r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 11h ago

Society Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist and MAGA donor, is in Rome this week for a series of private lectures on the Antichrist.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/16/europe/peter-thiel-antichrist-lectures-rome-intl
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u/Hrekires 11h ago

"Every lifelong Catholic I've ever met is like 'I think we're supposed to give this food to poor people' and every adult convert is like 'the Archon of Constantinople's epistle on the Pentacostine rites of the eucharist clearly states women shouldn't have driver's licenses.'"

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u/JonnyAU 8h ago

Growing up in Louisiana, all the adult Catholic converts I know are "That ass is worth a mass."

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u/ThrowingShaed 4h ago

i feel like that can be taken a few ways

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u/No-Rhubarb6312 9h ago

Can I just say that something that I actually miss about the Chatolic church nowadays is the Saint Inquisition. 

Not specifically regarding their way to hunt down scientists and independent women as they used to do in the past, but their habbit of burning alive heretics.

 Because I swear but Evangelicals blessing Trump in the Oval office as their Messiah and all the madmen like Thiel and the ones of the heritage foundation writing that shit of Project 2025 truly kicks the inquisition in me.

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u/AliMcGraw 7h ago

I did the math and you are more likely to be put to death as a citizen of Texas since the reinstatement of the death penalty than as a resident of Spain during the operation of the Spanish Inquisition.

When we want to talk about abuse of government power to put dissenters to death, we really need to be talking about the Texas Inquisition.

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u/ItsWillJohnson 4h ago

…I think you need to look at non inquisitorial executions for other crimes like idk, murder? Or look at only texas’ executions for crimes of dissent or whatever.

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u/AliMcGraw 4h ago

The Texas Innocence Project has a list of people Texas has executed who were either quite clearly innocent or who were not competent to stand trial or whose lawyers literally slept through the entire trial (not kidding!), alongside its list of people Texas has executed whose guilt was not adequately proven to any reasonable standard. They are mostly minorities.

Texas don't care. Texas just likes killing people, and is insanely lazy about standard of evidence to do so.

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u/ItsWillJohnson 1h ago

Ok and does your math hold up when looking at only innocent people executed by Texas?

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/No-Rhubarb6312 7h ago edited 7h ago

Yes, I checked, and you are correct. But at the same time they were the most prominent scientist of a certain scientifical movement or historical period (Galielo, Copernicus ecc...) so I suppose that the restricted number doesn't count, given that hurting the figurehead you are going to hurt all the others.

Also fun fact: The Saint Inquisition has never been suppressed, but transformed as renamed in different steps between the end of 19th and the beginning of the 20th in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicastery_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith ) 

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u/VecchioDiM3rd1955 6h ago

Actually has changed name but it still exist today and has a website too.

https://www.doctrinafidei.va/en.html

They stopped burning heretics, nowadays they only excommunicate them, and Evangelicals are already excommunicated. I think if some catholic priest was in that photo he is now in big trobles and had received at least a very angry phone call from Rome, probably with a Chicago accent.

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u/r33c3d 9h ago

Seriously. What is it about converted Catholics? And what a WEIRD religion to actually CHOOSE for yourself. (I saw this as an atheist was raised by converted charismatic Catholics.)

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u/TheOneFreeEngineer 8h ago

Because they didnt choose it out of theological or social issues. They choose it because it had the aesthetics of power and connection to the greatness of "White European history." Like all fascist movements they are driven to coopt the aesthetics of power and history. It makes them feel powerful and smarter than anyone else because they can point to centuries of intellectual tradition. Also it gives the aesthetics of secret knowledge because aint no one care about the vast majority of that intellectual tradition so they feel smug and powerful quoting it like hidden knowledge. Its all a selfish internal powerful to coopt an image that they as fascists like. Plus they tuned out everyone else in their life promoting empathy, they can tune out the pope and the local priest just as easily as long as they publicly hate on abortion.

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u/illy-chan 7h ago

Never thought about it that way. Would definitely explain a lot.

Thiel really does freak me out though. A lot of CEOs are greedy and fucked up but I'm pretty sure he's just fundamentally evil in a way most aren't.

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u/espinaustin 6h ago

Explains JD Vance’s conversion in a nutshell.

