The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession

Summary

Laura Bullard traces Peter Thiel’s public preoccupation with the Antichrist and the katechon back to his long engagement with René Girard’s mimetic theory and the scholarship of Austrian theologian Wolfgang Palaver. The piece reconstructs key lectures and meetings—from a 2023 Paris talk to closed-door rehearsals in Innsbruck—and shows how Thiel has folded ideas from Carl Schmitt (the controversial Weimar jurist) into a worldview that treats global unity, surveillance and technological control as existential political problems. Bullard connects those intellectual currents to concrete interventions: Thiel’s investments (Palantir, defence tech), his support of National Conservatism, and his role mentoring figures like JD Vance.

The article also emphasises the moral and practical tensions: Palaver, originally a critic of Schmitt, now finds his scholarship repurposed; many Girardians reject Thiel’s political turns; and Thiel himself oscillates between wanting to prevent global totalisation (katechon) and building tools that could enable it.

Key Points

Thiel’s Antichrist/katechon talks draw heavily on René Girard’s mimetic theory and Wolfgang Palaver’s readings of Carl Schmitt.
Thiel frames modern threats as a double danger: catastrophic technologies and a unifying “Antichrist” that promises peace and security at the cost of freedom.
Palaver—originally an anti-Schmitt Girardian—has become an influential interlocutor and occasional critic of Thiel, urging a Christian response such as “go to church.”
Thiel’s practical actions (Palantir, military-tech investments, support for National Conservatism and political figures) reflect his apocalyptic anxieties and strategic hedging.
Many Girardian scholars are alarmed by the political appropriation of mimetic theory; they favour reducing scapegoating rather than constructing katechons or authoritarian solutions.
The piece highlights an ethical dilemma: tools for protection (surveillance, AI) can also enable centralised power that resembles the Antichrist Thiel warns against.

Context and Relevance

This article matters because it puts a powerful and secretive patron’s intellectual influences into plain sight. Thiel is not only a financier but a public thinker whose philosophical commitments shape investments, political networks and technologies that affect national security and civil liberties. Connecting Girard, Palaver and Schmitt explains why Thiel’s rhetoric about apocalypse and restraint of the Antichrist isn’t merely theatrical—it informs real-world strategies, alliances and institutions.

For readers following tech, politics or the ethics of surveillance and AI, the piece clarifies how ideas travel from academic niches into funding decisions and political movements. It also shows the awkward clash between peace‑oriented theological theory and illiberal political practice.

Why should I read this?

Because it’s wild but important: one of the planet’s richest people is mixing obscure theology, Cold War legal theory and high-tech investments — and that cocktail changes politics and tech policy. If you care about who builds surveillance systems, who bankrolls political movements, or how ideas become apparatus, this saves you the time of sifting through lectures and substack posts. Quick, sharp, and a little unsettling — read it so you know what’s actually steering some big levers of power.

Author note

Punchy reporting: Bullard stitches interviews, conference reconstructions and archival threads to show not just what Thiel believes but why those beliefs have bite. If you want to understand the crossroads of religion, theory and tech money, this is essential reading.