What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC • Hacker News Board

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#31

Post by igk » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:07 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #28

stephancoral wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I'm in NYC for HOPE this weekend. Coming from Silicon Valley where 1% of the workers are black, I was so happy to see such a huge diverse crowd at the conference, all there for the shared love of exploring technology and hacker culture. SV has some incredibly smart people but, in my experience, all they care about is making money. Feels like the hacker spirit has absolutely vanished

As a NY (and India) guy who occasionally visits the west coast, seriously? NY loves tech but the valley only wants to make money? Consider the blockchain. Out west they try and rebuild the world with it - consider the (thiel funded) urbit. Back east we just replace banking clearinghouses with bank built blockchain. What makes you feel differently? Also curious what the ancestry of the people doing tech has to do with…

To be honest? I'll take 5% more efficient banks. The boring stuff is usually worth a lot more to Society. Just doesn't catch us tweens less easily

Also, if you've followed the urbit guys from the start, then you know how cultlike they are. No thanks

Source:am tween

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#32

Post by yummyfajitas » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

sievebrain wrote: post #6

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #3

A related article that does a good job of explaining why Thiel supports Trump: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/21/peter-thi... EDIT: (to explain why) No other analysis I've seen anywhere of Thiel at the RNC takes into account this very, very important attempt at explaining Thiel's reasons: """ Now, in 2016, Thiel has finally found a politician capable of seizing that opportunity: a disruptor-in-chief…

I found it a relatively poor article actually. It's longer than the speech itself yet says less: http://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-tr... From the man's own words, it seems to be a combination of: • A shared feeling that America was once great, and it can be again, but currently is in decline. No other politician except Trump says this. • Dislike of foreign wars, a feeling that only Trump says…

Most Democrats say America was great once and can be again. They talk about the era of strong unions and manufacturing jobs as the golden age they want to return to. Big government spending too, which presumably means spending directly rather than just redistributing.

It's not just Trump's wife who is stealing ideas.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#33

Post by babygoat » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:13 PM UTC

theparanoid wrote: post #25

wavefunction wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to hear a definition of "greatness" from these people like Trump or Thiel tossing it about so casually yet naming it their main impetus.

Two examples are sending men to the moon and building the interstate system.

Republicans want more big government projects?

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#34

Post by mter » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

> 14 said they would not personally do business with him as a result.

One of the most interesting things about current politics.

I've always found it odd that republicans haven't picked up on this and tried to seize on the opportunity to create an incubator for republican leaning/apolitical companies.

Seems like there would be a tremendous amount of opportunity there given the success of fox news, particularly for an apolitical twitter given recent censorship issues.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#35

Post by BossHogg » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:18 PM UTC

theparanoid wrote: post #25

wavefunction wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to hear a definition of "greatness" from these people like Trump or Thiel tossing it about so casually yet naming it their main impetus.

Two examples are sending men to the moon and building the interstate system.

Both fairly recent, high cost government driven projects. If you or supposedly libertarian Thiel think Republicans are the go-to party for infrastructure improvement, neither of you are paying attention.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#36

Post by elgabogringo » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:21 PM UTC

thormathison wrote: post #14

As an attorney and someone in tech, I used to strongly admire Thiel. He left biglaw and took a gamble, and it paid off. But between his support for Trump and the Gawker nonsense, I no longer have any respect for the man. Anyone on record supporting trump is on the wrong side of history.

There's an irony to using the marxist derived "side of history" construct to support something you believe in.

If there really is such a thing as history taking sides, Marx and his followers very clearly ended up on the wrong side. I imagine those co-opting the phrase now will suffer the same fate.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#37

Post by SomeCallMeTim » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:22 PM UTC

vpribish wrote: post #24

wavefunction wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there are more than just the coasts.

please cite some examples

Boulder, Colorado, "America's Start-up Capital". [1]

Denver and Austin. [2]

[1] http://www.inc.com/magazine/201312/boulder-colorado-fast-gro...

[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/tompost/2014/03/13/the-best-plac...

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#38

Post by rayiner » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

thormathison wrote: post #14

As an attorney and someone in tech, I used to strongly admire Thiel. He left biglaw and took a gamble, and it paid off. But between his support for Trump and the Gawker nonsense, I no longer have any respect for the man. Anyone on record supporting trump is on the wrong side of history.

On some issues maybe, on others probably not. I think he's on the right side of one key issue: http://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/donald_trump_is_no_lgbt_ally.... As a Bangladeshi with a beard I don't say that lightly, but we're at a weird point in history where only a guy not afraid of being called racist,[1] can take a stand (however opportunistic) on what is becoming a worldwide assault on cherished liberal social values.

[1] As an aside, calling facially race-neutral comments about particular immigration statuses or religious beliefs "racist" is kind of offensive to people of that race who don't share that immigration status or those religious beliefs. I'm sure there are a lot of Hispanics in the US who came here legally who don't appreciate liberals saying that Trump wants to deport their families, as if all Hispanics are here illegally.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#39

Post by lmmlzxx » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:28 PM UTC

sievebrain wrote: post #6

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #3

A related article that does a good job of explaining why Thiel supports Trump: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/21/peter-thi... EDIT: (to explain why) No other analysis I've seen anywhere of Thiel at the RNC takes into account this very, very important attempt at explaining Thiel's reasons: """ Now, in 2016, Thiel has finally found a politician capable of seizing that opportunity: a disruptor-in-chief…

I found it a relatively poor article actually. It's longer than the speech itself yet says less: http://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-tr... From the man's own words, it seems to be a combination of: • A shared feeling that America was once great, and it can be again, but currently is in decline. No other politician except Trump says this. • Dislike of foreign wars, a feeling that only Trump says…

Jill Stein is clearly a less militaristic candidate than Trump.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#40

Post by itbeho » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #27

wavefunction wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to hear a definition of "greatness" from these people like Trump or Thiel tossing it about so casually yet naming it their main impetus.

The snide answer would be America was "great back when it was okay to be racist, homophobic, and sexist." I think that characterization violates the principle of charity. People are upset about the decline of American exceptionalism. It's true that in the 60's we had all those bad things. But we were also indisputably the most prosperous and successful country on earth, with a broad and thriving middle class. People…

I was visiting my home town recently and ran into a former neighbor that is a Trump supporter. His answer for "great again" was that when he was younger his entire family had middle class incomes and nobody that he recalled received direct government assistance. Now, he says about a third of his family can't get by without help from the government and he sees the increasing dependence as bad for the family and for the country.