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How science fiction shaped the players in the Gawker lawsuit

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In 2016, it was Gawker Media reported failure Hulk Hogan by professional fighter. It was later learned that the lawsuit was secretly funded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who was upset by Gawker for his coverage. Media strategist Ryan Holiday gives a detailed account of the affair in his new book Conspiracy.

“It’s an unreal story from start to finish, and I’m not sure we’ll ever experience something like this again,” he says in the 368th issue of the Holiday newspaper. Guide to the Geek Galaxy podcast.

Thiel is a fan of science fiction (he has a name five companies subsequent elements of the story Lord of the Rings), as well as Nick Denton, founder of Gawker, who helped launch one of the world’s most popular science fiction websites. io9. It seems that a love of science fiction played a role in shaping the identities that drive men’s intentions and limitations.

“They both live in a world where the role of the entrepreneur is to invent the future,” says Holiday. “I think that’s Peter’s job: to create the innovation, growth, and change that the free world needs to survive and prevent disaster. And I think for many years Nick and Gawker — even if they may not seem so, are directing these famous gossip stories.” but I think Nick had the impression that he was starting a new role for Gawker. The world of transparency and truth. “

Holiday warns that Thiel and Denton have many other similarities, which could increase tensions between the two. “Denton has this cultural cache, that influence that people have on what they think,” Holiday says. “And Peter, in my opinion, seems a little bit of a philosopher to himself, as a great thinker, as a person who realizes that these attitudes are ultimately the direction that this technology can take. So I think there was probably an envy between the two, and that’s what sets these tectonic plates against each other for the first time. ”

Listen to Ryan Holiday’s full interview in episode 368 Guide to the Geek Galaxy (above). And see some notable points in the discussion below.

Ryan Holiday on Political Correctness:

“[Thiel’s] the second critique is the overall social cost of rejecting an idea header“And anyone associated with him — as a kook?” It may not be a good idea, I think he would admit, but what does it say when we can’t even discuss unusual, unusual, weird, or counterintuitive things? What does this cost us as a society in terms of innovation and change, and the ability to break new ground or explore new opportunities? I think his view in this regard was that Gawker — and the media in general — was a kind of executor of equality, of political correctness. Not in terms of language, but in terms of political correctness, saying, ‘Don’t go too far, don’t say things are disturbing or weird, don’t question the status quo. Be normal. Be normal or we’ll make fun of you. ‘

Ryan Holiday Conspiracies:

“People no longer believe in conspiracies. … We understand that there are fools who believe in conspiracies, but when it comes to machinations, how things work behind it, we believe that no one is doing anything, that nothing is possible, that no one is operating behind it. that things are the way they are. And I imagine that Peter had a benefit in planning and taking out this conspiracy. Although billionaires are as evil as we might think, no one thinks they are secretly plotting through representatives to throw out a media outlet. ”

About Ryan the Holiday Heroes and Criminals:

“What I could really think of was people on both sides. I liked Nick and felt terribly lucky because he endured that massive return of luck. AJ I found it much more sympathetic than I thought — the same article that published the Hulk Hogan sex tape that toppled the company. Even with Peter, I came to admire his independent thinking and his unique worldview, for it was very hard for me: ‘Here’s the good guy, here’s the bad person’. The less I thought it was a minimal story, or who was evil, and the more it was the story of two sharks who fought against each other and one of them won. Neither of them had a disability, and they both had a pretty good fight. “

Ryan Holiday in the media:

“I think it’s an unexpected result of what Thiel did that this kind of diaspora of former Gawker writers went to these different media. It could be said that BuzzFeed has received a mantle in some ways and Huffington Post writers have taken a mantle in other ways, and all these different people We have the idea that history has been written by victorious historians, but I think Gawker and his supporters have done a very good job of writing the story of what happened and winning the cultural war. even if they lost their jobs, they certainly won the general cultural narrative about what happened and what their place was in the world. “


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