If You Give a Tech Fascist a Secret Society…

A secret society, an annual retreat featuring fun keynotes like “Build-a-Cult” and “Navigating WWIII”, and a dating site for eligible overlord singles—it’s Peter Thiel’s idea of a good time.

On Tuesday, WIRED published a story detailing an extensive leak of Thiel’s “secret society,” and while it’s easy to buy the premise that tech fascists are into these Bond-villain fantasies, the leak exposed a trove of names and unsettling activities that are much harder to stomach. Thiel’s (formerly) secret society is called Dialog, an invitation-only organization founded in 2006. The society’s members include U.S. officials, foreign government figures, and other high rollers similar to Thiel and the rest of the PayPal Mafia, though it has declined to disclose any names for the past two decades. (I wonder why?)

The leak to Dialog’s site, unearthed by Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew and anonymous tipsters, brought to light the registration statuses of Dialog members, the personal information of 222 attendees of this year’s annual retreat, the details of some “off-the-record sessions,” and a dating site for eligible Dialog singles (because they can’t get Tinder matches). According to the leak, this year’s annual retreat is scheduled for August 12-16 in Dublin, Ireland. But just because the world’s most powerful people are gathering behind closed doors under Thiel’s roof doesn’t mean anything nefarious is afoot. Maybe it’s just a few boring geopolitics and AI keynote presentations…

“The same data lays out a program of off-the-record sessions, including: “Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,” “Bring Back Nuclear,” “Navigating WWIII,” “Battlefield Technologies,” and “How’s Your Sex Life?” Other talks include “Build-a-Cult,” moderated by the founder of the Christian networking site Pray.com, and “Build-a-Party,” run by a former White House national security official.” (WIRED)

OK… uh… well… so… that sounds pretty fucking bad.

After combing through the leak, The Hollywood Reporter noted numerous Hollywood and U.S. political figures in the cache of retreat registrants, including Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sophia Bush, Scooter Braun, Elon Musk, Ted Cruz, Jared Kushner, Cory Booker, Wes Moore, and New York Times reporter Ezra Klein. A spokesperson for Brolin told THR that he would “like to know what the fuck he got himself into.” Well, did no one tell him he joined a tech fascists’ secret society?

The website directory also lists a former Middle East chief of intelligence, a sitting ambassador to the United States, and the giants behind the largest surveillance, data-broker, and advertising-data companies in the country. More fantastic news!

WIRED could not confirm whether the leaked registrants were card-carrying members of Dialog or simply “guests,” but noted that of the 222, “87 are marked as first-time attendees” and “others list histories stretching back more than a decade, and a handful to the society’s founding 20 years ago.”

But besides planning for World War III and designing cults, they also have their own Tinder! The outlet reported that Dialog prompted registrants to select whether they are “looking for love,” and hosts a separate site, dating.dialog.org, for “meaningful connections for exceptional people.” So it’s not ALL Bad. They’re helping each other find love. <3