The Silent Knight: Peter Thiel
“In America, wrestling presents a sort of mythological fight between Good and Evil.” — Roland Barthes
Part I: The Joker
Nick Denton went to Oxford. At 52-years-old he’s wearing leather jackets and grey stubble. After launching Fleshbot — a blog devoted to “Pure Filth” — he joked that he became a pornographer.
Peter Thiel doesn’t joke much. At eight-years-old he was wearing a blazer and carrying a briefcase. Why so serious? Peter Thiel went to Stanford Law.
After graduating, Denton worked as a journalist covering Eastern Europe’s transition out of Communism. After that, he built a networking group for the tech industry — selling it for millions.
After graduating, Thiel wanted a clerkship in the Supreme Court. But he was rejected. “I was devastated,” said Thiel. So he accepted a corporate-law job at Sullivan & Cromwell.
For Denton, it’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message. He testified, “I believe in total freedom and informational transparency… I’m an extremist when it comes to that.” The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.
For Thiel, it’s not about what he wants. It’s about what’s right. Or so that’s what professor René Girard was teaching him at Stanford. René Girard saw that people are only as good as the world allows them to be. And if you shine a light on that foundational secret? People will hate you for it. But that’s the point of a scapegoat, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make. The right choice.
Part II: Gotham
“What he really wants is to be the editor of the New York Times,” said a future employee. Another would say, “There’s no point in writing about Nick if you can’t get to the fundamental problem of his nihilism.” From his apartment in New York, Nick Denton founded the Gawker Media empire.
What he really wanted was to be the greatest tech investor in the world. So after working at Sullivan & Cromwell for seven months and three days, Thiel picked up his briefcase and walked out. Two squares forward, one to the side.
“Give the people what they want…” said Nick Denton, “…as shown by data.” And so Gawker fed the internet’s desire to peep through their neighbours curtain…
- 585,000 views: Anderson Cooper Is a Giant Homosexual and Everyone Knows It
- 123,000 views: Lady Gaga’s Vagina Almost Fooled Us Into Forgetting About Her Penis
- 680,000 views: Olivia Munn’s Super Dirty Alleged Naked Pics
At 7:05 pm on December 19, 2007 a Gawker writer posted the article: Peter Thiel Is Totally Gay, People. It has 450,800 views.
Peter Thiel may have been gay, but he felt Gawker were invading his privacy. But whatever doesn’t kill you, simply makes you stronger.
- He founded PayPal, teamed up with Elon Musk, and sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion.
- He was the first investor of Facebook. As a venture capitalist he’s invested in SpaceX, AirBnB, Stripe and LinkedIn.
- He founded Palantir Technologies — which analyses big data intelligence agencies. Palantir Gotham is used by counter-terrorism analysts.
Why so serious? Building with data, he was giving people what they need — but don’t want.
“All the bad stuff Gawker did, that’s why I wanted to work for it,” said A. J. Daulerio, a Gawker employee with a ‘homeless chic’ wardrobe. Now, here are his career ‘highlights’ at Gawker…
- ‘Blah, blah, blah,’ he responded to a college-age girl begging him to remove a tape of her having sex on the filthy floor of a bar bathroom.
- When a TV broadcast in the Minnesota Vikings’ locker room accidentally revealed a player’s penis, he gleefully posted a screen grab of said penis.
- As an ESPN reporter was undressing in her hotel room, a pervert filmed her through the keyhole. A.J. Daulerio linked to the footage.
Some men just want to watch the world burn. Nick Denton promoted A.J. Daulerio to editor in chief. The world needed a decent man in an indecent time. Was that man Fred Durst? When Gawker ran a sex tape of him, he sued them as part of a $80 million suit. Gawker mocked him. And before long, Nick Denton received an apology and freshly cut flowers — sent by Fred Durst.
All the bad stuff Gawker did, that’s why Peter Thiel wanted to help professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. But first, let’s unmask the wrestler and meet the man — Terry Bollea…
- At 12-years-old he was 6-foot tall. The New York Yankees were scouting him. Still, his only friend was his music teacher.
- When an injury shattered his baseball dreams, he decided to become a professional wrestler. On the first day of training he broke his leg. Returning to the ring, Terry Bolea transformed into WWF wrestler Hulk Hogan. He won the heavyweight belt in 1984 — and held it for 1,474 days.
- He went on to become a movie star and lived in a 17,000-square-foot-mansion. He had many friends. His best-friend was the radio-shock-jock, Bubba The Love Sponge.
