Hackers discover a member list from a secret cabal of elites founded by Peter Thiel. Here’s the list according the hacker —- Immad Akhund, Founder & CEO, Mercury. Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Founder,...
Exemplary
Hackers discover a member list from a secret cabal of elites founded by Peter Thiel.
Immad Akhund, Founder & CEO, Mercury.
Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Founder, King Faisal Foundation. Fmr. Minister of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia.
Reema Al-Saud, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.
John Arnold, Co-Chair, Arnold Ventures. Fmr. Founder, Centaurus Advisors.
Susan Athey, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fmr. Chief Economist, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
Peter Attia, Physician, Attia Medical, Author, Outlive.
Scott Belsky, Partner, A24 Films. Fmr. Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Product Officer, Adobe. Founder, Behance.
Nicolas Berggruen, Founder & President, Berggruen Holdings.
Scott Bessent, Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Preet Bharara, Fmr. U.S. Attorney, New York Southern District.
Elizabeth Blackburn, Fmr. President, Salk Institute for Biomedical Studies. Nobel Prize winner.
Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, Microsoft.
Cory Booker, Senator (New Jersey), U.S. Senate.
Rachel Brand, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Walmart. Fmr. Associate Attorney General, U.S Department of Justice.
Scooter Braun, CEO, Hybe America. Founder, Ithaca Holdings.
Pete Briger, Principal & Chairman of the Board, Fortress Investment Group.
Greg Brockman, Co-Founder & President, OpenAI. Fmr. CTO, Stripe.
Manuel Bronstein, Chief Product Officer, Roblox.
Peter Brown, CEO, Renaissance Technologies.
Thasunda Brown Duckett, President & CEO, TIAA.
Sophia Bush, Actress, One Tree Hill.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Atlassian.
Cesar Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO, Wellhub.
Wences Casares, Founder & Fmr. CEO, Xapo Bank. Founder: Wanako Games, Banco Lemon, Lemon Wallet.
Julian Castro, Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Bob Cialdini, Author, Influence.
Matt Clifford, Prime Minister's Advisor on AI Opportunities, U.K. Government. Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First.
Caroline Cochran, Co-Founder & COO, Oklo.
Matt Cohler, Fmr. General Partner, Benchmark.
Scott Cook, Co-Founder & Chairman, Intuit.
Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics & Director, Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
Ted Cruz, Senator (Texas), U.S. Senate.
Adam D'Angelo, Co-Founder & CEO, Quora. Fmr. CTO, Facebook.
Mitch Daniels, Fmr. Governor, State of Indiana. Fmr. President, Purdue University.
Dan Driscoll, Secretary, U.S. Army.
Charles Duhigg, Author: The Power of Habit, Supercommunicators.
Steve Ells, Founder & Fmr. CEO, Chipotle.
Tim Ferriss, Author: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef. Host, The Tim Ferriss Show.
Marcos Galperin, Co-Founder & CEO, MercadoLibre.
Atul Gawande, Author: Being Mortal, The Checklist Manifesto. Fmr. Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID.
Tom Goldstein, Partner, Goldstein & Russell. Founder & Fmr. Publisher, SCOTUSblog.com.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Actor, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Looper, Snowden.
Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist, Wharton School of Management. Author: Think Again, Originals, Give and Take.
Severin Hacker, Co-Founder & CTO, Duolingo.
Jonathan Haidt, Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU. Author: The Anxious Generation, The Righteous Mind, The Coddling of the American Mind.
Peggy Hamburg, Fmr. Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Sam Harris, Podcast Host, Making Sense. Author: Free Will, Lying, Waking Up.
Jim Himes, Congressman (Connecticut), U.S. House of Representatives.
Auren Hoffman, CEO, NOB8. Chairman & Fmr. CEO, SafeGraph. Founder & Fmr. CEO, LiveRamp. Chairman, Dialog.
Reid Hoffman, Partner, Greylock Partners. Co-Founder & Fmr. Executive Chairman, LinkedIn.
Rob Hur, Fmr. Special Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
Bob Jain, CIO, Millennium Management. Founder, Jain Family Institute.
Bryan Johnson, Founder & CEO: Kernel, Blueprint.
Kaja Kallas, Vice President, European Commission. Fmr. Prime Minister, Estonia.
Gaurva Kapadia, Founder & CEO, XN.
Karen Karniol-Tambour, Co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates.
Garry Kasparov, Fmr. Member, Russian Opposition Movement's Coordinating Council. Fmr. World Chess champion.
Neal Katyal, Partner, Milbank. Fmr. Partner & Supreme Court Practice Leader, Hogan Lovells.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Fmr. Prime Minister, Pakistan. Founder, Airblue.
Ezra Klein, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times. Founder & Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Vox. Host, The Ezra Klein Show.
Tarö Köno, Digital Minister, Japan. Fmr. Minister of Defense, Japan.
Henry Kravis, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Jared Kushner, Founder, Affinity Partners.
Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI.
Leonard Leo, Co-Chairman & Fmr. Executive Vice President, Federalist Society.
Jon Levin, President, Stanford University.
Howie Liu, Founder & CEO, Airtable.
Joe Lonsdale, Founding Partner, 8VC. Co-Founder: Palantir, Addepar.
Micky Malka, Founder & Managing Partner, Ribbit Capital.
Stan McChrystal, Founder & CEO, McChrystal Group. Fmr. General, U.S. Army.
Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube.
Lisa Monaco, Fmr. Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
Wes Moore, Governor, State of Maryland.
Elon Musk, Founder & CEO, SpaceX. Co-Founder & CEO, Tesla Motors.
Demet Mutlu, Founder & CEO, Trendyol Group.