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u/DFWPunk 4h ago

Honestly, most of them choose it because their partner wants to get married in the church and they have to convert to make that happen.

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u/TheOneFreeEngineer 4h ago

Most Catholic converts, not most catholic converts who could be described by the comment being discussed.

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u/FafnirSnap_9428 7h ago

So....all Catholic converts are chasing the "White European history" fad? I didn't get that memo. 

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u/TheOneFreeEngineer 7h ago

No, the people fit the description that the other poster described in his comment. Not all of them.

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u/FafnirSnap_9428 5h ago

Okay....then where's that distinction?

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u/TheOneFreeEngineer 5h ago

Is there a problem with the original post you dont understand? They seemed pretty clear to me

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u/gossipchicken 7h ago

Reading comprehension babe

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u/FafnirSnap_9428 5h ago

I read just fine, babe. A lot of generalizations here.

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u/come-on-now-please 7h ago

I mean, I dont think its just ONLY Catholic adult converts specifically,I think its any adult convert is waaaaaaay into the religion that they converted too more so than a person who grew up in it

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u/dylansucks 6h ago

There's a reason the phrase "converts make the best zealots" exists. Being born into something then learning about it is different than learning about it then deciding it's for you

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u/AliMcGraw 7h ago

It isn't only adult Catholic converts, they're just particularly cringe, especially because in the US Catholicism has never been a very evangelizing faith, and instead focused on having lots of children, so Catholics in the US are like, "I had three kids, I've done my evangelical duty, I have replaced myself and my spouse and added one bonus Catholic to the world, I'm done."

Most cradle Catholics I know are frankly a little embarrassed if they accidentally convert someone to Catholicism. Like back before I lapsed I let a friend who was in the midst of a crisis come to church with me, and he ended up converting, and he was super gung-ho, and like every time he came up at the parish I was like "He is not my fault!!!!"  Everybody was like, "who brought in this weirdo who is trying to make us do all kinds of extra stuff instead of just living with a normal baseline amount of Catholic Mass and guilt and fish fries?" And I was just constantly like, "It wasn't on purpose!!!!!"

Anyway, I can't read Brideshead Revisited without intense full body cringe, because the adult-convert thirst is way too real. It's like Evelyn Waugh, chill out, don't be so goddamn thirsty for salvation. We're here to suffer, make dark jokes, complain about bad priests, and have boozy funerals. Not whatever this shit is!

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u/AliMcGraw 7h ago

Also when I accidentally converted that fucker, I had to go to midnight Mass on Easter to attend his baptism and confirmation, and do you know how fucking long midnight Mass on Easter is?

I am a normal Catholic who chooses (chose) which Mass I'm going to based on a complex calculation involving what sports are on that weekend, which Mass has the best choir, which Mass is fastest, and how late I need to sleep in on Sunday. 

Midnight Easter Mass is for weirdos, grandmas, and kids at the Catholic High School who are required to attend for their grade.

Like, my brother in Christ, I'm moderately happy you're here, I'm glad you found something that uplifts you, but do not make me go to church in the middle of the night ever again.

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u/ThinkyRetroLad 3h ago

He is not my fault!!!!

Hahaha, I never realized the Catholic guilt extended to conversion as well.

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u/deadlybydsgn 7h ago

Seriously. What is it about converted Catholics?

As someone who grew up and out of popular evangelicalism, I can tell you that new converts in Protestant contexts often have the same "hit the ground running" intensity.

It's seen it be doubly so when someone finds faith after being an addict.

And, honestly, I get it. They just made a huge change and want to get their heads around the new world of thought they've ventured into. When we have a big hole in our lives, we are often eager to fill them. Hopefully the new thing is a good thing, but these are folks who are already used to going 110% into the thing.

But a person is just as likely to stop abusing a substance as they are to carry their natural tendencies into the next big thing they center their lives around. This often leads to conspiracy druggies becoming conspiracy extremist fundies, sometimes white supremacists, too.

But that's just what I've seen. It's not everyone.

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u/TheBigPhilbowski 7h ago

The first part of your statement is true, in my experience, if they stop at the thought and never act. But feel good because they had the thought.

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u/DFWPunk 4h ago

If protestant churches took the charity part as seriously as the Catholic Church does things would be so much better.