When Terry Bollea’s wife filed for divorce, he went to his best-friend’s house. Bubba’s wife greeted him at the door. She led him inside. Bubba didn’t stay to watch, but the red-light on his hidden camera was blinking.
Part III: I want you to do it
On September the 27th, 2012, a package arrived for A.J. Daulerio. It contained a thirty-minute sex tape of Hulk Hogan. Despite knowing the sex tape was probably recorded without consent, he had his editor cut the tape into a one-minute, forty-one second “highlight reel”. On October 4, 2012, A.J. Daulerio ran the story: Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canopy Bed is Not Safe for Work but Watch it Anyway.
“He stands on the side of the bed and the woman scoots up from the pillows and resumes giving the former WWE heavyweight champion of the universe a blowjob,” writes A.J Daulerio.
When Gawker’s articles on Peter Thiel continued, including one that featured a photo of his boyfriend, he reached out to Eddie “I can get ya outta anything!” Hayes — an attorney and prominent “fixer” for celebrities, politicians, and mob bosses. He’s Robert De Niro’s real life lawyer and on-screen lawyer in Goodfellas. Thiel started making contributions to the Committee to Protect Journalists. If you can’t beat em, bribe em. Thiel contributed more than $1 million… The knight is darkest just before the dawn.
As Gawker grew beyond Nick Denton, he worried it might lead to a suicide. It’s as if he was worried the nihilism that fueled Gawker would touch someone they targeted.
There was a moment when Terry Bollea found himself alone in the bathroom. His hand was on the gun. His finger on the trigger.
When it came to his own life, Nick Denton had different rules. At his wedding, he enforced a strict no photography policy on the 250 guests by confiscating their phones.
“I think they should be described as terrorists, not as writers or reporters,” said Peter Thiel. He started referring to Gawker as the MBTO — the Manhattan Based Terrorist Organization. So what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
Part IV: The Dark Knight
“I’ve created this monster,” Denton would later say.
In 2013, Terry Bollea is ready for justice. So is his lawyer. When they can’t get a Federal Court to order the video to be taken down, they take the case to Florida state court, where the judge orders the video and post to come down — pending a trial verdict.
How did Gawker respond? A Judge Told Us to Take Down Our Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Post. We Won’t. Gawker and Nick Denton knew that while Terry Bollea was rich, he didn’t have the resources or the stomach to take it very far against a media empire hiding behind the first amendment. Still…
On March 7, 2016, the case proceeds. The jury would learn that the private, illegally recorded, stolen sex tape was watched by millions. Because Gawker, Nick Denton and A.J. Daulerio invited them. On March 18, the jury rules in favour of Terry Bollea. They award him $140 million.
By August, Gawker Media and Nick Denton file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A.J. Daulerio’s bank account was frozen. The sex tape is expunged from the internet. But things hidden since the foundation of this conspiracy were about to come to light…
On May 24, 2016, Forbes published an article, “This Silicon Valley Billionaire Has Been Secretly Funding Hulk Hogan’s Lawsuits Against Gawker.” Peter Thiel was outed. He’d created a shell company to fund lawsuits against Gawker. And he’d kept it secret — not even Terry Bollea or his lawyer knew who their secret backer was.
Suddenly, Gawker was forgotten, forgiven even. Peter Thiel became the villain. “Few developments could have been more frightening,” said the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times, The Guardian, the entire media united against Peter Thiel.
Why? To begin you must study the end…
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. After defeating the enemy, the world no longer needs you. You’ve done your job. But now people realise that you’re more powerful than they are. They fear you’ll abuse your power. So preemptively — they treat you as a villain.
So we’ll hunt him. But he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent Girardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.
Nick Denton joined the media mob’s attack against Peter Thiel. In June he suggested, “Set up a legal fund for all victims of privacy intrusions by media or social media for that matter… Make it about the issue rather than making it about a personal vendetta.” Except Nick Denton was never the devil. He was practice.
In August, Legalist launched. The company funds lawsuits for people who have been screwed over, but don’t have the money needed to defend themselves in court. It’s about what’s fair. They launched, thanks to a $100,000 grant from Peter Thiel’s foundation. You see, in their last moments people show you who they really are.
Today, Nick Denton rides his bike around New York City.
Today, wherever he is in the world, Peter Thiel has a driver waiting 24/7 in an idling black S-class Mercedes.
Inspired by: Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday; The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan; and the philosophies of Roland Barthes and René Girard.
