It’s often assumed, on either side of the aisle, billionaires wield too much influence on society, or seek to subvert democratic systems if their power or ambitions are left unchecked. There is a fear that billionaires aim to reshape society to reflect their values. In actuality, their plans for social control tend to range from underwhelming to unimaginative.
Peter Thiel has billions and is among the most influential people in tech. What has he invested his time and money in the past 10 years after leaving Trump? A non-drug tested version of the Olympics. The Enhanced Games sought to answer what everyone already knew: steroids do increase athletic performance. It didn’t even succeed at its mission of setting new records. The athletes were already retired or second-rate, and it’s implicitly understood that Olympic athletes are on drugs. There was never much mystery left to solve.
In an era of high-stakes elections and transformative AI poised to reshape society, the Enhanced Games felt positively quaint, amounting to a diversion that failed to compete with the genuinely world-altering events unfolding around us, and was over and forgotten days later. I’m sure if we were gifted Thiel’s wealth we could come up with way cooler or out-of-the-box ideas of how to spend it. I know I could.
When Mark Zuckerberg got tired of running Facebook or defending accusations of being responsible for the worst teen mental health crisis ever, what did he do? Martial arts–a career arc that few could have foresaw. Larry Ellison? Yacht racing and a proclivity towards private islands. Bill Gates? Malaria nets and reviewing books for his blog. Paul Allen? Inordinately expensive collectibles. Google’s cofounders? Nothing. Sure, they may donate to some causes, which may indirectly affect politics, but they seem more focused on hobbies or various digressions than trying to “mold the world”.
But what about those with political ambitions? Even then they often strike out. Michael Bloomberg burned through $500 million in a 4-month period in 2020, only to get beaten by unserious candidates. It didn’t help that he had the charisma of a stack of stale newspapers, which he was often seen carrying on the subway to “fit in” with voters. Of course there are possible exceptions, such as Trump’s political success or Elon’s DOGE program. But these are greatly outnumbered by far more inconsequential, harmless, or unsuccessful aspirations.
My longstanding thesis is that billionaires care more about social status and belonging than they do about abstract principles. This explains billionaires’ obsession with MMA/UFC, from Trump, who hosted an event at the White House, to Mark Zuckerberg, who trained for the sport. It combines a social event and the popularity of mixed martial arts.
Peter Thiel may have seen the Enhanced Games as an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the sports world, expanding his influence beyond the familiar confines of the tech elite. When owning a sports team is not enough, the next logical step is to create one, the result being the ill-fated XFL, a lame imitation of real professional football. Or the Enhanced Games, an imitation of the Olympics. What seemed lame to everyone else when compared to actual professional sports was cool to someone who had never participated in or followed that sport.
When they talk politics, they tend to circle back to generic, stale talking points or language, such as overuse of “woke,” as if they just learned it, or by positioning themselves as outsiders in a society in which they have been wildly successful, as Bill Ackman often does. You cannot both be an outsider and CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. This leads to frustration by the extremely-smart but less financially well-off that billionaires cannot “do more” or avail themselves of the significant resources at their disposal.
Elon will get to Mars and find the “woke mind virus” still lives rent-free in his brain. He could go to Pluto and it would still be replicating.
“Stoke hate.” Could Shakespeare process the words “stoke hate?” How would you even explain it to him? OMG I live in a madhouse
— Curtis Yarvin (@curtis_yarvin)
[April 25, 2026]
Moldbug has often complained that Elon’s views are pedestrian. I’m like, “Yes, compared to you, almost everyone is.” When people wonder, “How can someone so successful and smart be so shallow at politics? Why isn’t there more of a skill transfer?,” I would argue that he is asking too much. Top “verbalizers” are rarer than top business people. Literally only dozens of people scored a perfect “800” on the verbal section of the pre-1995s SATs. This is a much rarer distinction than merely being rich.
It’s tantamount to asking, “Even with unlimited financial resources, how can I subvert the dominant ideology of the last 100 years?” That makes landing on the moon easy by comparison. At least the latter was done. It’s like, where do you begin: the culture, government, academia, or the media? Like the Enhanced Games, the Right’s attempts at creating new institutions often amount to inferior imitations (e.g. Rumble vs YouTube).
There is no right-wing version of Harvard or the New York Times, and little inclination to want to change that. In what Richard Hanania calls “oppositional culture,” the Right cares much more about positioning itself as outsiders against the establishment, than becoming the establishment. Leave it to intellectuals to invent more “creative” plans for humanity, which they have on a handful of occasions actually followed through on, despite not owning a media company or a sports team.