Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American billionaire, dark money ATM,Peter Thiel-tied dark money group helping bankroll super PAC spending on 2022 election by Anna Massoglia (February 22, 2022 1:53 pm) Open Secrets. and a quintessential example of the dangers of capitalism. He is a citizen of Germany (by birth), the United States (by naturalization), and New Zealand (by moolah), though there is suspicion about the circumstances under which Thiel became a New Zealand citizen. Strangely enough, New Zealand is thought of as a good place for billionaires to hide out until the coming apocalypse blows over. Thiel is a hedge fund manager and venture capitalist. He was a co-founder of PayPal and later used the proceeds from the sale of PayPal to make early investments in companies such as Facebook, where he made most of his fortune. His wealth derives mainly from a small number of such gambits and is thus likely based on luck, not competence. 
Thiel has gained significant publicity from being a gay man who openly supports Republican politicians (often with stacks of cash money), including anti-gay Vice President Mike Pence. He has also gained ire in the media for funding multiple lawsuits against and its subsidiaries, leading to Gawker's bankruptcy.How the Gawker Media Bankruptcy Will Work by Jonathan Guilford (06/21/16 09:45AM) Gawker. Thiel's fortune has gone to a variety of causes; he has donated to many libertarian and transhumanist projects via his foundation. He has also made investments into conservative pet projects like Rumble (an alternative to YouTube), Candace Owens' "anti-woke bank", etc. He and his foundation have made donations to more liberal projects on rare occasions, especially for gay rights and marijuana legalization. Additionally, he has funded or had links to neoreactionary entities. Thiel has reportedly backed a network of anti-liberal Christians at Cambridge University, many of whom have links to racist and authoritarian ideas and figures such as Toby Young and Charles Murray.Peter Thiel’s Free Speech for Race Science Crusade at Cambridge University Revealed by Nafeez Ahmed (10 December 2021) Byline Times.
==Companies==
===PayPal===
Thiel made his first large investment by co-founding PayPal in 1999, giving the company $500,000 and taking partial control over its business decisions. His original goal was to promote PayPal primarily as an online currency exchange,Jackson, Eric M. (2004). The PayPal Wars. pp. 321–327. but its secondary purpose of processing credit cards and wire transfers for eBay was far more popular and, most importantly, more profitable.Processing credit cards in the United States yields up to a 3% fee, versus a 1% fee or less for currency exchanges and wire transfers.
Thiel's half-million dollar investment in PayPal grew to $55 million after PayPal's IPO in 2002.Ebay Inc – ‘S-4’ on 8/6/02 To date, this is Thiel's highest-yielding investment as an annual percentage.
Paypal was a libertarian's wet dream come true. In 1999, he purchased 1.7 million "founder's shares" of Paypal at $0.001/share using $1700 that he put in a tax-free Roth IRA specifically for that purpose. The shares were worth $5 billion as of 2021, which he will be able to use completely tax free after he turns 60 in 2027.Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank by Justin Elliott, Patricia Callahan and James Bandler (June 24, 2021, 5 a.m. EDT) ProPublica.
===Clarium Capital===
Thiel used the capital gains from his sale of PayPal stock to create Clarium Capital in 2002, a hedge fund that charges large "performance fees" for gains in place of a flat maintenance fee."Thiel’s Hedge Fund Plummet". The New York Post. The fund made its primary gains by betting on oil price spikes in the mid-2000s."Pessimism Exacts a Price on the Skeptics". Wall Street Journal.
In 2008, Thiel used the Austrian school of economic reasoning to predict the following:
# Low interest rates would increase the money supply, thereby causing inflation and price spikes for oil, natural gas, and gold.
# The S&P 500 index would plummet due to high inflation, an energy crisis, and the election of any non-libertarian President.
# Barack Obama would somehow make doing business in the United States impossible.
# U.S. government bonds would lose value, and the Federal government would struggle to pay Carter-era bond yields of 20% or more.
The opposite happened:
# Low interest rates caused lending rates to plummet, but inflation remained subdued thanks to the majority of consumers depositing excess money in savings accounts. Banks would send excess money to the Federal Reserve, in effect giving the money the Federal Reserve "printed" back to the Federal Reserve.
