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Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

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Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#291

Post by [deleted] »

supergeek133 wrote: post #49
archagon wrote: post #26

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…

Not to mention "single issue voting" has become a huge trend in this country. Do you know any friends who are LGBT who will vote democrat just because of gay rights, but on any other day of the week are fiscally conservative? I'm sure there are more than one of those people voting for Trump because of some issue they disagree with Hillary on, or some single issue they disagree with Trump on.

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#292

Post by gmarx »

mootothemax wrote: post #75

Hang on - Thiel thinks women shouldn't have the right to vote, and has written unambiguously as much? How on earth is that not the argument for dropping him? From another angle, how on earth can you trust someone's advice if they truly and honestly think like that? I'm honestly shocked YC can champion women founders while having someone like this involved as a partner. Just shocking. And so, so disappointing.

You can trust his advice based on his past record e.g. wasn't he the one who told Zuckerberg to abandon his music sharing ambitions and focus on Facebook? Or you could not trust his advice based on his record, e.g. his credulous investments based on "peak oil". Whether or not he wrote a blog post with some whacko (possibly thought experiment?) idea in it has no bearing on the quality of his advice

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#293

Post by untog »

nostromo wrote: post #276
untog wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, doe…

For what it's worth, I haven't heard many complaints about Bernie Sanders claiming elections are bought. > We now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates. Let’s not kid ourselves. That is the reality right now. [1] (He also is fond of claiming "the system" is rigged, if not elections directly.) [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanders-takes-on-bil...

He's making a different claim, though. That million/billionaires can donate to politicians and influence the legislation they write. Or that they can donate to SuperPACs, which will air ads that change people's minds about what candidate to support. That seems pretty true.

Trump is suggesting that actual votes are being miscounted deliberately. That the entire voting system of the US cannot be trusted to provide the result the public give it. That's a very different charge, a very dangerous one, and utterly unproven.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#294

Post by gohrt »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #170
archagon wrote: post #26

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…

This is the first election where you were concerned about violence on e day? I guess you don't remember the odds on Obama surviving his first month in office. Not only were assassination attempts expected, they were probable enough to have betting odds at Paddy Power. You probably don't remember Bush Jr's 2004 victory, either, where literally millions of people took to the streets. Also notable that it looks like the…

This is what I love about HN. A non-USAn can observe without being tarred and ignored as a partisan.

A point of fact, though, Bill Clinton is not running for President.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#295

Post by leshow »

Alex3917 wrote: post #227
archagon wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you realize how disingenuous this statement is? Trump's mantra of "the media is conspiring against me, the polls are all rigged, the election will be stolen from under us" is a far cry from anything we've seen in previous years. This has nothing to do with electronic voting machines. This is straight FUD in the most primal possible sense.

> This is straight FUD in the most primal possible sense. Trump may be saying it for the wrong reasons, but he's absolutely right that the integrity of the election is in doubt.

Saying the election is rigged with zero evidence is "saying it for the wrong reasons"

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#296

Post by jshevek »

xupybd wrote: post #47

Wow, the world is getting way too fractured between left and right. Reading that, the YC folks make out that Trump is a monster and any affiliation with him is evil. Come on, try to understand why people are supporting him. I don't think it's racism and sexism that's driving this, it's the wedge between left and right. Combine that with the two party system and people find themselves with little choice. When you vili…

Thank you for posting this. To my view, partisans on both sides are roughly comparable. Some of their manipulative tactics differ in the specifics, but they are both dishonest and both harmful to society.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#297

Post by gohrt »

rtx wrote: post #248
untog wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your proposal to remove war from the world? I'm sure a lot of us would be in favor.

We can start by not voting for warmongers and hawks. Americans had an opportunity to vote for Sanders. But I guess they are too far removed from these incidents.

I can't believe I'm linking to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#298

Post by grb423 »

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…

It's high time YC and HN joined the progressive war for social justice. I don't care if these investors could make a return on investment. What matters to me is that problematic behavior of disgusting, violent Whitey McWhiteface privilege boy Peter Thiel be put in zhis place and be shown that there is no place for zhim in the progressive, inclusive and diverse world we seek. That is obviously not the kind of inclusion we're talking about here.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#299

Post by bbctol »

xupybd wrote: post #250
sdenton4 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having Thiel on the board is a statement that intolerance based on race, gender, or religion is tolerable by yc. This in turn chills applications from startups working on problems not relating to white western males.

Why is it okay to call out white western males, but to focus down on any other gender and race with a negative statement like that would be seen as intolerant?

What's negative about saying this would "chill applications from startups working on problems not relating to white western males'? If Thiel was supporting a candidate who was chauvinistically in favor of black women, it would be fine to worry about people from other backgrounds being excluded. But he isn't (in part because such a candidate doesn't exist.)

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#300

Post by serge2k »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #170
archagon wrote: post #26

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…

This is the first election where you were concerned about violence on e day? I guess you don't remember the odds on Obama surviving his first month in office. Not only were assassination attempts expected, they were probable enough to have betting odds at Paddy Power. You probably don't remember Bush Jr's 2004 victory, either, where literally millions of people took to the streets. Also notable that it looks like the…

> 21 different accusations against bill Clinton of extramarital affairs

Who cares. He's a shitty husband, whatever.

Do I care that Trump sleeps around? beyond thinking "gross", no.

> 3 of violent rape

Yes, those are worth caring about.

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