The problem is not that Thiel financed Hogan the problem is that Hogan needed the money to do so that's where us justice system seems as fucked as anywhere else in the world.
Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#22I'm loving it because Peter Thiel is a f-ing billionaire who is now publicly showing what the 1% of the 1% are capable of. The power that these 0.01% have is staggering. To see what they're capable of with just a few million dollars is truly awesome. And the very best part is that there absolutely nothing we can do about it anymore. We're now officially owned by the 300!
The 0.1% can fund a lawsuit because you published a sex tape. >We're now officially owned by the 300! That's a steep slope.
> The 0.1% can fund a lawsuit because you published a sex tape.
The point of the article is that the .01% can fund a series of unrelated lawsuits because you publish an article unflattering of their industry, political stance, ideology, or just stating that cats or better than dogs.
For the 300 it's a trivial amount of money. Like us spending $1000 to shut down a web site we didn't like. (using them to us as 1,000,000,000 : 10,000,000 = 100,000 : 1,000)
My points are that first, this is both really scary because of how relatively few people are in this position and second, we've gone too far: there's no longer any way to stop these people from essentially doing anything they want to control us. They've become effectively gods who will allow us to live out our insignificant lives only if we don't annoy them.
-- Edit (to continue the metaphor cuz fun). --
Remember, the infraction wasn't posting the video on Gawker. The infraction that pissed of this god was being outed as gay. Essentially, this god was angered by being outed. He opened up a portal to our world via the Hulk Hogan video. His lightning bolts were the series of lawsuits he had lined up.
It's also worth noting that this is a god doing battle with a demi-god. Could you imagine the trivial amount of power (= money) (= free speech) that he would need expended to take out one of us antlike mortals.
If you could shut down breitbart or the drudge report (or your least favorite liberal sites) you wouldn't because you're a benevolent god. But then one day you wake up and find that they've passed judgement on you. Well, they can't pass judgement on a god. So you wave your hand and take them out without so much as making the most minor impact in your existence. "I'll show those mortals how judgement is passed! Talk bad about me, will they." That's the real issue here.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#23Nick Denton kicked the hornet's nest with his article on false claims of Peter Thiel being gay.
Now he is going to get stung.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#24I feel like hes allowed to do what he wants with his influence/money/connections. If I fell victim to defamation by a news outlet and I had the ability to put a stop to it, I would.
If you fell victim to defamation by a news outlet and you had the ability to put a stop to it, why would you sue the defamer anonymously through a proxy and not directly?
You answer your own question.
It's a news outlet.
They can use/abuse their position to make hay in ways nobody else can.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#25The troubling part, to me, is not the case itself. I personally don't believe the sex tape was newsworthy (at least not as much of it as they released). The troubling part is that we have someone secretly using money to manipulate a case in which he is not a direct participant. Wealthy people should not be able to weaponize our legal system.
> someone secretly using money to manipulate a case in which he is not a direct participant. What manipulation was there? 3rd parties funding lawsuits is not a new, it's been happening for centuries.
So is political corruption. My criticism is the same no matter how common it is. Thiel is a bad actor to me, even if he's one of a crowd of bad actors.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#26Nick Denton kicked the hornet's nest with his article on false claims of Peter Thiel being gay. Now he is going to get stung.
> false claims???
Explain the false part please.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#27The only unsettling part to me is the cost of litigation.
Assuming the legal system is just, I don't have a slightest problem with whoever funding or managing a lawsuit, revenge-seeking or not.
And comparing an invasion-of-privacy (or libel and slander) lawsuit to opaque state censorship is a huge stretch.
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#28I feel like hes allowed to do what he wants with his influence/money/connections. If I fell victim to defamation by a news outlet and I had the ability to put a stop to it, I would.
I thought this wasn't a case of defamation. Weren't the claims true but just not the timing Thiel and Co. wanted?
Isn't this (as stated in another post) a case of revenge? (Legal revenge as it were.)
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#29The troubling part, to me, is not the case itself. I personally don't believe the sex tape was newsworthy (at least not as much of it as they released). The troubling part is that we have someone secretly using money to manipulate a case in which he is not a direct participant. Wealthy people should not be able to weaponize our legal system.
Do you also have a problem with the EFF, ACLU, and NAACP?
Or is it the secrecy that's more concerning?
Re: Does the whole Thiel vs. Gawker thing trouble you?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 0.1% can fund a lawsuit because you published a sex tape. >We're now officially owned by the 300! That's a steep slope.
> The 0.1% can fund a lawsuit because you published a sex tape. The point of the article is that the .01% can fund a series of unrelated lawsuits because you publish an article unflattering of their industry, political stance, ideology, or just stating that cats or better than dogs. For the 300 it's a trivial amount of money. Like us spending $1000 to shut down a web site we didn't like. (using them to us as 1,000,00…
If you are truly worried about power, look no further than the government. The power to use force is actual power.