Mark Gagnon

Well, the gospel thing, that's not going to work.

Jesus Christ, I ain't going to do it.

It's not going to do it.

So we need some other way.

And it's maybe some type of surveillance system where we can see terrorism before it happens.

We can see people that are going to commit crimes.

So you think it's by creating one strong power so there's less incentive for that dangerous conflict?

Well, that's where his whole philosophy is weird because everything I've ever read is like he's kind of against hyper consolidated power structures.

He was he was interested in like seasteading and shit like that.

Exactly.

But it seems like that's kind of shifted.

And he's had this moment where he's like, all right, we're going to go a little.

I'm less worried about the consolidation of power as long as the people are consolidating or like doing the right thing.

It seems kind of like the vibe, which is where this whole Palantir surveillance system is kind of coming from.

So Peter Thiel takes Girard's class at Stanford, learns this theory plus many other theories, and he says it's transformative.

And then he writes about Girard in a ton of different essays and speeches and all this stuff, right?

He even writes for major Catholic magazines referencing Girard's work because, again, Girard is a Catholic philosopher.

And then he introduces J.D.

Vance to Girard's ideas.

And then Vance has since credited Girard as one of the influences on his path to Catholicism.