Yes, Peter Thiel is an anagram of The Reptile. No, he isn’t literally a lizard man, any more biolgically related to a literal reptile than any other human. Unfortunately, his behavior is human. Psychopaths are human.

I suspect that at least some of the conspiracy theorists saw a lot of “cold-blooded” looking people in in power. Those without empathy, and the mirror neurons needed to produce normal body language and responses that look like candid and emotion- tinted, socially normal human movements.

It’s a known thing that sociopaths and psychopaths can rise to the top in corporate structures. A lot of our “leaders” in politics etc, seem to lack empathy and this could easily be symbolized in someone mind as being lizard-like. The collective hints would be more obvious and disturbing to more sensitive people, causing their minds to do the pattern recognition and symbolisms needed to create reptilian conspiracies.

So maybe the conspiracy theorists were an early warning for the nonsense we are seeing now in politics.

  • reksas@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    21 hours ago

    i think it would be more comforting to think its reptilians in power rather than humans who act like that.

  • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    1 day ago

    It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…" “You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?” “No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.” “Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.” “I did,” said Ford. “It is.” “So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?” “It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.” “You mean they actually vote for the lizards?” “Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.” “But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?” “Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?” “What?” “I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?” “I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.” Ford shrugged again. “Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.” “But that’s terrible,” said Arthur. “Listen, bud,” said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say ‘That’s terrible’ I wouldn’t be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.

  • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    23 hours ago

    It’s from the 1980s film/TV series, “V”.

    All of these conspiracy theory nuts believe the most banal stupid crap.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      21 hours ago

      series V, the new one too, and BSG the og series. had an advanced alien race behind the cylons creations, but relative unknown to the humans. plus there was speculative rdinosaur evolution documentaries that evolved into humanoid reptiles.

  • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    This rant reminded me of a book, The Wisdom of Psychopaths. It was a humanistic look at the inner workings of such people and their fundamentally limited experience of human emotion.

    The job of a CEO might be difficult for someone like me. Long hours, high stakes, endless political intrigues, systematically exploiting labourers - but to a psychopath, all they see is big opportunities, excitement, and cruel delights. The position is one that seems oddly suited for one who lacks pity, remorse, or a need for emotionally substantive experiences.

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    If imagining the elites are lizard people helps people come to terms with the need for violent revolution then I’m fine with it honestly.

  • DigDoug@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 day ago

    It’s a known thing that sociopaths and psychopaths can rise to the top in corporate structures.

    It’s not just that they can - they excel at it. Maybe basing our economic system on greed and competition was a bad idea?

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 day ago

    Having a pet lizard has made me have a hard time taking the “lizard people/reptilians” conspiracy theorists seriously. Like, have these people actually been around reptiles? Deeply unserious creatures. Not generally social, sure, but they definitely have body language and would fail terribly at running some kind of complex scheme.

  • Lemminary@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    20 hours ago

    My boss’s boss is eerily kinda like that. She gives me the creeps because she’s also trained as a nurse and she could probably kill if she wanted to and get away with it.

  • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    I don’t like the word “psychopath” because if you look at the etymology, it’s just Greek for “mentally ill person”. I don’t like the association our language historically has between evil people and mentally ill people.

    • IronBird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      23 hours ago

      “mentally ill but functional and well off enough to make that everyone elses problem” doesn’t roll off the tungue though

  • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 day ago

    Ted Cruz is the lizard, though. I can tell, not from his lack of body language cues, but simply because his human-skin suit is so ill-fitting. Also, as a cold-blooded creature, he leaves for warmer places (like Cancun) when Texas gets too cold.

  • tomiant@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 day ago

    Until this post I never considered whether Peter Thiel is a reptile, but now I’m sure he is!

  • Well the most skilled highest paid surgeons have the highest rate of psychopathy of any profession I believe.

    Also I think the framing that psychopaths/sociopaths are evil is extremely reductionist. I thinks it’s better to think of them as just extremely rational actors acting in their own self interest. An effective society will align the interests of the individual with the interests of the society thus nullifying the potentially negative effects of psychopathy in the individual. Capitalism does this quite effectively by using the psychopaths nature in an artificial competition to drive development.

    The issues come into play when psychopaths start to coordinate with each other across what are supposed to be isolated silos eg businessmen coordinating with government. This is essentially what Epstein and associates did. They couldn’t trust each other to coordinate as they knew the nature of themselves and thus everyone else. They therefore needed to create insurance to make sure everyone played along. The insurance mechanism and blackmail seems to be the most effective mechanism for such.

    Disclaimer: this is purely a philosophical thought excersise I do not endorse or support or call or violence against anyone. This is why u need extremely strict rules on separation of power (not just government branches but every powerful steakholder). U can take radical action that effects a few people and fix the whole problem.

    First you have a death penalty for anyone involved with bribing a politician (both get executed) you ban all lobbying and have the same death penalty. Coordinating with a foreign government or business to influence politics executions all round. U work as a regulator then work for the companies u used to regulate and vise versa within a timespan of like 10years execution for you and whoever hired you. That would immediately cause every single one of Epstein’s associates along with almost all billionaires and politicians to be immediately executed.

    The psychopaths would play by the rules cos they value their own life and lust for power enough to not risk breaking them.