Live data from Hacker News

Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

nytimes.com

11–20 of 46 posts

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#14
post #4
post #2

I remember the last Thiel thread was a holy war filled with people who thought outspoken Trump supporters should lose their careers on grounds of bigotry and hate speech propagation (citing https://xkcd.com/1357/ among other things). Revisiting that thread with the knowledge that Trump would win and that Trump supporters were not some vocal minority is sobering.

Look at the numbers; they're still a vocal minority, they're just ones who vote as a bloc and have the geographic advantage. Trump got less than Romney after all. The real story is that with more than half of the country sitting out the voting process, the winner is always going to be decided by a "vocal minority".

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#15
post #4
post #2

I remember the last Thiel thread was a holy war filled with people who thought outspoken Trump supporters should lose their careers on grounds of bigotry and hate speech propagation (citing https://xkcd.com/1357/ among other things). Revisiting that thread with the knowledge that Trump would win and that Trump supporters were not some vocal minority is sobering.

Look at the numbers; they're still a vocal minority, they're just ones who vote as a bloc and have the geographic advantage. Trump got less than Romney after all. The real story is that with more than half of the country sitting out the voting process, the winner is always going to be decided by a "vocal minority".

You forget that the GOP fractured and there was a neocon candidate whose vote would have gone to Trump otherwise.

A couple hundred thousand votes difference is a tie. It's bad weather in Texas or California turning off a quarter million voters and ending up with the same result.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#16
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the numbers; they're still a vocal minority, they're just ones who vote as a bloc and have the geographic advantage. Trump got less than Romney after all. The real story is that with more than half of the country sitting out the voting process, the winner is always going to be decided by a "vocal minority".

> The real story is that with more than half of the country sitting out the voting process Are you surprised by that? Properly voting costs a lot of money. I spent hours researching my options and another hour just walking to and from the voting dropoff location. When you add up all the time it takes to research an election and vote, multiply that by your personal time value of money, multiply that by the probability…

"multiply that by the probability that it will change the election and then multiply it by the benefit of having 1 candidate over the other on your personal economic outlook"

No you can't just loop that in there. The cost of walking to and from the polling location, fine, but these kinds of costs are the costs you have to pay to live in a democracy. I waited in line for over an hour before work. If I extrapolate my salary out, I paid probably $10 worth of my time to vote. Considering that is once every 4 years, that's not much to live in a democracy where we get to vote to choose our representatives.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#17
post #2

I remember the last Thiel thread was a holy war filled with people who thought outspoken Trump supporters should lose their careers on grounds of bigotry and hate speech propagation (citing https://xkcd.com/1357/ among other things). Revisiting that thread with the knowledge that Trump would win and that Trump supporters were not some vocal minority is sobering.

Yea it even looks like Trump will win the popular vote too by a little bit. We all need to be less smug for sure, and get out of our elite bubble.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psst. 59,704,886 If you can't do basic arithmetic, you should lose your career in this field, imo.

Whats the 4,072.. an the1,218...numbers youre adding?

National vote counts for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, respectively.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#19
post #6
post #2

I remember the last Thiel thread was a holy war filled with people who thought outspoken Trump supporters should lose their careers on grounds of bigotry and hate speech propagation (citing https://xkcd.com/1357/ among other things). Revisiting that thread with the knowledge that Trump would win and that Trump supporters were not some vocal minority is sobering.

Psst. 59,704,886 If you can't do basic arithmetic, you should lose your career in this field, imo.

And if you think ~half of the country is so horribly racist or sexist they should lose their jobs on grounds of bigotry and hate speech you've got bigger problems than the ability to do math. People just want change and Trump's offering more than just discrimination, he did well amongst white women and beat Romney's numbers with many non-white demographic groups.

He might not be my first choice, but I won't discredit all of his supporters over it.

Re: Peter Thiel’s Bet on Donald Trump Pays Off

#20
It's two days after the election and the NYT is proclaiming that Thiel's bet has paid off. It's way too early to say this. For whatever political pull Theil has gained, I believe he has (at least potentially) lost a lot of respect in other areas. Does that matter? maybe, maybe not. But my point is, it's a bit too early to tell in either case.

This is a true example of don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

Post reply on HN