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Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

nytimes.com

121–130 of 223 posts

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#121
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wall? Anti-trade? Believes judges with Muslim or Mexican heritage are incapable of being fair?

Mexico has a massive border wall on its southern border with Guatemala. Is that racist too? Not sure exactly what you mean by anti-trade, and how it relates to racism. Mexican is a nationality, not a race. There are Mexicans of all races, including white(which latinos are classed as, but lets say western european ethnicity too) Islam is a religion, not a race. There are Muslims of all races, including white.

Racism is an overused and abused epithet by both sides. Often, tribalist prejudice crosses across racism, nationalism, ethnocentrism, and religious chauvinism. To avoid these semantic games, let's just call it for what it is at the core: bigotry.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump is the anti-Randian candidate. - He's against free trade. - He's in favor of punishing success, represented for example by his threats toward Amazon. - He panders to religion. Rand was an atheist and was very strongly anti-conservative. - Rand was very strongly in favor of immigration, especially when mixed with Capitalism. - He's in favor of drastically increasing government control over the Internet, represen…

I see points of similarity on foreign policy, where they both stood out as less interventionist than other candidates (even Democrats). Trump and Rand both said they'd let America's allies look after themselves.

The poster to whom you're responding was referring to Ayn Rand, not Rand Paul.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#123
post #9

From Peter Thiels perspective its a smart move because he's the only one willing to do something this crazy. This gives him a "monopoly" (as he likes to say) on political access as it relates to the tech world if Trump wins. In short it looks like a bet. Personally I find Trump an archetype of everything I'm trying to get away from in life.... but that is not the point. Also this is just my opinion and maybe their is…

I also came to a similar conclusion this morning, I think he realizes that a Trump presidency is a huge opening for power since Trump will be largely reliant on his advisors to make any kind of decision when it comes to the implementation details of his proposals.

What he might want to use this power for, is less clear, he is not quite the classic Libertarian people here seem to think he is. He strikes me as more of the Hoppe variety, or even a post-Libertarian ala Moldbug.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#124
post #36

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.

Don't you think being a Trump supporter =should= hurt most people's careers? It's pretty poor judgment, for starters.

That's a good Nazi.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#125
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not more Gary Johnson supporters?

Personally, I'd probably align most with Gary Johnson, but feel like he has virtually no chance of winning, so there's no point in wasting my vote. Like most Americans in this election cycle, I'm voting for the lesser of two evils. I think there are lots and lots of folks in Silicon Valley that feel the same way. One thing that I've never really understood is why the valley apparently leans so far left. On its face,…

It doesn't matter if he has a chance to win. If you don't live in a swing state a vote for Gary most definitely counts more then a vote for a candidate of a major party, because if he gets above 5% of the popular vote the Libertarian party gets funding from the government and more recognition. It's the first step to end the 2 party system we have now. You should vote for who you like best, not who you think actually has a chance to win. Gary can still do really well if he gets into the debates. Who knows, in a few months it might actually seem like he has a chance to win.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#126
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying Gonzalo Curiel (born in Indiana) can't be impartial in a court case involving Trump "University" because he's mexican is one example.

1) Mexican isn't a race - it is a nationality. There are people of all races that are Mexican. 2) Curiels parents were illegal immigrants, and exactly the kind of people that Trump says he would deport. 3) Curiel has mentioned in the past (in a NYT article from the early 2000s, I can find a link if you like) that his Mexican heritage has had an impact in his practice of the law. 4) Curiel isn't a robot. Imagine if he…

I'm not sure what you said discounts the fact that what he said is racism. The post he is replying to is asking for an example and he gave one. Also, how is 5 related to this event?

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#127
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wall? Anti-trade? Believes judges with Muslim or Mexican heritage are incapable of being fair?

Mexico has a massive border wall on its southern border with Guatemala. Is that racist too? Not sure exactly what you mean by anti-trade, and how it relates to racism. Mexican is a nationality, not a race. There are Mexicans of all races, including white(which latinos are classed as, but lets say western european ethnicity too) Islam is a religion, not a race. There are Muslims of all races, including white.

> Mexico has a massive border wall on its southern border with Guatemala. Is that racist too?

A border wall is (independently of whether it is good policy) not inherently racist.

Using racist rhetoric to sell a border wall is, OTOH, racist.

> Mexican is a nationality, not a race.

I'm not sure its particularly productive to argue that a ancestry-based bigotry is technically distinct from racism because it is based on national origin rather than classical races.

> There are Mexicans of all races, including white(which latinos are classed as, but lets say western european ethnicity too)

Hispanics/Latinos aren't necessarily White; in theory, Hispanic origin "ethnicity" is orthogonal to "race". OTOH, the way it is usually broken out into statistics reflects the fact that "Hispanic" is the only "ethnicity" used along US "race" categories specifically because it reflects a new basis of quasi-racial exclusion in the US which became important after the classical racial categories were established, which is why the categories broken out are, almost without exception, "White (non-Hispanic)", "Black", "Asian/Pacific Islander", "Native American/Alaskan Native", and "Hispanic" -- while on forms that you fill out its treated as an orthogonal category to race, its really in the common thinking exactly another racial category.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#128

Shame on Thiel. Robert Reich - " Yesterday, Trump argued that the United States should investigate every American who practices Islam. "We really have to look at profiling," Trump told CBS's "Face the Nation." And that the government should investigate mosques in the U.S. Never before has a major party’s presumptive nominee for president of the United States urged that an entire religion be singled out for investigat…

I don't disagree with you (I refuse to vote for Trump or Clinton).

It was interesting to hear the the Muslim speaker at the republican convention last night. I didn't think that his speech was so good but later he made some nice points on a CNN interview. Anyway, I was surprised to see him as a speaker.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#129
post #42

He's not a murderer, unlike the other option

Please don't. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12130976 and marked it off-topic.

Probably, any thread with 'Trump' or 'Hillary' is going to get bad, fast. Everyone has an opinion on them.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming

#130

The Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson might set a record this year for highest votes attained by a third party candidate.

Who has the better chance of hitting 15% and getting into the debates, Johnson or Jill Stein? Honest question, in case I am ever polled I want to choose the most likely alternative.
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