Vas Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis.
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform.
Mike Novogratz, CEO, Galaxy Digital. Fmr. CIO, Fortress Investment Group.
Jim O'Neill, Nominee for Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Co-Founder, Thiel Fellowship.
Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP. Co-Owner, Golden State Warriors.
Benj Pasek, Songwriter & Producer: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner.
Daniel Pink, Author: Drive, To Sell is Human, The Power of Regret. Fmr. Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.
Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University. Author: Enlightenment Now, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Jared Polis, Governor, State of Colorado.
Jonathan Ross, Founder & CEO, Groq.
Robert Rubin, Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury. Fmr. Co-Chairman, Goldman Sachs.
Gretchen Rubin, Host, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Author: The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies.
Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, CEO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Will Scharf, Co-Founder & CTO, Oscar Health.
Mario Schlosser, Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President, U.S. White House.
Eric Schmidt, Founder, Schmidt Futures. Fmr. CEO: Google, Alphabet.
Dan Schulman, Fmr. President & CEO, PayPal.
Drew Scott, Co-Founder, Scott Brothers Global. Co-Host, Property Brothers.
Kim Scott, Author, Radical Candor.
Pete Shadbolt, Founder & Chief Science Officer, PsiQuantum.
Ali Siddiqui, Board Chair, OnZero. Fmr. Ambassador of Pakistan to the U.S.
Barry Silbert, Founder & CEO, Digital Currency Group.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America. Professor, Princeton. Fmr. Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State.
Charlie Songhurst, Board Director, Meta. Fmr. Head of Corporate Strategy, Microsoft.
Jens Spahn, Member of Parliament, German Bundestag. Fmr. Federal Minister of Health, Germany.
Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President & CEO, Verisk Analytics.
Barry Sternlicht, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group.
Bret Stephens, Opinion Columnist & Associate Editor, The New York Times. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Lawrence Summers, Fmr. President, Harvard University. Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, X.
Peter Thiel, Co-Founder: Founders Fund, Palantir, PayPal, Dialog.
Nick Thompson, CEO, The Atlantic. Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Wired Magazine.
John Townsend, Author, Boundaries.
Tom Tugendhat, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom.
Tim Urban, Writer & Illustrator, Wait But Why. Author, What's Our Problem?
Rick Warren, Author, The Purpose Driven Life. Podcast Host, Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Strauss Zelnick, Chairman & CEO, Take-Two Interactive Software.
Shivon Zilis, Director, Neuralink.
So proud for my boy Ezra, from unknown politics blogger to being in the big leagues. Anyway, I wouldn't make too much of this "list". There's plenty of these types of retreats. Sun Valley is...
Ezra Kelin
So proud for my boy Ezra, from unknown politics blogger to being in the big leagues.
Who on the list constitutes an "Epstein-class pedolite"? Note that not everything I say here may characterize your beliefs, but it's been something that's been on my mind when I see comments like...
Who on the list constitutes an "Epstein-class pedolite"?
Note that not everything I say here may characterize your beliefs, but it's been something that's been on my mind when I see comments like this from good and well-meaning people. I understand generalized anger at "elites", especially reactionary ones. I do worry about the state of contemporary discourse. We seem to determine massive swaths of the population are complicit eating babies or something with the only evidence having been on a mailing list.
There's something about the Epstein stuff that has led many to tilt towards satanic panic-levels of paranoia. I understand wanting rub the Epstein conspiracy stuff in the right's face, given that narrative is now more effectively wielded against the right than the left. But, I am comfortable challenging irrational thinking when the right did it (pizzagate, qanon), and I'm more than happy to confront it when I see it on the left.
Yes there are evil elites. Yes, a portion of them are abusive criminals who should rot in prison. But having contact with Thiel or even Epstein does not constitute meaningful evidence of being part of some pedo conspiracy; many other more plausible theories predict this data equally well.
Larry Summers, for one. And at this point, yes putting yourself in league with Thiel - who is actively working to undermine Democracy and decency - is grounds for contempt. If Thiel just wrote...
Larry Summers, for one. And at this point, yes putting yourself in league with Thiel - who is actively working to undermine Democracy and decency - is grounds for contempt. If Thiel just wrote their names down, then you're right - but if they chose to have a "secret dialogue" they should eat the consequences of that.
I didn't make a statement on whether this "puts them in league" with Thiel or whether that's contemptible. My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child...
yes putting yourself in league with Thiel - who is actively working to undermine Democracy and decency - is grounds for contempt.
I didn't make a statement on whether this "puts them in league" with Thiel or whether that's contemptible. My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child abusing cabal of elites controlling the globe. Many are too quick to jump to conspiracy theories once only held by the far right.
If Thiel just wrote their names down, then you're right
I would've been right about what? What am I wrong about? Maybe you meant to reply to a different message?
My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child abusing cabal of elites controlling the globe. Many are too quick to jump to conspiracy theories once only...
My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child abusing cabal of elites controlling the globe. Many are too quick to jump to conspiracy theories once only held by the far right.
That's fair. There are at least 3 or 4 Epsteiners on that list by my count, but I don't know that the others were aware of those. And there are at least a couple people on there I respect for their work, generally.
But I think calling them "Epstein Class" is also fair - they have made it clear there is a different set of rules for themselves and everyone else and I'm not really inclined to pretend otherwise for the sake of "the discourse" anymore.
There's ambiguity about what's being claimed here. It might be cleared up if you can answer my question from above: What am I wrong about? What would I have been right about if "Thiel just wrote...
There's ambiguity about what's being claimed here. It might be cleared up if you can answer my question from above:
What am I wrong about? What would I have been right about if "Thiel just wrote their names down"?
