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

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

#41

Post by elgabogringo »

Silicon valley is increasingly adopting way too much of the PC groupthink as of late. There's absolutely nothing and nobody that is truly disrupting anything. Even the word "disrupting" has become a cliche adlibs fill in the blank for pitching "new ideas".

Gone are the middle-class rebels (jobs/clark) that don't care what anybody thinks, in are the ivy-league-ish conformers that want wall street funding and friendly government regulation (basically everybody.

And hey, if wall street and friendly government regulators is what you want and if you have a few hundred grand (maybe a few million) to throw at her foundation or her friends, then Hillary is your gal.

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

#42

Post by lisper »

elgabogringo wrote: post #41

Silicon valley is increasingly adopting way too much of the PC groupthink as of late. There's absolutely nothing and nobody that is truly disrupting anything. Even the word "disrupting" has become a cliche adlibs fill in the blank for pitching "new ideas". Gone are the middle-class rebels (jobs/clark) that don't care what anybody thinks, in are the ivy-league-ish conformers that want wall street funding and friendly…

> There's absolutely nothing and nobody that is truly disrupting anything

It's not for want of trying.

http://urbit.org

And my own humble efforts in this regard:

https://sc4.us

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

#43

Post by elgabogringo »

rayiner wrote: post #38
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 v…

Pretty much. "Racist!", "Hate!". They are just buzzwords that serve to shut down debate.

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

#44

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

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…

Problem is that the extreme rich (like Thiel) are the ones who are benefiting from the current situation, and deregulation/reduced taxation will just amplify the problem.

The core cause being that individual humans are much more productive now. We just don't need as many people working.

>They want the dignity of meaningful reasonably-paying work, not income redistribution.

About the only way to accomplish reasonably-paying work is to legislate it. WalMart employees make so little a substantial fraction (possibly 15% in one state) are on food stamps. [1] Minimum wage needs to be livable.

But as you push up minimum wage a lot of employers will cut back on how many people they hire. They certainly won't rehire the 5M+ people who have lost manufacturing jobs due to outsourcing and automation: Even the manufacturing jobs that are returning to the US are only hiring 1/10 or fewer the number of workers, and those need to be experts and managing robots. So if you have people who want jobs (and not, for instance, a guaranteed income), the government is going to need to be the employer of last resort. And I don't see Trump creating a New Deal.

The laughable situation is that Trump is known most for cheating companies and workers for his own benefit. He's in this for his ego and for selfish gains. Looking at the evidence, at best one can hope that Trump will break the country so badly that something better will rise from the ashes. And it's immoral to push for such a disaster for someone like Thiel who isn't likely to be one of the ones who suffer from the disaster. The ends don't justify the means.

[1] http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walm...

[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-wi...

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

#45

Post by calibraxis »

yodsanklai wrote: post #23
neom wrote: post #9

Yes, you are totally correct. I love my SF friends are starting to come over to NY, leave the old white men in the valley and burn it down, vive la revolution. ;)

> leave the old white men in the valley Should I apologize for being old and white?

Depends, have you spent some of that long life fighting for those who don't have your privileges? (Assuming you haven't been unable due to intersecting factors like mental illness or poverty?)

Noam Chomsky's an old white man. Doesn't thrill him to spend half his time helping the human race end its wars and self-destruction, but he takes the responsibility.

(Even if you did apologize, what difference would it make?)

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

#47

Post by youngButEager »

The Left has not helped Silicon Valley much.

1) ageism -- once you hit 40-45yo, you're done. Take a survey of the ages of the people at your company for evidence. Most engineers in their 20s; some in their 30s; almost none in their 40s and beyond

2) sexism -- females are about 50% of the population. But in Silicon Valley? Hiring favors males. Again, look at the companies you have worked at in Silicon Valley over your career. Mostly all male.

3) racial stereotyping -- take a look again at the companies you have worked for over your career. How many blacks there? How many Hispanics? VERY FEW.

So the idea that the Left is playing an effective role in the Valley is BOGUS in several dimensions:

- AGEISM

- SEXISM

- BLACK AND LATINO HIRING

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

#48

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

itbeho wrote: post #40
rayiner wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Exactly, but Trump has made no proposal that would actually accomplish that kind of "great again." He (and Thiel) are actually examples of the ultra-rich who are taking extreme profits at the expense of workers, so why would putting him in charge of the country make it any better?

Also see my sibling comment here [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12150037

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

#49

Post by pythia__ »

mter wrote: post #34

> 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…

The idea just might be in the air, but there are several ways an attempt at implementing it can go, some of which are less likely than others to succeed through differentiation. Those details should not be neglected.

For one, "libertarian" (but explicitly not left-libertarian) would probably be a better first-order approximation of how to position such an incubator (or conference, or...). A Republican incubator could plausibly reject Curtis Yarvin on ideological grounds, which doesn't seem like the goal.

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

#50

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

babygoat wrote: post #33
theparanoid wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Republicans want more big government projects?

Clearly not. But that, ironically, is the only way to make the country "great again," defined as "full living wage employment."
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