Thread by @avichal

1/ Peter Thiel gave a great talk at the National Conservatism Conference. I bet many on the Left would agree with his points too.

It's worth a watch


Summary 👇

2/ Is big tech good for the US?

No. Tech companies are not working with the US Government to further US interests, but work with other governments to change their products because those other governments will not give access to their markets without cooperation.

3/ Is free trade good for the US?

No. Free trade does not make things better for American citizens, especially where there is intellectual property theft and where China is responsible for most of the world's carbon pollution.

China tariffs should be framed as a carbon tax. 🤯

4/ Is college good for the US?

No. Colleges just load you up with debt and give you a terrible education. Bad colleges should be shut down. Good colleges should not be non-profits.

We should eliminate student debt by forcing colleges who took students' money to bear the cost.

5/ Is war good for the US?
No. We should not waste resources on fighting wars in far off countries. If we did the calculations on how these wars would benefit us, we would likely quickly realize they are not actually benefiting us.

6/ On the left, the biggest problem is political correctness / a lack of willingness to talk about things that make people uncomfortable and an affinity for institutions (including colleges or government). And if the institutions are corrupt, how do you address the issues?

7/ On the right, the biggest problem is believing that America is somehow exceptional. This gets in the way of addressing important issues where we could be great but are hung up on believing America is unique/exceptional.

8/ Bonus tweet for people who want to dig in to Peter Thiel's beliefs: @EricRWeinstein notes that Peter's beliefs result from the objective function of minimizing violence: