WEBVTT - Part Four: How Peter Thiel Became the Gravedigger of Democracy 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:02.880 Also media. 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:10.159 Oh, welcome back to Behind the Podcast A Bastard with 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.640 Robert Evans and Noah Shack. Noah, how are you doing? 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:17.640 A good question? 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:17.919 Mark? 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:18.200 Good? 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:19.360 Good question Mark? 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.479 How good can one feel? In part four of the. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:29.520 Great Question? 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.400 No, I feel great there. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:37.240 Yeah, great question, Noah contributing writer at Rolling Stone, contributing 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.600 editor at Wired. You did it. You did that, so sable. 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.280 I did it last time, too unbelievable. Yeah, so I 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.680 think we should. I want to start here by saying, uh, 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.720 there's yet another post on the one of the subreddits 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.720 accusing now Garrison and me both of sounding like we 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.000 always have a nasal infection and like, I'm sorry those 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.520 of you who don't have a low grade sinus infection 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.279 every year, but the rest of us have allergies. Robert's 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.840 allergic to grass. The world is poisoned to me. I 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.160 don't know what to tell you, Like I have eggs, 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.600 I'm allergic to my own fucking skin. Get off, get 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:22.040 off my back, thank you, thank you. Noah, it's true. 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.520 My relentless toughness, Robert, Robert and. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.800 I are allergic to so many things. 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:33.039 Yeah, it's us incredible. People imagine being being really like 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.640 this is. This is I'm the person who has most 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.119 been victimized by the Internet because of how people are 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.160 to me about my nose. It's it's I'm the main 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:43.600 victim of cancel culture. 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:45.960 You know, are you in a bubble currently? 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.320 I live in a bottle. Yeah. I have to like 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.960 taze anyone who tries to get closer than ten feet 0:01:53.000 --> 0:02:00.400 from me because I'm just a fragile little flower boy. 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:06.200 So I noted last episode that Peter was simpatica with 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.880 the Bush administration when it came to surveillance. The only 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:10.799 real issue with them is that they weren't mean enough 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.800 to Muslims. In two thousand and seven, though, he gained 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.360 another issue with the Bush administration, which was that, if 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.480 you guys can remember back this far right. At the 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.680 end of his last term in office, w announced massive 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:28.960 support for a new immigration reform package, which today, unfortunately 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.359 we would call like hopelessly live leftist right like the 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.240 George W. Bush two thousand and seven immigration reform package 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.799 is like so much more progressive than you could get 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.400 away with now and part it included a path to 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:45.960 citizenship for undocumented Americans. Bush's attempts to fix immigration as 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.640 he saw it again. This was not seen as great 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.120 by progressives in the day, but it's just kind of 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.120 more than you could get away with. Now didn't work out, 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.800 and it didn't work out because there's this massive ground 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.160 swell of rage from the fight flank of his own 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.960 party right that is furious that Bush is suggesting any 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.280 mercy for people who had entered the country illegally. Teal 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.520 saw this movement as promising, and he credited the failure 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.639 of Bush era immigration reform on an unprecedented internet campaign. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.880 Teal money started to flow towards anti immigration organizations reaching 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.720 people online was called. One was a nonprofit called Numbers USA, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.320 which argued that the US needed to reduce the number 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.080 of immigrants allowed in every single year. Numbers USA was 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.160 founded and operated by Roy Beck, who himself had once 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.080 worked for a guy named doctor John Tanton, who had 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:40.280 founded other earlier anti immigration groups. Beck had worked for 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.080 Tanton's US Inc. That's the anti immigration organization for a 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.760 decade and had helped Tanton organize a book They Vacation together. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.160 These guys are very close ideologically and personally. Now, once 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.120 Roy starts his Numbers USA foundation, which is backed by 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.640 Peter teel. He starts to downplay his relationship with Tanton 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.320 because John Tanton, in addition to being Roy's friend, is 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.120 a white supremacist. Here's the Southern Property Law Center writing 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.120 about tantin as long ago as nineteen eighty eight, A 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.560 set of internal memoranda to the staffs of two groups 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.000 he founded, the Federation for American Immigration Reform FAIR and 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.239 US English were leaked and showed and showed Tanton warning 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.720 of a coming latin Onslaught, questioning whether Latinos were as 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.400 durable as others, and worrying that Latinos were outbreeding whites. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.200 A decade later, he told a reporter that whites would 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.360 soon develop a racial consciousness and the result would be 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.840 the war of all against all. He hired and worked 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.960 alongside Wayne Lutton, who has held other leadership positions in 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.600 four white supremacist hate groups. He published and endorsed a 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.960 racist book on immigration, and he published numerous white supremacists. