Between Maps and Meaning

Over the next few paragraphs I want to talk about about a key figure behind the Trump administration Peter Thiel. Actually, I want to talk about his political philosophy, and how his ideals could be influencing what is happening in America right now. I do not want to get deep into the weeds of who Thiel is, or how he found his power so I will assume you know a little bit about him already. If you don’t there are plenty of resources outside myself that can help you understand who he is. What I will tell you before I start is that he is one of the most powerful men in America. He has played a key role in the rise of JD Vance, giving him the largest donation (at the time) for a senatorial candidate in American History. He has helped using his money and influence to take Vance from winning a congressional seat in 2022 to vice president in 2024, and possibly presidential favorite in 2028. Using Vance as an example alone we can see the power Thiel holds and the influence he has over the current administration. Even Trump’s Crypto Czar David Sacks, cowrote a book with Thiel. Thiel has his finger prints all over the administration. What does Thiel want? Well in order to get into what he may want we must first understand what he believes.

Let’s start with a book written by Thiel and David Sacks, “The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus.” Much of what Sacks and Thiel warned about in this early book came to be true. If you have not read it, what I can say in a short summary DEI and the American bureaucracies became tied at the hip, and essentially speech codes or what someone might frame as anti-hate speech laws passed. Although in America the hate speech laws are less of an issue we do see issues with arrests over social media posts happening in England and Germany. Thiel and Sacks do not call for some racial hierarchy in this book, instead they want a merit based system, and a campus that does not turn away other ideas that don’t align. These were young libertarians attending a very left leaning Stanford University. They must have felt ostracized and quieted both by students and administration. Now, how has this belief affected the Trump administration? It should be no surprise that when reelected in 2024 Trump took away grants that were related to DEI programs, and threatened to cut federal funding for schools who did not end DEI practices. Now that we have a clear example of Thiel’s philosophy aligning or maybe even influencing Trump’s administration, let’s get into the weeds of a few other examples.

What does Thiel believes of the American system of democracy? He subscribes to the general belief of that of Curtis Yarvin. Yarvin believes democracy doesn’t work and is a self described monarchist. Now Thiel himself has not openly defended the monarchy position but does subscribe to the idea that democracy has failed. The belief stems from the thought that change is impossible because the bureaucracy is too powerful, and that the president himself has little to no ability to enact meaningful change. This echo’s itself into technology and businesses. Thiel would want change to be quick and easy. The checks and balances of our system are not ideal to him and coupled with the powerful bureaucracy Thiel views our system as broken. Enter DOGE. Thiel’s longtime business partner Elon Musk was tasked with getting rid of government waste with DOGE. More importantly for Thiel it was about striking at the heart of the issue in his mind, the powerful bureaucracy. With a bleeding internal system and mass influence over the Trump admin Thiel would have free reign to push his interests with little fight left.

Let’s talk about ICE. I have a stance that may or may not be very popular. I do believe that if you have committed crimes in this country and you are not a legal citizen you should be sent back. It seems with arrest targets being placed by the Trump admin there is pressure on ICE to “deliver,” and I’m not sure that all that is being deported are criminals. Add on the social anger some have over Somali fraud scandals, and you have the situation we have now. Where American citizens are being killed by armed federal officers. I don’t care what side you land on, that becomes an unacceptable possibility in my world view. The truth is I believe it’s someone else today, but could be me tomorrow. I felt the need to share this, but back to Thiel. How does Thiel tie into ICE raids? Well, first this is an example of unchecked power. Thiel believes the system is too slow, Trumps move to send federal officers all over the country in some states unwelcomed, and perform raids/arrests would fit in Thiel’s worldview of having a system that moves quicker. It also helps that Thiel’s company Palantir is being used by ICE to help identify potential targets. Likely, that the Falcon tech his company developed is being used to identify illegal peoples, and pinpoint their most likely whereabouts. ICE success, improves his companies stock.

Let’s talk about Greenland next, but let me set the field as best as I can. When Trump was first elected he discuessed the idea of “Freedom Cities.” These would be essentially privately owned cities that would be places tech companies or other startups could locate themselves. Within these cities they would be free of normal regulation and oversite. Something I’d describe as a Peter Thiel utopia. Let’s discuss Pay-Pall one of Thiel’s early successes to get insight on the philosophy of a Thiel utopia. Originally Thiel saw Pay-Pal as a way to get around government regulation. See Thiel has no interest in playing by the rules. Famously Thiel says “Competition is for losers,” and he openly encourages and believes the best way to run a business is to form a monopoly. Again using Pay-Pal as an example he even merged with Elon’s company so they wouldn’t have to compete with each other forming the modern Pay-Pal company. It seems Thiel is not concerned anymore with helping to try and fix the American system. Thiel is looking to escape. Thiel is looking for his own kingdom away from the red tape. He believes without the oversite, woke agendas, and fair playing fields that he can build the ideal world. Enter Praxis, a digital city. At this point Praxis is more an idea. It’s a developing city online that has a lot of financial backing especially from the Tech world. Thiel is tied to supporting the org through one of his venture capital firms. Praxis is part of the Thiel utopia. Thiel is not looking to save America or make America great again. Thiel is using Trump to leave behind what he sees as a broken unfixable system. See the reason I’m writing this is because all of Trump’s Greenland fixation didn’t make sense. Even threatening force none of it added up to me. Denmark would allow the American’s all the security access it needs so that excuse does not work as a justification. If this was about mining and mining only I don’t think it adds up because just the threat of tariffs brought Denmark to the table. I don’t think it would have taken all this energy and attention to get some mining contracts if that is what he truly wanted. Praxis has explored placing their new city state in Greenland. This could become the Tech Mecca of the world. All this strife over Greenland could be for Thiel’s new kingdom.

Thiel has ideas that from afar make sense. I think we do have a broken system, I think change is hard, slow, and often ineffective. I just don’t think Thiel cares about me. I don’t think Trump, Vance, or Newsome give a shit about my wellbeing or yours. So why are we playing this game? Why are people defending invading Venezuela with all their breath and on the other side sounding alarms like we just kidnapped Nelson Mandela? Why must all issues be right or wrong? Is there no color and nuance in our world? This is what I hope Thiel also comes to understand regarding his positions. Just because you have a piece of the puzzle solved does not mean you have solved the whole picture. Remember the best leaders are selfless and fight not for themselves. George Washington turned down kingship in this country. He walked away when he could have held power forever. Now that being said even our founding fathers new this system would not last forever. I just hope that we don’t go out as some failed police state enacted by a man who barely seems to have interest in sticking around.