How Peter Thiel’s apparent “Christian” front group weaponized scripture to legitimate his Nazi territorial philosophy.

Historians Train to Spot Patterns

When Peter Thiel recently delivered four private lectures warning that climate activists and AI critics are “legionnaires of the Antichrist,” most coverage focused on the circus-like spectacle — the apocalyptic language, the religious fervor, the sheer weirdness of a billionaire investor preaching eschatology to San Francisco tech elites.

These reporters have missed the point entirely, perhaps because historians are so rare these days.

The lectures, hosted by the ACTS 17 Collective and leaked to the Washington Post, aren’t eccentric theology. They’re the latest iteration of a multigenerational fascist project to establish sovereign territorial enclaves outside democratic accountability.

Understanding this requires historical rigor, not journalistic circumspection or diplomatic euphemism. Let’s be precise then: ACTS 17 Collective is functionally a return to the Nazi Lebensraum doctrine.

Lebenswhat?

I know, the word sounds like some kind of gross cake the neighbors bring over for the holidays.

The Nazis promoted a concept of Lebensraum (living space) to justify territorial expansion. Several interlocking claims were used:

• Superior people require separate territory
• The “contaminated” mixed societies are irredeemable
• Wacky mystical frameworks that sound philosophical provide legitimation
• Existing populations must be displaced or subordinated
• This expansion is civilizational necessity, not mere conquest or colonization. That’s how “Mars” references, to the trained historian ear, have the unmistakable ring of 1960s Rhodesian or Namibian white flight:

  

The sophistication of modern tech fascism is that it replaces military conquest with silicon venture capital, and racial pseudo-science with scripture. But the core structure remains identical. In fact, some Nazi descendants speak to this day very literally of Silicon Valley as a copy of Walter Thiel’s tech slavery plantation of the 1930s.

That’s right, we study Walter Thiel the Nazi of 1930s “Silicon Valley”… we study Werner Thiel the Nazi of 1940s invasion of America to destroy democracy… and so now are we surprised about Peter the Nazi of today in Silicon Valley to destroy democracy?

So many Thiels across history transmitting Nazism, allegedly trying to destroy America, so little time to expose their many, many connections.

The Genealogical Evidence

Peter Thiel’s father Klaus Thiel provides the clearest through-line. In 1967, Klaus departed Frankfurt on the eve of denazification intensification, relocating to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1971, he pivoted his United States papers into criminal work in apartheid-era Namibia (illegally occupied by South Africa), where he managed the Rössing uranium mine. His clandestine nuclear weapons supply operation was, according to pro-independence reports, where Black workers were “dying like flies” from radiation exposure while white managers like Klaus enjoyed country club privileges. In 1977, Klaus abruptly fled his racist enclave of Namibia when Black majority rule no longer could be blocked, settling into Reagan-era California’s white-flight suburbs.

The Klaus Thiel story is NOT a normal economic migration.

Each relocation follows the same pattern: flight from democratic accountability toward territories with legally-sanctioned racial hierarchy.

The son clearly has systematized what his father improvised. Peter Thiel has funded charter cities like Próspera in Honduras and California Forever in Solano County—attempts to establish private governance outside democratic control. He invested in seasteading projects for floating cities beyond national jurisdiction.

Through Palantir, Peregrine and Anduril, he’s positioned technology as a prerequisite for white nationalist sovereignty. He installed JD Vance as ideological successor in government. And according to journalist Jacob Silverman:

…politically connected people in the charter cities movement, people receiving investment from Thiel and others, were very excited about the prospect of the U.S. taking over Greenland.

This isn’t even close to libertarian theory, as it often contradicts it. It’s the long-standing active Nazi territorial acquisition strategy transmitted from Klaus to Peter.

Lebensraum.

Acts 17 Misused for Scriptural Legitimation of Segregation

ACTS 17 Collective didn’t choose its name randomly. The Acts 17 reference is known white nationalist doctrine, providing the three key elements essential to Lebensraum ideology.

First, the “divine boundaries” verse Acts 17:26 states:

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

This verse has been explicitly weaponized throughout history by extremists to justify racial segregation and apartheid.

Apartheid. Acts 17. Think about Peter Thiel and Elon Musk… spreading the encoded language of apartheid. Or as a defender of American segregation once wrote plainly:

The Scriptures teach Segregation…Acts 17:26…is used over and over again in defense of segregation of the races.

The verse provides divine sanction for separate territories for separate peoples, opposition to “mixing” (racial, cultural, democratic), God-ordained hierarchy and boundaries, and the right of “superior” groups to their own sovereignty.

White nationalism, it’s just apartheid wrapped in “Christian” phrases.

Second, consider the elitist engagement model of the reference. Acts 17 depicts Paul addressing the Areopagus—the intellectual and political elite of Athens. This creates a scriptural template for bypassing democratic processes through elite capture, targeting cultural centers (Athens becomes Silicon Valley, Greecian history as another proxy for Nazism), converting powerful individuals rather than building mass movements, and achieving top-down civilizational transformation.

