He's closely associated with the Neoreactionary movement (NRx, for more research look up Curtis Yarvin) and coincidentally happens to be on good terms with the new VP pick JD Vance. They see principles like democracy as barriers to achiving personal power and enrichment. It makes a lot of sense he'd build a surveillance firm.

Relatively recent article from the Atlantic specifically on Thiel: https://archive.is/1Nz71

Slightly older article in Vanity Fair that covers his connections with NRx and other topics: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right...

He first stated that he would "no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" in an essay in 2009, his ideology is pretty old hat now.

https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

That I'd happily go back to the stone age rather than have him and the likes of him own the tech sector and be left alone in driving it into the next century.

And I'm far from alone in feeling this way.