Thread by @foggyanabasis

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Today, at the #NationalConservative conference, Peter Thiel calls out four issues: Big Tech, Universities, Free Trade, War

Big Tech:
Thiel questions how much of a real gain Big Tech has created for us (recalls joke that "We were promised flying cars but all we got was 140 characters")

Then he launches into Google. Google is trying to do what? Build the "Star Trek Computer" -- a computer that can answer your questions (joke: sometimes before you ask them)

But there is no Federation, no warp drive. None of the "world of atoms" has caught up with the world of bits. So they are building this disembodied computer to organize all knowledge. Then he lays into their AI project -- Deep Mind -- and says this is also a military project

Back in the world of atoms, the nuclear engineers were very frank that things like nuclear power were dual use. Google's project -- their Star Trek computer -- is also dual use. But there was no Teller/Oppenheimer debate about the military aspects. No open debate about this

Then he really lays into Google with some questions for their board: How much of Google's technology has been stolen by China? How much of their staff/processes are compromised by China? Why did they work with the Chinese govt but refused to work with the U.S. govt?

Then he calls for FBI/CIA investigations into this -- to determine the degree to which Google has been compromised by China and to what they are doing with their "dual use" tech.

Next, Free Trade. Thiel points out that according to standard econ theory, poor farmers in China should not be saving to buy low yielding U.S. bonds. Capital should be flowing to where the return is highest (into China) rather than into the U.S.

So he says that there is something very wrong here, and we need to question our economic understanding rather than continuing to hold to the Free Trade is good mantra.

Then he talks about the fear mongering surrounding automation. He does not believe that automation is a threat to replace jobs, but that those jobs that are subject to be replaced have already been replaced, and the risk is that automation wont replace more jobs

e.g. that we will be a nation of waiters and nurses doomed to low productivity growth because of lack of automation, which is much more likely, than because of excessive automation. This is reflected in the employment data.

So then why is there a panic about automation?

Thiel proposes it might be displaced panic over Globalization. E.g. the robot that can take away your job and work for almost nothing is the cheap chinese worker, not an actual robot. Our fears of automation are actually fears of Globalization

He mentions the most worrying thing thing is not the media lies, because there is pushback from the right, but the Biggest Lies which are so big that almost no one questions them

Next Universities. He again questions the total value add we are getting from Universities. The PC stuff is toxic, but what about STEM? At least universities are good at STEM -- right? Well, not so good it turns out. The progress has been disappointing even in STEM

Basically all STEM fields except for petroleum engineer and computer science have been a "cul de sac" -- a bad career move. So universities have not been doing a good job, except via sorting

Then he points out a quote from Michelle Obama, saying that she wont push her child to go to a brand name school (but she went to Harvard) and another quote from Barack Obama, saying that you can get a good education even in mediocre schools.

Thiel points out that this is a double lie, not only do you not get a good education at the lower tier schools but neither do you get one from the brand name schools. Then he lays into the student debt problem

.. which is unsustainable and can't last even for another decade. Thiel advocates making the universities absorb the unpayable debts and revoking the non-profit tax exempt status of these toxic institutions. He also mentions the "soft authoritarianism" in universities

.. where you find North Korean levels of agreement on key issues among the faculty and there is a chill that prevents debate.

Next up, War

Here he points out that Trump has done a better job than even Ron Paul would have done at avoiding getting us entangled into wars and reducing our involvement in existing wars

At the end of the speech, massive applause for Thiel. There is a little time for QA, and one questioner asks "Can nationalist conservatives work with anyone on the left on these issues?"

Thiel says maybe on the universities and war -- for example the left also wants to address student debt, but they want to nationalize it, rather than forcing universities to eat the debt. The problem is that the left is captured by the institutions which are "toxic and psychotic"

So someone like Warren isn't going to be able to stand up to the Universities, as she is captured by them. All they can do is subsidize the universities even more.

Earlier, Thiel pointed out reasons why the institutional left and the right were unable to tackle these big issues. The left is blinded by PC, which although it is lunacy never seems to die. The right is blinded by American Exceptionalism

In order to make progress for a true national conservatism, we are going to need to abandon the notion of American exceptionalism and be really critical of our policies and institutions, which in many cases don't compare favorably with the rest of the world.

America is a nation with national problems. It is not in a special place vis-a-vis the world that makes us immune to normal problems other countries have. Doctrine of exceptionalism has made us "exceptionally un self-aware" and dysfunctional

In order to move forward, we will need to ditch American Exceptionalism and settle for American Greatness.

should be "toxic and sociopathic"

One more point on Free Trade: Thiel argues that the money center banks are our enemies, because they profit from large current account deficits, as they get to sell more bonds to foreigners to absorb the capital inflows

Thiel says whenever our current account balance improved there was a banking crisis, so he predicts another banking crisis if the trade war leads to a significant reduction in the trade deficit. The well being of the money center banks is at odds with American well being.

/end of my notes