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What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

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Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#31

Post by user_0001 »

pj_mukh wrote: post #13
elgabogringo wrote: post #10

I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…

What views do you find you can't express?

* Telling people who they can and cannot love * Telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies * Warmongering

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#32

Post by jgroszko »

pj_mukh wrote: post #13
elgabogringo wrote: post #10

I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…

What views do you find you can't express?

He mentions Brendan Eich who was ousted from Mozilla for his anti-gay views. I have little sympathy for someone who feels marginalized by views they choose to hold and express when I, as a gay man, could be marginalized simply for who I am, something I did NOT choose. While most people may be able to just put their political opinions on the shelf, any time discussion turns towards family or after-work hobbies I have to make a conscious decision based on who I'm talking to and how it could affect the situation.

I can be professional and work on a temporary basis with people who hold anti-gay views, and I'm not going to go out of my way to attack them. I don't know much about how Eich ran Mozilla, I couldn't say if he deserved what happened, but I know that I would not consider a job at a company with anti-gay leadership.

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#33

Post by JoeAltmaier »

twoodfin wrote: post #27
pjc50 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This very much matters in the era of Trump. The reason there's no ideological consistency is that the publicly-stated ideology is backformed from the private, unacceptable ideology of maintaining racial and economic inequality. That's why suddenly these people are in favour of "affirmative action" when it benefits themselves; there's no principle at stake other than self-interest.

I think that's massively oversimplifying. Many Republicans really do believe things like: "A nationwide $15 minimum wage would have profoundly negative economic consequences both for small businesses unable to defray the added labor cost, and for the employees they'd otherwise be able to hire." You can disagree with that belief, but it's not rooted in racism and classism.

In fact my Mother-in law who lived through the Great Depression on onions and milk, remembers when the Minimum Wage went into law. She remembers it as the time of the great job crash. Folks used to be able to be bicycle messengers or doormen or junkyard watchmen - many of those jobs became too expensive and disappeared. Some jobs got folded together into one, making more work for those already employed and putting others out of work. She was not a fan of Minimum Wage.

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#34

Post by ryanx435 »

You obviously live in an echo chamber so let me explain it to you;

If you believe that every life is sacred and has intrinsic value simply for being alive, and believe that a fetus is a life at the moment of conception, than abortion is murder and no different than gunning someone down in the street. Therefore abortion should be illegal. This isn't even a religious argument. For your friends that had their contraception fail, adoption is always an option and it doesn't involve murder.

"Bible thumping ignorant and proud"... I'm also betting that you are an athiest, have never made a serious attempt to understand the teachings of christ (which are way more liberal than anything you believe, and are the root of the 2 thousand year old movement towards real social justice).

Get out of your bubble, you elitist lefty prick :)

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#35

Post by yardie »

elgabogringo wrote: post #10

I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…

If your views are in favour of the repression and marginalisation of others then you will find yourself in the minority in the left coast.

I'm sorry, the right hold some pretty reprehensible views on gay marriage, police brutality, the poor and working class, and women's rights. Then, when they are called on their bullshit all of the sudden they are the victim.

The rest of the world does not apologise if reality has a liberal bias.

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#36

Post by slowernet »

FussyZeus wrote: post #15

> "What happened to us?" The thing that drove me, a lifelong conservative, into the arms of Bernie Sanders; the Republican party (and the conservative group in particular) are so hard core on social issues that are to be blunt, disgusting (things like preventing homosexual marriage and abortion) and completely antithetical to the idea of "keeping government out of things." No I don't like everything the Left wants to…

Your question is probably rhetorical, but it happened because the Republican party decided they needed to bring social conservatives (especially Southern whites disaffected by the Civil Rights Act) into their coalition. See "Southern strategy" [1].

I believe anti-choice specifically was brought into the party platform during the Ford years. Outright homophobia was pretty mainstream until well into the 90s, and wasn't much of a differentiator between the parties. Democrats just soft-pedaled their position while the Republicans, specifically the fundamentalists who had grown in power since the 80s, made AIDS and gay marriage boogeyman issues in the "culture wars" [2].

For the record, both parties are coalitions and involve this kind of compromise between different constituencies (see Dems and organized labor, et al.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war#1990s

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#38

Post by soylentcola »

pigpaws wrote: post #25
FussyZeus wrote: post #15

> "What happened to us?" The thing that drove me, a lifelong conservative, into the arms of Bernie Sanders; the Republican party (and the conservative group in particular) are so hard core on social issues that are to be blunt, disgusting (things like preventing homosexual marriage and abortion) and completely antithetical to the idea of "keeping government out of things." No I don't like everything the Left wants to…

did you just say that you want to keep 'government out of things', and then support Bernie Sanders?

Or perhaps it's more a matter of "if the government/public sector is going to get involved in a lot of things, they may as well be ones I can get behind".

Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting

#40

Post by arnvald »

elgabogringo wrote: post #10

I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…

So you're being marginalized for your views which marginalize other people? (See Mozilla's ex-CEO case in which he donated money towards keeping LGBT people marginalized) Oh, the irony.
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