Comedian Tim Dillon recently delivered a scathing commentary on tech billionaire Peter Thiel during an episode of The Tim Dillon Show, taking particular issue with journalist Bari Weiss’s glowing tribute to the PayPal co-founder at a recent awards ceremony in Berlin.
The critique centered on Weiss, now head of CBS News presenting Thiel with the Axel Springer Award for his contributions to digital payments and data analytics. Dillon dissected her speech with increasingly sharp observations about what he sees as a troubling relationship between media figures and tech oligarchs.
Weiss opened her remarks by joking she was delivering “my lecture on the Antichrist.”
She stated, “I want to begin tonight by thanking you all for attending my lecture on the Antichrist. For all the media journalists who are watching this or pouring over this transcript, that was a joke. I only talk about the Antichrist at my secret weekly meeting supervised by the Mossad in Tel Aviv.”
Dillon immediately pointed out these weren’t jokes at all. Thiel does give lectures about the Antichrist, does have a secretive group, and his company Palantir does provide technology to Israeli intelligence services.
“She thinks that this is making fun of the absurd suggestion that this guy’s lecturing about the Antichrist in Tel Aviv, which he would,” Dillon said. “Barry comes out and lays this all out as if it’s funny. She states three facts.”
Throughout Weiss’s speech, she described Thiel as embodying “the quintessential American spirit.” She simultaneously noted, “He might wind up saying he’s not sure if freedom and democracy are compatible or seriously considering, as he did recently, whether or not the human race should continue, I think in the end the answer.”
Dillon expressed bewilderment that these characteristics were being presented as charming quirks rather than concerning positions for someone with immense influence over technology and defense systems.
“It’s not nice, sweetie, that he wants to eliminate the human race,” Dillon said, addressing Weiss’s framing. “I know that you find it cute when you have dinner with him. It’s quirky, but it actually disturbs many of us.”
Dillon questioned why the head of a major news network was presenting an award to someone whose company profits from defense contracts and surveillance technology, suggesting this represents a fundamental conflict of interest and a troubling merger of media and tech power.
The comedian also took issue with Weiss describing Thiel’s worldview as “strange and wild, how untamed” while praising companies like Palantir for changing “the nature of war.” Dillon suggested this casual treatment of serious ethical questions reveals how disconnected elite institutions have become from ordinary concerns.
“Those people more than anyone are invested in the establishment,” Dillon observed about the audience of tech billionaires and media figures. “They’re invested in the way things are supposed to work.”
The point of Dillon’s commentary appeared to be about the consolidation of power among what he called “five people running the planet” in the tech industry, none of whom he believes have human interests at heart. He described figures like Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman as “not people” in the sense of lacking identifiable human concerns or empathy.
“When you look at Altman and Zuckerberg, Elon, when you see these people talking, they are not people,” Dillon said. “They don’t love human beings.”