The thing is with these lists - not everyone on them is absolute evil. Some are unwitting guests of evil. Some are tempted by the "everyone who's anyone will be there" thing. Some are curious but...
The thing is with these lists - not everyone on them is absolute evil. Some are unwitting guests of evil. Some are tempted by the "everyone who's anyone will be there" thing. Some are curious but would never go back. Some miss the evil part entirely because they were invited because they're famous or have the ability to introduce the evil guys to someone else further on. And some are secretly actually evil.
A lot of people can talk themselves out of noticing evil shit for the sake of whatever "good" thing they think they can do by "taking advantage of the opportunity" (probably a lot more of us than we'd like to admit)
Idk which JGL is. I'm not excusing him, but I'll acknowledge that not everyone on a list like this is actively doing the evil things. (And plenty of folks will disagree with me about who in this list is the absolute evil the rest are consorting with anyway)
I think you’ve got the best of the nuanced takes. I’ve been chewing this article over since yesterday when I saw it first, and the only charitable explanation that I can give for their presence is...
I think you’ve got the best of the nuanced takes. I’ve been chewing this article over since yesterday when I saw it first, and the only charitable explanation that I can give for their presence is that maybe these people thought that it was their duty to at least ensure that progressive ideas were being thrown into the mix, since this is supposed to be some sort of sharing of ideas based on the description of it being a “dialog” of some sort.
But even that feels tenuous when you figure that the person fostering the “dialog” is a billionaire who believes that he has the right to tell everybody else on the planet what to do, or at the very least to be treated as a special class apart from the rest of humanity. How do you convince somebody like that? How do you even begin to get them to consider that money is poison and that we’re better together as a collective society than as atomized individuals in a civilization that has no society? If you can even have a civilization without a society.
I think Thiel is one of the ones pretty far on the "evil" side. I don't know that he's irredeemable, or whatever, I don't know him and I think very few people can't change. But I certainly don't...
But even that feels tenuous when you figure that the person fostering the “dialog” is a billionaire who believes that he has the right to tell everybody else on the planet what to do, or at the very least to be treated as a special class apart from the rest of humanity. How do you convince somebody like that? How do you even begin to get them to consider that money is poison and that we’re better together as a collective society than as atomized individuals in a civilization that has no society? If you can even have a civilization without a society.
I think Thiel is one of the ones pretty far on the "evil" side. I don't know that he's irredeemable, or whatever, I don't know him and I think very few people can't change. But I certainly don't have the individual power to do so. I think we make change as "us" through the government. And it's slow and hard rather than the hollowly satisfying quickness of the guillotine, but it'll last longer and be far less likely to turn on its users. In the end you don't have to "convince" people like him, you regulate them; and the hangers-on who are only hanging out with evil for the vibes stop when it isn't fun and cool anymore.
Maybe he's got a bestie who can say "hey Pete you gotta stop doing evil" but that isn't you or I.
To whit; it seems like the best course of action is to keep trying to fix the government rather than fix the people that are taking advantage of the government. So maybe people don’t need to show...
To whit; it seems like the best course of action is to keep trying to fix the government rather than fix the people that are taking advantage of the government. So maybe people don’t need to show up to the evil billionaire’s summit to try to talk sense into the evil billionaire.
I think few people do, but some may think themselves able to have more influence than you or I do. Maybe they're right, maybe they're the bestie (more likely they just think they are). But all...
I think few people do, but some may think themselves able to have more influence than you or I do. Maybe they're right, maybe they're the bestie (more likely they just think they are). But all those other reasons why other folks show up still exist. Like I said I think given those offers/invites more of us than we'd like to admit would accept and look past things we don't agree with because the canapes are delicious (metaphorically)
I think he probably falls under the “entertainment” class of guests. This is an interesting article by someone else invited in that capacity (Noah Hawley who was invited to be a dancing monkey for...
I think he probably falls under the “entertainment” class of guests. This is an interesting article by someone else invited in that capacity (Noah Hawley who was invited to be a dancing monkey for Bezos).
So I'm from New Jersey. When Booker was running for president, I knew a large number of Jerseyans who refused to vote for him on the basis that he was a New Jersey politician. Their justification...
So I'm from New Jersey. When Booker was running for president, I knew a large number of Jerseyans who refused to vote for him on the basis that he was a New Jersey politician. Their justification was that New Jersey politics are so fundamentally corrupt that anyone involved at them above the municipal level is almost certainly in the pocket of either organized criminals or pharmaceutical/healthcare companies that run the New Jersey economy.
I always thought this was vaguely silly (though I will say that my dad is a healthcare administrator in New Jersey and also claims that he has direct experience with a small group of wealthy elites having clear and direct impact on New Jersey politics via direct conversation with decision-makers, not lobbying). I have always liked Booker as much as I like any American politician. But uhhhh this is a pretty bad look.
Corey Booker : progressive politics :: Applebee's : quality food. Looks pretty good on TV, but once you dig in, you realize it's mostly bullshit. Though he might try (and fail) to hide it, Booker...
Looks pretty good on TV, but once you dig in, you realize it's mostly bullshit. Though he might try (and fail) to hide it, Booker has been a strong supporter of a different fascist movement, and he is often among the first to sing the tune that the Democrat billionaire donors want to hear.
One of the things that stood out with Epstein was his connections with academia and researchers - his money funded them (and bought them) and he collected people who interested him
One of the things that stood out with Epstein was his connections with academia and researchers - his money funded them (and bought them) and he collected people who interested him
This is what Ezra Klein said about Dialog on twitter https://x.com/ezraklein/status/2068479476309151771 Which is slightly disappointing, as I had hoped he joined the illuminati. But maybe he's...
