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Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

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Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#311

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…

free speech is not just saying people are allowed to talk about view points you agree with, it's saying that all speech should be allowed, even speech that is icky.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#312
post #250

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?

#allracesmatter /s

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#313
post #299
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

I guess my point is a bit of a straw man, but I'd expect backlash if someone did make a statement like "chill applications from startups working on problems not relating to black women".

This is probably just me making assumptions.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#314
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Get off your high horse, Thiel is not going to be destroyed if YC distances itself from him This isn't just about Thiel. It's about everyone else too. If you create those sorts of standards, they'll apply to everyone. How would you like it if your boss read your comment and then decided to fire you as a result? That's the kind of society you're creating. > So you're perfectly fine tolerating intolerance but you can…

> This isn't just about Thiel. It is specifically and precisely about Thiel. As others have noted, YC has distanced itself from relationships for political reasons in the past. > How would you like it if your boss read your comment and then decided to fire you as a result? That's the kind of society you're creating. Yeah except no, see there are two issues with your assertions: 1. Thiel is not employed by YC and not…

regarding #2, if you are American, you live in a STATE, not COUNTRY where that is your legal protection. Those of us in Louisiana, Georgia, Florida or Rhode Island can be fired for literally no reason.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/01/art1full.pdf

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#315
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

#allracesmatter /s

I know this is in jest but I honestly think the world would be a much better place if race was totally off the radar.

I'm not trying to say white males are victims but the more we draw racial lines the more we segregate our society.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#316
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Get off your high horse, Thiel is not going to be destroyed if YC distances itself from him This isn't just about Thiel. It's about everyone else too. If you create those sorts of standards, they'll apply to everyone. How would you like it if your boss read your comment and then decided to fire you as a result? That's the kind of society you're creating. > So you're perfectly fine tolerating intolerance but you can…

> This isn't just about Thiel. It is specifically and precisely about Thiel. As others have noted, YC has distanced itself from relationships for political reasons in the past. > How would you like it if your boss read your comment and then decided to fire you as a result? That's the kind of society you're creating. Yeah except no, see there are two issues with your assertions: 1. Thiel is not employed by YC and not…

> It is specifically and precisely about Thiel. As others have noted, YC has distanced itself from relationships for political reasons in the past.

No. The same rules should apply to anyone, regardless on income. Thiel has the same right to express his icky views as you do, without fear of losing his job or partnership.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#317
If you support Donald Trump, you are by definition a supporter of racism, mysogny, rape culture and an opponent of equality, freedom, the very values this country was founded. You are dispicable. You sure as hell have no place in any forward looking organization and if YC does not sever ties with Theil immediately, we really need to start seeing prominent business leaders in the valley and beyond begin distancing themselves from YC.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#318
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Gay. Hillary Clinton is on the record her entire career as opposing gay marriage. Trump, when questioned what he would do if he found out an employee was gay said "it makes no difference". As far as I'm concerned, the Clintons (Bill signed the "Defense of Marriage Act" in the first place) are the anti-gay ones (and add Obama to that too) Not all of us are gullible to the blatant pandering and fear mongering demo…

And what about the 'T' in 'LGBT'? Surely you haven't already forgotten the rise in anti-trans discriminatory legislation in recent years? Do you think Trump and his supporters are the type to not support those? Which party is it that's been at the forefront of anti-discriminatory legislation and equal protection in general? It sucks that the first past the post voting system of ours all but guarantees that we must ch…

Adding to this: Clinton was personally responsible for new regulations that allow trans people to easily change the gender markers on their passport and their social security records (and there's also been regulations that rendered the gender marker on social security irrelevant, though I don't remember if that was before or after Clinton left).

On top of this, Mike Pence has promised to roll back the Obama administration's use of the EEOC and Title IX to protect trans rights against discrimination.

I'm voting Democratic for my very survival.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#319
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was it that he repudiated his racism? Because he said in a 1998 interview when asked if he wanted to apologize for running as a Dixiecrat. He said "I don't have anything to apologize for," and "I don't have any regrets." He was also asked if he thought the Dixiecrats were right and said "Yes, I do." Presumably the OP thought Strom Thurmond was still a racist, which, as those quotes prove, is clearly true.

Ah, now we're playing the "selective quoting out of context" game. He said that he had based his Dixiecrat views on state's rights, not racism. Why do you believe Byrd and not him? Edit: given that they've both been dead for quite a while, I doubt that either Thurmond or Byrd is involved in much racist activity today.

No, we're playing the "you moved the goalposts" game. This started with your intellectually dishonest claims about Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd.

"States' rights" is a dog whistle phrase for racism.

Re: Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions

#320
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're clearly not gay or else you'd recognize that Thiel is self-hating, making his support of Trump's bigotry actually well-motivated.

Sorry, I must be ignorant of some facts. What am I missing? I haven't seen anything from Thiel that would be lead me to believe he is anti-gay. It seems quite the contrary to me. He even said in his Republican speech that he was gay. What do you mean by self-hating? His choice of the Republican party? There's really only 2 choices so you can't really take that to mean he supports everything from the Republican party.

Right -- it's kind of an intuition that's perhaps uniquely available to a gay person. It's an awareness you develop after talking to enough gay men -- some open and free, some repressed and mean. It becomes apparent that those who are most bitter, most mean, and most vindictive, are those who are actually hurting inside the most.

It seems to me that these concepts are totally foreign to the SF tech class, which seems to operate in what is perhaps believed to be a fully rational paradigm. But people aren't really that rational.

Peter Thiel very likely had a tough childhood, one that made him particularly sensitive to his sexuality. [E.g., not to go there but his vendetta against Gawker has no other explanation. Modern self-accepting gay men would probably say, "ok yeah um that was low but whatever."]

My evidence of him being self-hating is not from his political choices, but it's from everything else. It's from the way he speaks, his profound effort to be contrarian (I went through that phase), his peculiar vendetta against Gawker, and, to go there, his apparent lack of a stable partner. If there ever were a gay bachelor, it would be Peter Thiel -- but something is apparently wrong to make that an impossibility.

But in general, you might have to concede that your intuition on these issues is not as well developed here as that of a gay man's, who has seen these issues for many years on a deeply personal level.

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