106
submitted 9 months ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, has joined a multi-million dollar investment in the controversial Enhanced Games, a proposed Olympics-style mega-event without drug testing.

...

The idea is the brainchild of Dr Aron D’Souza, the Australian lawyer who helped mastermind Thiel’s proxy war against news media organisation Gawker, which led to Gawker’s bankruptcy in 2016.

...

But in a recent interview with The Independent, D’Souza was defiant, and outlined how he hoped the Enhanced Games would not only shake up the world of sport, but would provide a public platform for life-extending science to thrive.

“This is the route towards eternal life,” D’Souza said. “It’s how we bring about performance-medicine technologies, that then create a feedback cycle of good technologies, selling to the world, more revenue, more R&D, to develop better and better technologies.

“And what is performance medicine about? It’s not about steroids and getting jacked muscles. It’s about being a better, stronger, faster, younger athlete for longer. And who doesn’t want to be younger for longer?”

top 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 64 points 9 months ago

Performance enhancing steroids - famously known for extending athletes lives and doing nothing weird to their junk.

[-] snooggums@kbin.social 15 points 9 months ago

Yeah, but they don't mean steroids which are totally not performance enhancing medicine!

“And what is performance medicine about? It’s not about steroids and getting jacked muscles. It’s about being a better, stronger, faster, younger athlete for longer. And who doesn’t want to be younger for longer?”

Wtf performance enhancing medicine makes you younger for longer? If this line had come from the Onion it would have been a good laugh.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 10 points 9 months ago

I'm sure the thousands of professional wrestlers who died of heart attacks in their 30s and 40s would disagree.

[-] pandapoo@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Anti-steroid propaganda was probably the only effective messaging from the war on drugs, but like all drugs, it's relative, and not that simple.

Not to go on too long of a tangent here, but the complete restriction of these classes of drugs actually can cause a lot of unnecessary harm to athletes. For example, in helping athletes heal and recover from injuries, or surgeries.

Recovery time is really important in pro-sports where the ability to earn money is limited to a relatively short window e.g. professional fighting. Often time fighters will return before they're fully healed, because they need to earn a living. In many of those cases, steroids could have significantly shortened their recovery time and reduced the risk of further injury.

I'm not here pretending that steroid use can't also cause undo harm to athletes, just that it's not as black and white as many people believe.

Edit: to be clear, steroids are some of the most complicated drugs to use correctly in order minimize long-term health effects, such as destroying your endocrine system. Professional or amateur, they should only be used under the close supervision of a specialized doctor.

[-] ThePJN@sopuli.xyz 41 points 9 months ago

Screencap from SNL. Dennis Miller at the Weekend Update news desk, behind him a graphic reads "All Drug Olympics" the Olympic logo under it is made out of circular pills.

Just admit you’ve been watching old SNL clips on YouTube, Pete.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

Thiel is 56. He probably watched it live. And if he didn't, I'm sure he's good buddies with that asshole Dennis Miller and I'm equally sure Dennis Miller spends way too much time talking about his glory days on SNL, so he's probably heard every joke from that segment dozens of times.

[-] elgordio@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago

If I remember rightly the clip features a weightlifter who’s trying to jerk some ridiculous weight. They go to lift and their arms just detach from the shoulders leaving their arms behind as the guy stands up.

[-] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago
[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago

It's no surprise that Peter Thiel, who is an actual vampire, is interested in doping athletes. He's been a sketchy billionaire for so long he forgets not to say the bad things in public.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 19 points 9 months ago

It's hilarious that this guy is a darling of the right, while the right accuses people like Clinton of harvesting children's blood in the non-existant basement of a pizza parlor. Thiel is doing it right out in the open.

[-] silverbax@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

This is the same guy trying to build some paradise city in another third world country.

This is going to end with him brutally murdered in his huge paradise office by a race of half human, steroid infused crazed people with implants in their head.

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Perfect setting for a videogame where you could find Leland Stanford's pocket watch as a legendary item that gives your character bonuses to saving rolls or something (he had a reputation for incredible dumb luck)

On a related note, everyone should read "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World" and, like, among other things, the crazy animal torturing experiments that went down at the stock farm of the Standford University founder because California oligarchs have always been deranged like this and it has weird impacts on all of us

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

One of the most evil people alive wants others to destroy their bodies for his entertainment? How novel.

[-] Tetra@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago

Billionaires really need to stop stealing their ideas from viral joke tweets.

[-] OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Eddie Izzard - Stoned Olympics

Smoke a joint and win the hundred meters? Well, fair play to you.

(Eddie is now ~~Susie~~ Suzy but for the clarity of the link, I used the name under which she performed the sketch)

[-] Mirodir@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 9 months ago

Unless it changed over the last year, she still uses Eddie Izzard as stage name, so you're fine either way. (Also it's Suzy, not Susie for her)

[-] OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Thank you for correcting me on the spelling!
She chose Suzy and I wanted to honor that by mentioning it too.

[-] gnate@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

What is it with these guys named d'Souza?

[-] jo3@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago

Probably the least controversial thing Peter Thiel is a part of.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

I always thought baseball would be a lot more fun if the batter got to keep his bat with him as he ran around the bases.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Now we're talking. Give us Base Wars! Hoverbot with a laser sword rounding third.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago

Billionaires use transhumanism to justify human experimentation. As with Musk's brain implants, so as with the all-drug Olympics.

Fuckin tech priests 😒

[-] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago
[-] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

I mean, wouldn't the cars always win?

[-] INeedMana@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago
[-] fubarx@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

Boston Marathon for those who like taking cabs part of the way.

[-] jwt@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

"Please, notice me!"
— Peter Thiel

this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
106 points (90.2% liked)

News

23397 readers
1753 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS