Behind the Bastards

Part One: Peter Thiel and the Anti-Christ

November 4, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • The discussion in this part of *Behind the Bastards*, "Part One: Peter Thiel and the Anti-Christ," immediately pivots from casual banter to analyzing Peter Thiel's philosophical influences, specifically Carl Schmitt and René Girard, noting Thiel's unique, politically charged interpretation of Girard's scapegoating theory. 
  • The episode introduces the Acts 17 Collective, a group co-founded by Peter Thiel's venture capital partner's wife, which aims to proselytize Christian doctrine to Silicon Valley elites, stemming from an event where Thiel gave an impromptu 55-minute lecture on forgiveness and miracles at a birthday party. 
  • Robert Evans expresses a revised view of Peter Thiel, suggesting that while he remains dangerous, his recent Antichrist obsession indicates a level of disordered thinking that makes him less cunning than previously assessed. 
  • Peter Thiel's interpretation of the Bible, particularly regarding the Antichrist and the apocalypse, is characterized by a self-serving literalism that allows him to justify his desire for a tyrant to stop the predicted end times, which the hosts argue is fundamentally anti-Christian. 
  • Thiel exhibits a profound intellectual arrogance, dismissing established biblical scholarship and historical analysis (like that of Thucydides) because he believes only knowledge he personally derives or can control (like through AI) is valid. 
  • Thiel incorrectly asserts that fears of the apocalypse are unfashionable and that technological progress has stalled outside of information technology, ignoring massive advancements in fields like medicine and automotive safety, which the hosts attribute to his narcissistic focus on areas where he profits. 