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.640 Tanton compared immigrants to bacteria that will continue growing until 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.960 the population crashes, and sneered at immigrants defecating and creating 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.400 garbage and looking for jobs. There's a lot that's messed 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:57.080 up there. 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.120 You know. Yeah, the Latin Onslaught is the name of 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.160 a six Spanish language metal band. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.760 It's also latinot is the term I use for that 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.880 that period where Emilio x Estevez and uh Charlie Sheen 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.040 we're both really starting to hit it in a big 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.440 in a big way, you know. I believe that was 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.160 the Latinslot. Yeah, it's Latin enough. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:27.640 This show. This peer tell is an immigrant to this country, right. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.760 Born in Germany. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.640 Sure he's an anti immigration immigrant. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.160 Yeah, I mean to be honest though, Like that's the 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.240 thing that people always get like flipped out by. But 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:44.359 that's like the core of the hardest anti immigrant chunk 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.800 of the US population is immigrants and children of immigrants, right, 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.160 Like you know, the Cuban community in Florida being one example, 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.160 but like half of the fucking border patrol is Latino, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.880 you know, and those guys are yeah. 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.280 Am I right? Remembering that Til has said it like 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.240 his citizenship is here, and then also New Zealand. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.400 Yes, he kind of fudged getting New Zealand citizenship. People 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.760 will argue that he wasn't actually there long enough to 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:11.600 get it. But if you have enough money, you can 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.200 get the citizenship and like, you know, New Zealand, if 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.360 you want to offer me citizenship too, I'll take it, 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:18.279 but it's kind of messed up that you give it 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.640 to Peter. Yeah, man, I could really use the New 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.240 Zealand citizenship right about now. 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:28.000 Citizenship if you found enough companies that are named after 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:28.839 a Lord of the Rings. 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.640 Yes, yeah, there's a certain if you founded three companies 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.160 named after Lord of the Rings. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.719 Game, you get to go to New Zealand. No, seriously, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.240 is he pro immigration to New Zealand too? 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.440 He's pro him having a say, a safe valve. You know, 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.400 that's I think all that it is, right? Yeah. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.200 Also, how do how come all these people or some 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:58.960 of these people hardcore Catholic but also hardcore against the 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:04.880 biggest hardcore Athlics on the planet aka the uh South 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:06.800 and Central American populations. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.840 Uh. You know, that's a good question, in part because 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.040 a lot of these guys actually kind of hate what 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.160 most Catholics see as Catholicism, like the kind of trad 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:20.760 cath the trad cath movement today. They're all converts, they're 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.520 all into aspects of like my whole family's Catholic, and 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.520 like the kind of shit these people will say about like, no, 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.440 the pope is valid because this is seven hundred years ago. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.360 It's like like Catholics are like, now he's the pope. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.200 You like, you listen to the pope, you know, that's 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.360 all that matters, is like you know, it's this, it's this, 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:41.360 this kind of separation between what cultural Catholicism is and 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:43.640 like the fact that right now the fucking in a 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.480 I think it's a in Pennsylvania. The Republicans are going 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.400 after this nunnery because like a bunch of nuns are 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.560 registered to vote there and they're like none of them 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.080 live there. They're like, the nuns are talking about counter 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.040 suing them, and man, if the nuns are suing you, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.320 no born Catholic I have ever known would fuck with 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.520 a group of nouns terrify you go get their uns. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:06.040 They're frightening people. 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.440 Yeah, but even this Jew knows that. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.680 Yeah, these guys are not like they're they're not Catholic 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:14.960 in the sense that Catholics are Catholic. They're Catholic in 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.800 the sense that like people who become fans of Warhammer 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.200 forty thousand because they don't get the joke, are fans 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.680 of Warhammer forty thousand. That's the kind of Catholics they are, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.239 right anyway, I feel. 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.800 Like that was a very alien fore moment. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:27.119 Again. 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.760 No, no, no, no, everyone understands Warhammer. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.040 Do you have some sort of endorsement deal with Warhammer 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:33.160 forty thousand? 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.120 No, I wish I did. I would take more money, 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.959 but Games Workshop does not give out money. That is 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.520 the last thing that company does. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.520 Yeah. I feel like if you could socourre some that 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.240 sweet sweet Games Workshop yeah money, Yeah, you might be 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:49.920 able to find a cure for your. 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.080 ALLEGI I can do a whole podcast and all of 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.880 the characters that are based on nineteenth century gay poets 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.480 in Warhammer forty thousand, more than you'd think. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.000 Go ahead, So go off, Ken. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:08.760 Yeah. So, Peter Teal, he is this guy John Tanton 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.960 is directly connected to the dude. Teal's not backing Tanton, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.200 but he's backing his protege Roy Beck at Numbers USA. Right, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.440 And that's not all I'm going to continue that quote 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.000 from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The report revealed that 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.679 over the course of some twenty years, Tanton had corresponded 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.160 with Holocaust and ires, former clan lawyers and leading white 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.960 nationalist thinkers. He introduced leaders of FAIR, on whose board 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.280 he still sits today, to the president of the Pioneer Fund, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.080 a racist outfit set up to encourage race betterment. At 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.520 a private club, he promoted the work of an infamous 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.679 anti Semitic professor, Kevin MacDonald to both FAIR officials and 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.959 a major donor. At one point, pursuing his interest in eugenics, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.360 the utterly discredited science of breeding a better human race, 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.360 he tried to find out if Michigan had laws allowing 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.199 forced sterilization. His concern, Tanton wrote in a letter of inquiry, 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.680 was a local pair of sisters who have nine illegitimate 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.480 children between them. And again, Peter Teal is putting money 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.480 into all of the people adjacent to this guy, right 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.040 like he is backing a lot of organizations that are 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.679 next to him like this, this is just you can see, 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.480 and this is he's very much Tela is very happy 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.240 when like this Bush era immigration reform package goes down 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.160 in flames, because he has been one of the things 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.400 he's most consistent on again since like the two thousand 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.640 and seven eight is wanting massive restrictions and particularly non 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.360 white immigration into the United States, which is not a 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:37.000 libertarian stance and is really just kind of a far 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.199 right racist stance. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:46.160 While bankrolling this like yeah, weirdo neo monarchist who's trying 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:54.240 to like convince yeah, the blogosphere right wing to abandon democracy. 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.160 Yeah, and this is actually a writer around the same time, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:57.560 because it's like two thousand and eight and nine that 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.560 he starts getting involved with Yarvin, and it's two thousand 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:01.720 and eight that he's sends a million dollars to Numbers 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.640 USA through an intermediary, according to Chafkin, who notes Teal 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.200 didn't comment on the report at the time, but several 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.840 sources familiar with his political activities have told me the 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.160 reported donation was real, So you know, it doesn't look 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.800 like a thing that's absolutely confirmed, but there's definitely like 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.880 ties between him and Roy Beck, and Beck is tied 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.680 to Tanton, and this is all kind of part of 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.480 this very long process of Teal backing different explicitly racist 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:30.240 anti immigration organizations. Now, the next year, right around the 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.880 time that JP Morgan started experimenting with Pallanteer, Peter Teal 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.920 published an article in the Cato Institute's Journal with his 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.920 Sea stetting buddy this is the guy that he's backing. 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.680 At the Sea Steatic Institute. The theme of that issue 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:47.000 was the idea of creating libertarian enclaves outside of existing states. 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.800 Teal submitted an essay, The Education of a Libertarian, where 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.520 he channeled his friend Curtis Jarvin to write, I no 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:57.560 longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible. He wined that 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.120 the nineteen twenties where the last gasp of hope for 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.320 liberty because Americans then gave women the right to vote 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.920 and created the welfare state, and these two innovations had 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.559 made political victory impossible for libertarians. Libertarians can't win elections 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.480 because women can vote and there's welfare, and we'll never 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.680 get those people to give us any votes. Right, That's 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.400 why he's so angry about this ship. 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:27.200 Yeah, so I can't play this game. Yeah, this game 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.280 is over. This game is stupid. 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.600 I find whining about this shit so fascinating because we 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.839 have all seen Peter and guys like him. They've only 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:38.320 gotten wealth and power through the system that they claim 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.360 to be oppressed by. It is the only place that 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.840 they have ever been or wouldever be a success. These 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.840 guys are the winners of our society. They are elevated 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.040 by a system that is designed to produce and support them, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.600 but they still can't feel help, but feel like losers 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.520 all the time, no matter what they do, and so 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:58.840 they turn their rage against the system that is the 0:12:58.840 --> 0:12:59.880 only reason they're special. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:01.600 Don't act like a loser. 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:03.520 Don't act like a fucking. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.360 There you go. Don't act like a fucking loser. It's 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.319 just it is the most loserus shit to complain that 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.040 we couldn't possibly win on an election because fifty. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.760 Girls too many girls will Yeah. 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.800 Yeah, it's like they're like we won our D and 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:22.559 D games and there were no girls. 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.560 In yeah those, Yeah, you know win D and D 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.199 win just by playing. But yes, I get your point. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.360 Peter's frustrations were amplified by a public outcry against his 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.800 complaints about women voting. Right, Like, people get angry at 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:36.839 him for saying this, and he is forced to come 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.600 out and kind of backpedal, be like, I don't want 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.360 to take away win's right to vote. I just recognize 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.040 that this is a problem, right, and I want to 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.120 find a shortcut to avoid democracy cramping my style. Right. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.040 I don't want to stop women from voting, but we 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.320 have to agree, this is a problem that guys like 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.040 me can't win as many elections because the girls now. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.160 Another constant teel irritant was the free press, as we 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.480 talked about last episode. I do think his initial irritance 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.680 with Valley Wag comes from a semi understandable place, but 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.439 it took years of them reporting on his actual doings 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.199 in a manner that I think was generally responsible journalism 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.480 before Teal acted. Here's the shadowy, inciting incident of the 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.440 Gawker lawsuit. According to Derek Thompson in an article with 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.520 The Atlantic where he interviews Ryan Holliday, he's the guy 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.120 who wrote the book on this. In twenty eleven, he 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:25.960 is in Berlin and he takes a meeting with a 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.280 then twenty six year old Teal devotee, who you might 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.560 call mister A. The young man essentially tells Teal, I 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.000 know you're obsessed with Gawker, and I have an idea 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.880 to destroy them. He says, Teal should create a show 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.240 company to fund investigators and lawyers to find causes of 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.080 action against Gawker and ultimately sue it into oblivion. He 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.440 estimates that the plan will take up to five years 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.280 and up to ten million dollars in funding, which is prophetic. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.480 So it's this mysterious mister A who nobody knows the 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.760 real name of, allegedly who is the guy who sits 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.680 down with Teal and is like, Hey, I think if 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.520 you find if you just keep putting it, put money, 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.440 you know, put it towards some people, maybe I can 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.640 help you with this the feeling this guy's kind of 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.760 angling for a gig, Like we will figure out when 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.520 gawker slips up and we will use that to stick 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:15.240 the knife in them. 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.920 Right, maybe that's the lawyer or something like that. I mean, 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:20.800 like maybe that's like a lawyer just trying. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:25.000 To Maybe maybe it's Ryan Holidays again. The reporter revealed 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.400 this describes mister A as a professional son, in other words, 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:31.400 someone who sought out and wormed his way into the 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.560 confidences of father figures who could advance his career and Teal. 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.280 Some people will say this is in part because he 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.000 has crushes on some of these guys, but Teal has 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.360 a habit of finding generally handsome young men and putting 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.080 them into his inner circle. Backing this kind of how JD. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.440 Vance and Blake Masters get into his circle, right, and 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.640 I don't know how much. I'm trying to just kind 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.480 of like stay out of it, because what matters is 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.640 he's backing these people, not whether or not he thinks 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.640 they're hot. But that is an allegation. You'll hear that's 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.880 made about this, right, And I don't know, I'm sure that, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.640 I'm sure that's not a non factor. Sometimes you hear 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.280 out this guy who like goes out and targets older 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.680 men to try and like embolden his career and is like, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.880 I know how you can destroy Gawker, And maybe Peter, 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.200 he's frustrated, he's angry that he can't do anything about 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.480 this thing that's hurting his business, and then like this 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.320 hot dude comes up with a plan to kill them, right, 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.640 Maybe that's some of what's going on. According to the 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.360 version of the story told by Holiday, Peter compared to 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.120 complain to mister A over their meal that he couldn't 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.080 just outright destroy Gawker, and mister A said back, Peter, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.960 if everyone thought that way, what would the world look like? 