Fascism, it’s just fascism wrapped in “Christian” phrases.

Third, the apocalyptic civilizational warfare frame. Paul’s message announced God’s intention:

…to put an end to the civilisation that has, for a long time, dominated the geographical space that has Athens at its centre.

This justifies viewing democratic culture as existentially threatening, framing opposition as cosmic struggle, demanding complete societal transformation, and rejecting incremental reform in favor of rupture.

It has elements of white nationalism, and overt reference to fascism, but really Acts 17 appears to be about the rapidity of rupture for… Nazism.

The Nuremberg Moment

Thiel’s comments on the Nuremberg trials expose the whole gambit for its underlying resentment doctrine. When asked about Nazi accountability, he expressed nostalgia for Churchill’s early proposal of summary executions:

I wonder if the Churchill one would have actually been healthier than the American one.

Churchill was not a great guy, let that be clear. He helped preserve the Chamberlain cause to defeat Nazism, and interrupted German spread of evil, but we must be clear on his many flaws.

Why would a Nazi today prefer summary executions over trials, to “burn and forget”? Because Nuremberg trials were created to generate documentary evidence of Nazi crimes, international law frameworks for accountability, legal precedents preventing fascist rehabilitation, and historical record making denial impossible.

It’s like Bernie Madoff arguing fraud should bring a firing squad instead of forensic accounting. The logic is perverse: extreme penalties without documentation eliminate the evidence trail. If they’re not executed, the argument goes, there’s no proof of crime—and if they are executed, there’s no trial record to study. It’s the “no true Scotsman” fallacy weaponized: real Nazis would have been shot, therefore anyone still breathing can’t be one.

For someone whose father fled denazification, this isn’t abstract philosophy. The Nuremberg framework is precisely what threatens multigenerational transmission of fascist ideology. Thiel’s preference for summary execution over documented accountability reveals his actual concern: preventing the power of historians, evicerating historical records to avoid exposing what his projects represent (let alone his father’s).

How Silicon Lebensraum Wags the Valley

Silverman’s Gilded Rage documents the practical implementation across multiple domains.

• Physical sovereignty through Thiel’s New Zealand compounds, charter cities in Honduras and California, Musk’s Texas compounds, interest in Greenland acquisition and “exit” strategies for sovereign enclaves.
• Economic sovereignty via cryptocurrency as parallel financial system, opposition to tax transparency and the Common Reporting Standard, and resistance to democratic oversight of capital.
• Educational sovereignty including private schools like Zuckerberg’s pandemic academy, control over curriculum and values transmission, and escape from “contaminated” public education.

  

• Ideological sovereignty means purging organizations that represent internal dissent. A fetish for unity in thought pervades tech companies. Fifty Google employees were fired for protesting Israeli contracts. As Silverman documents, there’s now “very little tolerance for internal dissent or anything political that feels disruptive.”
• Military integration proceeds through Palantir and Anduril positioning as essential defense infrastructure, what Silverman describes as “outright enthusiasm for working in the defense industry,” and defense contracts as leverage for political influence.

“Urban” Life Framed as Justification

Silverman identifies their view of San Francisco as “irredeemable” due to prosecutorial reform, equitable history teaching, and treating homelessness as social rather than criminal issue.

Trump regularly parrots 1970s racist “Urban Renewal” extremist doctrine, fraudulently attacking cities as unsafe or in “decline”. San Francisco famously, through MLK leadership and protests, blocked Nixon targeting prosperous Black neighborhoods of San Francisco for systemic destruction (e.g. “development” methods deployed by Israel today in Gaza are a cousin of the bulldozers unleashed on the Bronx to build “Interstate” infrastructure).

This rhetoric precisely mirrors Klaus Thiel’s context in 1970s Namibia: multiracial, egalitarian governance is presented as “failed” civilization of no value and requiring drastic “escape” or “renewal” measures like abandonment.

Thiel told Stanford classmates that apartheid “works” and is “economically sound.” His current projects apply the same logic: democratic, diverse society is dysfunctional; superior people require separate sovereign space of exclusivity.

America Needs Historians More Than Ever

JD Vance is a coin-operated “Thiel disciple” who “has written about how much Thiel influenced the course of his life.” His extremely expensive campaigns that enabled elevation to Vice President places the Lebensraum network at the center of American governance.

Americans don’t get it clearly enough yet and seem to think this is about tech regulation disputes, tax policy disagreements, and antitrust enforcement.

Nope.

It’s actually about territorial sovereignty outside democratic control, racial and class separation dressed as innovation, and ending democratic governance for ideologically pure enclaves. As Silverman notes:

I think the Democrats, in some ways, still may not understand what they’re dealing with.

