Shanley Kane’s controlled opposition for Peter Thiel was hiding in plain sight

 

‘The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.’ – Vladimir Lenin

In 2015 Shanley Kain responded to an inquiry from Breitbart by admitting to a “misogynist, slut-shaming, queer-phobic, abusive, racist, ableist and classist,” past, as well as characterizing her previous relationship with the notorious white supremacist Andrew Auernheimer with the same excessive candor, “I’ve fucked a bunch of assholes, I’ve practiced sadomasochism and there are nudes out there.”

Shanley Kane had launched the curious Model View Culture publication just a year prior to these admissions, a magazine with the stated purpose of advocating for diversity in the tech industry.

In one co-authored piece shot through with Shanley’s semi-parodic style, the magazine undermined and labeled organizations putting resources towards victims of online harassment with the ridiculous term “Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” suggesting instead that readers should “support and fund individual activists,” and work on “the development of alternatives.” According to her ex-boyfriend Auernheimer, better known in trolling communities as weev, online abuse and racism was the glue that held their relationship together.

Model View Culture and Shanley would stir concern and consternation, appealing to sensitive audiences about terrible social ills such as computer terminology like “master” and “slave.” When convenient, Shanley would play either the role of the ultimate and perpetual victim or the vicious troll, hurling abuse with the same practiced skill of her ex-boyfriend. For two years, Kane’s absurd antics were an inescapable topic at Silicon Valley water coolers.

Dan Lyon of Valleywag expressed confusion in retrospect, portraying her interest in social justice as a hoax or even a novel form of entertainment, “It’s possible that the Shanley Show was not a hoax. Maybe Kane really is a sincere but deeply troubled person.”

Before her stint in controlled opposition social justice at Model View Culture, Shanley marketed Silicon Valley products with several firms where she brushed shoulders with elites like Peter Thiel. Thanks to the reporting of Barrett Brown, formerly of the Byline Times, evidence of Auernheimer’s employment by Peter Thiel has come to light, raising concern about Shanley’s possible connections.

Dr. Angstrom H. Troubador weighed in, “How does an internet troll from Arkansas best known for a website showing a gaping asshole wind up running propaganda operations for a tech billionaire? Not a lot of answers to that question, but I can think of one at least: Shanley Kane.”

THE USEFUL IDIOTS?

Teaming up with Rocco Castoro, a previous employee at Tim Pool’s SCNR and Editor-in-Chief at Vice, Brown turned his investigations towards pranksters, activists, imageboard administrators, journalists, and social media commenters. The duo’s harassment, lewd sexual comments, fedjacketing, personal insults, pedojacketing, and outrageous antics serve to defame and depict their targets as members of an underground network of agitators for Peter Thiel taking marching orders from Andrew Auernheimer. Brown and Auernheimer have been personal friends since 2007, notably corresponding on the PC video game platform Steam.

[Editor’s note: Castoro and Brown have targeted every writer at Internet Chronicle, living or dead, with one stark exception: Tyler Bass, a former writer at Internet Chronicle, who participated in Peter Thiel’s racist facial recognition company alongside Auernheimer. He was previously fired from Internet Chronicle for pissing in a tent at the yearly office retreat.]

Kevin Gallagher, director of Free Barrett Brown and late lieutenant at Brown’s Project PM, also managed servers for Transparency Toolkit, a Thiel Fellowship open-source software system that aims to aid investigative journalists in “authoritarian contexts” by combining various digital tools, a system used for Castoro’s “data-driven” approach to investigative journalism.

Brown contacted Internet Chronicle regarding this story with the chilling demand, “Don’t reach out to Shanley or mention her or even look at her ever again.”

Model View Culture shut down shortly after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, with Shanley writing, “although Model View Culture remains financially sustainable in its current form, I’m ready to move on,” adding that her passions had moved her to write and publish a book that would strike at the heart of “tech industry empire.” No such book was ever published.

“‘Sometimes a girl just wants to be defiled,'” Auernheimer quoted Kane. He would later brag to friends that he “Fucked her with her family mezuzah scroll.”

Shanley currently maintains a blog nominally opposing so-called “tech fascism” and Peter Thiel in the familiar half-parodic format of Model View Culture. As recently as June of 2026, Shanley complained about Peter Thiel receiving unfair media coverage relating to his visit to Argentina, “…publications as ‘reputable’ as the New York Times, are getting away with reporting at the level of the National Examiner. This is not a time for hysteria, tabloid writing, and indulgence in fantasy.” Shanley’s alternative rallying cry to the news media’s flashy Antichrist billionaire?

“A bank is a weapon.”