The enemy of my enemy is my friend: it is revealed that Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and a really, really, really rich billionaire, has been secretly picking up the tab for the legal expenses of Hulk Hogan, in his ongoing battles against Gawker.
I know the Hulkster isn’t as Oprah-rich as he once was, due to a gold-digging ex-wife and a fuck-up of a son, but I would have figured he probably still had the connections and/or means to handle his own legal bills. But never would I have expected this saga to have this kind of twist in the casting, with a tech billionaire in Silicon Valley funding Hulkamania in the battle of good versus insufferable.
Seriously, “Hulk Hogan” and “PayPal Billionaire” seem like two variables that had as much chance of associating together as a sea cucumber pairing up with an Intel processor. But it is funny to see just how effective that having a common enemy can unite even the most unlikely of individuals.
Basically, among Gawker’s list of people they pissed off, Peter Thiel was among them. A gay man, Gawker drew his ire when in 2007, they basically attempt to out him as a homosexual, when he was still in the closet. Not that there’s anything wrong with him being gay, but I could understand how much it could suck to not being on your own terms, instead being basically extorted by a bunch of smarmy arrogant internet assholes.
However, for reasons unknown, probably because Thiel is a businessman who wanted to not draw too much unwanted spotlight and compromise his business endeavors, never really pursued any sort of recourse. Businesses are fragile glass houses that never need stones thrown around in them, and trying to run a business while trading jabs with shitheads probably wasn’t a good idea.
So it must’ve been convenient when a personality like Hulk Hogan, whose business was basically as barbaric as throwing stones, and has pretty much living his entire life trading jabs with shitheads, decided to do both, to Gawker, as retribution for the griefing they heaped onto him.
A guy like Thiel could use Hogan as something of a conduit, or a vessel, to utilize to do all the fighting against Gawker for him, just so long as he helped fund the necessary means. The difference is that Thiel could remain in the shadows, secretly backing a compatriot whom had the similar objective – to make Gawker pay for their shithead behavior.
Either way, the story just gets better and better, with the introduction of Thiel into the equation. It’s basically like The Million Dollar Man has been secretly in the corner of Hulk Hogan, paying for all his legal fees, and all Hogan has to do is keep fighting against bad guys.
And that’s just it, Hogan hasn’t entirely just been fighting against Gawker for his own discretions. If anything at all, the introduction of Thiel solidifies the notion that Hulk Hogan is representing everyone; small as regular people with the misfortune of drawing Gawker’s crosshairs, or as large as billionaires like Peter Thiel, against asshole internet behavior.
The Hulkster might be the figurehead in the front lines, but he represents a lot more than himself. Anyone who has a distaste for internet smearing and the abuse of the First Amendment, we are all Hulkamaniacs.
