I don't know why anyone would think he is foolish. Listening to his speech at the National Press Club a few days ago it's hard to find many things to disagree with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4
The linked article was talking about facts, a dissection of various arguments made by Thiel and Trump. Elections aren't about facts (unfortunately?), so they cannot prove anything about whether that article is right or not.
No, there is some evidence that geriatric mice sharing a circulatory system with juvenile mice achieves that end for a while. The difference between sharing a circulatory system, and getting some transfusions really can't be overstated.
Haven't read the book so I have only the vaguest idea of what that implies.
But let me be more explicit. We can have values and thoughts that don't respect success. Sometimes that may mean being made irrelevant, being killed, or even made extinct as a group. Nonetheless, until actual death occurs, we can hold those views.
To some people that is more important than anything else. I like those people. Some are successful, some are not. The universe will erase them, as it will erase us all. But to me while that thought lasts, it is valuable.
Honestly, as someone who finds the current situation a bit abhorrent, and who generally disagrees with most things I've heard come out of Thiel's mouth, there are way worse choices.
He has knowledge of the tech sector and doesn't want to ruin it, he isn't anti-science, he's gay (and thus pro-gay rights), etc.
That said, I think it's profoundly unlikely, since unless I'm not aware of it, he'd be the only supreme court justice with no legal background.
