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Welcome, ACLU

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Re: Welcome, ACLU

#171

Post by jacquesm »

rubidium wrote: post #138
dang wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it hasn't. The rule has been the same for years: most politics are off topic. Check it out: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . The difference between "most" and "all" is significant. HN can't be immune to what's going on in the outside world and we've learned from years of experience that it doesn't make sense to try. At the same time, we're not going to let politics overwhelm the site, since that…

I wish I had the time to gather the data. Someone please do this. Make sure to normalize against total activity. I'm a hn user since at least 9.8 years ago (my first HN handle was different than current, which is 7 years old). To my impression as a relatively apolitical person, the site has become MUCH more political in the past year. I may be wrong in that though.

> To my impression as a relatively apolitical person, the site has become MUCH more political in the past year. I may be wrong in that though.

It's an election year.

Some of the policies and statements on display are extremely divisive.

Divisiveness breeds discontent at all levels, discussion, intimidation, outright violence.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#173

Post by akras14 »

phillmv wrote: post #127
muninn_ wrote: post #41

Although I think the American Civil Liberties Union is incredibly valuable and I'm glad they have a lot more money now to fight for the American people, I'm questioning all of this. Where was the outpouring of funding when black people were being gunned down by cops from West Coast organizations? Where has YCombinator been as our own impoverished African-Americans are getting slaughtered in the streets of Chicago? Wh…

You don't even have to go that far; half the people on these boards step over a homeless person to get to work every morning. >Why weren't we funding the ACLU to help these people? Well, I think that's easy to answer. People care more about causes when it affects them personally. For better or for worse, few of us are strict utilitarian maximizers. I haven't quite settled how I think about it, myself.

100% - conservative in US means bugging homeless people to get away, vs liberal in US means letting homeless people rot on the street in peace.

As a Russian saying goes, "it's easy to notice a little chip in someone else's eye, but you won't even notice a log in your own".

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#174

Post by jonstewart »

monochromatic wrote: post #33

The ACLU sometimes supports a worthy cause, but it's basically just a left-leaning political organization. I understand that's particularly trendy right now, and anyone who supports Trump is a pariah in Silicon Valley... but come on. Would YC be donating directly to the Democratic party if that got the same favorable tax treatment?

The ACLU has a foundation that can accept tax-deductible contributions, but it's limited in what it can do. Donations to the main ACLU, like my monthly contribution, are not tax-deductible. YC, did you give to the foundation or to the main ACLU?

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#175

Post by rattray »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #87
rexreed wrote: post #21

Does YC have a page of their particular positions on various political matters which guides their decisions on which non-profits to support and which ones not to? I'm genuinely interested in reading a "platform" as it were on what YC believes and is willing to support.

Yes this is somewhat dangerous for YC. I would like to see that this was planned before November and their support was not determined by who the president turned out to be. Combined with the outspoken politics of Paul Graham1, I get the feeling people who identify as conservatives may not feel welcome at YC. 1 http://twitter.com/paulg EDIT: I changed "conservatives" to "people who identify as conservatives" to clarif…

Conservatives of a libertarian bent are likely to feel quite welcome, and AFAICT have always been well-represented.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#176

Post by benwad »

ihsw wrote: post #75
joshmarlow wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this makes sense strategically for multiple reasons: - YC would undoubtedly like to ensure there are no barriers to immigrant founded startups that they would like to invest in - ensuring that there are fewer barriers to employment by immigrants in invested startups - generally trying to build a better more open world (which is in line with the UBI initiative [0] as well as the stated interest in investigatin…

Except diversity-based hiring is no more than farcical politicking, building a better and more open world is an empty slogan, and barriers to employing immigrants are important to prevent the same violent demographic change we have seen in Europe.

What violent demographic change have you seen in Europe? I've lived here all my life (London/Amsterdam) and the only people I hear talking about the "terrible state of Europe" are Americans who have never been here.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#180

Post by jookoolok »

muninn_ wrote: post #143
phillmv wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even have to go that far; half the people on these boards step over a homeless person to get to work every morning. >Why weren't we funding the ACLU to help these people? Well, I think that's easy to answer. People care more about causes when it affects them personally. For better or for worse, few of us are strict utilitarian maximizers. I haven't quite settled how I think about it, myself.

> You don't even have to go that far; half the people on these boards step over a homeless person to get to work every morning. This is a spot on comment.

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