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.
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.