompson6• 7 years ago

Please, using your favorite search engine, search for "Obama regime" and see how often it was used. You will find that it was used a lot more than you remember.

dragonwriter2• 7 years ago

I never heard the phrase "Obama regime"

That's seems to be a sign of either extremely limited reading (biased to left-wing sources out of the mainstream) or extremely selective memory (rejecting or inventing facts to fit a right-wing narrative).

While both “Obama regime” and “Trump regime” seem to be used mostly originally by outside-the-mainstream media (the right and left fringes, respectively), the uses of the latter don’t even seem to get quoted much in mainstream sources, while the former (though not particularly frequently) do, at least from reviewing and, in the case of mainstream results, reading through results from the obvious phrase searches on Google News.

JaimeThompson6• 7 years ago

Regime means "Mode or system of rule or management; character of government, or of the prevailing social system." so it is a fitting use of the word in my opinion. The comments about fat people / etc he actually said and give a broader view of his speech.

playing_colours4• 7 years ago

Sorry, I may be wrong - I am not a native English speaker, although read and communicate a lot in English. I do not hear often the use of “regime” with “good” countries and leaders - say, Obama regime, Merkel regime.

stevenjohns• 7 years ago

You're not wrong about "regime" - it's used to belittle governments that someone doesn't agree with. It doesn't even apply just for dictatorships, i.e the previous Iraqi administration was (and still is by The Economist) referred to as an "authoritarian regime" by some even though it is a multi-party representative democracy with almost full autonomy in the North with peaceful transitions of power across all areas of government.

If someone were to call the current American government a regime then they're likely dog whistling[0] and it reflects the editorial slant of the writer and/or the publication. But it's worth keeping in mind that Gizmodo is just another tech blog and, having worked for one before, I can say that the focus is on churning out more clickbait crap rather than producing anything with substance. The person who wrote it probably has no real understanding of journalism and doesn't understand the implications of the words chosen - they got the job just because they have some half-decent level of grammar. And the editor who approved it probably focused more on the title than the content. So don't think too much about it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

olalonde• 7 years ago

Also calling Tucker Carlson a white supremacist is quite a stretch (he is anti-immigration). Disclaimer: not a fan of either Trump or Carlson.

drevil-v22• 7 years ago

That entire article is an opinion piece and not news item. I stopped reading at the phrase "Trump regime".

These days it is impossible to find straight news without a sanctioned political and social narrative.

No country for old men.

EDIT: The word "regime" has negative connotation meant to convey oppression and tyranny. To call the present Amercian administration a "regime" is a slap in the face to hundreds of millions of human beings who have suffered under a true regime.

Go to your local retirement home and speak to someone who has lived through those times. Words like that should not be casually thrown about.

JaimeThompson6• 7 years ago

How is that not a valid word choice? Regime - Mode or system of rule or management; character of government, or of the prevailing social system.

mises2• 7 years ago

Regime caries a negative connoation which was previously used to often describe tin-pot dictators. I always heard of the "Obama administration", which has a much more positive connotation. It's subtle but evident partisanship.

drevil-v22• 7 years ago

The word "regime" has negative connotation meant to convey oppression and tyranny. To call the present Amercian administration a "regime" is a slap in the face to hundreds of millions of human beings who have suffered under a true regime.

syshum4• 7 years ago

Are you going to use the dictionary to defend other words with clearly socially negative connotations?

I always love when the Authoritarian Left attempts to use the dictionary to defend themselves, it clearly proves you have lost the narrative

coldcode• 7 years ago

CIA does not investigate things inside the US. That would be the FBI.

aNoob70005• 7 years ago

I agree with your point. I wish Mr. Thiel were less conspiratorial and provide more detailed information.

The same concerns he has about Google, anyone else can have about Planatir.

blaser-waffle3• 7 years ago

Isn't Planatir explicitly a government contractor? Like, the CIA/FBI/etc. is buying data mining from Theil's people.

Pot-kettle-black. I wonder if some spook ripped off his software or said mean things about his mom or something.

gct• 7 years ago

Peter Thiel is a blithering idiot, film at 11

bassman9000• 7 years ago

There is the fraud of university education. Student loan debt is not dischargable in bankruptcy. The government can garnish your Social Security payments when you’re 65 to pay off your student loans. I’m very optimistic that this fraud is finally coming to an end.

There's a lot in this speech.

drivingmenuts• 7 years ago

Hmm. Weird. I thought Libertarians were free to do business with whom they choose.

I guess only when it's to their own advantage.

Peter Thiel Calls Google 'Treasonous' and Says CIA Should Investigate

Related Stories