Exemplary
This is what Ezra Klein said about Dialog on twitter
Enough people have asked me about the Peter Thiel-Dialog story that I think it's worth saying what it is, or at least what I saw it to be. So:
–Dialog is a conference. I went once in 2018 and once in 2022. No one ever asked me to keep it or my presence a secret.
–My understanding was Thiel was one of its founders but no longer involved by the time I went. I never saw or talked to him in connection with Dialog.
–Nor did I see the other names I’ve heard mentioned, like Ted Cruz or Elon Musk or Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Jared Kushner. Dialog was not sold to me as a bunch of big names, which is part of why I went. I don’t need to go to a conference to hear what Ted Cruz thinks.
–You could be a Dialog member, but I wasn’t. I don’t think joining got you much except guaranteed invitations to future Dialogs. There were occasional dinners and webinars, but I never went to one. I would not have described it as a secret or a society.
–The panels were largely self-organized, so people would propose panels and hold them. I went to one on being a working parent and another on whether crypto had any real use cases and another on how to accelerate scientific breakthroughs. You’d usually have 8 or 10 people in a room. It was all very TED-talk adjacent.
–In 2018, I found it very optimistic, with an idealistic hacker-ish vibe. In 2022, I found the conversations and vibe more curdled and resentful. I didn’t enjoy it, and I didn’t go back. (That did prove a pretty good signal of where tech’s politics were going though, maybe I should’ve paid more attention.)
–That said, Dialog was a pretty ideologically diverse crowd. I met some people there who were extremely far left and far right. I met some real eccentrics and weirdos. I appreciated that about it.
– I’m a journalist, I go to lots of things in the hopes of getting to know people, hearing new ideas, finding podcast guests, etc.
–Being at something does not mean I endorse it, or everyone at it, or everyone who organized or founded it. I try to go to things where I don’t share the politics and perspectives of the crowd, for obvious reasons.
–I am surprised how credulous some people have been on this story. You have to believe some weird things about the world to believe Julián Castro and Peter Thiel are somehow engaged in a common project. Secret societies, I imagine, need a lot of trust to function, but the people being named here do not trust each other and do not have aligned agendas.
So that’s what I saw at Dialog. I’ll just end by saying it’s a weird experience to have a conference you haven’t thought about for years become the center of a new conspiracy theory.
I feel like this saved us a future "files" situation. We know (a good number of) the people involved in engaging with the horrible influence peddlers this time. Thanks, hacker.
I feel like this saved us a future "files" situation. We know (a good number of) the people involved in engaging with the horrible influence peddlers this time.
Never in my life would I have figured that the illuminati is real, and there are two of them, and both of their roster leaks within a year of one another.
Never in my life would I have figured that the illuminati is real, and there are two of them, and both of their roster leaks within a year of one another.
What is your perception of events where either case is "the illuminati is real"? That wealthy people talk to each other is not some world shattering revelation. That some of the wealthy people...
What is your perception of events where either case is "the illuminati is real"?
That wealthy people talk to each other is not some world shattering revelation. That some of the wealthy people turn out to be bad is also not mind blowing. I think with both Epstein and now this people take a kernel of truth and run with it. It's to the point that many good left leaning people think all the worlds governments are part of a cabal of baby eaters or something. This isn't significantly different from pizzagate or q-anon in my opinion.
People desperately want to point to a single villainous entity they can point to as the source of all that ails them. They will keep doubling down on going after the villains, find things haven’t...
That wealthy people talk to each other is not some world shattering revelation. That some of the wealthy people turn out to be bad is also not mind blowing. I think with both Epstein and now this people take a kernel of truth and run with it. It's to the point that many good left leaning people think all the worlds governments are part of a cabal of baby eaters or something. This isn't significantly different from pizzagate or q-anon in my opinion.
People desperately want to point to a single villainous entity they can point to as the source of all that ails them. They will keep doubling down on going after the villains, find things haven’t improved, and double down harder trying to find the scapegoat that purges the problems. And once you sufficiently commit to the “everything bad is because of a shadowy conspiracy of elite puppet-masters” model of the world it’s just a matter of time before you plink your way down the pachinko board of scapegoats until you end up at Jews*.
*If Jews are not available in your society, any sufficiently insular community of educated people will do (e.g. Tutsis, witches). Generally the actual people doing stuff won’t be successfully targeted except by luck. The consequences will fall on folks who happen to share general demographic traits in common with them.
What about the thousands of documented emails, dozens of court cases, and released or leaked testimony about these people having handled, solicited, or raped girls?
This isn't significantly different from pizzagate or q-anon in my opinion.
What about the thousands of documented emails, dozens of court cases, and released or leaked testimony about these people having handled, solicited, or raped girls?
I never said they were. You, on the other hand, compared an issue with extensive evidence, including clear documented connections to the highest level of ruling class and multiple convictions, to...
I never said they were. You, on the other hand, compared an issue with extensive evidence, including clear documented connections to the highest level of ruling class and multiple convictions, to two conspiracies with no legal evidence I'm aware of that anything of the sort actually exists or happened.
I honestly would have been more surprised if there weren't any secret societies full of rich and powerful (mostly) men. Almost every component of one exists throughout society at lower levels....
I honestly would have been more surprised if there weren't any secret societies full of rich and powerful (mostly) men.
Almost every component of one exists throughout society at lower levels. Just that the private clubs like the Lions and Kiwanis do charity and the ones at the top conspire. I figure the reason is the scope of being able to exert influence.
