Mastodawn

Had a chat with a film critic who claimed Peter #Thiel completely misread Rene #Girard. And he's right, although 'misread' is much too generous. Thiel didn't misinterpret Girard, more like reverse engineered him.

Girard explained that human desire is imitative, contagious as well as violent. We scapegoat to keep the mob from tearing itself apart. Thiel read that & thought, "great! a growth strategy!" Instead of engaging Girard like a philosopher, he harvested him like intellectual IP.

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🇪🇷Götterdämmerung Jan 23

Sure, great thinkers almost always misread each other. Original minds tend to overwrite whatever they touch. But Thiel is no original thinker but a techno-parasite with a shelf full of books & a void where a conscience should be. Like a fracking rig aimed at the human soul, he extracts value from ideas.

TL; DR: Thiel monetized Girard.

And if that's not the most American thing you've ever heard, you're just not paying attention.

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Jae Jan 26

@Gotterdammerung Yes, as someone who has had Girardian leanings in the past, I greatly resent Thiel’s cooption of Girard. (FWIW, I can still see the intuitive and moral attractions of Girard’s framework; I just can’t shake off the sense that it’s pseudoscience mingled with pseudohistory)