Episode 898: Martin Shkreli Speaks On Being Called “The Most Hated Man in America”

**Urban Tapes** (0:00)
You've been called the most hated man in America. When you were first called that, did you view that as a funny thing, or did it upset you?

**Martin Shkreli** (0:08)
I absolutely thought it was funny. It's such a crazy character, or way to describe somebody, because I have this theory that biographers, and generally anyone writing, say more about themselves and their subjects. And so when you write a book about Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci, you're actually telling more of your story than theirs, because their stories are known. And your lens and how you refract, you know, so to speak, the information is really revealing. You know, there's no new information about Albert Einstein, but what you focus on, the way you look at it, tells a lot about the biographers. Same thing with journalists, where you write a headline like that. What does that mean? Right? That means that you think that, right? There's no consensus. You didn't do a census. You didn't do a survey. You know, you basically are saying, at best, you're saying, people like me and my friend's circle don't like this guy. And then you're adding some hyperbole. So it's such a, it's a dishonest, you know, it's so palpably dishonest. But I think the insidious part here is that what you're really trying to do, instead of saying this, me and my friends think this way, you're really trying to say you should think this way.
And, you know, that's, I think, the scary thing when somebody says, what do you think about that guy? Well, he's the most hated man in America, you know, according to who? According to this guy that told me to think that. And, you know, it's a very, like, pernicious thing. And I think over time, people have realized that you can't just do that. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna convince everyone. You could say that, you know, everyone hates President Trump, right, guys? You know, it doesn't automatically take into effect. It doesn't work that way. People make up their own minds now. And I feel like, you know, the reason it stopped working is that subtle suggestive leads like that could work, right? You know, like the old old old newspapers used to have headlines like editorials, especially like, could this price increase decision backfire?
That would be like the suggestive, like, hey, think about this as potentially being bad, as opposed to no worse thing ever, you know, let's crucify this person, etc. And I think obviously one sells more than the other. One's more intellectually honest than the other. So it was really funny to me. But I think in retrospect, I should have taken it more seriously.

**Urban Tapes** (2:26)
Well, because it probably... Well, we're going to get to court cases and all the other stuff. But I've obviously never been as notorious as you, but I've had backlash on things I've written. And I think it upset me. I think the backlash upset me more than it should have. Like, how did you kind of come up with the armor that you have in these cases?
Like, did it really not bother you? Like, you didn't go to sleep crying over this.

**Martin Shkreli** (2:53)
No, I think that I certainly think about these things. I'm contemplative. I mean, I'm not, like, completely ignoring it. But I also, conviction is so important in investing. And also, as a child, I would have these opinions. I was a Republican in a high school that was, you know, younger people are extremely, you know, left-leaning. And some of them, when they get older, they get jobs or they get mugged, as they say. You know, they tend to, some of them start to move a little bit to the right.
You know, I went to, like, one of the most activist kind of, like, high schools in America, and, you know, I stood my ground because this is what I felt. And, you know, I think, you know, it's an interesting high school full of smart people, and there's this understanding, like, oh, everybody here is pretty bright. So these people and these opinions, it can't be stupid.
And I think that, you know, when you have that, like, sort of objective playing field, I think there's even an acceptance in, you know, sort of in both sides that there is an intellectual right, there is an intellectual left. And I guess for me, once you've seen that, you know, you could sort of just stand your ground and say, I'm a capitalist that made a very thoughtful decision. You know, I thought through it, you know, immensely. And unfortunately, instead of getting an intellectual response, I got the drivel. And I think, you know, my strategy was to meet drivel with drivel because you have two choices. You can either stay in your little intellectual high horse and people will say you're out of touch and you don't get it. And, you know, whatever you're saying is BS. You're just trying to cover for that. But if you go down and meet the drivel with the drivel, it sort of becomes, you know, you can be more forceful, your message is clearer.