This is a fascinating, if long, Wired article about Peter Thiel and the philosophical beliefs behind everything he does. It goes into his background with Vance and touches on his reasons for investing in Facebook, and all that eventually converges to provide a ton of insight into his political leanings.
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel's Antichrist Obsession
I kept thinking about the concept of mimetic rivalry as I watched clips of the right's reaction to EscalatorGate. It started off with fairly typical MAGA outrage, but as more and more people joined in, the outrage got worse and worse ("we should bomb the UN and Trump should put piece of the rubble on the Resolute Desk!"), as if they were competing for a title. Thiel explained that he was "betting on mimetic rivalry" when he invested in Facebook - people have called him the founder of the Like button.
Anyway, I think some of you will find it as interesting as I did.