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Shame on Y Combinator

marco.org

641–650 of 1001 posts

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#641

from: http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/08/the-slate-star-codex-po... 2. The anchor of a major news network donates lots of money to organizations fighting against gay marriage, and in his spare time he writes editorials arguing that homosexuals are weakening the moral fabric of the country. The news network decides they disagree with this kind of behavior and fire the anchor. a) This is acceptable; the news network…

Your questions present a false dichotomy. You can be against the news anchor merely because of his principles and against the school board because of theirs.

To me this is logically consistent because you believe the viewpoints themselves are incorrect.

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the end consequence of tremendous cowardice from a lot of people over a long time, starting with the owners and administrators of Hacker News. HN has – through inaction – smirkingly enabled alt-right/NRx/GamerGaters to parody-thru-libel liberal positions on equality for a long time; supporting Peter Thiel is in the same vein. That's made Hacker News racist, sexist, and (worst of all for this crowd's self-imag…

I am as troubled as you are about the uptick in overt racism and sexism on HN. But I know and trust the moderators of the site, and this is a conversation I have had with them too, and I don't have any better ideas on how to deal with it than they do. The bigger problem is that the (very large) community of reasonable nerds who care about bigotry has largely abandoned Hacker News. In doing so, they've conceded it to…

Totally agree with 'genericpseudo and 'joesmo. YC's created the environment that's so tolerant of racism and sexism. If they don't want people who care about bigotry to abandon the site, it's up to them to change the dynamic.

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#643
post #595

Shame on Marco. I can't stand Trump, but I also can't stand this ganging up on Thiel. I guess the fact that he's a billionaire means he can be bullied, but this political bullying has a chilling effect that leads to the lackluster choices we get for president every four years. Thiel sees Hillary as a bigger threat to his interests than Trump. To prefer an outcome does not imply you favor all aspects of that outcome.…

> I guess the fact that he's a billionaire means he can be bullied No, the fact that he is supporting a republican means he can be bullied. The tolerant left is on some radical moralistic high ground right now and it's far more dangerous than any words Trump has said. When the campaign of a presidential nominee (Hillary) is recruiting the homeless and mentally ill to cause violence at Trump rallies, simply condemning…

> When the campaign of a presidential nominee (Hillary) is recruiting the homeless and mentally ill to cause violence at Trump rallies

Citation very VERY needed. James O'Keefe is not an acceptable - that is, truthful - source. [1]

> The tolerant left is on some radical moralistic high ground right now and it's far more dangerous than any words Trump has said.

You need to unpack this. I don't understand how any ideology of "radical moralistic high ground" is more dangerous than Trump's "rigged election" rhetoric, which calls into (unnecessary and unfounded) question the system our country is built on.

[1] http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/James_O'Keefe

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#644

Are we going to talk about the election on Hacker News now? Seems most submissions deemed political have been blackholed, correct? And I think that's fine. But if we're opening the gates, lets open them wide and not just post the same garbage that can be read anywhere else. For example, let's talk about something ignored by most of the mainstream like this excellent investigative report that came out yesterday. It co…

Excellent point, but to discuss politics on HN is a waste of time as there isn't an easy way to know who you are talking to - the same type of operatives you refer too are also crawling HN and pretty much every other popular social media space. Marco is either completely oblivious to the phenomena (and has bought into their narrative hook, line and sinker) or perhaps he himself is also artificially incentivized.

The same could be assumed about Sam Altman who yesterday wrote an equally damning article (damning to himself IMO).

I am not accusing anybody, and certainly would not and am not jumping to a conclusion based on a single article - and would welcome Marco and Sam's rebuttal - but am instead looking at the larger picture here... there are reports[1] of popular YouTubers being offered $$$ to endorse Hilary and so it's not too much of a stretch to assume they would also pay prominent people in tech too (and not to mention Hollywood as well of course).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIjpp270dI0

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#645
post #595

Shame on Marco. I can't stand Trump, but I also can't stand this ganging up on Thiel. I guess the fact that he's a billionaire means he can be bullied, but this political bullying has a chilling effect that leads to the lackluster choices we get for president every four years. Thiel sees Hillary as a bigger threat to his interests than Trump. To prefer an outcome does not imply you favor all aspects of that outcome.…

> We should be admonishing Hillary and Trump supporters who turn a blind eye to their unethical tactics and ends justify the means mindset.

You don't consider Peter Thiel to fall in this category? Why not?

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#646
post #595

Shame on Marco. I can't stand Trump, but I also can't stand this ganging up on Thiel. I guess the fact that he's a billionaire means he can be bullied, but this political bullying has a chilling effect that leads to the lackluster choices we get for president every four years. Thiel sees Hillary as a bigger threat to his interests than Trump. To prefer an outcome does not imply you favor all aspects of that outcome.…

Bullying implies a power relationship where Thiel is weak, and strong people are ganging up on him. But Thiel is a powerful man.

This is just debate. Huge, internet-clogging amounts of debate.

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#647
post #595

Shame on Marco. I can't stand Trump, but I also can't stand this ganging up on Thiel. I guess the fact that he's a billionaire means he can be bullied, but this political bullying has a chilling effect that leads to the lackluster choices we get for president every four years. Thiel sees Hillary as a bigger threat to his interests than Trump. To prefer an outcome does not imply you favor all aspects of that outcome.…

People criticizing YC over this either actually believe, or are affecting to believe, that it's perfectly reasonable for them to drag others into their black and white worldview, in which apparently this season you're only allowed to align yourself with Democrats.

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change: no WW III. Seems good enough of a difference to me.

The guy who "will end ISIS very, very quickly", and might just use nukes to do it? http://fortune.com/2016/03/23/trump-nuclear-weapons-isis/

Putin's Warning Against Electing Hillary Clinton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4gTt7Y1agU

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#649

Am I to understand that diversity of opinion is only acceptable when all the various diverse opinions are compatible with your morality?

Yes. This is correct. Please look carefully at where and from whom you see that attitude - there is an obvious pattern.

Re: Shame on Y Combinator

#650
post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to start things off, you do realize that firing him would appear to be illegal ? At least, assuming there are no arcane reasons why California's laws do not apply here: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileLinkCodeSections.htm Labor Code section 1101 Protects employees who engage or participate in politics or who become candidates for public office. An employer may not make, adopt, or enforce any rule, regulation…

In addition to being QUITE POSSIBLY ILLEGAL, it would also be QUITE THE MAGIC TRICK, since Peter Thiel is not an employee of Sam Altman, and the organization Sam Altman runs is famous for being built around the essay "How To Start A Startup", which suggests that a unique strength of startups versus normal companies is that they aren't bound by discrimination laws, and so Paul Graham can choose not to start companies…

I will defer to your knowledge of YC's corporate legal structure on that point, but I'd note that the rest appears to be left untouched at present.
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