Musk isn't the Anti-Christ (probably)

[Ian H]

Peter Thiel, the billionaire political svengali and tech investor, is worried about the antichrist. It could be the US. It could be Greta Thunberg.

Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable discursion that reveals the preoccupations of one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and the US.
“A basic definition of the antichrist: some people think of it as a type of very bad person. Sometimes it’s used more generally as a spiritual descriptor of the forces of evil,” Thiel said, kicking off his first lecture. “What I will focus on is the most common and most dramatic interpretation of antichrist: an evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times.”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist

Thiel is the chairman of Palantir.

 

[Psamathe]

Peter Thiel, the billionaire political svengali and tech investor, is worried about the antichrist. It could be the US. It could be Greta Thunberg.

Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable discursion that reveals the preoccupations of one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and the US.
“A basic definition of the antichrist: some people think of it as a type of very bad person. Sometimes it’s used more generally as a spiritual descriptor of the forces of evil,” Thiel said, kicking off his first lecture. “What I will focus on is the most common and most dramatic interpretation of antichrist: an evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times.”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist

Thiel is the chairman of Palantir.

You mean the person the UK Government is trusting with all our very private, very confidential NHS records?

 

[All uphill]

Peter Thiel, the billionaire political svengali and tech investor, is worried about the antichrist. It could be the US. It could be Greta Thunberg.

Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable discursion that reveals the preoccupations of one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and the US.
“A basic definition of the antichrist: some people think of it as a type of very bad person. Sometimes it’s used more generally as a spiritual descriptor of the forces of evil,” Thiel said, kicking off his first lecture. “What I will focus on is the most common and most dramatic interpretation of antichrist: an evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times.”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist

Thiel is the chairman of Palantir.

Maybe he should look in a mirror.

 

[Deleted member 16]

I'm the antichrist!
































And so is my wife.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Anyone with half a brain already knew this, but good to see a meticulously researched piece making it absolutely clear what Musk is up to via his shitty platform.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-x-effect-how-elon-musk-is-boosting-the-british-right-13464487

There is no doubt that social media has played a massive part in the rise of far right sentiments making it into wider public discourse. What I am really interested in is how many people do actually believe this stuff and how many are just highly suggestible/gullible and have been effectively brainwashed by it?

 

[CXRAndy]

The left dont have control of the right with their use of 𝕏.

Before Twitter, Facebook were controlled by the left and heavily censored of right wing comments.

That has ended on 𝕏 not so much on Facebook, but we all knew it was being censored, comfirmed after Zuckerberg admitted it

 

[AndyRM]

Anyone with half a brain already knew this, but good to see a meticulously researched piece making it absolutely clear what Musk is up to via his shitty platform.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-x-effect-how-elon-musk-is-boosting-the-british-right-13464487

There is no doubt that social media has played a massive part in the rise of far right sentiments making it into wider public discourse. What I am really interested in is how many people do actually believe this stuff and how many are just highly suggestible/gullible and have been effectively brainwashed by it?

I reckon that not many people hold bonkers right wing views, but are happy to thoughtlessly promote them.

 

[Beebo]

I just don’t understand very rich Christians. They just seem so lost from basic Christian philosophy.

“He believes the Armageddon will be ushered in by an antichrist-type figure who cultivates a fear of existential threats such as climate change, AI and nuclear war to amass inordinate power. The idea is this figure will convince people to do everything they can to avoid something like a third world war”

So basically Jesus fits his definition of the anti christ.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I reckon that not many people hold bonkers right wing views, but are happy to thoughtlessly promote them.

This is my view and I lean towards the idea that those who actively start to engage with this stuff more prominently and are really vociferous were not like this pre social media. I think the constant bombardment coupled with the above mentioned gullibility has badly affected them.

