Behind the Bastards (Nov 6, 2025)

Part Two: Peter Thiel and the Anti-Christ

Host: Robert Evans
Guest: Sarah Marshall

Episode Overview

This episode continues the deep dive into billionaire Peter Thiel’s bizarre theology, paranoia, and preoccupations as highlighted in his recent lecture series on the Antichrist. Robert Evans and Sarah Marshall use their trademark irreverent, conversational style to dissect Thiel's fixation on apocalyptic themes, his scapegoating of figures like Greta Thunberg, and his disturbing philosophical influences. The episode unpacks Thiel's selective reading of Christian eschatology, his links to fascist-adjacent thinkers, and his fears about mortality, wrapped in fabulist, often contradictory frameworks that serve his own power.

Major Themes and Purpose

• Dissecting Peter Thiel's Antichrist obsession through the lens of theology, pop culture, and plutocratic self-interest.
• Examining Thiel's odd, self-serving demonization of environmental and scientific critics (especially Greta Thunberg).
• Highlighting the influence of far-right and authoritarian thinkers like Carl Schmitt on Thiel’s political vision.
• Illustrating how Thiel’s fear of death and need for control underpins his worldview.
• Satirically framing the broader dangers of tech billionaire ideology through humor and cultural references.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pop-Culture Devils & The Trickster Archetype (00:01–05:08)

• The episode opens with Sarah and Robert joking about their favorite “fantasy devils,” especially the comedic version in Bedazzled (Peter Cook & Dudley Moore):

  “...the idea of a devil whose primary focus is not on acts of grand evil, but on acts of, like, petty annoyance.” (Robert, 02:18)

• The trickster devil, common in myth, gets contrasted with Christianity’s pressed-into-evil Satan, setting up how “evil” is redefined across traditions.
• This segues into the main critique: Thiel has chosen a peculiar, personalized version of the Antichrist that ignores historical/literary nuance.

2. Nukes, Apocalypse, and Paranoia (08:06–15:55)

• The hosts recap Thiel’s lecture: after 1945, technology is seen as apocalyptic; Thiel blames this attitude for stalling progress.
• Thiel's claims that post-nuke culture overemphasized apocalypse and that only a strong UN--or one world government--could avert disaster are critiqued as outdated paranoia.
• Sarah mocks the simplistic, binary thinking:

  “Any argument based on there being a few key groups of people who all think the same thing as each other... Never.” (Sarah, 19:04)

• Robert points out Thiel’s contradiction: he dresses up old “UN is the devil” conspiracy in faux-theological language.

3. Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Logic (15:56–28:51)

• Thiel equates secular apocalypse warnings (nukes, AI, fertility collapse) with theological apocalypse—declaring the Antichrist will manifest through global anti-science governance.
• Thiel’s paranoia: anyone advocating for technological caution (bioweapons, AI, environmentalism) is either the Antichrist or a “legionnaire”—notably Greta Thunberg and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
• Notable quote:

  “The Antichrist is Amish. Or a Luddite.” (Sarah, 14:01)

• Robert highlights Thiel’s inability to see that Trump’s “I’ll stop WW3” rhetoric is exactly the Antichrist archetype he’s warning about:

  “Donald Trump rose to power, promising to stop World War III. Obviously none of this is worth talking about. Completely irrelevant.” (Robert, 21:03)

• Thiel’s hypocrisy called out: he accuses others of apocalyptic fearmongering while delivering a four-part lecture on the subject himself.

4. Greta Thunberg, Yudkowsky, and Scapegoating (28:51–44:51)

• Thiel’s public, direct implication that Greta Thunberg could be the Antichrist exposes his fear of moral, incorruptible critics:

  “What is it about her that so unnerves tyrants? …she’s just a person with morals and basically zero real world power.” (Sarah & Robert, ~29:15)

• Thiel funded early AI risk thinkers (like Yudkowsky), now branding them threats because they challenge his techno-progress narrative.
• Sarah:

  “Even if you’re the kind of person who wants to go to a four-part lecture series on the Antichrist… you would assume you were in for something different than a guy being like, here are people I don’t like personally and why I think they’re the Antichrist.” (26:55)

• Thiel's “logic”: Only HE can be apocalyptic; critics are heretics or evil.

5. Thiel’s Idol Logic: Marc Andreessen, Bill Gates, and Musk (44:51–54:51)

• Thiel attacks Marc Andreessen (another AI-obsessed billionaire) saying he isn’t the Antichrist because “the Antichrist is popular.” (45:42)
• Thiel also targets Bill Gates, but ultimately dismisses him as insufficiently “anti-science” for true Antichrist status, letting his paranoid logic spiral:

  “I saw the Mr. Hyde version about a year ago where it was just a non-stop Tourette’s yelling... almost incomprehensible what was going on.” (Thiel via Robert, 46:51)

• Robert reveals what really bothers Thiel: Gates (via the Giving Pledge) wants billionaires to donate their wealth, threatening Thiel’s worldview of power and capital preservation.

