PayPal mafia OG Peter Thiel, whose data firm Palantir is currently assisting the Trump administration’s deportation machine, recently began taking time out of his day job (ghoulish billionaire defense contractor) to engage in some part-time work as a Christian evangelist spreading the word about the rise of the Antichrist. It’s been a bizarre sight, indeed, and this week, Thiel kicked things up a notch by launching the first of a four-part lecture series he’s doing about the Dark Lord.
Thiel’s super-exclusive lecture series, which began on Monday in San Francisco, was said to have been about “how his Christian faith informs his understanding of the world,” according to an online ad. The event was organized by a nonprofit called ACTS 17 Collective: Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society. Thiel has previously spoken at several events put on by ACTS 17, according to reporting by the New York Times. The group’s modus operandi is to court Silicon Valley executives and attempt to convert them to the Christian faith.
It’s unknown to the public just what exactly Thiel said about his “Christian faith” and Christ’s chief antagonist during Monday night’s secretive seminar, but there were plenty of people outside of the venue who were more than happy to publicly share their thoughts about Thiel. That is to say, a group of several dozen protesters showed up to the demon-centric event and offered ample criticism of the speaker, seeming to imply he was, himself, demonic.
In a video taken at the scene, several protesters, dressed in presumably ironic satanist garb, can be seen holding a banner that reads: “The End is Near, Palantir is the Path, Thiel Leads the Way.” One of them, a young woman with an upside-down cross on her forehead, said: “I’m just here to hopefully get a glimpse of the antichrist himself.” Another young woman, seen holding a satanic bible, said she was hoping to get his autograph. A young man holding a sign that read “Embrace Darkness, Hail Thiel,” said, with faux optimism: “He’s the one, he’s the one who’s going to bring about the end!”
Others approached their political protest with less sarcasm, though the message seemed to be pretty much the same. One younger protester said that she was protesting because “Thiel is a fascist” who was “trying to take over the country through J.D. Vance.” She referred to Thiel’s antichrist lectures as his “Christian bullshit,” and said she thought his endgame was “power.”
Another woman said, “I think Peter Thiel needs to go away for a while,” adding, “I think he has a lot of power.” She also said that she felt there was “increasing authoritarianism” in the country and that Thiel is “part of the elite, who really do think that they are above the rest of us,” and that this group “have a plan for taking over the country.”
The handcrafted signs at the protest were quite creative and funny. One, visible in the background during an interview, appears to show Thiel—who is a rabid J.R.R. Tolkien fan—as Gollum, cradling the one ring. Another person, a local artist, brought one of their paintings to the rally, it depicts Thiel as a devil on President Trump’s back:
Even attendees of Thiel’s talk did not seem overly enthusiastic about the speaker. The San Francisco Standard reports that one person standing in line told its reporter: “I’m personally ready for horns to grow out of his head in the middle of talking.” The interviewee, who revealed that he had also attended the “anti-woke” school known as the University of Austin, seemed more curious about Thiel’s thoughts than compelled by them. “Palantir makes the AI technology that decides who lives or dies on the battlefield, which seems exactly like the Antichrist [that Thiel] describes in all of his lectures,” the guy said. “I’m very curious what he has to say about that, or what excuses he might make.”
If Thiel really is concerned about the rise of the Dark Lord, his decision to give a series of private speeches to a select audience is somewhat confounding. You’d think he’d want to shout it from the rooftops. Why not rent out a football stadium and give your speech there? That said, Thiel has made many podcast appearances in recent months in which he’s given web users a taste of what his newfound faith looks like.
What does Thiel have to say about the Dark Lord? In short: Nothing coherent.
In a recent interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, the tech oligarch seemed to suggest that political organizations that expressed interest in regulating the kinds of technology that he (Thiel) is invested in may actually be doing the Devil’s work.
Thiel also rambled on about how he thought the Antichrist might support things like nuclear non-proliferation, international law, and the regulation of AI. Thiel also suggested that the Antichrist could be someone like Greta Thunberg—a social activist who cares about climate change and Palestinians.
Maybe, and stick with me here, it’s possible that Thiel just has an incredibly incoherent view of the world and a lot of power to spread incoherence to every aspect of society that he touches.
Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Lectures Met With Protestors Who Seem to Think He’s the Antichrist
