> Also, please consider donating to the ACLU.
Am I the only one seeing irony that a billionaires VC firm is asking for donations to organization they are funding?
Welcome, ACLU
621–630 of 1001 posts
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#622I've been a long time supporter of the ACLU. While they're being politicized right now as being anti-Trump, the thing I admire most about them is their consistency in fighting for the rights of everyone. They stick to their principles of free speech and human equality no matter how unpopular the issue or unsavory their client. A good example is back in the 1930s when the ACLU simultaneously defended the rights of bla…
I searched around to see if I could find any writeup about the ACLU defending the NAACP and KKK at the same time. I found a similar example to the one you described from the mid 90's - http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/10/news/a-klansman-s-black-la...
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#623Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> I get the feeling conservatives may not feel welcome at YC. What we are seeing over the last week and what is expected to be coming from the Trump administration in the near future have little to do with liberal vs. conservative. I know many conservatives who are outright horrified by what they are seeing.
Who did they vote for?
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#624I have to wonder what YC's exit strategy is here, exits not always benefiting the funded company.
It's not that kind of an "investment". It's more less obviously a charitable donation.
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#625Although 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…
> Maybe I'm too cynical and look at these moves (AirBnB, Uber, Google, etc...) as marketing moves. Of course they're marketing moves. Corporations, especially the three you listed, do not do anything that doesn't generate profit or open the window to future profit.
Come on - this is egregiously cynical. You know this isn't really the case.
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#626Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They are an unqualified, categorically "good" organization The ACLU is wonderful, no doubt about that. But I think some people do put an asterisk next to the group because of their (obviously somewhat strange) categorization of the protections of the 2nd amendment as outside the scope of American civil liberties.
The ACLU doesn't have a problem with 2A, but they see gun ownership as a collective right rather than an individual right. They have stood up for 2A rights in the past, but compared to the NRA and other 2A advocates, they have very limited resources, so they let the NRA / et. al. handle them.
The ACLU doesn't have a problem with 2A, but they see gun ownership as a collective right rather than an individual right.
And that's a problem. It betrays either a gross misunderstanding on their part of the purpose of the Bill of Rights, which is unlikely, or other less transparent motivations, which aren't. There are other civil liberties organizations that don't argue for a state monopoly on the right to self defense. Consider helping them out instead.
It's ridiculous to talk about how misguided, dangerous, or outright evil the government is, only to turn around and argue that they should own all the guns.
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#627Although 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…
Probably because top SV companies recruit PHDs from the Levant at an order of magnitude more than they recruit from inner city Chicago? How is this not obvious to the people here on HN? How do the people on here who constantly get holier than thou about demographics in tech not see the obvious machinations? Seriously, look around your office right now and then ask yourself again why top tech companies care more about…
> Corporations don't have morality, they have profit motives. YC doesn't give a shit about immigrant rights any more than the unjust deaths of african americans around the US, they care about attracting certain demographics to apply as founders.
I see no evidence this is the case, or that the founders of YC aren't human beings who also make decisions out of legitimate concern for the betterment of the world.
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#628Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are your rights 'trendy'? I tend to stay out of politics, and don't really label people as such, but Trump is a bad guy. I'm happy to donate engineering time to the ACLU.
> Trump is a bad guy That's your political opinion. Half the country disagrees (or at least found him less-bad than the alternative).
Trump (and Clinton) had record-breaking unfavorable ratings during the campaign. Your point about "less-bad" carries a lot of weight, in my opinion (and would have been the case regardless of who won the election). And step back and think of it: half think bad, half think good. Is that a situation you'd like to consider "not bad" in the grand scheme of things? Mediocre sounds like a fairer assessment, on average. And frankly I think we'd all prefer a solid "good" rather than an ambiguous "not bad".
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#629Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had great respect for them when they were doing that kind of thing and standing up for everyone's right to speech. Do they still engage in that? If I recall correctly they haven't had cases like that in decades. All their recent cases in my memory are left-leaning at least, which, while they do represent many good goals in my opinion, is understandably a political slant.
> . Do they still engage in that? If I recall correctly they haven't had cases like that in decades. From: https://www.aclu.org/defending-our-rights/court-battles Some recent cases; * The ACLU filed a motion in Michigan state court challenging the constitutionality of a subpoena issued to the website PubPeer demanding that it turn over the identities of anonymous commenters * The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging…
They definitely do, but I was speaking in particular to their more controversial actions. They've done many good defenses of politically left or fairly neutral things, but I can't think of any on the right side of the spectrum in recent memory and as someone with fairly moderate political views, that does concern me a bit.
Re: Welcome, ACLU
#630Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ACLU has been fighting the good fight for impoverished black people as well. They happen to be in the spotlight at the moment due to the Trump immigration executive order, but it's not as though 100% of the funds raised by YC will go towards fighting the immigration ban. It will support their countless other ongoing legal battles as well. They are an unqualified, categorically "good" organization that is deservin…
> They are an unqualified, categorically "good" organization The ACLU is wonderful, no doubt about that. But I think some people do put an asterisk next to the group because of their (obviously somewhat strange) categorization of the protections of the 2nd amendment as outside the scope of American civil liberties.
That's like castigating someone who volunteers at a soup kitchen for not volunteering at every soup kitchen.