There are quite a few Trump supporters in the Valley, but they simply stay quiet because they will get 'racist' yelled at them and it will potentially hurt their careers.
There are plenty of racists around, that's true.
Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
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Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#22The Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson might set a record this year for highest votes attained by a third party candidate.
The other clowns who ran for the Libertarian party nomination make it really hard to take Gary Johnson seriously. That he is their candidate really just says he meets the very, very low bar that was set by the other candidates.
A two-time governor running with another two-time governor as his VP? Both former Republicans overwhelmingly re-elected in Democratic states? Both fiscally conservative and socially liberal?
I take that pretty seriously.
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#23There are quite a few Trump supporters in the Valley, but they simply stay quiet because they will get 'racist' yelled at them and it will potentially hurt their careers.
Yup...and I'm quite curious how the author squares these two lines:
> [Thiel] will become the most prominent public face of a species so endangered it might as well be called extinct: the Silicon Valley Trump supporter.
and
> The danger, then, is that not only could Mr. Thiel’s public embrace of Mr. Trump backfire on him, but it could also become another plot point in the larger story line that Silicon Valley is exclusionary and narrow-minded and that its innovations are advancing global inequality.
So...the author thinks that there are almost no Trump supporters in the valley, and also thinks that a single public supporter of Trump will lead to people believing that Trump is the problem with Silicon valley...
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#24Given the libertarian/Randian streak that runs through silicon valley, support for Trump doesn't seem too outlandish. Especially when you consider his non-dedication to the typical right-wing 'family values' that aren't really popular in that region of California.
> Given the libertarian/Randian streak that runs through silicon valley, support for Trump doesn't seem too outlandish. What? Exactly what libertarian values does Trump espouse?
He's so inconsistent with his rhetoric that it's hard to say. But the libertarian impression exists in the negative: Clinton's style is decidedly not libertarian, and Trump is a businessman by trade so I think in the mind of voters "it stands to reason."
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#25The Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson might set a record this year for highest votes attained by a third party candidate.
Perot got 18.9% of the popular vote in 1992. Gonna be tough to beat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...
That was before the Republican party ran completely off the rails, and embraced the old white scared vote.
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Given the libertarian/Randian streak that runs through silicon valley, support for Trump doesn't seem too outlandish. What? Exactly what libertarian values does Trump espouse?
Decreased regulation, meritocratic systems, and property rights Why is this being downvoted?
When he says things like "I will force company X to do Y" I find it hard to take him seriously as a small government or pro-property-rights candidate.
My personal prediction is that if elected he will grow the size of government dramatically, quite likely more than Sanders would have if elected and certainly more than Clinton (who is the "conservative" candidate in this election if that means status quo). He will also grow the power of government, which is more important and significant.
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#27There are quite a few Trump supporters in the Valley, but they simply stay quiet because they will get 'racist' yelled at them and it will potentially hurt their careers.
Trump has an extensive history of using racism to divide people for his own benefit.
Examples? Should be pretty easy to find if it is an "extensive history"
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#28This is interesting to me. The lack of diversity in the tech industry is definitely something that will be harmful in the long run. Diversity is necessary to improve the relevance of new ideas in tech and to promote them to broader audiences from different cultures. The trend towards making a pariah out of anyone with opposing points of view can be equally harmful to promoting diversity of thought. Making people afra…
The lack of diversity in the tech industry is definitely something that will be harmful in the long run.
My intuition is that the harm has already been done, but we will only fully understand it 10 years hence.
Making people afraid of speaking their minds can hardly help the flow of new ideas or positively impact the industry.
There seem to be a lot of people online who have been indoctrinated to believe that pressuring/intimidating/shaming people into compliance is a useful means of changing people's minds. History tells us that it never works that way. You change people's minds through friendly interaction, by living and working with them.
Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#29Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
#30Given the libertarian/Randian streak that runs through silicon valley, support for Trump doesn't seem too outlandish. Especially when you consider his non-dedication to the typical right-wing 'family values' that aren't really popular in that region of California.
Trump is definitely not libertarian:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-...