I mean, this isn't a secret society. There are secret societies, that's a pretty well documented fact, and they have various levels of influence. The whole illuminati thing isn't the same thing as...
I mean, this isn't a secret society. There are secret societies, that's a pretty well documented fact, and they have various levels of influence. The whole illuminati thing isn't the same thing as "there are powerful groups of people who don't publically disclose themselves" though.
It's that they control everything. That's the kooky part that is the forrest that a lot of people mistake for the trees when they get into conspiracy theories.
Like yes, there are powerful groups of people that meet in secret and have aligned interests. There are also other powerful groups of people that meet that also have different aligned interests though, and many of those interests are in direct conflict with the first group.
There's no single group that's been pulling the strings behind all governments and corporations of the world, which is what the illuminati conspiracy theory is.
A lot of times people point to the Epstein case or Camp David or Bohemian grove or whatever as proof that there's a secret cabal of elites that all conspire together to engineer world events, and yeah, there truly is some conspiring going on, but there's also a lot of conflict.
Unless you really want to go off the rails and frame every economic and wartime conflict as an eleborate, expensive stage performance for the general public, the illuminati claim falls on its face.
Mostly white too. It’s wild learning that there’s a secret cadre of elites who control the globe. It’s even wilder to know that none of them look like me
Mostly white too.
It’s wild learning that there’s a secret cadre of elites who control the globe.
It’s even wilder to know that none of them look like me
Where's the source for some cabal controlling the world? Should I sit out of the next election since "they" actually secretly control everything? The evidence certainly isn't contained in the link...
It’s wild learning that there’s a secret cadre of elites who control the globe.
Where's the source for some cabal controlling the world? Should I sit out of the next election since "they" actually secretly control everything? The evidence certainly isn't contained in the link above. That some rich people attended the same seminar is not sufficient evidence for wild conspiracy theories.
Both WIRED and the hacker who broke the story confirmed the list. These people all signed up for accounts. These people are all social elites, many of who are at the top of their field. They all...
Both WIRED and the hacker who broke the story confirmed the list. These people all signed up for accounts. These people are all social elites, many of who are at the top of their field. They all wield considerable power and influence.
It’s literally a secret cadre of elites who control the globe. Sorry it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s factual.
We don’t know all the details behind why they’re registered, but it’s clear that public people are private conversations out of the public eye.
They don't control the globe though. There's not a single head of state on that list. Only 2% of the US Senate is on the list. Barely anyone from an EU govenrment is on the list, and no one from...
They don't control the globe though. There's not a single head of state on that list. Only 2% of the US Senate is on the list. Barely anyone from an EU govenrment is on the list, and no one from the Russian or Chinese governments.
How could you make the argument that the people in that room control the globe?
Are they influential? Sure, but there are lots of rooms where lots of influential people gather. Most of them aren't public.
"A bunch of influential people regularly meet privately" is a much different claim than "a group of people control the entire world and are in cahoots".
Where is the evidence that they “control the globe” beyond the duties of their roles? Do they control China and Russia? At most you could claim they control the US? Is it surprising to you that...
Where is the evidence that they “control the globe” beyond the duties of their roles? Do they control China and Russia?
At most you could claim they control the US?
but it’s clear that public people are private conversations out of the public eye.
Is it surprising to you that public people have private conversations? If so, why?
Hackers discover a member list from a secret cabal of elites founded by Peter Thiel.
Here’s the list according the hacker
—-
Immad Akhund, Founder & CEO, Mercury.
Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Founder, King Faisal Foundation. Fmr. Minister of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia.
Reema Al-Saud, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.
John Arnold, Co-Chair, Arnold Ventures. Fmr. Founder, Centaurus Advisors.
Susan Athey, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fmr. Chief Economist, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
Peter Attia, Physician, Attia Medical, Author, Outlive.
Scott Belsky, Partner, A24 Films. Fmr. Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Product Officer, Adobe. Founder, Behance.
Nicolas Berggruen, Founder & President, Berggruen Holdings.
Scott Bessent, Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Preet Bharara, Fmr. U.S. Attorney, New York Southern District.
Elizabeth Blackburn, Fmr. President, Salk Institute for Biomedical Studies. Nobel Prize winner.
Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, Microsoft.
Cory Booker, Senator (New Jersey), U.S. Senate.
Rachel Brand, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Walmart. Fmr. Associate Attorney General, U.S Department of Justice.
Scooter Braun, CEO, Hybe America. Founder, Ithaca Holdings.
Pete Briger, Principal & Chairman of the Board, Fortress Investment Group.
Greg Brockman, Co-Founder & President, OpenAI. Fmr. CTO, Stripe.
Manuel Bronstein, Chief Product Officer, Roblox.
Peter Brown, CEO, Renaissance Technologies.
Thasunda Brown Duckett, President & CEO, TIAA.
Sophia Bush, Actress, One Tree Hill.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Atlassian.
Cesar Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO, Wellhub.
Wences Casares, Founder & Fmr. CEO, Xapo Bank. Founder: Wanako Games, Banco Lemon, Lemon Wallet.
Julian Castro, Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Bob Cialdini, Author, Influence.
Matt Clifford, Prime Minister's Advisor on AI Opportunities, U.K. Government. Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First.
Caroline Cochran, Co-Founder & COO, Oklo.
Matt Cohler, Fmr. General Partner, Benchmark.
Scott Cook, Co-Founder & Chairman, Intuit.
Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics & Director, Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
Ted Cruz, Senator (Texas), U.S. Senate.
Adam D'Angelo, Co-Founder & CEO, Quora. Fmr. CTO, Facebook.
Mitch Daniels, Fmr. Governor, State of Indiana. Fmr. President, Purdue University.
