Twitter/X

Gavin McInnes, a VICE cofounder, later founded the Proud Boys and was banned from…

2026-08-04 · 22:53 UTC ·@huntryerson ·1 min read

Brief

BCC_Mitchell's insider profile, shared by Pirate Wires, reconstructs VICE's 2010s ascent and 2020s collapse: cofounder Gavin McInnes later founded the Proud Boys and was banned for “hate speech”; the brand hit nearly $6 billion valuation with HBO deals and Murdoch/Disney investment; internal excesses—drug-fueled editorial meetings, a CEO throwing $1 million in cash at staff, and chasing “woke” for clicks—preceded bankruptcy.

Why it matters

Gavin McInnes, a VICE cofounder, later founded the Proud Boys and was banned from major social platforms for “hate speech.”

Key details

  • By the mid-2010s VICE reached a peak—landing an HBO show, attracting investment from Rupert Murdoch and Disney, and reaching a valuation of almost $6 billion—then entered bankruptcy a decade later.
  • BCC_Mitchell (Vice’s youngest employee in 2012) describes internal excesses: drug-fueled editorial meetings, the CEO reportedly throwing $1 million in cash at staff during a holiday party, editorial teams chasing “woke” for clicks, and the assessment “Vice was a cult” / “the best business school on Earth.”
Source evidence

clav’s publicist wrote about how he got fired from vice

Pirate Wires (@PirateWires)

In the 2010s, VICE was peak hipster American culture.

The brand was known for loudly breaking taboos. Its cofounder, Gavin McInnes, would go on to found the Proud Boys and get banned from basically every social media platform for “hate speech.”

By the mid-2010s, what began as an alt magazine in Montreal had landed an HBO show and convinced Rupert Murdoch and Disney to invest. It was, at one point, worth almost $6 billion.

A decade later, it was bankrupt.

@BCC_Mitchell, the youngest employee at Vice in 2012, takes us inside their rise and fall — from drug-fueled editorial meetings, to the CEO throwing $1m in cash at staff during a holiday party, to the team starting to chase ‘woke’ for clicks…

…to, eventually, the CEO himself abandoning what made the company famous in the first place.

“Vice was a cult,” Mitchell writes. “It was also the best business school on Earth.”

Below, the deepest insider profile yet of a 2010s media giant 👇

— https://nitter.net/PirateWires/status/2084741919842898419#m