Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
“Thots & Thoughts” is a column in which musings on dating, sex, race, religion, and politics all come together—from a bird’s-eye view. In terms of artistic license, Drake has every right to continue making music about emotional immaturity. He has every right to a whiny outlook on his failed relationships (fictional and otherwise). Likewise, his…
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Fresno, California. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters FRESNO, Calif. — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told California voters Friday that he can solve their water crisis, declaring that: “There is no drought.” Speaking at a rally in Fresno, Calif., Trump accused state officials of…
An epic tale of three women who happened to witness a stranger attempt to drug another stranger begins with, “GUESS WHO STOPPED A RAPE LAST NIGHT?! THESE GALS!” The incident allegedly took place at Santa Monica’s FIG restaurant on Thursday. When I called FIG to corroborate a viral Facebook post, the woman who answered said…
Photo Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal. It was revealed this week that he had bankrolled the wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media. Credit Robyn Twomey SAN FRANCISCO — After the news that one of Silicon Valley’s stars secretly funded a lawsuit to bring down a gossip site, the overwhelming response in the…
No major American cultural force is more opposed to examination and more active in suppressing it today than Silicon Valley. So when it was revealed this week that Facebook board member Peter Thiel had been secretly bankrolling a lawsuit to inflict financial ruin on the news and gossip site Gawker, Silicon Valley cheered. The investor…
These days, feminism is on fleek. Touted by everyone from Dove to Barbie to Taylor Swift, consumer capitalism has made feminism sexy, fun, cool—and remarkably easy to claim as your own. But the price tag has been the meaning of the movement itself. Bitch magazine cofounder Andi Zeisler describes this phenomenon as “marketplace feminism.” “Marketplace…
Defenders of litigation finance claim noble motives: They are merely equalizing access to a legal system that leaves too many on the wrong side of the courthouse doors. (It’s hard not to hear echoes here of Thiel’s claim that he’s spent millions to after Gawker for “philanthropic” reasons.) According to a post at Burford Capital,…
On Monday, The New York Times published a report that Gawker founder Nick Denton believed it was highly likely that the lawsuit brought against his company by Hulk Hogan was being financed by a secret backer. Then, on Tuesday night, Forbes reported that Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has been the man secretly bankrolling the Hulkster’s…
At first blush, the secret support that the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel provided for Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker is a salacious yarn about money, power, gossip and revenge. But it is also about something more important: an aggressive bid by the very wealthy to control the American news media at a time when…