Is Peter Thiel the Antichrist? NYT Didn’t Think to Ask

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel just can’t stop talking about the Antichrist.

In a new interview with Ross Douthat of the New York Times, Thiel muses about the existence of the Antichrist and offers a novel theory for how to identify this person—a human figure who shall, according to biblical prophecy, rise up to oppose Christ.

“The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop. You talk about existential risk nonstop...” says Thiel, the Palantir co-founder and godfather of the so-called PayPal Mafia, which includes both Elon Musk and David Sacks.

Thiel has repeatedly suggested that Greta Thunberg, the 22-year-old climate activist, is a possible candidate for Antichrist. But, given Thiel’s own criteria, perhaps he should look in a mirror.

Thiel's Armageddon Apocalypse Obsession

A quick search for the terms “Peter Thiel” and “Armageddon” and “apocalypse” reveals pages and pages of results. Thiel is thoroughly obsessed with the subject. He appears to be talking about scary End Times, apocalyptic themes, and Antichrist stuff “nonstop” in interviews and on podcasts.

Here is a sampling of headlines:

Benzinga, a tech publication, reports that he may even be writing a book on the topic:

Tech billionaire and venture capitalist Peter Thiel is considering writing a book about ancient prophecies, the Antichrist, and Armageddon—and he believes we’re ignoring what may be the most dangerous threat of all: the rise of global authoritarianism disguised as peace.

In January, Thiel wrote a strange Financial Times op-ed in which he framed Donald Trump’s return to power as an apocalypse of sorts. This led me to write a piece called “Silicon Valley’s New Religion: Peter Thiel’s Tech Apocalypse.”

I wrote:

Thiel has increasingly framed his ideas as religious, and we should take him at his word. What’s being unveiled here is a new kind of techno-religious movement. It’s a budding cult in which some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest have positioned themselves as modern-day prophets. God is out, technology is in. Jesus may still be coming, but only in the form of Elon Musk or MessiahAI. Eternal life? There’s an app for that, along with a subscription model.

So here is Thiel—again—evoking Armageddon and the Antichrist in a New York Times interview headlined “Peter Thiel and the Antichrist.”

NYT's Missed Opportunity On Thiel

Unfortunately, despite the titillating headline, there isn't much new in the Douthat interview. Thiel essentially rolled Douthat by delivering canned lines that he has already used in other interviews.

“If the Antichrist were to come to power, it would be by talking about Armageddon all the time,” he said during an interview last year. He uses the same line with Douthat, who basically squanders the interview by allowing Thiel to rehash esoteric religious ideas he has already discussed with every other podcaster in the universe.

In fact, the Antichrist shtick is one of Thiel’s favorite bits (see below).

Totally normal behavior for a 57-year-old billionaire whose surveillance tech company, Palantir, is completely wrapped up in American law enforcement, intelligence and military operations. Right?

Either Ross Douthat didn’t do his homework, or he set out to lob softballs at Thiel—which may explain why the billionaire granted him the interview. When a journalist allows a subject to deliver their usual speech, they have failed.

In fairness, Douthat gets close to the mark with one question on AI, Palantir and the Antichrist:

Douthat: You’re an investor in A.I. You’re deeply invested in Palantir, in military technology, in technologies of surveillance and technologies of warfare and so on. And it just seems to me that when you tell me a story about the Antichrist coming to power and using the fear of technological change to impose order on the world, I feel like that Antichrist would maybe be using the tools that you are building. Like, wouldn’t the Antichrist be like: Great, we’re not going to have any more technological progress, but I really like what Palantir has done so far. Isn’t that a concern? Wouldn’t that be the irony of history, that the man publicly worrying about the Antichrist accidentally hastens his or her arrival?

Thiel: Look, there are all these different scenarios. I obviously don’t think that that’s what I’m doing.

Douthat: I mean, to be clear, I don’t think that’s what you’re doing either. I’m just interested in how you get to a world willing to submit to permanent authoritarian rule.

But Thiel easily sidesteps the question and, in any case, the Antichrist subject is an exotic distraction from the real issues. Besides, does Thiel truly consider himself a Christian?

What NYT Should Have Asked Thiel

Thiel is one of the most consequential tech billionaires of our time, and his extreme political ideas currently play an outsized role in our lives.

