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Comment by amanaplanacanal | Hacker News Reader

Thiel spent his formative childhood years in apartheid South Africa, and it seems to have informed his world view ever since.

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Don’t forget the stint living in a Namibian city full of Germans who idolized Nazi ideology and Hitler when he was a young boy, Swakopmund.

> Swakopmund was known for its continued glorification of Nazism after World War II, including the celebration of Hitler's birthday and "Heil Hitler" Nazi salutes given by residents.[13][14] In 1976, The New York Times quoted a German working in a Swakopmund hotel who described the city as "more German than Germany".[14] As of the 1980s, Nazi paraphernalia was available to buy in shops.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swakopmund

What about all the other formative times in his life? If you live in South Africa that’s the last word on your world view?

It isn't required to be. It just appears to have happened that way.

Or maybe that’s just a piece of information they think is perceived poorly and want to discredit without addressing arguments.

This is a very complicated subject but in the real world, argument from authority is in fact a useful metric because we don't have time to fully analyze everything we come into contact with.

It's theoretically possible that Donald Trump is correct about something, but it's certainly not worth the time it would take to filter out all the incorrect bits.

I’m not saying reputation doesn’t exist. I’m questioning how much his time in South Africa is influential compared to all the other influential experiences he writes about.

I think this comment wants to say he’s some form of he’s a racist or authoritarian but in more concealed terms.

Name calling (the lowest form of discourse) is still name calling even when disguised.

> It's theoretically possible that Donald Trump is correct about something

Hmm.

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