# A sudden slump in demand for oil due to the 2008 Financial Crisis caused global oil prices to fall from a high of over $140 per barrel to a low of $28 per barrel. Low interest rates financed American natural gas operations, in particular fracking, causing the price of natural gas to fall from a high of $14 per MMBTU to $2.
# Obama enacted an extremely business-friendly policy for the technology sector and part of the automotive sector. On a related note, Thiel's former PayPal associate Elon Musk took advantage of Obama's policies by introducing a luxury electric sports car.IRC 30D allows Tesla owners to claim a one-time $7,500 tax credit for buying an electric vehicle. While commendable, the credit would have phased out faster if Musk had founded a marque for an established automobile company, since the credit only applies to the first 200,000 vehicles sold by a company including all of its marques. The tax credit would phase out faster from sales of the Nissan Leaf, Ford Fusion Energi, or Chevrolet Volt if Musk had partnered with Nissan, Ford, or GM, respectively.
# Excess savings deposited into banks that were not sent back to the Federal Reserve were used to buy U.S. government bonds. This caused yields to fall to historic lows. As of 2017, the highest yielding Federal bond as of 2017 pays only 3% interest.
Thiel's fund lost over 90% of its value in 18 months."The Quick Gutting of Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital" - Ryan Tate (July 8th, 2009). Gawker. Archived.
===Palantir Technologies===
Founded in 2004, Palantir Technologies is a private software firm that specializes in writing custom software to analyze large sets of data. Its largest sources of revenue include the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as customers."Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions And Key Clients". TechCrunch. Palantir was sued by the U.S. Department of Labor in September 2016 for systematic hiring discrimination against Asian job applicants.Palantir Sued Over Alleged Hiring Discrimination: Labor Department says data-mining firm has shown bias against Asian job applicants since at least 2010 by Tim Higgins (Updated Sept. 27, 2016 1:09 a.m. ET) The Wall Street Journal.
Palantir has been used by ICE to determine who to arrest, and some of the largest immigration raids in US history have been determined by Palantir data. Predictably, this has ended up causing some major fuck-ups, as, in one incident, ICE used the data provided by Palantir to round up thousands of American citizens during their Bronx gang raid. Ironically, less than half of those arrested in the raid were prosecuted as belonging to a gang.
The co-founder and CEO, is unabashedly pro-war and publicly engages in Newspeak against peace activists: "The peace activists are war activists. We are the peace activists."‘I’m the new Oppenheimer!’: my soul-destroying day at Palantir’s first-ever AI warfare conference by Caroline Haskins (17 May 2024 10.00 EDT) The Guardian.
==="Anti-woke" startup escapades===
Thiel is a noted venture capitalist in Silicon Valley; after Thiel's PayPal success, in 2005, Thiel set up a venture capital firm called which has gone on to help fund many startups. Although most of his venture capital activity is beyond the scope of RationalWiki, in the 2020s, Thiel curiously began to divert some of his funding to several projects whose main distinguishing philosophy was being "anti-woke". Thiel even stepped down from the board of Facebook in mid-2022 because, in his opinion, the company was too "woke" for his tastes."Peter Thiel helped build big tech. Now he wants to tear it all down." by Elizabeth Dwoskin, Washington Post, 2022 June 19
The resulting "anti-woke" startups have often not exactly been success stories.
====The Right Stuff====
In February 2022, Thiel injected $1.5 million into a seed round for a new dating app targeting "anti-woke" conservatives, and headed by former Trump advisor "Peter Thiel backs conservative dating app The Right Stuff" by Sara Fischer, Axios, 2022 February 2022 The new app was named "The Right Stuff", despite this name already being used by an targeting top-tier university and medical school graduates, as well as a rather racist blog. It is perhaps the only dating application that thinks that the type of profile questions that will spark a romantic relationship are topics like the 2021 U.S. coup attempt, your "favorite liberal lie", and your "favorite conservative pundit"."Right Wing Dating App Prompts Users to Share Details About January 6th" by Lauren Leffer, Gizmodo, 2022 October 5"‘Jan. 6 was…’: Peter Thiel-backed conservative dating app prompts are exactly what you’d expect" by Claire Goforth, Daily Dot, 2022 September 30"I Tried The Right Stuff, The Conservative Dating App" by Ginny Hogan, Bustle, 2022 October 10 Naturally (but, considering Thiel's orientation, ironically), at the time of the launch, only straight people were allowed."Gay Billionaire Peter Thiel Is Backing a Straights Only Anti-Woke Dating App" by James Factora, Them, 2022 August 16 
After launching in September, early reports indicate relatively low usage (especially by women), in part due to its intense invite-only verification process intended to keep trolls away,"Peter Thiel’s Conservative Dating App Floundering After 3 Months" by Noah Kirsch and Zachary Petrizzo, Daily Beast, 2022 December 28 and perhaps also in part due to its strange focus on extremist outrage politics."The Reviews For That Conservative Dating App Are In—and They’re Thrilling" by Inae Oh, Mother Jones, 2022 October 6
====GloriFi====
Founded by energy investor co-founded by Candace Owens, and with the backing of Thiel and hedge-fund investor (and r/wallstreetbets arch-nemesis)"Ken Griffin: The Hedge Fund Titan In The Middle Of The Reddit Investing Revolt" by Ryan Kailath, NPR, 2021 February 4 GloriFi aimed to be an "anti-woke" banking alternative for conservatives who think that Wall Street is somehow too liberal."How Fast Can A Non-Bank Startup Burn $50 MM?" by Ann Rutledge, Forbes, 2022 November 25 In particular, GloriFi sought to differentiate themselves from many big banks who in recent years pledged token support for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles in their business."How a New Anti-Woke Bank Stumbled" by Rachel Louise Ensign, Peter Rudgeair, and AnnaMaria Andriotis, Wall Street Journal, 2022 October 10 The result was a disaster. Launching in September 2022, the bank shut down in November 2022, having burned through $50 million dollars of capital."Anti-woke' Texas banking startup GloriFi folds like a lawn chair" by Michael Murney, Houston Chronicle, 2022 November 21 Reportedly much of the blame for the collapse fell squarely on Neugebauer, who ran the startup from his home, engaged in volatile behavior and frequent bouts of drunkenness, and was more concerned with impractical conservative virtue signaling style marketing than the actual business of running a bank.
====Strive Asset Management====
GloriFi failure aside, in 2022, Thiel was just one of many conservatives pushing back against ESG investing and other sorts of corporate issues that trigger Republicans. These "triggers", such as wind and solar energy, diversity training, and reimbursing travel for abortion care, typically were labeled with the all-purpose 2020s conservative snarl word "woke", even though many of these topics have been Republican bête noires for some considerable time. (It is no surprise that the usual suspects such as ALEC and the Heritage Foundation have also played a large part in orchestrating these "anti-woke capitalism" campaigns.)"The ESG Investing Backlash" by Ellen Kennedy, Kiplinger, 2022 September 6 
In spring 2022, Thiel backed a startup called Strive Asset Management, headed by former biopharmaceutical CEO (and perpetual complainer about supposed "woke capitalism") Vivek Ramaswamy. The fund claimed to eschew "short-sighted political agendas that have caused companies to underinvest in American oil, natural gas and other promising forms of energy", and "focus on profits over politics"."Peter Thiel-Backed Startup Rolls Out ‘Profits Over Politics’ ETF", Financial Advisor IQ, 2022 August 15 
Unsurprisingly, the fund is hardly "non-political", as the creation of the fund aligned with Republican efforts to divest state pension funds from major investment firms that had "woke" policies (such as, say, actually being a touch concerned about potential long term risks like climate change)."Republicans Prepare to Ramp Up Their Anti-ESG Campaign in 2023" by Saijel Kishan and Danielle Moran, Bloomberg News, 2022 December 29 One commentator described the setup as "grift capitalism", as the overall effort was a scheme designed to shift state pension funds from well established passive investing firms like and into untested entities over-focused on being "anti-woke", with potential excess exposure to fossil fuels."Grift Capitalism: The GOP’s Brilliant Strategy For Ripping Off Ordinary Americans" by Robert G. Eccles, Forbes, 2022 July 5 The Economist also noted that these "anti-woke" funds, which tend to be more occupied with bashing ESG-promoting firms than prioritizing shareholder returns and cutting costs, are considerably more expensive investment vehicles to own. For instance, Strive's most popular "anti-woke" energy ETF (DRLL) charged 4 times the yearly fees on assets compared to the largest standard energy ETF (XLE)."The anti-ESG industry is taking investors for a ride", The Economist, 2023 March 2nd Of course, Strive also initiated corporate board campaigns attempting to steer away oil firms away from any emissions reduction mandates."Investors ramp up pressure on Big Oil firms to set 2030 climate targets" by Ron Bousso and Sabrina Valle, Reuters, 2022 December 18
==Dalliances with the alt-right==
In a sense, Thiel's affair with alt-right thought predates its existence and goes back to his childhood in what was then called South West Africa (now Namibia) when Thiel was a child. Thiel's engineer father worked for a uranium mine there while Thiel attended school there for two and a half years.The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power by Max Chafkin (2021) Penguin Press. ISBN 1984878530. At the time, South West Africa was administered by Apartheid-era South Africa, which no longer had a United Nations mandate to do so, hence mineral extraction was effectively illegal. This is not particularly damning for Thiel, since he was a juvenile at that time, except that when he attended Stanford University, he defended Apartheid on at least two occasions, including on one occasion telling an African American student that denial of civil rights to black Africans in South Africa was 'economically sound'.
Although Thiel may have occasionally expressed disdain for the alt right ("he thought they were losers"), it hasn't stopped him from funding and associating with them. Thiel has funded:
*alt-right activist (between $100,000 and $200,000), Thiel has also funded Johnson's company, Traitwell.
*Tlon, failed project, run by his longtime friend and founder of the neoreactionary movement Curtis Yarvin ("Mencius Moldbug").
*Quillette (secretly, according to Johnson)
Thiel has also associated himself with VDARE and Kevin DeAnna, founder of the white nationalist organization Thiel's longtime collaborator, has also funded alt-right endeavors. Thiel's connection to the Trump White House went entirely through Steve Bannon, ending after Bannon left the White House following the Unite the Right riot.
In the 2022 midterms, Thiel notably spent $32.5 million in two Senate campaigns, split between J. D. Vance in Ohio, and in Arizona (the latter of whom once was Chief Operating Officer at Thiel Capital and thus closely aligned with Thiel's vision).Kelly Kauffman (March 1, 2023). "'Guardian angel' donors poured more than $440.9 million into 73 federal super PACs during 2022 cycle". Open Secrets News. Results were mixed: Vance won, and Masters lost,"Peter Thiel’s picks Masters, Vance split key Senate races in Arizona, Ohio after billionaire spent $32 million on 2022 midterms" by Brian Schwartz, CNBC, 2022 November 12 but in both cases the data showed that both candidates under-performed their expected result. This suggested that both candidates suffered from a "candidate quality problem" (as Mitch McConnell alluded to in August 2022), where their extremist views repelled voters."The GOP had terrible Senate candidates and it really did sink them" by Andrew Prokop, Vox, 2022 November 16
Naturally, Thiel's reaction to both the mixed results of his hand-picked candidates, and the overall lackluster performance of the GOP (despite many favorable fundamentals) in the 2022 midterms, was not to blame extremist candidates pushed by people like himself, but to blame McConnell and "diversity" in the GOP."Peter Thiel calls midterms ‘not merely disastrous but also depressing’ for GOP" by Julia Mueller, Hill, 2022 December 14
===Thielsphere===
Thiel has built a sphere of influence across the political/scientific landscape that rivals the one built by the Koch brothers. There is even some overlap, with the Thiel Foundation granting at least $250,000 to the highly Koch-linked The Thiel Foundation (EIN: 20-3846597) - Form 990PF - Full text of 'Full Filing' for fiscal year ending Dec. 2021. ProPublica. which is located at George Mason University. Entities backed by Thiel money are often right-wing (anywhere from libertarian to neoreactionary), or can at least be expected to be syncretic in some way. Others are of a transhumanist or futurist bent.
