Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions • Hacker News Board

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#21

Post by whistlerbrk » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #9

There is clear precedent for YC taking a political stand by uninviting investors. Only five years ago, Paul Graham was willing to uninvite investors from Demo Day based on their support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). https://techcrunch.com/2011/12/22/paul-graham-sopa-supportin... Paul asked, "If these companies are so clueless about technology that they think SOPA is a good idea, how could they be good invest…

I disagree that opposing SOPA is just political, supporting SOPA threatens innovation which threatens the startup community which in turns threatens YC's bottom line. Therefore opposing SOPA and denying investors access based on their support is a business decision.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#22

Post by ikeboy » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

Tl;dr

>We agree that people shouldn’t be fired for their political views, but

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#23

Post by hood_syntax » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

I am disappointed with Thiel's decision to donate money to Donald Trump, but I don't care what Ellen Pao or her organization thinks about it. It's their prerogative, but I laughed at the tagline 'Sometimes hard decisions aren't that hard after all'. I don't believe an attempt to pressure outside parties into severing business ties with someone because of their questionable political judgement should be treated as if it is some sort of noble crusade e.g.

> We have hope for YC;... Today it is clear our values are not aligned.

And make no mistake, it's either an attempt to pressure YC or a PR play for the organization (possibly both)

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#24

Post by lhnz » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

How can you distance yourself from Thiel if he has shown no interest in being connected to you?

It's never going to be this easy to delegitimise someone when they are widely known as being more credible than yourself.

If YC was to pull out it would be a loss for their startups. It should be the founder's choice whether they wish to deprive themselves of Thiel's money or insight to make a political point.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#25

Post by etjossem » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

Overtonwindow wrote: post #17

MBCook wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just because she says something it's worthless? Did you bother to see if the point she was making made any sense?

If it had been anyone else I would have read with more interest and sincerity. I'm not arguing with her message, I'm stating my opinion, that Ellen Pao has zero credibility in the tech community, and should be just as disregarded as Trump.

Speak for yourself, not for the tech community.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#26

Post by archagon » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

Based on the awful things Trump has said and (apparently) done, it should be blatantly clear to anyone remotely following the election that isn't your usual political rivalry. Pao is right: "this isn’t a disagreement on tax policy, this is advocating hatred and violence." Quite literally at times! (I might give a pass to the people following the party line or acting on incomplete information, but Thiel knows exactly what he's supporting.)

And yet, in the previous HN thread on the topic, I see dozens of voices loudly defending the right for Thiel to prop up Trump's demagoguery without consequence. To them, supporting Trump or Clinton is equally bad, even though the things Trump routinely says are downright terrifying[1] and dangerous to the fabric of our country. For the first time in my life, I'm actually expecting to see violence on election day.

This fledgeling authoritarian streak within the tech community really disturbs me.

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughTrumpSpam/comments/4teoxl/a_f...

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#27

Post by sparkling » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #10

> His attacks on Black, Mexican, Asian, Muslim, and Jewish people, on women, and on others are more than just political speech; fueled by hate and encouraging violence, they make each of us feel unsafe. Let's assume that not only is Trump a rapist, but that he's keeping a few women tied up in his basement. Even in this scenario, is this worse than Hillary dramatically increasing weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Qata…

I agree. The key here is: Trump says mean things, Hillary does mean things (and has been doing so for nearly 30 years)

Also, the external links in that sentence you quoted are not hard facts. They are up for interpretation. Especially the one about his speech being anti-semitic is nothing but pure nonsense.

/edit: downvote me all you want. I'm not even voting for Trump, but the media bias towards Trump is real.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#28

Post by jackfrodo » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

Overtonwindow wrote: post #5

Nope. Not Ellen Pao. In my humble opinion she has zero credibility and I don't think she is a voice for the tech community. I mean at all.

This is the kind of knee-jerk dismissal that made me lose respect for the reddit community. What she's saying resonates with a lot of people, especially marginalized ones, and for that reason alone she's worth hearing out.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#29

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

DavidHm wrote: post #6

What exactly is their relationship with YC? The article is a bit murky. They "invited" YC to contribute, but do not actually say whether YC agreed. Forgive the cynicism, but if it turns out that YC was not contributing in any way to Project Include, this is just empty bluster.

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#30

Post by sigmar » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

natrius wrote: post #16

Cleaving off 40% of America is not a recipe for progress. When Trump shows his people how they're getting blacklisted from the economy, that isn't going to make them want to riot less . Our culture of progress has become entirely about excluding dissenters until they submit, and it's not working anymore . We've given up on convincing the people who have all the weapons, and now we're going to start hurting them econo…

>When Trump shows his people how they're getting blacklisted from the economy, that isn't going to make them want to riot less.

How are they getting blacklisted by the economy? Project Include has the right to choose who they associate with.