I have a mate who is not right wing but did fall down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories. Completely disinterested but then his relationship ended, he lost his house and suddenly got online (largely facebook as it was then). Within weeks he was a totally different person. I suspect there are many examples of similar circumstances with the current crop of Farage/Robinson 'believers'

 

[AuroraSaab]

Perhaps it's because all the lovely decent people supposedly jumped ship to Bluesky after Musk took over X. Or because more conservative views were censored previously.

Every social media platform controls the narrative, just to different extents, and the nature of social media algorithms is that if you look at one thing the site will bombard you with more of the same, to the exclusion of other viewpoints.

I think people notice bs that doesn't align with their views but don't notice bs that does. It's all bs but confirmation bias means their attention is drawn to what they disagree with.

 

[briantrumpet]

This is my view and I lean towards the idea that those who actively start to engage with this stuff more prominently and are really vociferous were not like this pre social media. I think the constant bombardment coupled with the above mentioned gullibility has badly affected them.

I have a mate who is not right wing but did fall down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories. Completely disinterested but then his relationship ended, he lost his house and suddenly got online (largely facebook as it was then). Within weeks he was a totally different person. I suspect there are many examples of similar circumstances with the current crop of Farage/Robinson 'believers'

Yup. One lovely person I know went right down the anti-vax rabbit hole during covid (her FB profile went from sane to completely and utterly nuts), and there are another couple of friends who now regularly repost stuff from the worst of the xenophobe accounts. Deeply sad.

I think even more worrying is that politicians are being sucked into the X-agenda: not only just because their policies are being influenced by the tweets they will generate, but more insidiously by the mirage that X is inhabited by normal political people, rather than the nutjobs that paid for blue ticks.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Yup. One lovely person I know went right down the anti-vax rabbit hole during covid (her FB profile went from sane to completely and utterly nuts), and there are another couple of friends who now regularly repost stuff from the worst of the xenophobe accounts. Deeply sad.

I think even more worrying is that politicians are being sucked into the X-agenda: not only just because their policies are being influenced by the tweets they will generate, but more insidiously by the mirage that X is inhabited by normal political people, rather than the nutjobs that paid for blue ticks.

Very sad and also worrying how it certainly appears to happen so easily in a lot of cases.

I still struggle to understand why the govt and any serious politicians are on X. One of the most effective things they could do is remove themselves and start to wean themselves off this idea that X is somehow representative of the mainstream electorate, as you suggest.

 

[AndyRM]

Very sad and also worrying how it certainly appears to happen so easily in a lot of cases.

I still struggle to understand why the govt and any serious politicians are on X. One of the most effective things they could do is remove themselves and start to wean themselves off this idea that X is somehow representative of the mainstream electorate, as you suggest.

I totally agree with your point about serious politicians being on Twitter. Problem is though that social media has gone from being "part of the conversation" to dominating it.

Pure fantasy on my part but I'd genuinely love to see/hear a politician asked about something someone said on Twitter (or Bluesky or whatever), and dismiss it as being bullsh!t chatter. But then they'd get eviscerated for being out of touch and accused of cosying up to "legacy" or mainstream media.

So nobody wins, apart from a few grinning billionaires who have lost all sense of reality.

 

[BoldonLad]

I reckon that not many people hold bonkers right wing views, but are happy to thoughtlessly promote them.

I suspect this is equally true of "left wing" views.

 

[BoldonLad]

This is my view and I lean towards the idea that those who actively start to engage with this stuff more prominently and are really vociferous were not like this pre social media. I think the constant bombardment coupled with the above mentioned gullibility has badly affected them.

I have a mate who is not right wing but did fall down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories. Completely disinterested but then his relationship ended, he lost his house and suddenly got online (largely facebook as it was then). Within weeks he was a totally different person. I suspect there are many examples of similar circumstances with the current crop of Farage/Robinson 'believers'

I don't think Social Media causes it, but, it does provide an efficient way to spread a given set of views, much more "efficiently" than any past medium I am aware of. IMHO, Social Media is just as effective at spreading any viewpoint, not just right wing stuff.