>But Thiel’s Ahab-like mission to destroy it has been even harder to sympathize with. The key problem is that his maximalist and eliminationist goal of inflicting as much damage on Gawker as possible is at odds with an essential civic ideal of the legal system: of trying to reach settlements that balance competing interests.<p>I disagree. Organizations like Gawker only survive because they know it's difficult and expensive to get satisfaction in the court system. If you sue they can drag it out for years and years until you run out of money. Having a Gawker go down every once in awhile is a good thing.