These aren’t opportunistic politicians. These are Nazis infiltrating a political party. Silverman emphasizes: “these guys are rather sincere in a lot of ways.”

People need to smell the coffee. When someone writes like this:

[Thiel has] long been skeptical, at the very least, of democracy. Democracy interferes with his idea of true freedom. [Those feelings] are more widely felt now among the tech elites than they were when Thiel was a little bit lonely on that front in the late 1990s.

This is a platform of swastikas waving, by people who explicitly reject democracy and are building alternatives.

This is stated openly, repeatedly, in their own words.

Historical Analogy as Antidote

In 1930s-40s Germany, society was viewed as “contaminated” by democracy, Jews, and communists, creating the need for Lebensraum in the East. Philosophical justification came from Carl Schmitt—whom Thiel studied. Technological and racial superiority justified expansion through military conquest.

In 2020s Silicon Valley, society is viewed as “contaminated” by wokeness, diversity, and democracy, creating the need for sovereign enclaves through charter cities and compounds. Philosophical and theological justification comes from Curtis Yarvin, Nick Land, and Acts 17. Technological superiority justifies sovereignty achieved through venture capital and defense contracts.

The sophistication is the mechanism, not the ideology.

Some will repeatedly fall for the logical fallacies like Scotsman, and object that any or all comparisons to Nazism are inflammatory.

It’s actually precise.

Lebensraum requires identification of a superior group requiring separate space, justification through philosophical or pseudo-scientific framework, territorial acquisition strategy, rejection of “contaminated” mixed society, subordination or displacement of existing populations, and civilizational necessity framing.

ACTS 17 Collective and the broader Thiel network check every box. They’re explicitly anti-democratic—”democracy interferes with true freedom.” They’re actively pursuing territorial sovereignty through charter cities and Greenland interest. They’re using scripture to justify “divine boundaries” via Acts 17:26. They’re characterizing diverse democracy as “irredeemable” through their San Francisco critique. They’re building infrastructure for separate governance through crypto, private schools, and defense tech. They’re positioning successors in government through Vance.

What ACTS 17 Actually Does

The organization presents as Christian networking for tech leaders “wrestling with what it means to live with purpose and conviction.”

Its actual function is providing theological legitimation for oligarchic territoriality.

By hosting Thiel’s apocalyptic lectures describing regulation critics as “Antichrist legionnaires,” ACTS 17 frames democratic oversight as cosmic evil, provides divine sanction for elite sovereignty, weaponizes Acts 17:26 “boundaries” theology, creates ideological cohesion among tech elites, and masks territorial ambitions in religious language.

This is precisely how fascist ideology gets transmitted across generations: the core remains constant (superior people deserve sovereign space) while the packaging adapts (from racial pseudo-science to biblical exegesis).

The Multigenerational Project

Klaus Thiel spent his life fleeing democratic accountability through migration to territories with legally-sanctioned hierarchy.

Peter Thiel is systematizing this impulse through institutional capture via defense tech and political placement; territorial acquisition through charter cities and compounds; ideological transmission through ACTS 17 and Vance mentorship; infrastructure building through Palantir surveillance and crypto sovereignty; and philosophical legitimation through Schmitt, Yarvin, and scripture.

This isn’t opportunistic. This is apocalyptic, destructive.

It’s the continuation of fascist ideology through adapted institutional forms, using theological language to avoid acknowledging what they actually seek: the end of democratic accountability and the establishment of sovereign elite enclaves organized on hierarchical principles.

Demand a Stand

Historical analytics demands we name patterns accurately. When a man whose father fled denazification builds surveillance technology for authoritarian regimes; studies Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt; explicitly rejects democracy; funds territorial “exit” strategies; uses scripture historically weaponized for apartheid; positions protégés to dismantle democratic governance; and hosts lectures framing democratic critics as apocalyptic enemies—calling this “libertarianism” or “contrarianism” isn’t analysis.

It’s evasion.

Don’t allow another step.

ACTS 17 Collective appears to function as a Nazi front, a Lebensraum organization. The evidence is overwhelming, documented, and stated in their own words.

The only question is whether we have the clarity today, to recognize in 2025 what people said could be seen in 1932.

Related Reading

• Washington Post, “Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction” (October 10, 2025)
• Jacob Silverman, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley (Bloomsbury, 2025)
• Politico Magazine, “‘The Democrats Still May Not Understand What They’re Dealing With'” (October 11, 2025)
• John Ganz, “The Enigma of Peter Thiel,” Unpopular Front (July 23, 2022)
• Jim Stewartson, “Peter Thiel’s Radioactive Childhood,” Mind War (April 4, 2025)
• Max Chafkin, The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power (Penguin Press, 2021)
• Richard Davis, “The Politics of Nations and Boundaries—Acts 17:22-31,” Political Theology Network (May 23, 2018)