Dan Driscoll, Secretary, U.S. Army.
Charles Duhigg, Author: The Power of Habit, Supercommunicators.
Steve Ells, Founder & Fmr. CEO, Chipotle.
Tim Ferriss, Author: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef. Host, The Tim Ferriss Show.
Marcos Galperin, Co-Founder & CEO, MercadoLibre.
Atul Gawande, Author: Being Mortal, The Checklist Manifesto. Fmr. Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID.
Tom Goldstein, Partner, Goldstein & Russell. Founder & Fmr. Publisher, SCOTUSblog.com.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Actor, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Looper, Snowden.
Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist, Wharton School of Management. Author: Think Again, Originals, Give and Take.
Severin Hacker, Co-Founder & CTO, Duolingo.
Jonathan Haidt, Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU. Author: The Anxious Generation, The Righteous Mind, The Coddling of the American Mind.
Peggy Hamburg, Fmr. Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Sam Harris, Podcast Host, Making Sense. Author: Free Will, Lying, Waking Up.
Jim Himes, Congressman (Connecticut), U.S. House of Representatives.
Auren Hoffman, CEO, NOB8. Chairman & Fmr. CEO, SafeGraph. Founder & Fmr. CEO, LiveRamp. Chairman, Dialog.
Reid Hoffman, Partner, Greylock Partners. Co-Founder & Fmr. Executive Chairman, LinkedIn.
Rob Hur, Fmr. Special Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
Bob Jain, CIO, Millennium Management. Founder, Jain Family Institute.
Bryan Johnson, Founder & CEO: Kernel, Blueprint.
Kaja Kallas, Vice President, European Commission. Fmr. Prime Minister, Estonia.
Gaurva Kapadia, Founder & CEO, XN.
Karen Karniol-Tambour, Co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates.
Garry Kasparov, Fmr. Member, Russian Opposition Movement's Coordinating Council. Fmr. World Chess champion.
Neal Katyal, Partner, Milbank. Fmr. Partner & Supreme Court Practice Leader, Hogan Lovells.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Fmr. Prime Minister, Pakistan. Founder, Airblue.
Ezra Klein, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times. Founder & Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Vox. Host, The Ezra Klein Show.
Tarö Köno, Digital Minister, Japan. Fmr. Minister of Defense, Japan.
Henry Kravis, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Jared Kushner, Founder, Affinity Partners.
Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI.
Leonard Leo, Co-Chairman & Fmr. Executive Vice President, Federalist Society.
Jon Levin, President, Stanford University.
Howie Liu, Founder & CEO, Airtable.
Joe Lonsdale, Founding Partner, 8VC. Co-Founder: Palantir, Addepar.
Micky Malka, Founder & Managing Partner, Ribbit Capital.
Stan McChrystal, Founder & CEO, McChrystal Group. Fmr. General, U.S. Army.
Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube.
Lisa Monaco, Fmr. Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
Wes Moore, Governor, State of Maryland.
Elon Musk, Founder & CEO, SpaceX. Co-Founder & CEO, Tesla Motors.
Demet Mutlu, Founder & CEO, Trendyol Group.
Vas Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis.
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform.
Mike Novogratz, CEO, Galaxy Digital. Fmr. CIO, Fortress Investment Group.
Jim O'Neill, Nominee for Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Co-Founder, Thiel Fellowship.
Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP. Co-Owner, Golden State Warriors.
Benj Pasek, Songwriter & Producer: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner.
Daniel Pink, Author: Drive, To Sell is Human, The Power of Regret. Fmr. Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.
Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University. Author: Enlightenment Now, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Jared Polis, Governor, State of Colorado.
Jonathan Ross, Founder & CEO, Groq.
Robert Rubin, Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury. Fmr. Co-Chairman, Goldman Sachs.
Gretchen Rubin, Host, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Author: The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies.
Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, CEO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Will Scharf, Co-Founder & CTO, Oscar Health.
Mario Schlosser, Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President, U.S. White House.
Eric Schmidt, Founder, Schmidt Futures. Fmr. CEO: Google, Alphabet.
Dan Schulman, Fmr. President & CEO, PayPal.
Drew Scott, Co-Founder, Scott Brothers Global. Co-Host, Property Brothers.
Kim Scott, Author, Radical Candor.
Pete Shadbolt, Founder & Chief Science Officer, PsiQuantum.
Ali Siddiqui, Board Chair, OnZero. Fmr. Ambassador of Pakistan to the U.S.
Barry Silbert, Founder & CEO, Digital Currency Group.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America. Professor, Princeton. Fmr. Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State.
Charlie Songhurst, Board Director, Meta. Fmr. Head of Corporate Strategy, Microsoft.
Jens Spahn, Member of Parliament, German Bundestag. Fmr. Federal Minister of Health, Germany.
Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President & CEO, Verisk Analytics.
Barry Sternlicht, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group.
Bret Stephens, Opinion Columnist & Associate Editor, The New York Times. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Lawrence Summers, Fmr. President, Harvard University. Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, X.
Peter Thiel, Co-Founder: Founders Fund, Palantir, PayPal, Dialog.
Nick Thompson, CEO, The Atlantic. Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Wired Magazine.
John Townsend, Author, Boundaries.
Tom Tugendhat, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom.
Tim Urban, Writer & Illustrator, Wait But Why. Author, What's Our Problem?
Rick Warren, Author, The Purpose Driven Life. Podcast Host, Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Strauss Zelnick, Chairman & CEO, Take-Two Interactive Software.
Shivon Zilis, Director, Neuralink.
So proud for my boy Ezra, from unknown politics blogger to being in the big leagues.
