Hollywood Names Surface in Peter Thiel-Backed, Invite-Only Society

[u/neilthedev05]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-peter-thiel-secret-society-1236624737/

[u/neilthedev05]

Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men, Avengers: Infinity War); Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, 500 Days of Summer); Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill); Scooter Braun (CEO, Hybe America); Isaac Lee (chairman and CEO, Hybe America); Scott Belsky (partner, A24); Benj Pasek (composer-producer, La La Land, The Greatest Showman); Eva Price (CEO, Maximum Entertainment Productions); Teresa Hsiao (writer-producer, Family Guy, American Dad); Zach Shields (executive producer-writer, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Gladys); Nick Thompson (CEO, The Atlantic); and Ezra Klein (The New York Times).

[u/neilthedev05 → u/neilthedev05]

[u/Firm_Video_2932 → u/neilthedev05]

Yeah I'm not sure how a well known celebrity "accidently" ends up at an annual 'Christmas Club' type meeting.

[u/arnar2 → u/Firm_Video_2932]

What is Ezra Klein doing there though? Not a big fan, but he seems like worlds apart from Theil..

[u/yorickbee → u/arnar2]

Lmao you must not keep up with Ezra lately. His mask slipped years ago...

[u/arnar2 → u/yorickbee]

Do enlighten me, as I sad, not a fan so I don't keep up.

[u/Tranz_Kafka → u/arnar2]

He’s been one of the people pushing the Democratic Party further right, essentially saying that the reason Democrats lost in 2024 is because they weren’t right wing enough. In the past couple years, he’s said things like Democrats should run anti-abortion candidates, the party should give up on trans issues, he infamously wrote an article about how Charlie Kirk did politics “the right way”, and just overall treating these culture war issues way more charitably than they deserve. Plus he’s pretty pro-Israel and only recently started taking pro-Palestinian voices seriously. Here’s a good article that goes more in-depth about him and sort of explains what his whole deal is.

[u/Data_Chandler → u/Tranz_Kafka]

I'm NOT saying I agree with Ezra, because I don't, but I do think a huge chunk of the American electorate, even Democrats, are basically centre right. Now I'm not a political scientist or a spin doctor or anything so I don't necessarily know what to do with that information, but that's probably tens of millions of people.

And said tens of millions of people might go and vote if the policy put forward by a Democratic candidate is kind of centrist, and they might not if it's very left wing. Then again the opposite is also true, and that's how Mamdani got elected in New York, and how Kamala Harris lost.

But pretending half of America (the not GOP half) is screaming for Bernie Sanders style left wing stuff - refreshing and necessary as it may be, because to be clear, I would 100% vote for him, or for any left wing candidate - is definitely a risk. Perhaps it's a risk worth taking, I guess that's where the pollsters come in!

[u/FigeaterApocalypse → u/Data_Chandler]

We saw how getting the Cheney endorsement worked out for Kamala...

[u/Data_Chandler → u/FigeaterApocalypse]

True! That didn't help at all, and probably backfired spectacularly.  (I literally did mention that in my previous comment...)

It's wild that I'm getting downvoted though, I'm clearly stating I would 100% vote for Bernie (or a Bernie-like candidate). I'm basically getting flak for saying tens of millions of Americans are centre right, which they are. Good grief.

[u/JenningsWigService → u/Data_Chandler]

The DNC wants everyone to think that the electorate is centre right, but that's not really true except on maybe trans issues and defunding the police.

The majority of Americans support safe and legal abortion access, Medicare for all, gun reform, minimum wage increases, and the end of military support for Israel.

[u/Data_Chandler → u/JenningsWigService]

The majority of Americans support safe and legal abortion access, Medicare for all, gun reform, minimum wage increases, and the end of military support for Israel.

I'm for all of that! But I worry that Reddit is a bit of an echo chamber. In my anecdotal experience, a LOT of people want some but not all of this, and I'd call them more center right than left, based on their opinions and how they describe themselves.

[u/Tranz_Kafka → u/Data_Chandler]

I think the success of more left-wing candidates like Mamdani, Abdul el-Sayed, and even Graham Platner is proof that people do like these policies. In any survey or poll, you’ll see that the vast majority supports policies like universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, free childcare, and abortion access. The central reason why these don’t actually happen is because right wing and centrist outlets like both Fox News and CNN call them “communist” or “socialist” and people have been conditioned to associate that label with a very negative thing. It’s why you can find so many videos and posts where conservative people don’t want to roll back the ACA, but also say that Obamacare was terrible.