Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 181 posts

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#121

Post by vidarh »

kyledrake wrote: post #44

> Thiel, a billionaire libertarian Which thing made him a libertarian: the idea of using a government agency to break up a company, or the stump speech he did for the alt right nationalist?

Right wing libertarianism is ultimately founded not on a belief in liberty, but on a belief on maximum protection of your own property. The push for deregulation etc. is about minimizing government intrusion into what people do with their own property.

As such you'll often find right-libertarians holding weird views when harming liberty protects their own property rights.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#122

Post by lmm »

millstone wrote: post #78
jpttsn wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your ideal society, you would rather see Hogan lose in court for lack of money?

Ideally all cases would be decided on their merits irrespective of funding. But if Hogan had lost, do you think Thiel would have stopped? What is frightening about Thiel’s involvement case is the playbook: destroy media companies that have been critical or embarrassed you, by secretly funding any and all lawsuits against them, even if frivolous.

> if Hogan had lost, do you think Thiel would have stopped?

Maybe. Thiel funded the destruction of Gawker for their crime against Hogan. He probably wouldn't've funded it if he hadn't had a personal grudge against Gawker, sure, but Hogan's lawsuit was entirely legitimate. If there hadn't been a legitimate lawsuit against Gawker, only illegitimate ones, would Thiel have funded those? We really can't say.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#123

Post by origami777 »

mrschwabe wrote: post #99
tiles wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a prominent tech company claiming to invest in 'hackers' endorsing a candidate who had just been exposed as technically incompetent Her opponent is wildly incompetent with technology. I'm not sure why you latch onto this idea that Clinton was uniquely bad at IT. Googling comes up with exactly two photos of Trump ever using a computer. He doesn't even have a web browser on his phone [according to this NYT article](…

Hillary, as Secretary of State, had an unauthorized email server running from a household bathroom that was being used to transmit classified material (that she lied about). If not technically incompetent, then sure - how about woefully ignorant, deceitful & corrupt and in no position to take lead role of the world's most powerful country. And that is not even taking into account the beef in the leaked emails, for ex…

I think most of us could see that even with Hillary doing that, she would be a better president than Trump. Everything you list about Hillary can be applied to Trump several times over. Overall, it was two truly horrible candidates that we had to choose from; and the worst one won.

I don't know how any 'hacker' could argue right now that Trump is a better president than Hillary could have been.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#124

Post by speedplane »

whatyoucantsay wrote: post #106
speedplane wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Thiel sued over Gawker's outing of Thiel being gay, that would be okay. If Hogan sued and won on his own, that would also be okay. What's not okay is using one's own immense wealth to fund litigation against a media outlet you do not like over issues unrelated to the reason you dislike them. There's no question this tips the balance of power.

It is a separate problem that legal fees in the US are so exorbitant as to render even millionaires helpless in confrontations with abusive corporations. By all means, there should have been no need for a wealthy benefactor in the first pace. Unfortunately, there was. Mr. Thiel may have acted due to an alignment of selfish motivations, but he provided a public service, nonetheless. Both sides were adequately funded a…

> It is a separate problem that legal fees in the US are so exorbitant

Not at all, the cost of obtaining justice is the central issue here. If obtaining justice lies only with those with immense wealth, they can selectively choose to apply or not apply it, which is inherently unjust.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#125

Post by timthelion »

factsaresacred wrote: post #31
sdoering wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your unquoted "proof" is gathered exactly how? You state something as a standing fact without giving us the ability to check the stated facts (and underlying methodologies) ourselves. So it seems to me that people using arguing strategies like you just seem to have done are eroding "trust" in a rational discussion more then anything else. Tactics like these are well below what I personally would classify as honor…

Calm down. I'll happily provide proof, I simply didn't want to overload my initial response with quotes and links: > Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most d…

Not a mod, but please don't tell people to "calm down" it is rude and condescending and adds nothing to the conversation.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#126

Post by whatyoucantsay »

speedplane wrote: post #124
whatyoucantsay wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a separate problem that legal fees in the US are so exorbitant as to render even millionaires helpless in confrontations with abusive corporations. By all means, there should have been no need for a wealthy benefactor in the first pace. Unfortunately, there was. Mr. Thiel may have acted due to an alignment of selfish motivations, but he provided a public service, nonetheless. Both sides were adequately funded a…

> It is a separate problem that legal fees in the US are so exorbitant Not at all, the cost of obtaining justice is the central issue here. If obtaining justice lies only with those with immense wealth, they can selectively choose to apply or not apply it, which is inherently unjust.

>the cost of obtaining justice is the central issue here

Agreed.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#128

Post by curtisblaine »

Vinnl wrote: post #119
curtisblaine wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW I don't understand how fully-diverse, equally-represented companies haven't taken advantage of their unfair advantage and taken over the world yet :)

Well, that can be difficult if your diverse, equally-represented employees were not able to enjoy e.g. the education and upbringing of some non-diverse under-represented institutions and homes...

So you're saying that hiring diverse, equally-represented employees is actually a risk for my company in terms of employee throughput and capabilities? It starts to sound as a disadvantage...

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#129

Post by curtisblaine »

buttcoinslol wrote: post #59
burnte wrote: post #6

I think we've seen Thiel do this before, indirectly fund opposition to organizations he doesn't like when he can't attack them directly. He's also funded lots of politicians that work quite hard to restrict rights at every level of government, including, frankly, that are rather adamantly against equal rights for gay people. He's a great representation that some people will align themselves with anyone to further the…

Perhaps placing wealth and success above all else is... bad?

It entirely depends on your ethics system.

Re: Is billionaire VC Peter Thiel trying to break up Google?

#130

Post by ashleyn »

zackbloom wrote: post #93
lhnz wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's also funded lots of politicians that work quite > hard to restrict rights at every level of government, > including, frankly, that are rather adamantly against > equal rights for gay people. I don't really understand this. Isn't he gay? He doesn't seem an idiot to me so perhaps he doesn't see his actions in the same light as you do.

In a society where access to everything from justice to healthcare is wealth-driven, being rich will always be a stronger identity than any other. He might be gay, but he's rich and gay, which means he is not effected by essentially any anti-gay policy you could reasonably pass in the US. Even if being gay was banned, nobody is coming for the billionaires or their lovers anytime soon! If you assume that his primary m…

To really hammer this point home, read the story of Sarah Rector, a black girl who had come across such extreme oil wealth that the town legally declared her white.
Post reply on HN