This is true for businesses and for people. In the real world, every decision one makes has consequences. Thiel’s funding just put it in front of them.

Besides, it was a jury and judge (and Gawker’s testimony) that made the ultimate decision. It’s a common and ethical way for victims to get justice, especially against deep-pocketed corporations or big institutions. Nonprofits and philanthropists sponsor lawsuits all the time. What better way to give back to the body politic than fight to remove a pernicious cultural cancer?įirst, everything that Mr. He calls it one of the most “philanthropic” things he’s ever done.

Thiel made it his mission not to get mad or get even-but to drive Gawker out of business by funding lawsuits on behalf of victims who had had their privacy even more egregiously violated than his. Which is why they’ve come to find themselves staring down the barrel of a $140 million court judgment they can’t pay and millions more spent on legal fees.Īfter needlessly outing and maliciously antagonizing the billionaire Peter Thiel in 2007, Gawker made an enemy whose patience and dedication to responding tit for tat rivals the Count of Monte Cristo. Like your typical bully, they got very used to other people being afraid of their power but never bothered to respect the power and influence of anyone else. Although most people I talk to file this little piece of wisdom under “common sense” and consider it a fundamental fact of life, the folks at Gawker never seem to have considered it.

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