By Nathan Worcester
In his keynote address to the National Conservatism Conference Oct. 31, billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel argued that false consensus has silenced debate on important questions, including COVID-19, the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, and ongoing inflation in the American economy.
Thiel spoke to the conference about examples of what he called âthe incredible derangement of various forms of thought,â including ways of political and scientific thinking.
He highlighted the experience of Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, whose skepticism about masks culminated in anonymous posters of his face plastered across his universityâs campus that, in The Federalistâs words, â[linked] him to COVID deaths in Florida.â
Thiel criticized what he characterized as excessive dogmatism in science, as epitomized by lawn signs proclaiming a householdâs belief in âscience.â
âWhen you have to call things science, you know they arenâtâlike climate science or political science,â Thiel said.
That same dogmatism, Thiel argued, led the United States to pursue failed policies for over two decades in Afghanistan.
Thiel went on to claim the United States is experiencing ârunaway, non-transitory inflationâ and âthe complete bankruptcy of the Fedâ as a result of a similar inability to brook differing opinions, even if they are unpopular.
âIf thereâs a misinformation problem, itâs a centralized misinformation problemâand itâs the misinformation coming from the Ministry of Truth,â said Thiel.
âWe think of nationalism as a corrective to the homogenizing, braindead, one-world state thatâs totalitarian,â he later added. âIt is an all-important corrective at this point.â
Thiel urged speakers at the event to debate each other vigorously and avoid such âa fake consensus.â
âI hope they will not agree with each other,â he said.