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Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

wsj.com

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Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#61

Post by dominotw »

axau wrote: post #30
breakyerself wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-net neutrality, anti-legal pot, draconian immigration policies, erosion of the social safety net, deregulation of the environment, kneecapping solar, climate denial. Are these really things most educated people in silicon valley are on board with? I have no connection to silicon valley, but most tech workers I know wouldn't support Trump at the very least because his climate denial is anti scientific and destruc…

The H1Bs I know that support Trump do so mostly because of economic reasons, and because of the immigration policies, like fixing H1B abuse, and making legal immigrants take priority over illegal ones (Democrats are perceived to do the opposite).

Can confirm this. Indians in SV are big trump supporters.

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#62

Post by saget »

Barrin92 wrote: post #39
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, and I left NYC for Nashville in 2015, and I’m moving back to NYC next week. Nashville itself is pretty purple, but the ideology of the south is just as homogeneous as SF, and I find it much, much more offensive (Roy Moore). There is not a (net) mass exodus from the Bay Area, hence the ridiculous prices. I moved to SF in 2006 and there were always people claiming it was on the verge of collapse because everyone w…

>but the ideology of the south is just as homogeneous as SF this is an interesting asymmetry I've noticed too. There are countless of places where salt of the earth Americana is the de facto monoculture. If I'd go there and try to create a liberal-hippie space for myself they'd probably flip me the finger and tell me that's not the local way of life, and somehow everybody seems to agree that this is perfectly fine. Y…

They key difference between Nashville and SV is Nashville doesn't claim to be anything but what's it is. SV culture claims to be inclusive and value diversity of thought. However, plenty of people experience exactly the opposite of this and that makes people feel lied to. Eventually the true SV culture will become more understood but until then I can understand people's frustrations

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#63

Post by oriolid »

andybak wrote: post #3

Rather worryingly this got flagged and killed. Hopefully we're still at the point where we can sensibly discuss a WSJ article.

Flagged and killed? I just got here through front page. I know you like being a victim, but you are not.

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#65

Post by dang »

almost_usual wrote: post #53

Then leave, you can drop a pin on pretty much 95% of America and end up in a conservative place where people will share your values. Don’t like being conservative in the Bay Area because you feel ostracized and judged? Cool, now you know what it feels like to be gay in 95% of America. Get over it.

Please don't do this here.

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#66

Post by sho »

tensor wrote: post #26
superquest wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"openly supporting" the winning presidential candidate isn't "absurd".

It is when it implies openly supporting racism and sexism, which is why the reaction is rightly extreme.

You need to zoom way the hell out, or you will miss the forest for the trees. Whether or not Trump is personally racist or sexist or whatever is basically immaterial. The very fact of his election, and his continuing popularity despite events, is direct manifestation of deep-seated cultural problems in the USA.

Simply dismissing the concerns of tens of millions of americans as "racist and sexist" is not helpful and in fact perpetuates the problem. I am not a Trump supporter, or a Thiel supporter, but it's not self-evidently bad that a person with some means chose to work with the guy in charge to try to make a difference. This kind of lazy dismissal is part of the problem.

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#68

Post by yters »

davidf18 wrote: post #25
nodesocket wrote: post #15

I recently moved (fled) from downtown San Francisco to Nashville TN and couldn't be happier. I lived in SF for over 5 years, and there is absolutely a mass exodus of people and engineers leaving the bay area because of extreme ideology, hypocrisy, constant outrage, and the echo chamber that engulfs everything. Downtown San Francisco is a great place to visit for a few days but no place to start and raise a family.

SV is very liberal, yet typically engineers (eg. EE, Mechanical, Civil, Aero, Industrial, Chemical, ...) are conservative. I wonder how many people with real engineering degrees (disclosure my BS is EE with CS minor from top school) are SV liberal.

That is my personal experience too. Conservative ideas tend to be more thought out and logical, hence why traditional cultures are conservative. They're traditional because they lasted a long time, and they lasted a long time because their principles match reality.

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#69

Post by dang »

oriolid wrote: post #63
andybak wrote: post #3

Rather worryingly this got flagged and killed. Hopefully we're still at the point where we can sensibly discuss a WSJ article.

Flagged and killed? I just got here through front page. I know you like being a victim, but you are not.

This comment breaks the site guideline which asks: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." At the time the parent was posted, it was flagged off the front page.

Worse, of course, is the personal attack. We ban accounts that do that, so please don't do it again.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

#70

Post by askafriend »

superquest wrote: post #11
makewavesnotwar wrote: post #9

Likening people to Thiel is ridiculous. He is personally facing the backlash from openly supporting Trump and being a speaker at his rallies. Nobody else in the valley did anything as absurd or unnecessary. And if he thinks he'll fair better in LA, I think he's sorely mistaken once people start recognizing him en masse. But to my point, this article seems to be generalizing an outlier to make its point. Everyone is b…

"openly supporting" the winning presidential candidate isn't "absurd".

Yes it is. When you support Trump, you support his vile brand of leadership. The majority in this the country do not support this man or his ideas. They simply don't. The base that supported him and made this presidency possible is collapsing by all reported metrics (as in they are literally dying off, and younger people neither support Trump's ideas nor are they as religious). So while Trump's base may have squeezed out a win last time, their chances of a repeat decrease significantly as time goes on.

Time is not on their side, and I suspect History is not on their side either.

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