Paddy Cosgrave Offends the Magnificent Seven

From Chutzpah to Oblivion?

Peter St Onge, the increasingly popular Mises Institute Economist, published a video last week that explained why the US stock market was holding up. The explanation was simple: the Magnificent Seven stocks. In short, just seven stocks - all technology stocks - are holding up the entire American stock market. The companies are Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla and Nvidia. And, collectively, these companies accounted for over 100% of stock market gains year-to-date.  

These companies also, collectively, represent a certain corporate world-view and one that mostly corresponds to a number of establishment geo-political pillars.  

Paddy Cosgrave, the Founder and CEO of Web Summit - a very successful tech events company that emerged, somewhat unexpectedly, from its original home in Ireland - has always managed to stay on the right side of these companies (for good reason). Cosgrave has always been outspoken - politically - on a number of issues. And his preferred platform has always been Twitter. But part of the reason for his success has been his ability to stay close enough to the liberal/globalist narrative of the Magnificent Seven to keep them sweet.  

Paddy Cosgrave (Image: RTE)

And Cosgrave has played his hand well - resulting in a stellar rise in the Web Summit family of events - and especially the flagship event that happens annually in Lisbon.  This year it’s due to take place from the 13th to the 16th of November. Had everything gone to plan the event would have included tech CEOs, Hollywood celebrities and politicians keen to rub shoulders with the cool people.  Establishment mainstream media quotes adorn the event homepage: 

“Politico has said we run “the world’s premier tech conference”, The Atlantic that Web Summit is “where the future goes to be born”, and the New York Times that we assemble “a grand conclave of the tech industry’s high priests”.

Alas, this year, there promises to be much fewer high priests. Paddy Cosgrave has committed a grave error: he has offended the sensitivities of the Magnificent C-Suites.  

Cosgrave’s sin, it would appear, was to speak out against war crimes - and to state, unequivocally, that crimes by allies against Gaza are still war crimes. In short, he made the point that two wrongs don’t make a right.  He also applauded Ireland’s rejection of plans by the EU to suspend aid to Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel.  

The response to this has been an exodus of tech firms due to provide speakers or exhibition sponsorship to Web Summit 2023. Facebook (Meta) and Amazon led the bolt from the stable. The CEO of one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms accused Cosgrave of supporting brutal murder, rape and the beheading of babies. 

Part of the reason that Web Summit has been so successful is down to Cosgrave’s balls-first approach to business. He spared no punches when pulling Web Summit out of Dublin and relocating it to Portugal. He even published an open letter to the Irish Government - telling them exactly why they were singularly useless. In doing so he provided the EU - and the tech industry - with its own version of Davos. The tech titans - particularly the Americans - could get to schmooze with and lobby EU apparatchiks and Paddy was, increasingly, seen to be the ultimate matchmaker given his chutzpah.  

Cosgrave’s error - believing that flying by the seat of his pants would make him unassailable - has resulted in a heavy price. Even a public apology has done little to undo the damage of taking the wrong side (the side of peace) in a tooth and claw argument of vengeance stoked by the Military Industrial Complex. Paddy forgot that he was just one of many conference organisers that come and go. His pupper-masters have cut the strings. 

However, Cosgrave is an entrepreneur - and a successful one. Hopefully he’ll refocus on those entrepreneurial tech firms that manage to build successful businesses and raise money without needing to resort to rigging markets courtesy of the World Economic Forum. I, for one, haven’t agreed with many of Cosgrave’s political opinions aired on Twitter. But this latest wave of McCarthyism will do the globalists - and the not-so-magnificent seven - few favours. Cosgrave’s day will come again.