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.440 Right if people didn't just destroy journalistic outlets like because 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.000 they could, where would we be as a society. So 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.840 if this is accurate, that is kind of a not 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:52.160 a I don't know if it's a big if, but 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.960 it is an if. Peter. This guy is who succeeds 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.360 in getting Peter to fund this operation to find a 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.480 way to kill Gawker, and they eventually find the way 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.919 to kill Gawker in an unlikely place, the office of 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:10.400 a Florida DJ named Bubba the Love Sponge. Here we go, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.679 Here's where Bubba the Love Sponge comes in. Everyone's been 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.439 waiting for this since we started talking to you. You know, 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.439 speaking of Bubba the Love Sponge. You know who is 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:21.359 a love sponge? 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.399 The sponsors of this podcast. 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.000 That's right, the sponsor of this podcast. I think that's 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.200 a cum joke. So everyone enjoy that and go over 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:35.440 there please before just come yeah, one of the two. 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:43.800 We're back, and boy, I hope we all enjoyed that 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:48.000 ad from Hymns. Hymns I think they sell testosterone. Now 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.680 why not get involved or ozembic is it ozimbic they're 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.120 selling basically whatever, give them some money, give them some money, 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.520 hymns or back back in two thousand and six, whole 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.240 COVID sponsor as Sophie and they give us money. Come on, hymns. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.919 Get on the bastard's trade, you know, yeah, adds like that. 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.879 Every day. We'd shill for you, we'd chill for you. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.520 I'll sell hymns. I don't give a fuck. Uh right now, 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:19.440 give hymns. Do you enough testosterone? Probably? But you could 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.200 have more. It's what all the celebrities do. They'll ship 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.640 it to your door. Who gives a shit? 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.359 Howboult give us one of those like sheepish? Like fuck? 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.119 I have to do this house read conversion of hymns. 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.520 Sometimes I may or may not hear a podcasts. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.439 Do you feel bad about your body? Well you probably should, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.399 so get on ozimbic, the drug that is probably fine 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.040 for you. No one really knows yet. It's a little 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:45.600 like vaping. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.160 Try it out, ye see what happens. 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.919 Anyway, Back in two thousand and six, Whole Cogan had 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.000 been depressed over the state of his marriage. I love 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.679 where the story starts, which is I had again, just 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.639 casually hearing it. I had thought that it was a 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.080 case of like he was just cheating on Bubba with 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.959 Bubba's wife. No, no, no, Hulk comes over because he's 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.600 getting a divorce and he's just in a dark place. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.199 And he needs his friend, Bubba the Love Sponge and 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:15.840 bubbas a bad place. I really need some comfort, and 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.320 Bubba the Love Sponge is like, Holkster, you know it'll 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.320 cheer you up fucking my wife. Why don't you go 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:26.080 into my bedroom and fuck my wife? And the Hulk said, okay, 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.000 but you're not going to film this, are you? Brother? 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.359 I know you always film people who have sex in 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.240 your house. You're not going to film the hulks dick, 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.960 are you? And Buba was like, of course, I'm not 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.159 going to film you, And then of course he films 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:42.960 the whole keving sex and he takes the recording made 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.000 in his house and he puts the recording in his 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:51.600 desk at the radio station where he works. Incredible, did 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:52.960 you do amazing? 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.600 Shit? Yeah, that's incredible. 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.639 So funny. This is such a funny case, Like a 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.960 lot of good people lost their jobs, but this part 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.160 of it's really funny. Some people. Yeah, not all good 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.040 people lost their jobs, but a lot of good people. Then, 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.679 so fast forward about six years. Obama is on his 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.359 way to term number dose and Bubba gets in a 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.320 conflict with a guy who Ryan Holiday describes as Hey, 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.919 this is the funniest term in the world, rival DJing 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.920 nothing sadder than the words rival DJ. 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:25.880 Florida. 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:31.440 Yeah, rival Florida DJ. If this is and again there's 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.119 some debate, I'm not saying this is absolutely what happened, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.840 but this is probably the most It's certainly the most 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.160 entertaining and probably the most credible story as to why 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.520 this all happens. If this is accurate, the whole destruction 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.959 of goker thing started because Bubba the Love Sponge at 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.840 a rival Florida DJ had an argument over who was 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.679 going to like get which time slot, and the rival 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.840 DJ broke into his desk and stole the videos to 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:58.080 like hold him for like them for ransom basically, and 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.720 ultimately leaked the videos to Gawker to embarrass Bubba the 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.840 Love Sponge. Hulk was only ever an accidental casualty in 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:12.240 the It was collateral damage. The poor ulkster. That's in 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:19.960 the Great Florida the Great Game of Florida DJs. He's Afghanistan. 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:29.119 Is the DJ. Mister A is the secret maybe the 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:29.720 rival DJ. 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.399 You know what I'm gonna say, Definitely. I'm going to 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:37.040