Anyway, I wouldn't make too much of this "list". There's plenty of these types of retreats. Sun Valley is another one that the big dogs in tech go to every year: https://observer.com/2026/06/allen-co-sun-valley-conference-2026-guest-list/
After I saw Ezra Klein and Sam Harris I kept looking for the redscare girls but they’re not on here
Real who's who of Epstein-class pedolites there.
Who on the list constitutes an "Epstein-class pedolite"?
Note that not everything I say here may characterize your beliefs, but it's been something that's been on my mind when I see comments like this from good and well-meaning people. I understand generalized anger at "elites", especially reactionary ones. I do worry about the state of contemporary discourse. We seem to determine massive swaths of the population are complicit eating babies or something with the only evidence having been on a mailing list.
There's something about the Epstein stuff that has led many to tilt towards satanic panic-levels of paranoia. I understand wanting rub the Epstein conspiracy stuff in the right's face, given that narrative is now more effectively wielded against the right than the left. But, I am comfortable challenging irrational thinking when the right did it (pizzagate, qanon), and I'm more than happy to confront it when I see it on the left.
Yes there are evil elites. Yes, a portion of them are abusive criminals who should rot in prison. But having contact with Thiel or even Epstein does not constitute meaningful evidence of being part of some pedo conspiracy; many other more plausible theories predict this data equally well.
Larry Summers, for one. And at this point, yes putting yourself in league with Thiel - who is actively working to undermine Democracy and decency - is grounds for contempt. If Thiel just wrote their names down, then you're right - but if they chose to have a "secret dialogue" they should eat the consequences of that.
I didn't make a statement on whether this "puts them in league" with Thiel or whether that's contemptible. My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child abusing cabal of elites controlling the globe. Many are too quick to jump to conspiracy theories once only held by the far right.
I would've been right about what? What am I wrong about? Maybe you meant to reply to a different message?
My position is that this isn't sufficient evidence of someone being member of some child abusing cabal of elites controlling the globe. Many are too quick to jump to conspiracy theories once only held by the far right.That's fair. There are at least 3 or 4 Epsteiners on that list by my count, but I don't know that the others were aware of those. And there are at least a couple people on there I respect for their work, generally.
But I think calling them "Epstein Class" is also fair - they have made it clear there is a different set of rules for themselves and everyone else and I'm not really inclined to pretend otherwise for the sake of "the discourse" anymore.
There's ambiguity about what's being claimed here. It might be cleared up if you can answer my question from above:
What am I wrong about? What would I have been right about if "Thiel just wrote their names down"?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a surprise for me.
The thing is with these lists - not everyone on them is absolute evil. Some are unwitting guests of evil. Some are tempted by the "everyone who's anyone will be there" thing. Some are curious but would never go back. Some miss the evil part entirely because they were invited because they're famous or have the ability to introduce the evil guys to someone else further on. And some are secretly actually evil.
A lot of people can talk themselves out of noticing evil shit for the sake of whatever "good" thing they think they can do by "taking advantage of the opportunity" (probably a lot more of us than we'd like to admit)
Idk which JGL is. I'm not excusing him, but I'll acknowledge that not everyone on a list like this is actively doing the evil things. (And plenty of folks will disagree with me about who in this list is the absolute evil the rest are consorting with anyway)
I think you’ve got the best of the nuanced takes. I’ve been chewing this article over since yesterday when I saw it first, and the only charitable explanation that I can give for their presence is that maybe these people thought that it was their duty to at least ensure that progressive ideas were being thrown into the mix, since this is supposed to be some sort of sharing of ideas based on the description of it being a “dialog” of some sort.
But even that feels tenuous when you figure that the person fostering the “dialog” is a billionaire who believes that he has the right to tell everybody else on the planet what to do, or at the very least to be treated as a special class apart from the rest of humanity. How do you convince somebody like that? How do you even begin to get them to consider that money is poison and that we’re better together as a collective society than as atomized individuals in a civilization that has no society? If you can even have a civilization without a society.
I think Thiel is one of the ones pretty far on the "evil" side. I don't know that he's irredeemable, or whatever, I don't know him and I think very few people can't change. But I certainly don't have the individual power to do so. I think we make change as "us" through the government. And it's slow and hard rather than the hollowly satisfying quickness of the guillotine, but it'll last longer and be far less likely to turn on its users. In the end you don't have to "convince" people like him, you regulate them; and the hangers-on who are only hanging out with evil for the vibes stop when it isn't fun and cool anymore.
Maybe he's got a bestie who can say "hey Pete you gotta stop doing evil" but that isn't you or I.
To whit; it seems like the best course of action is to keep trying to fix the government rather than fix the people that are taking advantage of the government. So maybe people don’t need to show up to the evil billionaire’s summit to try to talk sense into the evil billionaire.
I think few people do, but some may think themselves able to have more influence than you or I do. Maybe they're right, maybe they're the bestie (more likely they just think they are). But all those other reasons why other folks show up still exist. Like I said I think given those offers/invites more of us than we'd like to admit would accept and look past things we don't agree with because the canapes are delicious (metaphorically)
I think he probably falls under the “entertainment” class of guests. This is an interesting article by someone else invited in that capacity (Noah Hawley who was invited to be a dancing monkey for Bezos).
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/05/billionaire-consequence-free-reality/686588/
Also:
Ezra Klein and Cory Booker really threw me for a loop. I thought that these were good men, but they’re in group chats with whole Nazis
So I'm from New Jersey. When Booker was running for president, I knew a large number of Jerseyans who refused to vote for him on the basis that he was a New Jersey politician. Their justification was that New Jersey politics are so fundamentally corrupt that anyone involved at them above the municipal level is almost certainly in the pocket of either organized criminals or pharmaceutical/healthcare companies that run the New Jersey economy.
I always thought this was vaguely silly (though I will say that my dad is a healthcare administrator in New Jersey and also claims that he has direct experience with a small group of wealthy elites having clear and direct impact on New Jersey politics via direct conversation with decision-makers, not lobbying). I have always liked Booker as much as I like any American politician. But uhhhh this is a pretty bad look.
Corey Booker : progressive politics :: Applebee's : quality food.
Looks pretty good on TV, but once you dig in, you realize it's mostly bullshit. Though he might try (and fail) to hide it, Booker has been a strong supporter of a different fascist movement, and he is often among the first to sing the tune that the Democrat billionaire donors want to hear.
Cory Book-tour is what we call him, he's pretty useless besides the 25 hour speech he made
Atul Gawande stood out to me the most.
One of the things that stood out with Epstein was his connections with academia and researchers - his money funded them (and bought them) and he collected people who interested him
This is what Ezra Klein said about Dialog on twitter
https://x.com/ezraklein/status/2068479476309151771
Which is slightly disappointing, as I had hoped he joined the illuminati.
But maybe he's just pretending to underplay it!?
I feel like this saved us a future "files" situation. We know (a good number of) the people involved in engaging with the horrible influence peddlers this time.
Thanks, hacker.
Never in my life would I have figured that the illuminati is real, and there are two of them, and both of their roster leaks within a year of one another.
Powerful people having a group chat together is a far cry from “The Illuminati.”
What is your perception of events where either case is "the illuminati is real"?
That wealthy people talk to each other is not some world shattering revelation. That some of the wealthy people turn out to be bad is also not mind blowing. I think with both Epstein and now this people take a kernel of truth and run with it. It's to the point that many good left leaning people think all the worlds governments are part of a cabal of baby eaters or something. This isn't significantly different from pizzagate or q-anon in my opinion.
People desperately want to point to a single villainous entity they can point to as the source of all that ails them. They will keep doubling down on going after the villains, find things haven’t improved, and double down harder trying to find the scapegoat that purges the problems. And once you sufficiently commit to the “everything bad is because of a shadowy conspiracy of elite puppet-masters” model of the world it’s just a matter of time before you plink your way down the pachinko board of scapegoats until you end up at Jews*.
*If Jews are not available in your society, any sufficiently insular community of educated people will do (e.g. Tutsis, witches). Generally the actual people doing stuff won’t be successfully targeted except by luck. The consequences will fall on folks who happen to share general demographic traits in common with them.
What about the thousands of documented emails, dozens of court cases, and released or leaked testimony about these people having handled, solicited, or raped girls?
Who on this list is credibly accused of doing any of these things?
I never said they were. You, on the other hand, compared an issue with extensive evidence, including clear documented connections to the highest level of ruling class and multiple convictions, to two conspiracies with no legal evidence I'm aware of that anything of the sort actually exists or happened.
What was the other one?
The Epstein Island crowd. I’m assuming there might be a little overlap, but probably different stuff going on.
I honestly would have been more surprised if there weren't any secret societies full of rich and powerful (mostly) men.
Almost every component of one exists throughout society at lower levels. Just that the private clubs like the Lions and Kiwanis do charity and the ones at the top conspire. I figure the reason is the scope of being able to exert influence.
I mean, this isn't a secret society. There are secret societies, that's a pretty well documented fact, and they have various levels of influence. The whole illuminati thing isn't the same thing as "there are powerful groups of people who don't publically disclose themselves" though.
It's that they control everything. That's the kooky part that is the forrest that a lot of people mistake for the trees when they get into conspiracy theories.
Like yes, there are powerful groups of people that meet in secret and have aligned interests. There are also other powerful groups of people that meet that also have different aligned interests though, and many of those interests are in direct conflict with the first group.
There's no single group that's been pulling the strings behind all governments and corporations of the world, which is what the illuminati conspiracy theory is.
A lot of times people point to the Epstein case or Camp David or Bohemian grove or whatever as proof that there's a secret cabal of elites that all conspire together to engineer world events, and yeah, there truly is some conspiring going on, but there's also a lot of conflict.
Unless you really want to go off the rails and frame every economic and wartime conflict as an eleborate, expensive stage performance for the general public, the illuminati claim falls on its face.
Mostly white too.
It’s wild learning that there’s a secret cadre of elites who control the globe.
It’s even wilder to know that none of them look like me
Where's the source for some cabal controlling the world? Should I sit out of the next election since "they" actually secretly control everything? The evidence certainly isn't contained in the link above. That some rich people attended the same seminar is not sufficient evidence for wild conspiracy theories.
Both WIRED and the hacker who broke the story confirmed the list. These people all signed up for accounts. These people are all social elites, many of who are at the top of their field. They all wield considerable power and influence.
It’s literally a secret cadre of elites who control the globe. Sorry it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s factual.
We don’t know all the details behind why they’re registered, but it’s clear that public people are private conversations out of the public eye.
They don't control the globe though. There's not a single head of state on that list. Only 2% of the US Senate is on the list. Barely anyone from an EU govenrment is on the list, and no one from the Russian or Chinese governments.
How could you make the argument that the people in that room control the globe?
Are they influential? Sure, but there are lots of rooms where lots of influential people gather. Most of them aren't public.
"A bunch of influential people regularly meet privately" is a much different claim than "a group of people control the entire world and are in cahoots".
Where is the evidence that they “control the globe” beyond the duties of their roles? Do they control China and Russia?
At most you could claim they control the US?
Is it surprising to you that public people have private conversations? If so, why?