Thiel Fellowships, which are granted to "bright minds" who agree to drop out of or take time off university, would initially seem to be one possible exception, although it may be an extension of Thiel's apparent wish to get young people away from academia (which he has discussed with Charles Murray before,Elizabeth Weingarten (October 11, 2011). "Too Many American Kids Go To College". Slate. and which may be due to a perception that academia is too left-wing). Thiel has also been known to back a small handful of causes less associated with the right-wing, such as gay rights and marijuana legalization. Some of his projects' financial contributions are real head-scratchers — a Thiel associate seems to concur, and once stated: "We fund some weird stuff with the Thiel Foundation." And others would appear to contradict Thiel's interests or beliefs, leaving one to only wonder.
Entities with confirmed significant involvement from Thiel, and/or notable amounts of funding from Thiel and/or his projects (non-exhaustively) include:
Some of these groups were flagged in a 2013 paper as significant opponents to climate change-preventative action (period analyzed was 2003–2010). Among the ones listed above that were characterized this way were the Hudson Institute, the Mercatus Center, and the Hoover Institution. As he has evolved politically, he's also pulled his support from some of these groups.
Politicians (and PACs supportive of them) who have received significant monetary backing from Thiel:
Notable entities with (a) confirmed prior or current minor link(s) to Thiel and/or his projects (a more significant link may be suspected but unproven) — not necessarily via direct funding — include (highly non-exhaustively):
Entities reportedly linked to Thiel, but not well confirmed:
==Beliefs==
===Economics===
Thiel considers himself a libertarian who subscribes to the Austrian school of economics. This is ironic, considering the most outspoken member of the Austrian school is Hans-Hermann Hoppe, an extreme homophobe. Also, much of Thiel's income comes directly from being a contractor for the American government.However, getting government money and being a libertarian are compatible with objectivism.
He is a proponent of what has been coined technofeudalism by scholarship.
===Social issues===
Thiel also has a disdain for women.Gay men typically support women's rights. Thiel's hatred for women is almost at Dr. Strangelove-level insanity. In a 2009 essay written for Cato Unbound, Thiel theorized that giving women the right to vote set the United States on a downward spiral:
Among Thiel's more liberal (or libertarian) positions, two of his better known ones are his support for gay rights and marijuana legalization.Jay Root (July 3, 2012). "Cruz Mega-Donor is Gay, Pro-Pot Billionaire". The Texas Tribune.
===Medicine===
Peter Thiel subscribes to various woo, having grown up in California, and believing he is smarter than everyone else.
Thiel believes that frequent blood transfusions from young orphans can extend his life indefinitely.Peter Thiel Wants to Inject Himself With Young People's Blood. by Maya Kosoff (August 1, 2016) Vanity Fair.Peter Thiel Is Interested in Harvesting the Blood of the Young by J. K. Trotter (08/01/16 01:00PM) Gawker. This is the modern equivalent of bloodletting (or perhaps vampirism) and is nothing more than a panacea: "young blood" only replaces old blood, something the human body already does hundreds of times a day.Israel, Brett. "Young blood does not reverse aging in old mice, UC Berkeley study finds". Berkeley News.
Thiel also prescribes human growth hormone to himself, believing that it reverses aging."Peter Thiel: I'm on the Human-Growth-Hormone Pill". Bloomberg. The NIH condemns this practice, citing instances of diabetes, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and Hodgkin's lymphoma, among other side effects.Provision or distribution of growth hormone for "antiaging": clinical and legal issues. NIH.gov.
Thiel wasted $500,000 on a failed LessWrong-inspired medical advice project called MetaMed.Come With Us If You Want to Live: Among the apocalyptic libertarians of Silicon Valley by Sam Frank (January 2015) Harper's. mirror
===Eugenics===
By scholars at the Center for Genetics and Society, he has been accused of endorsing the many evils of eugenics, in that:
:"Old-fashioned eugenicists wanted to improve the herd by culling the weak and mating the worthy. Their modern successors don’t even bother with the unworthy rabble; they just want to make themselves and their offspring “better” — smarter, stronger, healthier. The implicit assumption is that the aristocrats deserve their status and the peons should be grateful for table scraps. Not that anyone (except perhaps Peter Thiel) would say so exactly."Pete Shanks. (02.23.2022). "The Remarkable Ambitions of Peter Thiel" https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/biopolitical-times/remarkable-ambitions-peter-thiel
===Seasteading===
Like many libertarians, he has flirted with seasteading, the concept of building a libertarian society in international waters, before deciding it's a stupid idea.An island nation that told a libertarian 'seasteading' group it could build a floating city has pulled out of the deal, Business Insider, Mar 14, 2018Peter Thiel-founded floating-island plan sunk by the government of paradise?, The Mercury News, Mar 15, 2018
==Feud with Gawker==
Thiel funded several lawsuits against Gawker, most notably Gawker Media LLC v. Bollea, a.k.a GAWKER MEDIA LLC v. BOLLEA LLC LLC LLC KFT. Retrieved from FindLaw. Bollea won the case and was awarded $140 million in damages.Madigan, Nick. Jury Tacks On $25 Million to Gawker's Bill in Hulk Hogan Case". The New York Times.
