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.
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.