Peter Thiel

Gradually, you have incels living in their parents' basement playing video games. So there's the navel-gazing that is identity politics. There's a range of psychedelic things. And I think all these things, I wonder whether the interiority ended up acting as a substitute. Because, you know, the alternate history in the 1960s is that, you know, the hippies were actually, they were anti-political.

Gradually, you have incels living in their parents' basement playing video games. So there's the navel-gazing that is identity politics. There's a range of psychedelic things. And I think all these things, I wonder whether the interiority ended up acting as a substitute. Because, you know, the alternate history in the 1960s is that, you know, the hippies were actually, they were anti-political.

Gradually, you have incels living in their parents' basement playing video games. So there's the navel-gazing that is identity politics. There's a range of psychedelic things. And I think all these things, I wonder whether the interiority ended up acting as a substitute. Because, you know, the alternate history in the 1960s is that, you know, the hippies were actually, they were anti-political.

And it was sort of, the drugs happened at the end of the city, at the end of the 60s, and that's when people depoliticized. It was like, I don't know, the Beatles song, if you're carrying around pictures of Chairman Mao, you're not gonna make with anyone anyhow. That's after they did LSD, and it was just, The sort of insane politics no longer matters.

And it was sort of, the drugs happened at the end of the city, at the end of the 60s, and that's when people depoliticized. It was like, I don't know, the Beatles song, if you're carrying around pictures of Chairman Mao, you're not gonna make with anyone anyhow. That's after they did LSD, and it was just, The sort of insane politics no longer matters.

And it was sort of, the drugs happened at the end of the city, at the end of the 60s, and that's when people depoliticized. It was like, I don't know, the Beatles song, if you're carrying around pictures of Chairman Mao, you're not gonna make with anyone anyhow. That's after they did LSD, and it was just, The sort of insane politics no longer matters.

And so you have the civil rights, the Vietnam War, and then were the drugs the thing that motivated it? Or was that the thing where it actually, those things started to de-escalate?

And so you have the civil rights, the Vietnam War, and then were the drugs the thing that motivated it? Or was that the thing where it actually, those things started to de-escalate?

And so you have the civil rights, the Vietnam War, and then were the drugs the thing that motivated it? Or was that the thing where it actually, those things started to de-escalate?

Well, or the part of it that I thought was interesting was the MKUltra.

Well, or the part of it that I thought was interesting was the MKUltra.

Well, or the part of it that I thought was interesting was the MKUltra.

Where, you know, there was a predecessor version where we thought of, you know, there was a, you could think of it as we had an arms race with the fascists and the communists. And they were very good at brainwashing people. The Goebbels propaganda, North Koreans brainwashing our soldiers in the Korean War, our POWs. And we needed to have an arms race to program and reprogram and deprogram people.

Where, you know, there was a predecessor version where we thought of, you know, there was a, you could think of it as we had an arms race with the fascists and the communists. And they were very good at brainwashing people. The Goebbels propaganda, North Koreans brainwashing our soldiers in the Korean War, our POWs. And we needed to have an arms race to program and reprogram and deprogram people.

Where, you know, there was a predecessor version where we thought of, you know, there was a, you could think of it as we had an arms race with the fascists and the communists. And they were very good at brainwashing people. The Goebbels propaganda, North Koreans brainwashing our soldiers in the Korean War, our POWs. And we needed to have an arms race to program and reprogram and deprogram people.

And LSD was sort of the MKUltra shortcut. So I think there was – and then I – yeah, my – it's so hard to reconstruct it. But my suspicion is that the MKUltra thing was a lot bigger. than we realize. And that, you know, it was the LSD movement, both in the Harvard form and the Stanford form. You know, it started as an MKUltra project. Timothy Leary at Harvard, Ken Kesey at Stanford.

And LSD was sort of the MKUltra shortcut. So I think there was – and then I – yeah, my – it's so hard to reconstruct it. But my suspicion is that the MKUltra thing was a lot bigger. than we realize. And that, you know, it was the LSD movement, both in the Harvard form and the Stanford form. You know, it started as an MKUltra project. Timothy Leary at Harvard, Ken Kesey at Stanford.

And LSD was sort of the MKUltra shortcut. So I think there was – and then I – yeah, my – it's so hard to reconstruct it. But my suspicion is that the MKUltra thing was a lot bigger. than we realize. And that, you know, it was the LSD movement, both in the Harvard form and the Stanford form. You know, it started as an MKUltra project. Timothy Leary at Harvard, Ken Kesey at Stanford.

I knew Tom Wolfe, the American novelist. I still think his greatest novel was... The electric Kool-Aid acid test, which is sort of this history of the LSD counterculture movement, starts at Stanford, moves to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. But it starts with Ken Kesey as a grad student at Stanford circa 1958.

I knew Tom Wolfe, the American novelist. I still think his greatest novel was... The electric Kool-Aid acid test, which is sort of this history of the LSD counterculture movement, starts at Stanford, moves to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. But it starts with Ken Kesey as a grad student at Stanford circa 1958.