In the early 2010s, there was a lot of Ayn Rand fans in the Republican party. I think in the 2012 Republican Primary, the favorite book question either yielded Atlas Shrugged or the Reagan biography.

Eventually, as Steven Colbert would note in The Colbert Report, none of them were chosen, and the Republican party decided reluctantly to support Mitt Romney.

Thiel for sure thinks he's John Galt.

It's on a bunch of reading lists. In my early twenties I had a libertarian phase (cringe, I know, but I've evolved into a democratic socialist), and I saw it recommended several times on lists like "books every sovereign citizen should read" or shit like that.

I bought a copy but I got bored in the first twenty pages. Probably because I could already tell that the guy was a piece of shit but the book was trying to make him sound cunning, and that didn't jive with me. I've always hated big corporations, even before I realized socialism is actually good.