The Art of the Thiel
I had something else planned for today, but then saw this clip from Peter Thiel. Mr. Thiel, if you don't recognize the name, is the extreme-right multi-billionaire who, among other things, almost single-handedly has funded "JD Vance" and created his career.
What Thiel said last Thursday is: "If you're evil, you're not bad. And maybe you're actually kinda good because at least you're getting something done." Because it's hard to almost even imagine someone saying that even in private -- let say it openly of his own volition in public (and his full statement is even worse than this) -- here's the video.
In his own words Peter Thiel, a significant backer of today's MAGOP, calmly, dispassionately, and with a sense of inner-certainty, shows why he is core to the problem of the MAGOP which has given Trump a 32% approval.
Only Peter Thiel could make the Gordon Gecko' in the movie Wall Street lecturing that "Greed is good" sound almost angelically benign in comparison. It's like he's auditioning to be cast in the James Bond Villain Club. The only thing missing from Thiel here is him twisting the end of a long moustache and snarling, "Nyah, hah hah..."
By the way, just to add another level of reprehensibility to this -- and yes, believe it or not, that's possible -- Thiel made this statement in Berlin, Germany.
Yes, really.
Not that it's necessary for anyone over the age of three, who are still learning right and wrong, I went to my WordWeb dictionary for total accuracy, and this is the exact definition of evil:
1. Morally objectional behavior
2. That which causes harm, destruction or misfortune
For the record, "Causing destruction" is "getting something done."
Murdering someone is "getting something done." Robbing a person at gunpoint and beating them senseless with a lead pipe is "getting something done." Bribing public officials and manipulating laws is "getting something done."
Cutting millions of people's health insurance is "getting something done." Foreclosing on someone's home is "getting something done." Closing polling places in minority districts is "getting something done."
Tearing up an existing nuclear treaty is "getting something done." Starting a war by choice is "getting something done." Sending masked and armed government officials into cities to arrest, deport and shoot legal citizens without warrants is "getting something done."
Demolishing the East Wing of the White House is "getting something done." Forcing comedians off television because you don't like the jokes that they made about you is "getting something done." Selling historic, protected, pristine National Park land to a private developer is "getting something done." Pardoning a former Honduran president convicted of trafficking 400 tons of cocaine in America and sentenced to 45 years in prison is "getting something done."
Building concentration camps and starting the Holocaust is "getting something done."
And no, I am not comparing the extreme-right Peter Thiel or Trump or anyone in the MAGOP to Nazis. I am noting that the concept of "getting something done" -- when following the statement "If you're evil, you're not bad" -- is abhorrent.
But this is today's MAGOP.
And it leaves out all the rest he said. Like, "If you're evil, you're at least competent." Seriously?? Putting aside, so what?!, you're still evil, which is the point -- not how talented you are at being evil. But even putting that aside, Trump, whose actions are incredibly cruel and evil, tore up a nuclear treaty, started a war by choice without an exit strategy, made Iran more powerful and undermined the world economy with an energy crisis. Competent? This was crazy, bumbling and disastrous. Competent? Trump has dementia, which is degenerative. If you're evil, no, that doesn't mean "you're at least competent". It just means you're evil.
But this is today's MAGOP.
Peter Thiel is foundational to the funding and direction of the MAGOP. But this isn't about Peter Thiel. He's only one of many voices pushing the party today, albeit an important voice. It's about all those in the MAGOP listening. Doing these things. Supporting and enabling them. Not pushing back against them. Making such things your standard.
And it is the MAGOP standard. How often have we heard a news story about Trump, the authoritarian head of the party, or about an action taken by his circle, where it's reported, "The point is is the cruelty"? That phrase has become so regular that it's almost become like a mantra.
Trump filing lawsuits he has no chance of winning, but putting the defendant through the stress and cost of fighting it. ICE and Border Patrol agents arresting legal American citizens who later get released. MAGOP officials in Congress cutting ACA tax credits pushing people off of healthcare -- and calling it part of your Big Beautiful Bill. "DOGE" eliminating agencies that provide life-saving AID to Third World countries. Trump telling police they should treat people they arrest violently. Trump calling women reporters "stupid," "a terrible person," "nasty," "obnoxious," "quiet, piggy," "not smart enough," "crooked" and more. On and on and on.
The point is the cruelty.
This is today's MAGOP. This and so much less.
And there is the extreme-right billionaire, MAGOP financier Peter Thiel saying the quiet part out loud. "If you're evil, you're not bad. And maybe you're actually kinda good because at least you're getting something done." And the party accepts that! The leaders of the party don't rise up in spitting-furious outrage and repudiate the statement.
Because that is today's MAGOP. Out loud.
For a while, it worked for the MAGOP. But after a while, people tend to realize that they don't actually like cruelty, don't like evil, don't like unqualified incompetence, don't like corruption, don't like the results of it all -- an out-of-control, unnecessary war. Skyrocketing gas prices. High tariffs raising consumer prices. Masked, armed agents shooting American citizens. And you end up with a party's leader having a 32% approval. And his party being demolished in the Mid-Term election. Demolishing something. Hunh, well, there's something Peter Thiel should likely approve of. And has no reason to complain about.
After all, the American people are at least getting something done.
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