Proponents of Thiel celebrate the verdict as a victory over tabloid journalism, while opponents consider the victory a chilling effect on freedom of the press. Either conclusion is extreme and is a result of the hostile media effect.
===Arguments for Thiel===
Defenders of Peter Thiel's actions typically refer to two events: Gawker "outing" Thiel as gay and Gawker publishing a recording of Terry Bollea as illegal voyeurism.
====Homosexual "outing"====
Before Gawker published its now-infamous article, Peter Thiel is totally gay, people, in 2007, writer Owen Thomas contacted Thiel, requesting a comment. Thiel did not object to the publishing of the article at the time. The article was not an attempt to demonize Peter Thiel; rather, it was a celebration of a homosexual who appeared to be a wealthy, well-adjusted individual succeeding in a world dominated by Bible-thumping Wall Street stiffs.
Thiel's objection to Gawker came only after his hedge fund company, Clarium Capital, lost billions of dollars in 2008 and 2009. In private, Thiel blamed the Gawker article for scaring away potential investors in the Middle East. Thiel was a very confident individual who considered himself too smart to lose money. Rather than blame his loss of billions of dollars on his own bad ideas, he sought a scapegoat.
Unfortunately for Thiel, suing a media company for calling him a homosexual would have gotten him nowhere. He could not sue for libel, since it's technically true that he is a homosexual.In the United States, truth is an absolute defense against a libel claim. Thiel could not sue under any California privacy statute, since Thiel himself had admitted to being gay before the Gawker article was released.
====Hulk Hogan sex tape====
Peter Thiel defends his funding of Terry Bollea's legal action against Gawker, claiming that "a single digit millionaire" could not afford a proper legal offense against a large media company.Podnar, Rachel. Blog Log: Weep for the ‘single-digit millionaires’ and bust out your holiday gear. The Washington Post This is patently false, particularly in Florida, where Terry Bollea's former friend (a.k.a., Todd Alan Clem)Born Todd Alan Clem, he legally changed his name to "Bubba The Love Sponge Clem" after receiving the nickname on his eponymous radio show, The Bubba The Love Sponge Show. is also a single-digit millionaire. Clem brags that his litigation team has never lost a case, though nearly all of those cases feature "Bubba The Love Sponge" as a defendant.
Clem was a defendant in a separate case involving the sex tape.Bollea v Clem Though "Bubba The Love Sponge" has a name that makes him sound like a dolt, he was smart enough to settle the case out of court for a mere $5,000.Mitchell, Houston. Hulk Hogan settles lawsuit with Bubba the Love Sponge. Los Angeles Times.
Clem has a unique position in the sex tape scandal because he is not just an accomplice: he is also a victim. The sex tape itself was part of Clem's home security system. Clem alleges that his former co-workers, Michael "Cowhead" Calta, and Matthew "Spice Boy" Lloyd, stole the recording and searched for a tabloid to sell it to.Spice Boy is a Thief. Bubba The Love SpongeUnfortunately, neither Calta nor Lloyd legally changed their names to "Cowhead" or "Spice Boy". Clem also alleges Calta and Lloyd brokered the sale of the sex tape to Gawker through Don Buchwald. Calta and Lloyd were asking for "millions" but only received $8,000.
Peter Thiel has declined to fund any legal case against Michael Calta or Matthew Lloyd. Apparently, Bubba The Love Sponge Clem isn't enough of a "single-digit millionaire" to warrant Thiel's help.