The whole DOGE destruction of government? Thiel wanted to do that during the first Trump term. Curtis Yarvin’s influence over the Republican Party? Thiel funded him and pushed his ideas for decades. Vice President JD Vance? Thiel funded his entire career and political rise.

Douthat does not get into any of this. Instead, he simply gives Thiel a platform to deliver his usual talking points. For example, Thiel brings up Charles Manson and LSD and hippies, as he has been doing for years. But the more relevant pairing in a discussion with Thiel is Curtis Yarvin and LSD and hippies. From a recent New Yorker profile of Yarvin:

Politically and culturally, Yarvin was a liberal—“a big old hippie,” as Tanner [Yarvin’s ex-girlfriend] put it. He had a ponytail, wore a silver hoop earring, dropped acid at raves, and wrote poetry.

And then Yarvin, embraced by Thiel, went on to develop a scary political theory that is proving far more influential than anything Manson ever imagined. The vice president of the United States quotes Yarvin and follows him on Twitter. Manson could never have dreamed of such White House clout.

Douthat also allows Thiel to depict Greta Thunberg as a possible Antichrist but doesn’t ask the billionaire whether he agrees with the scientific consensus that climate change poses a threat to life on earth.

How does a young woman seeking to inspire global action on a serious problem like climate change equate to the Antichrist? Wouldn't the Antichrist be the guy telling people to ignore the threat?

Some other real questions the New York Times could have asked Thiel:

• Curtis Yarvin, the pro-monarchy extremist who wants to end American democracy, has been getting a lot of attention. You have supported him for decades, and now his ideas are being adopted by the Trump administration. DOGE, for example, was directly inspired by Yarvin’s RAGE (Retire All Government Employees). How do you explain your current relationship to Yarvin, and do you consider DOGE a success? Do you agree with Yarvin that we need a system besides democracy, and what would that be?
• JD Vance largely owes his career to you. At every step of the way, you have been there for him with jobs, investment and support. What is your relationship like now that he is in the White House? Do you think he will become president, and what advice would you give to President Vance?
• You have said the Antichrist will be someone who speaks about Armageddon nonstop in order to seize totalitarian power. Peter, you talk about Armageddon, apocalypse and the Antichrist with an alarming frequency. Your surveillance company, Palantir, is developing a trove of data on American citizens that resembles the totalitarian Big Brother from Orwell’s 1984. By your own definition, aren’t you a good candidate for Antichrist?
• You’ve spent years warning that liberal democracy is collapsing and that Silicon Valley is spiritually bankrupt. Yet you've made billions from both. Is your critique sincere, or is it just a branding strategy to consolidate wealth and power while appearing “contrarian” or anti-establishment?
• You have invested in Seasteading and Pronomos Capital, which seek to create new corporate-governed cities to compete with existing democratic nations. Trump’s so-called Freedom Cities clearly match this idea, which reflects Yarvin’s idea for “Patchwork” nations and Balaji Srinivasan’s idea for so-called Network States. Why is this idea important to you, and how far do you think it will get under Trump?
• You have long warned against the supposed dangers of multiculturalism and democracy. Now, decades later, you're funding candidates and thinkers who openly challenge those same ideals. But the United States is a multicultural democracy. What’s your endgame, and does the USA still exist in that future?
• You often speak in religious and apocalyptic terms, but you fund people and movements that thrive on chaos, disinformation, and authoritarianism. Are you trying to save the West, or are you accelerating its collapse in hopes of rebuilding something more to your liking?
• The Sovereign Individual is one of your favorite books. You wrote the introduction to the 2020 reissue of the book — a very apocalyptic work that predicted the rise of crypto and the fall of nation-states. Why is that book so important to you? And do you think its prophecies are largely on track?
• You seem unusually terrified of death. Are you going to die someday, or do you have other plans?

I could keep going, but I'll stop here. Now, this would have made for a totally fair, fact-based, and highly interesting interview.

But Douthat doesn’t ask any questions about the extreme Silicon Valley ideologies which now hold sway in American politics. Instead, we get a bland repeat of the same bizarre ideas Thiel promotes in all of his interviews. The word “democracy” doesn’t appear once in the transcript.

Peter Thiel, recycled and sanitized.

What a waste of space. When journalists offer platforms instead of scrutiny, billionaires like Thiel get to launder fringe ideologies into public discourse while evading the tough questions.

Thiel’s dystopian vision is shaping the present and the future. If the New York Times can’t (or won’t) challenge him, who will?