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Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

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Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#101

Post by untog »

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…

IMO, you can even disregard all of Trump's dirty laundry in this calculation. He is openly calling into doubt the result of this election before it's even happened, asking supporters to intimidate voters, and suggesting the entire election is "rigged".

He is attempting to undermine democracy in the country and I'm not sure you need a single additional reason to object to anyone who supports him.

Thiel, of course, does not think "freedom and democracy are compatible": https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#102

Post by blfr »

HaloZero wrote: post #90
blfr wrote: post #62

At Project Include, our mission is to give everyone a fair chance to succeed in the workplace. “Everyone” means all groups to us, but we draw a line at individuals who fund violence and hate. And you denounce... Thiel? Hillary Clinton made material contributions to starting two seemingly random wars in Libya and Syria with hundreds of thousands of victims. That doesn't count as funding violence? What about her suppor…

Most sitting presidents and secretary of states in the past 50 years have had to call for violence against other nations. It's part of the role and maybe she's made mistakes. But there's a difference between Secretary of State allowing an airstrike and being a owner of a company inciting others to violence.

So she is OK with killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands but mean comments are a cause for purges? It's either dishonest or insane.

The difference is that one of these doesn't matter.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#104

Post by etjossem »

kyrre wrote: post #51

Has Ellen Pao (and Project Include) spoken out against her husbands alleged Ponzi scheme? His alleged actions seems to be in direct conflict with the values of any wholesome tech company.

Not relevant, and carries the same level of validity as "have you stopped beating your wife?"

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#105

Post by funkysquid »

"donating $1.25 million is a lot more than speech"

It's somewhat easy to argue that someone should not face professional repercussions for their support of a candidate. It's harder to argue that they should be able to donate 463x what a typical person might (assuming a generous $2.7k not using Super PACs).

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#106

Post by whybroke »

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…

Peter Thiel is not clueless but knows exactly what he is doing. Thiel opposes democracy [1] and Trump has done an extraordinary amount to damage it. Indeed, even knowing that defeat is all but certain, he concentrates even more on doing so. Spending 1.5 million to fund the a campaign denouncing all voting as rigged (amount other things [2]) is stunningly efficient at undermining it.

[1] https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

[2] eg sues critical news papers, threatens opponents with prison, encourages voter intimidation, encourages foreign powers to engage in cyber-warfare, blames "magazines" for terrorism

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#107

Post by some-guy »

ch4s3 wrote: post #59
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…

>Cleaving off 40% of America I'm going to be a bit pedantic; that's 40% of eligible, who intend to vote, and self select into responding to polling. That is nowhere near 40% of Americans. Its important not to conflate relative support of political candidates with American sentiment at large, sometimes they diverge strongly. But I more or less agree with your general point. But I would counter that while we are at the…

To illustrate your point even further: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/01/us/elections/n...

Edit: of course, this is for the primaries, but many folks will vote along party lines no matter what.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#109

Post by hedgew »

This obviously wasn't a hard decision for them. In the article she's doing her best to demonize Thiel and Trump without even trying to empathize.

It also reads like she's trying to associate this project with big names like YC and Thiel.. but if I'm reading correctly all "Project Include" has done is "actively invite YC to contribute". The cynic in me says that this is a simple political power play and a marketing trick in one. Nothing to do with actually helping people and society, which would involve understanding and sympathy for all sides; even your political enemies.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#110

Post by xupybd »

ivraatiems wrote: post #12
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 was wondering whether there was precedence for something like this. If there is, then I think YC should distance themselves from Thiel now. I agree with those who say he's a long-term harm to the industry; I do take issue, generally, with dismissing someone over their personal politics, but sometimes those stances create problems in the company that can't be overcome.

I think you're correct that this might be a case of something the business needs to distance themselves from but they shouldn't try to take the moral high ground and at the same time vilify a man for his political views.
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