===Arguments against Thiel===
Journalists and media company executives — notably, former Gawker CEO Nick Denton — argue that litigating against media companies for publishing unsavory information about public figures has a "chilling effect" that will lead to censorship. Denton is correct, to a point.
====Freedom of speech====
"Whistleblower laws" already exist to defend journalists, employees, and activists in general from litigation for illicitly recording a newsworthy event. However, these laws only offer protection when the recorded act is illegal. Had the recording in Bubba The Love Sponge Clem's house actually recorded a crime, Denton may have had a valid defense in court. Having sex with your best friend's wife is not illegal in Florida.
====Vexatious litigation====
Nick Denton does have a point about Peter Thiel's choice of action. The act of funding Terry Bollea's lawsuit against Gawker appears to be part of a larger action to destroy Gawker by any means necessary, a textbook example of "the ends justifying the means".
Thiel has funded another lawsuit against Gawker: a defamation case filed for Shiva Ayyadurai. Ayyadurai claims he invented email in 1978 (not Ray Tomlinson in 1971 as consensus reality has it), and claims that Gawker's refuting of Ayyadurai's claim had hurt his reputation.Ayyadurai wrote a software program in 1979 called EMAIL that only operated in one office for one internal network. is widely accepted as the actual inventor of email, having sent the first "user@domain" message over the Internet in 1971. Gawker settled the case for $750,000, but only to close the case so that Gawker could be sold.Morris, David Z. The $750,000 Gawker Settlement That Could Distort Internet History
==Does "the worm turn", or not?==
There have been reports since as far back as 2020 that Thiel may be growing discontented with the state of the Republican Party (or for 2020 in specific, Donald Trump),Nick Statt (July 2, 2020). "Tech billionaire Peter Thiel may ditch Trump because he thinks Trump will lose". The Verge.Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Lachlan Cartwright (May 17, 2020). "Billionaire MAGA Fan Peter Thiel Has Had It With Trump’s COVID-19 Response". The Daily Beast. but his involvement in right-wing projects appears to have continued following said reports. Reuters reported in 2023 that Thiel would avoid donating to political campaigns in 2024, and that: "Thiel is unhappy with the Republican Party's focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues, said one of the sources, a business associate, citing abortion and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools as two examples."Anna Tong, Alexandra Ulmer and Jeffrey Dastin (April 26, 2023). "Exclusive: Peter Thiel, Republican megadonor, won’t fund candidates in 2024, sources say". Reuters.Caleb Ecarma (April 26, 2023). "Peter Thiel Reportedly Doesn’t Want to Give Republicans Any More Money, for Very Confusing Reasons". Vanity Fair. Having a bone to pick with right-wing culture warriors is well in line with some of Thiel's past rhetoric,Mike Murphy (July 22, 2016). "Peter Thiel at RNC: ‘Fake culture wars’ distract from broken economy". MarketWatch. though perhaps not some of the projects he's funded.
Thiel seemed to confirm the Reuters report in an interview with Fortune, saying he would donate less to national political campaigns for "a lot of different, complicated reasons". He added he was "unpersuaded that this election will focus on the issue that matters most: ending our decades-long technological and economic stagnation".Jessica Mathews (August 28, 2023). "Exclusive: Peter Thiel explains his decision not to fund any presidential candidates in 2024". Fortune (republished via Yahoo! News). He stated that Ron DeSantis "would make a terrific president", but threw some shade at his over-focus on cultural issues considering economic problems in Florida.Julia Mueller (May 3, 2023). "Thiel says DeSantis ‘would make a terrific president’". The Hill. Another point to mention is that in 2021, the Thiel Foundation indeed provided $3 million to a liberal political group, the New Venture Fund. Considering that he also provided funds to very right-wing candidates in the 2022 midterms, this is quite confusing. CNBC provides a couple possible explanations: "Thiel's listed donation to the New Venture Fund could have been earmarked for a less partisan organization that the fund helps finance"; or "accountants for the Thiel Foundation may have filled out the forms incorrectly." But what if it's an initial sign that Thiel's politics have begun to shift? He's clearly discontented with the right's culture war antics to reduce his direct donations to GOP candidates — but is it enough for him to switch sides? Time will tell... one can hardly expect such a miracle. But then again, 
==Notes==
==References==
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