Ryan Holiday

Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue

Conspiracy

rumbledethumps

In the introduction to this book, Holiday makes this statement: "[I attempted] to make something more than just some work of contemporary long-form journalism or some chronological retelling of events by a disinterested observer (which I am not)." And then a few pages later, makes this contradictory statement: "In the meantime and for the record, I simply present what happened." I should have known what I was in for.

This book is very much a lionization of Peter Thiel. Holiday repeatedly avoids making judgments on what Thiel did, but simultaneously portrays Thiel as heroic. While at a private dinner party at Thiel's home after the trial, Holiday follows him on to the balcony and muses, "I stood a few paces behind and felt myself recalling the line from Hamlet: 'He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.'"

We are presented with a man who seeks revenge on someone who did him wrong, and ruminates, plots, and plans for 10 years, before finally slaying his nemesis; and yet we are expected to see him as someone who has seen a wrong in the world and righted it. Post hoc rationalizations and dehumanization of his opponent allow him to turn a personal grudge into a mission to make the world a better place. "'I came to believe that the nastiness of the internet was not a function of a technology or various things that have gone wrong, but the function of one particularly nasty media company led by a particularly sociopathic individual and that if I defeated Gawker, it would actually change the media landscape,' Thiel would say." To which my only response can be: How'd that work out, 5 years later? Is the media landscape a better place?

Holiday sees it this way: "what is indisputable is that he saw his actions as a kind of social good and there is something to be admired in that." How many evil acts in human history were committed by people who saw their actions as a kind of social good? Is there something to be admired in those as well?

I don't particularly care about Gawker, nor do I particularly care about Thiel. And I'm not even looking at the implications of a billionaire destroying a media outlet because he didn't like what they wrote about him. For this review, I'm just concerned about the book. It feels dishonest. As much as Holiday tries to act like he has no opinion of Thiel's actions, I think he's just maybe too timid to express his opinion directly. Instead, he writes things like this: "The line from the Obamas was 'When they go low, we go high.' It’s a dignified and impressive mantra, if only because for the most part, whether you liked them or not, it’s hard to deny that they followed it. But the now cliché remark should not be taken conclusively, for it makes one dangerous omission. It forgets that from time to time in life, we might have to take someone out behind the woodshed."

Colin

Rating: 6.6/10

This book was my first real attempt at audiobook consumption and it went surprisingly well. Approaching it in the same context as a podcast, the content fit right in with my typical listening queue. I definitely want to listen to more audiobooks, although I intend to stick with non-fiction for now.

Peter Thiel has always interested me as a Silicon Valley power broker and this book gave an extremely compelling insight into his most well-known conspiracy, the takedown of Gawker Media. Although I had heard about this story before, the amount of detail and exposition that Holiday gives really does bring the characters of Peter Thiel, Nick Denton, and Hulk Hogan alive. You feel their worries and anxieties as well as their thrill in victory or anguish in defeat. That being said, there is a definite bias here towards Peter Thiel. Obviously, this is not completely unfounded as it is hard to look at a rumor-mongering organization like Gawker with a neutral eye but it still taints the narrative. Additionally, Holiday frames this endeavor as a grand conspiracy to an almost sickening degree. When reading grandiose Napoleon quotes or talk of Machiavellian ethics, one almost forgets that this is a mere tale of a billionaire's revenge, albeit a very interesting one. 

All in all, Holiday does the complete story justice. While he focuses a bit too much on the grandness of the "conspiracy" and Thiel's mastermind schemings, it was still a worthwhile read.

Adam

As someone who grew up in Pinellas County Florida, watching Hulk Hogan, spending a lot of time online during a time when Gawker Media sites were wildly popular and following Peter Thiel's career (and reading his book), every bit of this book was oddly familiar to me.

Conspiracy is a story about a lawsuit. That lawsuit is a claim by Hulk Hogan against Gawker media after they published a sex tape made without the wrestlers' permission. The lawsuit seemed like David vs Goliath, but in actuality, Hogan had the full backing by a billionaire to keep the lawsuit going. 

I read Gawker back when it was running - usually when a scandalous story was linked to on Digg. This book turned that history on its head, causing me to realize just what I was supporting with those pageviews.

Although I don't back Thiel either. As a prominent Trump supporter, he lost all credibility with me as someone fighting against bullies.

Even with a cast of questionable characters, this story reads like a real-life version of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Dana Kraft

This is a long newspaper or magazine feature stretched into a 300 page book by interminable historical and philosophical quotes and asides.

Conspiracy Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue