I'm mostly surprised someone like Wu can have friends honestly
Actually, Wu's friends can be separated into three groups
1. People he shills for - These tend to be the ones in the computer and gaming industry (you know, the very ones Gamergate is trying to expose), so of course they fiercely defend him because Wu returns the favor, and Gamergate has made everyone it attacks extremely defensive, whether or not they had a victim complex to begin with.
2. Fellow SJWs - As we all know, SJWs are more about appearing to be righteous than actually being righteous, so a hypocrite like Wu is in good company with these morons, all of which fiercely defend each other for reasons I don't need to elaborate.
3. Unwashed morons - The well meaning but very stupid who Wu managed to befriend via legit means who trollshield for Wu because they are too stupid to realize Wu is using them and that Wu enjoys having extra meatshields around. These tend to turn on Wu once he throws them to the wolves. These types also tend to be willfully blind to the mountains of evidence Wu is a lying attention whore.
Of the three groups, the first, if they were neutralized, would severely cripple Flynt's chances of getting anyone who gives a shit to take him seriously, the second is just an army of sheep, and the third are used as meatshields to fend off "harassment" (i.e. - fob off anything Wu doesn't want to face public scrutiny on because Wu knows he'd get his credibility shot to hell if he did it himself).