The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter • Hacker News Board

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#61

Post by jeremyt » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:01 PM UTC

dimino wrote: post #60

GuiA wrote: post #34

The Diversity Myth, a 1995 book [Thiel] co-wrote with David O. Sacks, railed against multiculturalism, which, they wrote, “exists to destroy Western culture.” What is up with all these people lately thinking that Western culture is some form of homogeneous block that's been unadultered for millennia and has recently come under "multiculturalist" attack? Especially coming from the US, a country that didn't exist when…

Considering some of the more recent research that's come out pointing at diversity as a successful business tactic, I'd be concerned about working for any company with Thiel attached to it in an advisory capacity, if only for fear of being outflanked competitively.

Could you cite one or two of those?

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#62

Post by lisper » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:01 PM UTC

tstactplsignore wrote: post #49

bko wrote: post #16

> despite Trump’s advocacy of protectionist tariffs and extreme immigration restrictions, measures that would seem at odds with the radical libertarian image Thiel projects. This is what's most baffling considering Trump is the most statist candidate in modern politics. Most of his success is built on anti-immigration and tariffs. He may agree with more non-interventionist/isolationist foreign policy of Trump, but I…

>He may agree with more non-interventionist/isolationist foreign policy of Trump There's really not any good evidence that Trump would do anything of the sort. He was for the wars in Iraq and Libya at the time, and is only against them now (and pretends he always was) because he's the ultimate political opportunist. Considering that right now he's said that he will "bomb the shit" out of ISIS and "send a few troops",…

> it's pretty clear that a Trump presidency would be anything but isolationist

The only thing that is clear about a Trump presidency is that nothing is clear about a Trump presidency.

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#63

Post by wolfram74 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

jeremyt wrote: post #61

dimino wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering some of the more recent research that's come out pointing at diversity as a successful business tactic, I'd be concerned about working for any company with Thiel attached to it in an advisory capacity, if only for fear of being outflanked competitively.

Could you cite one or two of those?

Etsy comes up pretty often. http://phd.meghan-smith.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Cox-T...

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#64

Post by vkou » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

randothrowaway wrote: post #58

winter_blue wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, most people don't realize that the U.S. actually has a super low 0.38% immigrate rate. It's truly extreme xenophobia and racism that these liars who falsely claim "mass immigration" can't tolerate the tiny 0.38% that comes to the U.S. every year. They see a few immigrants in their neighborhoods, and their blood immediately starts to boil, and they get filled up with loathing and hatred. They are total hypocrites…

>They are total hypocrites Maybe they are angry because people are coming illegally.

You're right - a descendant of French immigrants has quite the leg to stand on.

After all, his great-grandparents legally entered the country... At the time when undesirables, like Chinese, Indians, and the Polish were barred from entry.

But at least the Frenchmen came legally! Sure, entry was granted under an extremely racist immigration law, but the legality is what gives him the moral high ground to stand on.

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#65

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

jeremyt wrote: post #61

dimino wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering some of the more recent research that's come out pointing at diversity as a successful business tactic, I'd be concerned about working for any company with Thiel attached to it in an advisory capacity, if only for fear of being outflanked competitively.

Could you cite one or two of those?

[deleted]

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#66

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

GuiA wrote: post #34

The Diversity Myth, a 1995 book [Thiel] co-wrote with David O. Sacks, railed against multiculturalism, which, they wrote, “exists to destroy Western culture.” What is up with all these people lately thinking that Western culture is some form of homogeneous block that's been unadultered for millennia and has recently come under "multiculturalist" attack? Especially coming from the US, a country that didn't exist when…

[deleted]

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#67

Post by pm90 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:06 PM UTC

falsestprophet wrote: post #56

pm90 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beautifully explained. There certainly is a lot of Groupthink in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't extend to everything. In Thiel's case, it unfortunately seems like he's turned into one of those rich people who is so far away from how most people live that he does not understand the consequences of some of his ideas. A common problem with the elite: although self-made elites usually have their past to reflect on and…

Why do you think he doesn't understand the consequences of his ideas?

Because a pursuit to the extreme of any ideology is a symptom of mind obsessed with perfection and fanatic belief. In the case of Thiel, its his libertarian beliefs.

Now, I don't want to hijack this thread into what is wrong with extreme libertarian thinking (or extreme adherence to any philosophy). You're question was why I thought he doesn't understand the consequences of his ideas: this is why I think that.

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#68

Post by lisper » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

GuiA wrote: post #45

fundameen wrote: post #33

There is no evidence that Thiel is a genius. There's a large amount of evidence that he is not. And yet people still think that because one of his hundreds of investments made a lot of money that he must be a genius. He's just not who people want him to be. He's not another Musk.

Most Silicon Valley magnates are not geniuses. They're average to above-average smart, with other traits (grit, luck, the right connections, etc) that put them in their situation. Once you have a few dozen million dollars, it's not so hard to maintain and grow that (unless you go on idiotic spending sprees) because you start getting access to the kind of investments that have much higher expected returns than the kin…

> Once you have a few dozen million dollars, it's not so hard to maintain and grow that (unless you go on idiotic spending sprees) because you start getting access to the kind of investments that have much higher expected returns than the kind of investments a blue collar worker has access to.

This. This is really important to understand because it's the fundamental cause of the divide between the super-rich and everyone else. Not only do you get access, but you also can start to buy influence with the government to tilt the playing field in your favor. These two things cause a positive feedback effect that lets people above a certain threshold of wealth continue to grow that wealth at the expense of everyone else.

The real problem is that everyone seems to want to believe that they too can reach this level of wealth by "working hard and playing by the rules". As a corollary, they believe that if you're not rich it must be because you didn't work hard enough or didn't play by the rules. Of course, this is false, but there's no way to fix the underlying problem as long as a majority accepts this false narrative.

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#69

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

jbellis wrote: post #11

elcapitan wrote: post #4

How is "1. e4" an aggressive chess tactic? That's the most classical opening line of all.

It's the f4 afterwards that made it aggressive for Fischer et al. It looks like the reporter didn't understand enough about chess to communicate that. But he did get the first move right!

[deleted]

Re: The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikely Supporter

#70

Post by randothrowaway » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

tstactplsignore wrote: post #59

toss1941 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What positions has Trump taken that you feel are against facts and adequate rational?

Have you paid attention at all? Anti-climate change, anti-vaccines, the entire illegal immigration schtick (immigration across the border is net neutral right now), his whole "crime is rising" schtick (it isn't),and the vast majority of [what he says are outright lies]( http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ ). There is no better way to describe the Trump campaign than to say it is inherently against f…

>the entire illegal immigration schtick (immigration across >the border is net neutral right now),

Not it is not. Pro illegal immigration advocates try to mislead by saying immigration from Mexican citizens is down to mean illegal immigration isn't happening.

It is now other groups but still coming VIA Mexico.