Segments

Friendship Intimacy Comparison
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(00:00:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Deep male friendships are characterized by shared experiences like vomiting on each other, contrasting with an undefined intimacy in female friendships.
  • Summary: The hosts briefly discuss the nature of deep male and female friendships. One definition of high intimacy is feeling as comfortable with another person as one feels when alone on the couch. This segment is punctuated by humorous references to puking as a bonding ritual.
Sarah Marshall’s New Show Plug
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(00:02:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Sarah Marshall is promoting her CBC Podcasts show, The Devil You Know, which investigates the satanic panic of the 80s and 90s, featuring Jamie Loftus reading Michelle Remembers.
  • Summary: The show The Devil You Know examines the satanic panic, its long shadow, and its modern resurgence by interviewing affected individuals. Marshall argues that the book Michelle Remembers is more crucial for understanding American politics than Kissinger’s Diplomacy because it illustrates how irrational fantasy can become foundational to public belief.
Introduction to Peter Thiel Topic
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(00:05:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Peter Thiel’s Antichrist obsession is presented as evidence that the power elite’s irrationality is dominating US politics and culture.
  • Summary: The discussion transitions to Peter Thiel’s beliefs, linking them to the broader theme of fantasy overtaking reality in American political understanding. Thiel is identified as a major patron of the modern far-right and the mentor who funded JD Vance’s career.
Thiel’s Background and Influence
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(00:06:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal, orchestrated Elon Musk’s ouster from the company, and funded Gawker’s downfall via Hulk Hogan.
  • Summary: Thiel is recognized as the co-founder of PayPal and the individual responsible for Elon Musk’s temporary removal from the company, though they are reportedly friends again. The hosts briefly reference the Hell in Heaven podcast advertisement before returning to Thiel’s background.
Thiel’s Philosophical Pillars
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(00:12:37)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel’s philosophy is heavily influenced by Carl Schmitt’s ideas on using borders to destroy liberal democracy and René Girard’s theories on mimetic rivalry and scapegoating.
  • Summary: Thiel’s philosophy is rooted in Schmitt’s concept of exploiting the political boundary line to gain authoritarian power, a concept contrasted with anarchist views on border violence. Girard’s work suggests that societal unhappiness due to unmet desires leads to scapegoating, a mechanism Thiel believes is inevitable and useful for driving politics.
The Antichrist Lecture Series
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(00:14:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Peter Thiel recently delivered a four-part lecture series in San Francisco titled ‘The Antichrist, a four-part lecture series,’ anchored on science, technology, theology, history, literature, and politics.
  • Summary: The lectures, hosted by the Acts 17 Collective, were advertised publicly but not recorded for general release, though detailed notes from the first session were leaked. The event summary claims Thiel’s remarks are informed by his Christian faith and will cover the Antichrist from multiple academic angles.
Acts 17 Collective Origin Story
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(00:24:13)
  • Key Takeaway: The Acts 17 Collective is named after the biblical chapter where Paul debates elites in Athens and exists specifically to convert cultural and political elites in Silicon Valley.
  • Summary: The collective’s name references Paul’s intellectual proselytizing, which they apply to converting billionaires, contrasting with Jesus’s focus on the poor. The group was founded by Michelle Stevens after a three-day birthday party for her husband, Trey Stevens (a Palantir and Thiel VC fund employee), where Peter Thiel spontaneously lectured on forgiveness.
Gary Tan’s Controversial Behavior
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(00:44:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Gary Tan, CEO of Y Combinator and prominent Acts 17 Collective member, wished death upon progressive San Francisco supervisors and later deleted threats after receiving backlash.
  • Summary: Tan, a proponent of the ’network state’ ideology shared by Thiel, funded the recall of progressive DA Chesa Boudin. He threatened supervisors concerned about driverless taxis shortly before a Cruise vehicle incident led to the company losing its permit and incurring a major fine.
Thiel’s First Lecture Analysis
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(00:51:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel opened his lecture, ‘Knowledge Shall Be Increased,’ by misinterpreting the Book of Daniel to claim that increased knowledge leads to apocalyptic fears, creating an opening for a tyrant.
  • Summary: The notes from attendee Kshichi Kulkarni detail Thiel’s opening quote from Daniel, which he interprets as a prediction that rising knowledge will cause fear, allowing a tyrant to rise. Biblical scholarship suggests the Book of Daniel is likely historical fiction written centuries later, meaning Daniel was not a contemporary historian making accurate prophecies.
Apocalypse Beliefs & Historical Context
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(01:03:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Apocalyptic fears are a natural human development, evidenced by historical expectations of the end of the world occurring in years ending in ‘99’ long before the year 1000 was widely agreed upon.
  • Summary: The hosts note that apocalyptic fears are not unique to Christendom or the Book of Daniel, as civilizations have historically experienced destruction via plague or natural disaster. Historical analysis shows that people expected the end of the world regardless of the specific year they calculated. Living through events like the Black Death or the bombing of Berlin constitutes a lived apocalypse.
Critique of Thiel’s Scholarship
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(01:04:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Peter Thiel’s approach to biblical study involves selectively extracting useful information without engaging with scholarly arguments, suggesting a lack of curiosity or a desire to appear intelligent without doing the work.
  • Summary: Thiel fails to reference scholarly arguments about the Book of Daniel, suggesting he either disagrees with them or is unaware of them. True intelligence involves collaboration and standing on the shoulders of past thinkers, which Thiel rejects in favor of an isolated, self-serving interpretation. This intellectual isolation is linked to the Silicon Valley bullishness on AI, as it allows them to bypass the need to acknowledge others’ thoughts.
Thiel’s Anti-Christian Apocalyptic View
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(01:12:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel’s belief system is deeply anti-Christian because he posits that the Antichrist and the apocalypse can be stopped by installing the right dictator, contradicting traditional Christian eschatology where the final conflict must run its course.
  • Summary: Thiel justifies his desire for dictatorship as a means to prevent the end of the world, making himself the main character of the Bible through this self-insert narrative. Traditional Christian belief dictates that one must go through the final conflict, but Thiel believes the bad stuff can be averted by preemptive authoritarian action. This unique interpretation allows him to align his political desires with a distorted religious framework.
Antichrist Figure & Straw Man Arguments
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(01:14:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel claims the Antichrist is a forgotten figure in late modernity, a claim immediately refuted by polling data showing significant public awareness and belief regarding the concept.
  • Summary: Thiel’s assertion that the Antichrist is forgotten is contradicted by 2013 polling showing 13% of voters believed Barack Obama was the Antichrist, indicating widespread awareness of the concept. Thiel also constructs a straw man by claiming universities teach that the world is always getting better, which conflicts with standard right-wing critiques that academics warn about capitalism and climate change.
History, Progress, and Thiel’s Bias
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(01:19:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel incorrectly frames David as the first historian because he supposedly predicted a linear succession of empires leading to the end times, ignoring that Daniel’s prophecy only accounted for four empires ending with Rome, missing subsequent history.
  • Summary: Thiel’s view of history is flawed because Daniel’s prophecy of four kingdoms (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome) clearly did not account for post-Roman empires like the Ottomans or the US. Thucydides’ approach, focusing on patterns of human behavior rather than specific predictions, is argued to be a more productive model for historiography. Thiel’s insistence on linear, prophetic history serves only to validate his own apocalyptic timeline.
Stagnation of Science and Wealth Inequality
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(01:26:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Thiel claims technological progress has halted outside of information technology, ignoring massive, life-saving advancements in areas like automotive safety systems and medical technology like mRNA vaccines.
  • Summary: Thiel’s perception of stagnation stems from focusing only on consumer gadgets, leading him to ignore significant improvements in fields like automobile safety, where ESC systems reduced fatal crashes by up to 56%. The hosts suggest Thiel’s belief that science is ‘stuck’ is directly connected to his personal wealth stagnation relative to the benefits that should be distributed across society for quality of life improvements. His view that science failed to deliver radical life extension, leading him to embrace legalized euthanasia, reflects blaming science for his own failed magical thinking.