Secretive but very influential American billionaire Peter Thiel gave four lectures in San Francisco. He is considered a close ally of Elon Musk and is known for his close relationship with the Trump administration, but this time he plays an unusual role. Thiel believes that the Biblical Apocalypse is not just around the corner – it has already begun. According to him, the Antichrist is already active, all that remains is to determine his identity. The billionaire spent four days learning the names of those who, in his opinion, are bringing the end of the world closer, arguing about this with quotes from the Old Testament, cartoons and Russian philosophers. Who did he name and what did it all mean?
Billionaire Peter Thiel is considered a famous figure of Silicon Valley
Peter Thiel is not one of those billionaires that people talk about. He doesn't strive for fame like Bill Gates and Elon Musk; on the contrary, he makes a conscious effort to ensure that fewer people know about him. He rarely appears on social networks, hates the press and never shares about his personal life.
Thiel made a fortune thanks to the PayPal payment system he founded with Elon Musk. Now, he is involved in investing and financing many famous IT companies and is considered a famous figure in Silicon Valley. His own project is Palantir, which collects and analyzes data for military and intelligence agencies.
In recent years, Thiel has actively funded conservative American politicians, including US President Donald Trump; The current Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, is often referred to as his protégé.
Thiel's views are radical even by the standards of liberals, among whom he counts himself. He disapproved of the pursuit of equality, opposed pensions, welfare, and any other social assistance, and believed that women should be deprived of political rights.
Peter Thiel believes that the biblical apocalypse is coming
Thiel's lectures, which he gave in San Francisco, were accessible only for money. Tickets cost 200 USD (16 thousand rubles), but they were sold out in just a few hours. According to witnesses, the majority of visitors were young men.
During lectures, video recording, photography or audio recording is strictly prohibited. Violators were kicked out without refund. However, there are still people who violate the ban and then hand over the recording to the journalist. That's the only way we know what was said there.
Thiel talks about the approaching end of the world, and not in a figurative sense. We are talking about the biblical Armageddon from “The Revelation of John the Theologian” and “The Book of Daniel the Prophet” in the Old Testament. Everything will be as it is written: trumpets, angels, the Whore of Babylon and most importantly the Antichrist, the search for whom takes up most of the sermon.
Some people think that the Antichrist is just a very bad kind of person. Sometimes the word is used more broadly to refer to the forces of evil. I will focus on the most common and most impressive explanation. Antichrist is an evil king, tyrant or anti-messiah who appears at the end of the world – Peter Thiel.
According to Thiel, the Antichrist is already among us, we just don't know his name yet. This is not a fantastic character, but one who is alive and quite young – otherwise he simply would not have had time to carry out Doomsday. According to Thiel, Buddha reached Nirvana at the age of 33, Jesus was crucified and Frodo from “Lord of the Rings” inherited the One Ring – the most suitable age, according to Thiel. “Although, perhaps, with our gerontocracy, 66 is the new 33,” the billionaire joked.
Thiel is sure that Antichrist will be loved by everyone with many followers. In addition, perhaps he is against scientific and technological progress, which for the billionaire seems to be an unconditional blessing. “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to suppress science,” he said in one of his sermons. Confirmation of this, he said, can be found in Daniel's prophecies in the Old Testament.
According to Thiel, the Antichrist will exploit people's fears about technological advancement
Thiel sees the emergence of a unified world government as the surest sign of the end of the world. It doesn't exist yet, but the beginning is there. For example, international financial institutions are making it increasingly difficult for the rich to evade taxes and hide money abroad. According to him, another harbinger of the Apocalypse is the International Criminal Court.
Thiel believes that the Antichrist's power will be fueled by fear of existential risks – climate catastrophe, nuclear war, artificial intelligence. These threats do not particularly frighten him. Take artificial intelligence as an example. According to Thiel, it caused a stir only because there wasn't much else going on. Its actual effect will be negligible.
How big is the AI revolution? How much will it add to GDP? By standard of living? My preliminary answer: we need to wait for the size of the Internet to approximate the 1990s. Maybe it will add 1% per year to GDP—Peter Thiel.
According to Thiel, to prevent a third world war and other disasters, humans will agree to a single world order that will limit scientific and technological progress. It seemed to him that the implementation of this scenario had already begun.
Thiel names people who could be the Antichrist
In his sermons, Thiel went over several possible candidates for the role of Antichrist. He considered Eliezer Yudkowsky one of them. In Russia, this man is known as the author of the fan novel “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rational Thinking” and in Silicon Valley as the creator of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which called for a ban on research in the field of artificial intelligence. Previously, Thiel had personally funded Yudkowsky's work and now considered this a big mistake.
