Peter Thiel, Nazi Philosophy + Lord of the Rings
“The strange thing is that, if you look at any of these narratives—science fiction, Lord of the Rings, The Bible—the tech billionaires are obviously the villains in all of those books. Right? But they have such bad comprehension of reading—or maybe it’s a willful misinterpretation—that they somehow think they’re the heroes. But the tech bros are “transhumanists.” Well, in the Lord of the Rings, Saruman is the one who is creating orcs, pulling them out of his factories. That’s them—creating artificial intelligence and promising us a future with no jobs and lots of killer robots.”
That’s an excerpt from my interview with Matt Lech and David Griscom of the Left Reckoning podcast. We discuss Peter Thiel, tech fascism, the Lord of the Rings, and various other problematic subjects (such as, um, the Antichrist).
Any questions? We’ll soon be taping an episode of the Nerd Reich podcast with Adam Becker and Dr. Brooke Harrington. Ask us anything.
Click below to watch the Left Reckoning podcast:
