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> Thiel’s pretty unique in that he was involved in this elaborate and secretive litigation campaign that resulted in the destruction of a pretty substantial med
by briandear 2y ago
> Thiel’s pretty unique in that he was involved in this elaborate and secretive litigation campaign that resulted in the destruction of a pretty substantial media outlet when he secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media.
Nick Denton is a terrible person in my opinion; a gossip columnist and the things he often published were pure trash. Anti-semantic drivel, outing people against their will, and other salacious click-farming nonsense. Let’s not forget that Gawker lost a jury trial and the verdict bankrupted him. That Peter helped fund the case doesn’t change that the jury found Gawker liable. Gawker’s actions caused their demise. If you want to play with gossip and attempt to destroy people, you have to be prepared to suffer the legal consequences when the targets seek legal recourse. Blaming Peter for the destruction of Gawker is ridiculous — Gawker did the thing and the thing had consequences.
As far as the article claiming that Peter Theil’s philosophy borders on fascism — that’s complete nonsense. Libertarianism is the opposite of fascism. Suppressing free speech, forcing businesses to close — all of the Biden era Covid policies — that’s fascism. Remember the days when we couldn’t talk about vaccine injuries? Or the times when scientific journals scrubbed articles that contradicted the prevailing directives on masks? Specifically articles published with flu studies that showed surgical masks as ineffective. One day, the articles were there, the next day, those articles seemingly disappeared aside from within the print versions which are harder to scrub for obvious reasons. Remember the social media bans for even expressing skepticism about mRNA covid shots? How about sharing opinions on the lab leak theory? What about the Santa Monica surfer who was arrested for surfing in the ocean with nobody within a half mile of him? That’s faciscm.
Fauci was unelected yet wielded incredible power, Sara Cody in Santa Clara county — also unelected yet had the sweeping power to shut down everything in her county during Covid. I never voted for her. Yet she had the singular, unaccountable power to destroy businesses and destroy children’s education. Covid-America was almost pure fascism, yet nobody on the left wants to have that conversation. People complain about Elon being “unelected,” while forgetting that Sara Cody shut down an entire region — including private businesses and schools.
Reducing the size and scope of government is not fascism. Using lawfare to go after political enemies is fascism. People are attempting to redefine words such as fascism in order to make their political opponents look scary, but ironically the real fascists are the ones calling everyone else fascist.
- wqaatwt 2y ago> Libertarianism is the opposite of fascism In much the same way as communism is the opposite of fascism and nazism. Yet their methods and outcomes are remarkably similar. However I would say that anarcho-capitalism (i.e. what people like Thiel actually mean by “libertarianism”) is not that dissimilar from fascism. > Reducing the size and scope of government is not fascism It’s not. Replacing it with unaccountable mega-corporations controlled by megalomaniacal oligarchs. Well, that’s something else. Anyway IMHO arguing about semantics i.e. are Musc & co. actually literally “fascists” or only figuratively is counter-productive. We should focus more on their goals and the tools they are using to achieve them. > Fauci was unelected > Elon being “unelected,” That justifies Musk/DOGE in what way exactly? I really don’t get this perspective, “the other was dishonest and/or made major mistakes so we get to lie through our teeth as well”? Fauci was a dishonest liar (or whatever) so we can use extreme falsehoods to justify our actions too? Really? How more hypocritical can you get? I mean I do get that you might have valid and justifiable views but is dishonest demagoguery really the vehicle you want to use to share them? Why? > to have that conversation Perhaps. Doubling down on “fascism” (literal or figurative) does not seem like the best solution?
- briandear 2y agoJust saying the left worships Fauci and hates Musk. The intellectual dishonesty is profound. Nobody on the left was criticizing Fauci and he had a far greater impact on freedom than Musk has. I don’t care that Musk or Fauci weren’t elected, I’m calling out the hypocrisy of complaining about unelected Musk whilst ignoring unelected Fauci. And words have meaning. If people don’t mean fascism, then they should say what they mean, but fascism is a convenient term because it invokes Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler in ways to imply that Theil is an aspiring Mussolini, Franco, or Hitler. Which is complete nonsense.
- macartain 2y agoWhat I keep not understanding - from this side of the Atlantic where the debate over COVID restrictions appears to have been a lot less charged - is why 'the right' in the US seem to lose sight of the fact that these restrictions were put in place because of a global pandemic whose ultimate trajectory was unknown at the time. They were not put in place because of some social ideology - though I would accept there was overcaution on the science front. I don't think the left worships Fauci, he just came to represent 'scientism' - as opposed to gargling with bleach - and was blindly defended just as Musk and Thiel have come to represent anarcho-capitalism, whether this is a fair representation of their views.