Another questionable neo-Luddite, in Thiel's view, is environmental activist Greta Thunberg. However, in his opinion, she doesn't look quite like an Antichrist; at best she looks like a legion of the Antichrist.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Thiel, has many qualities suitable for the role of Antichrist, but he is too old for this role. “Racism, sexism, nationalism, maybe even the second coming of Hitler,” the billionaire described Xi Jinping. – But not the second appearance of Genghis Khan. Because it's expired.”
Thiel especially hates Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world. According to him, Gates is a two-faced character, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In public, he tries to appear as a kind person and a generous philanthropist who wants to make the world a better place. But behind the scenes things are different.
Thiel claimed to have seen Gates's other face: a monster with Tourette's syndrome, spewing countless curses. “Some confusing situation,” the billionaire complained at one of the lectures.
But Thiel also rejected this candidate. “Gates is not a political leader and is not particularly famous,” he explains. “And again, perhaps to Gates' credit, he's still stuck in the 18th century with people like Richard Dawkins, who believe you can study science and be an atheist.” Thiel never reached a final conclusion about who could be considered the Antichrist in his sermons.
Til doesn't believe Russia has the ability to stop the Apocalypse
In his sermons, Thiel spoke at length about katechons – certain entities said to prevent the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world. He considered anti-communism the katechon of the 20th century.
Catchon for 40 years, from 1949 to 1989, opposed communism. In some respects it has led to a certain violence, it's not purely Christian, but it's certainly very, very powerful—Peter Thiel.
Discussing the role of Jews in the Apocalypse, Thiel suddenly began quoting Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov.
As Soloviev said, they were too stubborn to both accept Christ and follow the lead of the Antichrist. So, in Solovyov's story, they become the center of resistance against Antichrist – Peter Thiel.
According to Thiel, modern America risks becoming the center of the very world state that the Antichrist needs. “The global financial architecture we have discussed is not really driven by shadowy international organizations,” he explained. “Mostly American.” But according to Thiel, America is also the place that opposes the Antichrist the most.
America is now the natural candidate for the role of both katechon and antichrist. This is the epicenter of the one-world state, but also the epicenter of resistance to the one-world state – Peter Thiel.
As for Russia, Til does not believe in his ability to prevent the Apocalypse.
To become a katechon, one must be strong enough to be able to become the Antichrist. And Russia is not strong enough to dominate the world. It simply cannot be a katechon or a new Rome—Peter Thiel.
Thiel sees in the One Piece anime another history of the fight against the Antichrist
The billionaire's speech lasted a total of seven hours. He tried to talk about the dangers of peace, the benefits of globalism and even about anime. For example, after cursing the world government, Thiel realized its value.
Increasing knowledge, scientific advancement, technological improvement can be a very good thing. No disease, no death, protecting people from natural disasters. But at the same time, it is possible to destroy oneself with nuclear weapons, biological weapons, etc. So is globalization. On the one hand, trade in goods and services flourished and was able to escape authoritarian governments. On the other hand, there is the threat of the emergence of a single nation in the world-Antichrist – Peter Thiel.
Peace, according to Thiel, may not be as fair as war.
Of all the wars, the most unjust was World War I. If there was ever a just war it was World War II, albeit with certain caveats. World War I was really crazy. And World War II was just as legitimate as a war. Arguably, a full-blown third world war, or a war between nuclear powers using nuclear weapons, would be unjust. A complete disaster, perhaps a literal Armageddon, the end of the world. But besides that there is also the cold war. And then we need to make this distinction: can we have a just world and an unjust world? – Peter Thiel.
Til is looking for answers to these questions in the most unexpected places. In his lectures, he quoted The Lord of the Rings, talked about Alan Moore's Watchmen comics and even tried to retell the plot of the One Piece anime.
In One Piece, you are in a fantasy world, again an alternate Earth, but 800 years after the start of the one-world state. Which as the plot develops, gradually becomes darker. In my interpretation, you can understand exactly who controls the world and this is an Antichrist-like figure. And there's Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat that resembles a thorny crown. And then, towards the end of the story, he transforms into a Christ-like figure from Revelation – Peter Thiel.
Thiel never explains what conclusions should be drawn from this. But there is bound to be a conclusion, and with Thiel's influence on American politics, sooner or later we will find out.
