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With someone like Peter Thiel I find it very easy to believe that all he got out of the Palantir subplot of LotR was "wow, it would be great if something like that really existed!" and all the cautionary elements of the tale just went in one ear and out the other. Or, he just doesn't mind becoming an actual Sauron figure.

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Based on interviews I’ve heard with him it seems like he would have a sophisticated argument about why Tolkien was somewhat insightful about technology’s transformative power, but ultimately naive and that reading LOTR through a Girardian lens allows for a synthesis that overcomes its childish Manichean framing.

Or: if you are like Saruman, using the Palantir will corrupt you. You have to be like Sauron, who is in no danger of being further corrupted by the Palantir...

You're good at wording.

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