Texas tech Billionaire calls for public executions
An Austin-based tech entrepreneur with a growing political profile is calling for the return of public executions in the United States.
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the University of Austin—a higher education institute that promotes “free thought”—and a founder or early backer of more than a dozen companies, including Palantir, which maintains extensive ties to the U.S. government, took to X late last week to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s online posts boasting about boat strikes on vessels suspected of carrying drugs.
The controversy began after Claire Lehmann, contributing writer at The Dispatch and founding editor of Quillette, described Hegseth’s posts as “really grotesque,” writing on X: “Sometimes hard men need to do ugly things, but if you’re going to do this, don’t broadcast it.”
Lonsdale responded aggressively.
“[Lehmann’s] just wrong. Leftist schoolmarm leaders cause violence and evil in our civilization. Sinking narco boats publicly helps deter others. As does hanging repeat violent criminals,” he wrote. “If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three-strikes law.”
He went further, explicitly calling for public executions, stating: “We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes, and yes, we will do it in public to deter others.” Lonsdale argued that society needs to “bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.”
He defended his position as “moderate,” claiming he supported second chances and would not target non-violent criminals who have not repeatedly harmed others.
Chron reached out to Lonsdale for comment but had not received a response by publication.
His remarks come amid growing concerns from extremism researchers that a faction of Silicon Valley’s elite is adopting increasingly radical, punitive, and authoritarian rhetoric—often echoing the agenda and language of President Donald Trump.
Lonsdale has previously made his political leanings clear through his professional ventures. In a 2021 article explaining his role in founding the University of Austin, he argued that “the sacrifice of liberal enlightenment values has corrupted academic cultures.”
Some companies he’s associated with have also faced controversy. Palantir, for instance, has drawn scrutiny for its work assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in tracking undocumented immigrants. Peter Thiel, a fellow co-founder of Palantir and member of the so-called “PayPal Mafia” alongside Lonsdale—a group of former PayPal employees who went on to found other tech companies—is known for his outspoken libertarian and right-wing views.
Palantir’s investors include White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a noted white nationalist who has pledged, among other far-right policies, to oversee the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
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