6. Wresting Theology for Power (54:52–59:40)

• Thiel claims only by finding a “third way” outside the Bible’s choice of Antichrist vs. Armageddon—i.e., a secretive, non-democratic world order—can salvation (read: Thiel’s own immortality) be achieved.

  “Peter is so clearly scared of death that he can’t even embrace everlasting life.” (59:40)

• Sarah:

  “He’d rather be, like, a Death Becomes Her person, just walking around getting hairline fractures and gluing yourself back together.” (61:01)

7. Thiel, Girard, Carl Schmitt: The Authoritarian Path (68:39–80:52)

• Robert unpacks Thiel’s intellectual debt to Carl Schmitt (Nazi legal theorist who advocated destroying democracy via the friend/enemy distinction) and René Girard (whose “scapegoat theory” Thiel twists for self-justification).
• Thiel embraces the idea that defining enemies—creating scapegoats—is how you exercise real power and justifies the crusader mentality post-9/11:

  “The high point of politics... are the moments in which the enemy is, in concrete clarity, recognized.” (Schmitt via Robert, 71:08)

• Thiel sees video gamers as decadent, not warlike—decay heralding apocalypse.
• JD Vance and other “Thielians” weaponize Girard’s theory to justify their own calculated, divisive politics, even as actual Girardians recoil.

8. Death, Legacy, and the Futility of Immortality (83:37–87:17)

• Thiel’s fear of mortality and need for mythic “control” is summed up:

  “You will die and be forgotten too.” (Robert, 84:45)

• Sarah:

  “That’s why I’m fundamentally optimistic. Because of death… immortality is not real and I don’t think it ever will be.” (84:52)

• The futility (and potential horror) of billionaire immortality quests is lampooned, underlining Thiel’s fundamental impotence before the one force he can’t disrupt—death.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The Antichrist is Amish. Or a Luddite.” (Sarah, 14:01)
• “Peter’s primary claim here is that the Antichrist is anyone warning people about the Apocalypse and trying to save the world. If that’s not the Antichrist, that’s an agent of the Antichrist… Except for me…” (Robert & Sarah, 27:09–27:10)
• On Greta Thunberg:

  “She’s not a corporation. She’s just a person with morals and basically zero real world power.” (Robert, 29:16)

• “If someone actually created an immortality cure, I would want to stop that… it would only exist for, like, the worst people in the world.” (Robert, 85:46)
• “Fundamentally why [Thiel] hates her… is she’s emblematic of the reality that the arc of history will condemn these people.” (Robert, 29:13)
• “Thiel claims to be a Christian, but he can’t even embrace everlasting life. He wants to outsmart God.” (Paraphrased, 59:40–59:45)
• “You have to fortify the modern west…and you can’t do that through democracy. So you have to trick people in order to get around democratic institutions.” (Robert, 77:54)
• “Basically, he’s saying, it would be terrible if someone did the things that I want to do myself. It has to be me.” (Sarah, 78:13)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01–05:08: Devil pop culture, theology, and Bedazzled as theological satire
• 08:06–15:55: Thiel’s nuclear paranoia, post-WW2 apocalypticism, anti-UN conspiracy
• 15:56–28:51: Thiel’s nutty Antichrist logic, scapegoating critics, tying secular fears to demonology
• 28:51–44:51: Greta Thunberg, Yudkowsky, and scapegoating — Thiel’s hunt for personal enemies
• 44:51–54:51: Andreessen, Gates, and Musk — billionaire infighting, hostility to philanthropy/constraint
• 54:52–59:40: Theology as tool for self-preservation, refusal to accept Biblical destiny
• 68:39–80:52: Thiel’s intellectual debts (Schmitt, Girard), friend/enemy logic, Girardians’ horror
• 83:37–87:17: Death as optimistic counterweight, the futility of immortality, billionaire hubris

Conclusion & Takeaways

Behind the Bastards delivers a characteristically sharp, humorous, but deeply informed critique of Peter Thiel’s framework—one that blends misread Christianity, fascist-inflected philosophy, and billionaire paranoia in pursuit of personal safety, power, and (literal) immortality. The episode makes clear that Thiel’s Antichrist is less a figure of religious prophecy and more a projection of his anxieties: any challenge to progress-panic, unlimited wealth, or unchecked techno-power is demonized.

Despite the darkness of Thiel’s vision, the hosts close on an oddly optimistic note: everyone, even Peter Thiel, must eventually die—so the myth of billionaire immortality, like Thiel’s theology, is ultimately a powerless fantasy. As Sarah says:

“That’s why I’m fundamentally optimistic. Because of death.”

Related Content & Pluggables

• Sarah’s podcasts: You’re Wrong About (debunking misunderstood history), The Devil You Know (CBC, on the Satanic Panic)
• Robert invites everyone to stop working immediately—unless you’re performing surgery, in which case: don’t.

Tone: Irreverent, satirical, well-researched, occasionally profane, and with deep pop cultural and historical references.

Best for listeners who want:

• In-depth critique of billionaire ideology
• Connections between theology, politics, and tech
• Humor and biting, left-leaning cultural analysis
• A thorough, timestamped understanding without having to wade through ads or digressions