"awkward young men with high IQs": Awkward, sure, and young, maybe, but smart? Assumes facts not in evidence. Indeed, this video is evidence to the contrary. Smart politicos don't DIY campaign videos. Even not-so-smart politicos mostly know better than that.
But that fits, for a flunky of Peter Thiel. Like Elon Musk, Thiel is an especially conspicuous case in point of John Kenneth Galbraith's observation that "[w]ealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence". ("The confident speculators", 1982, Atlantic Monthly, 249(5), p. 100) For example, Thiel notoriously cheered for Candidate Trump but was disappointed with President Trump, declaring the latter and his shambolic administration "incompetent"; see, for example:
Um, yeah, no shit, Sherlock. But the way Cheetolini governed, if you call it that, was utterly consistent with his public conduct for decades prior. That he's a bloviating fraud, neither interested in nor capable of understanding the U.S. government well enough to lead it effectively, even toward the evil ends that excite Thiel and his ilk, wasn't exactly news in mid-2016. As with Dubya and Dick's not-so-excellent adventure in Iraq, only idiots were surprised by what ensued. Evidently, Thiel is one of them.
And that isn't even getting into the fact that Thiel's notions of progress and how it happens are asinine.
I had words with Thiel once, at a conference in Mountain View over ten years ago. He gave a talk, he said something stupid, and I called him on it during the Q & A. He's none too bright, even about "tech". Where's the evidence that he's ever done anything but ride on other people's intelligence? As far as I can see, he's just another striver who got lucky.
"awkward young men with high IQs": Awkward, sure, and young, maybe, but smart? Assumes facts not in evidence. Indeed, this video is evidence to the contrary. Smart politicos don't DIY campaign videos. Even not-so-smart politicos mostly know better than that.
But that fits, for a flunky of Peter Thiel. Like Elon Musk, Thiel is an especially conspicuous case in point of John Kenneth Galbraith's observation that "[w]ealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence". ("The confident speculators", 1982, Atlantic Monthly, 249(5), p. 100) For example, Thiel notoriously cheered for Candidate Trump but was disappointed with President Trump, declaring the latter and his shambolic administration "incompetent"; see, for example:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/peter-thiel-and-donald-trump
Um, yeah, no shit, Sherlock. But the way Cheetolini governed, if you call it that, was utterly consistent with his public conduct for decades prior. That he's a bloviating fraud, neither interested in nor capable of understanding the U.S. government well enough to lead it effectively, even toward the evil ends that excite Thiel and his ilk, wasn't exactly news in mid-2016. As with Dubya and Dick's not-so-excellent adventure in Iraq, only idiots were surprised by what ensued. Evidently, Thiel is one of them.
And that isn't even getting into the fact that Thiel's notions of progress and how it happens are asinine.
I had words with Thiel once, at a conference in Mountain View over ten years ago. He gave a talk, he said something stupid, and I called him on it during the Q & A. He's none too bright, even about "tech". Where's the evidence that he's ever done anything but ride on other people's intelligence? As far as I can see, he's just another striver who got lucky.