Peter Thiel: The pope is ‘working for the Chinese Communists’ by criticizing AI

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/02/us/peter-thiel-aspen-pope-china-ai-cec

554 points · 88 comments · view on lemmy.world

88 Comments

NONE_dc@lemmy.world · 95 pts · 31d (9 replies)

I seriously wonder if this guy actually believes what he's saying or if he's just saying it to fool the most gullible and naive investors.

I don't know which of the two possibilities is worse...

jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works · 39 pts · 31d

He says whatever he believes will gain him the most money.

wjrii@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 31d (3 replies)

It doesn't get a lot of play, because it's kind of obtuse, but he has extremely strong beliefs; they're just ones that don't preclude him saying this stuff to fool investors. There were a few pieces that have been written about it, and they flared up again after his weird antichrist lectures last year.

The article hints at it it, but basically, he subscribes/contributes to an extreme variant of an obscure religion-adjacent philosophy that posits that the social stability benefits of an authoritarian Christian monoculture, preferably over the whole world due to some quirks of Christian theology, but certainly at least in the parts of the world where Christianity is a majority religion, are so amazing that they're worth pretending that it's all actually factually true, and that a surveillance state to preserve harmony (and, surprise side effect, it also locks in the power of the elites who establish it all!) is completely acceptable. Theoretically the Christianity part is optional, but there is a lot of risk inherent in not relying on the historical social glue.

To him, seeking this is for the good of humankind. Anything that opposes any of it with any sort of sway, and especially from a Christian context, can be fairly called an antichrist. It's some serious Leto II God Emperor of Dune shit.

bedwyr@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 30d (2 replies)

Idk about that, he's in a group that includes this Yarvin douchebag that is a thought leader amongst them.

wjrii@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 30d (1 reply)

Mostly, I think he’s just so egotistical and so far up his own ass that he has completely conflated his own self-interest, instincts, hobbies, and ego with literally saving the world. Legitimately held beliefs are not necessarily legitimate beliefs.

I do have to admit I enjoy his big-ackshully energy that reveals itself when people call him out on the Palantir name.

bedwyr@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 30d

He is the devil though.

Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 31d

He's gay, talking about the antichrist and trying to discredit the pope.

I think it's propaganda.

slaacaa@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 30d

Guy is just unhinged. He did a lecture series about the antichrist.

RobMyBot@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 30d

The thing about lies is, if you tell them enough, you begin to genuinely believe them yourself.

M137@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 30d

"I don't know which of the two possibilities is worse..."

The theme of the 21st century.

ishartdoritos@lemmy.zip · 49 pts · 31d (2 replies)

This guy's really not great at veiling his dream of being world boss man.

He's so fuckin' stupid that the fact that he's insanely rich is really the problem.

This guy could have a stroke tomorrow and talk only about my little pony and he'd still have influence.

Musk could have a lobotomy and switch to painting public urinals with his own shit and he would still have influence.

Both of these south African Nazi fuckbois are the best example of what's wrong with the world.

Oh and Alex Karp can suck a giant dick and get fucked too.

bedwyr@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 30d

You say that, but Thiel just got his guy elected, and had his tool (musk) export all government agency data to his data banks.

Mirshe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 30d

Oh nah, he doesn't wanna be the world's boss - that's work, and exposes him to way too much criticism and publicity. He'd much rather be the Wormtongue or Saruman than be Sauron. He wants the benefits of access to power, not necessarily the power itself (and the vulnerability that comes with it).

Ilixtze@lemmy.ml · 30 pts · 31d (1 reply)

It makes sense for a posthuman moron like Thiel to look more and more like a caricature of Frankenstein's monster with every picture. We need to update our classic to the "clankerstein; the dumbass Prometheus."

sundray@lemmus.org · 11 pts · 31d

Prometheus

... but instead of stealing the secret of fire from the gods to gift to humanity, he stole their garbage to sell to idiots.

theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 31d (2 replies)

The Catholic Church is working with the Communists? Yeah okay.

kudra@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 31d
babysmokesalot@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 31d

It is the ol good cop bad cop = controversy. Farm outrage self fulfilling prophecy. Loops, dupes and poops. Hey look at me bla bla bla…. I got your nose. Flood the zone they will never know.

Sludgehammer@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 31d (1 reply)

We need to do some MRI scans or something so see if the brain damage is detectable once you pass one billion dollars.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 30d

mri scan would reveal the anti-christ as a non-human.

SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 30d (1 reply)

Of all the crazy billionaires out there, Peter Thiel certainly is one

Slovene85@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 30d

And he's starting to look more and more like a Gollum.

kyub@discuss.tchncs.de · 20 pts · 30d (3 replies)

I always wonder whether the fall of the Roman Empire also was this stupid and deranged...

wackyheartfluid@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 30d (2 replies)

They had a lot of lead pipes in rome, so maybe.

PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space · 4 pts · 30d (1 reply)

AI is the lead pipes of our time. Got it.

wackyheartfluid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d

I don't think it's using AI that's turned their brains into pudding.

fartographer@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 30d (3 replies)

That sounds like high praise. He normally calls everyone the antichrist

Flagstaff@programming.dev · 10 pts · 30d (2 replies)

Wait, does Thiel not realize that the Chinese made Qwen and other models? How dumb does one have to be to miss that?

fartographer@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d (1 reply)

One can be as dumb as Peter Thiel when one is Peter Thiel

Flagstaff@programming.dev · 2 pts · 30d

Ha, true!

Taleya@aussie.zone · 18 pts · 30d (3 replies)

No one's laughed in this man's face and asked him if he was high for a long time, huh.

Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 30d (1 reply)

Well, I think his underlings know he's high but they probably know better than to point it out

Taleya@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 30d

I meant more in the "denigrating the bullshit that just came out of your mouth" way

HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 1 pts · 29d

It's all because he only talked with people over the internet.

Seldon@discuss.tchncs.de · 18 pts · 30d (4 replies)

In this day and age, why do we keep sharing these fucking articles? Stop giving fascists a voice.

binux@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 30d (1 reply)

Fascists don’t just go away if you stop mentioning them; if anything, cancer works best undetected. You have to cut them out at the roots, systemically or otherwise, and that requires being conscious of them.

Seldon@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 30d
[ removed ]
Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 30d

To show Capitalism keeps its promises: Any idiot can become filthy rich.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 29d

They want to be in the shadows, so they can get away with their exploitation easier. Better to shine a bright light on them. To know them is to hate them, so let's get to know EVERYTHING they're doing.

TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 18 pts · 30d

Please stop give giving pieces of shit people like this any attention. Please do not spread their bullshit. Negative attention is also attention.

Grass@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 31d (1 reply)

Everything I don't like is [communism/woke/dei/liberal/etc.] and generally also projection.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 30d

or chinese.

Fishnoodle@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 31d (3 replies)

He looks like something phrenologists would obsess over

saltesc@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 31d (1 reply)

He looks like he's missing bolts in his neck.

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 31d

He might have gone through a dryer or something?

Oh not, this explains it:

Thiel owns homes all over the world, with his main residence in Miami.[554][555]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#Personal_life

eestileib@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 29d

He's a vampire, he regularly gets the blood plasma of his lovers and son as an IV (probably not at the same time, tho, reporting is vague on that).

Dude is not a good advertisement for aging gracefully despite that though.

Looks like chronic sleep deprivation, possibly linked to stimmies, to me. He's also decided to gear up his training a little, looks like.

content_educator_94@thelemmy.club · 15 pts · 30d

Peter looks and sounds like he's on that crystal methamphetamine

Fedizen@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 30d (2 replies)

This is Peter Thiel's monster. Peter Thiel is the brain tumor in its head.

SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d (1 reply)

Oh my god holy shit first time I see a photo of him and he really looks like Frankenstein's monster

dreamy@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 29d

He looked much younger not too long ago. The young people's blood he keeps sucking seem to not be working too well for him.

moondoggie@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 30d (1 reply)

“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

Hermit_Lailoken@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 30d

Excellent reference.

Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one · 14 pts · 31d

If only China actually was as communist as critics say it is.

LittleBorat3@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 30d

Some experimental anti aging drug must have fucked up this man's brain.

yggstyle@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 30d

I rarely find myself aligned with the churches backwards ways but...

I feel like a good burning at the stake might do us all a bit of good here.

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 30d

Would you like to know more about this monster?

Behind the Bastards did a four-parter (the Gravedigger of Democracy series, on YouTube)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

BTB did another two-parter series Peter Thiel and the Antichrist which I haven't listened to yet, but I assume is about Thiel's recent speaking tour talking about how we're now in the end of days.

popekingjoe@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 31d

What a fucking idiot. He looks like Frankenstein's monster before he died.

Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 30d

Now they're just spewing bullshit. It's really the Kremlin (and maybe others) playbook. Overwhelm everyone with crap and we just don't have the energy to figure out the correct parts. Donald trump is a master of this too.

BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 30d

Are the Chinese Communist working for the Antichrist?

Is this guy literally running around just telling absolutely anyone that will listen absolutely whatever they want to hear?

CoolSouthpaw@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 30d (1 reply)

I think organised religion is terrible. But fuck Peter Thiel.

orbitz@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 30d

Never trust a billionaire, but he's a special sort of evil. He just wants his own power.

Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 31d

Yeah cause this gargoyle who lives off of government subsidies knows that the influence of communism looks like.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 30d

This sounds like something Grok would say.

Is this guy maybe just a meat puppet for an LLM? Has it begun?

WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 30d (1 reply)

I am now working for the Chinese communists too, prefer them.

FlyingCircus@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 30d

We'd certainly all be better off if we had governments like China's.

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 30d

theil is working for the russian government to destroy the us

matthurtme@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 30d

I identify as a Catholic China loving Communist that hates a.i. then.

Etterra@discuss.online · 5 pts · 30d (2 replies)

I think this is the first time I've ever seen a picture of this guy and God damn is he goofy looking.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 30d

He really is a weird creature.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 29d

He can find young men to sell him their blood, but he hasn't found one who will sell him his face yet, but he's working on it. If you're a handsome guy, you really don't want to give that up.

Formfiller@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 31d

Yes the Chinese big fans of religion.

StillAlive@piefed.world · 3 pts · 31d

I'm wondering what the audience reaction to this claim was cause I would've started laughing like a maniac.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 29d

Hoo boy, we're going to be hearing a lot about the Godless Red Communist Chinese for the next few years. It's going to be like going back to 60s, except with shitty music.

heartSagan5@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 30d

Hey, Peter Thiel, I hope you enjoy God’s sick burn bitch.

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 30d

I never realized how much thiel resembles Sloth from the Goonies...

Steve@communick.news · 3 pts · 31d (2 replies)

Aren't they also chasing AI?
Don't our AI guys say we need beat the Chinese to AGI?

Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 31d (1 reply)

They are saying China wants AI all to itself.

Its been just as destructive to peoples brains in China.

marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 30d

Its been just as destructive to peoples brains in China.

Surprisingly enough, not really. Chinese citizens that use AI, on average, are significantly better educated than Americans. Internal Chinese AI models also aren't sycophantic and are significantly less focused on 'personality' versus actual facts. Don't get me wrong it's still just LLMs so all of what it produces are hallucinations that might correspond with reality, but the training data for most models have been exclusively scientific and non fiction literature, instead of reddit threads.

I mean the Falun Gong types are probably in full psychosis, but they were like that before.

RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d

What A24 movie is he speedrunning?

busted_Anoose@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 24d

This week in : "Cooked billionaires"

green_goglin@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 30d

That weird lil’ Chicken shit fled from the United States.

svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 30d

Should've worked for the Vietnamese Communists instead, then there wouldn't be a problem. /j

theblurstoftimes@leminal.space · 1 pts · 29d

Says the antichrist according to his own teaching of the Antichrist.

babysmokesalot@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 31d

Imagine the commies and crusaders storming the ai data centers. Should be the name of a strain of weed. phhhhuck china haters are now in this dudes camp. The gay dude who hates gay dudes.

UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 30d (4 replies)

Well, I don't know the context, but the Chinese are running propaganda on social media to point out that Ai is bad, so they can win. So, by the pope being rightfully against AI, in Peter theil's mind I assume he thinks the pope is working in China's interest.

marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 30d

No, no they are not. Again you fell for Billionaire propaganda.

CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 30d (1 reply)

But China isn’t anti AI?

UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world · -5 pts · 30d

Yes, they are not anti Ai, but they want us to be

TORFdot0@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d

If the Chinese want to end their society by “winning” the AI race first, I welcome them too