Thiel, the pro-Trump tycoon in Rome: technology against the Antichrist

Arriving in Rome - like it or not it is still the centre of Christianity - and lecturing on the Antichrist may at least seem eccentric, even if the city has always digested everything. But Peter Thiel has a fortune of 30 billion dollars, estimated by default, and is one of the main inspirers of Trumpism, not only technological, but deeply ideological, Maga in purity. In short, when he makes a move, he makes a noise, especially now in times of war, a conflict, the one against Iran, which is fully in Thiel's ideological wheelhouse. From today until Wednesday in Rome, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, the data mining company that has collaborated with the Trump administration in its campaign for the expulsion of migrants, and that has risen on the stock exchange by 500% in less than five years (he has 3% but controls it) will explain to a selected and mysterious audience what the Antichrist is for him. He actually wrote this in a booklet also published in Italia, 'The Straussian Moment', in which he states among other things that the century began on 11 September 2001.

Thiel has long identified the Antichrist of modern times in the characters and institutions that he claims pretend to carry messages of peace and stability. In short, Thiel's devil takes the form of technological regulation, global governance and the fight against climate change, forms that pretend to provide security but actually take away citizens' freedom. Who are they? Bill Gates, sure, and also environmental activist Greta Thunberg, to name a couple. But why Rome? We will understand something later on, but the presence in the capital of the first 'American' pope, defined as 'woke' by Thiel, certainly has a bearing: Prevost, critical of the US administration, has since his election placed great emphasis on the dangers of artificial intelligence and a forthcoming encyclical is expected on this.

If the Augustinian pope is not liked - only two days ago he wondered whether those Christians who make wars then do an examination of conscience... - then let us not talk about Francis, who for this world that feeds on millenarian meatballs was the real enemy to beat (in this many US bishops agreed). The substance of Thiel's message: the barrier against the end of time, the Katéchon (the braking force that delays the coming of the Antichrist), will not be the religious institutions - albeit stuffed with new dogmas - but will be reincarnated in the technology companies, in particular his own (Elon Musk's traces have been lost).

The lectures - involving the cultural association Vincenzo Gioberti of Brescia - will not be held in a pontifical university, as initially seemed to be the case, but in places to be discovered, but first there will be a mass, in Latin of course, at San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini, which will go at the same time as a football match, and some defections are to be expected.

As for the conference topics, "his remarks will focus on science and technology and comment on the theology, history, literature and politics of the Antichrist. Among the religious thinkers from whom Peter will draw inspiration are René Girard, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, Carl Schmitt and John Henry Newman, an invitation reads, although some questions might be asked about the presence of a buffet, because Leo Strauss is fine but at 'na cert'ora we eat. Perhaps there are those who think that he will also be in Rome to do some good business in the field of defence, mixing the sacred (?) and the profane is a transversal speciality throughout the world, but which in Trumpism has reached unthinkable peaks.