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Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

theguardian.com

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Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#71

Post by matte_black »

le-mark wrote: post #59
matte_black wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who pay attention have always known this about high society liberals. They will latch onto populist movements to help raise their image with the public and bask in the prestige that comes with it, but behind the scenes they are not progressive at all. For many, being wealthy is not enough, for they must also be admired by the general public, and you don’t get there by supporting unpopular views. It’s pathetic…

Always say what you mean and mean what you say. That's a radical notion for almost everyone, not just the rich! Surprisingly difficult in practice too.

It’s no longer difficult once you drop the mask and stop trying to be who you think people expect you to be.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#72

Post by bilbo0s »

matte_black wrote: post #52
coleifer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sense from reading was that he was upset by what he perceived to be hypocrisy on the part of the wealthy. In that they talked the talk about charity and making the world better, but their actions spoke differently. So liberal words, liberal values being expressed, but pure greed when it mattered.

People who pay attention have always known this about high society liberals. They will latch onto populist movements to help raise their image with the public and bask in the prestige that comes with it, but behind the scenes they are not progressive at all. For many, being wealthy is not enough, for they must also be admired by the general public, and you don’t get there by supporting unpopular views. It’s pathetic…

"...It’s better to have a strong connection to a small niche of people, than a shallow connection to the general public...."

Strong connections to a small group of people is exactly what the article is getting at. It's a members only wealth club effectively, much like what you find in New England. (If I'm being honest, it's EXACTLY like what we've had in New England since our inception.)

At any rate, these people already have extremely strong connections to their small group. What we're trying to do is get them to have some, at lest shallow, connections to the rest of us.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#73

Post by justherefortart »

justaman wrote: post #67
lawlessone wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He seems like the kind of religious person i wish i seen more of in the world.

He is more common than you think.

I live in the Bible Belt, so not very common here.

Reminds me of "liberal" SF/Bay Area. Everyone talks the talk, but no one walks the walk. It's quite sad really.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#74

Post by myrandomcomment »

My wife and I moved out of PA / Menlo partly because of this. Shallow people, spoiled children and the rude entitled behavior of almost everyone.

Each year at my kids school they had a gift tree with cards with things the kids on the other side of the 101 (East PA) wanted. 99% of it was shoes. They just wanted a shoes. Every year we would take a few cards and wait for others to do the same. Every year at the end there where still cards on the tree and my wife and I would take every last one. How f'ing hard is it for someone to do this? Why the hell would there be anything left?!? I never understood that until I realized it would take time out of their schedule to have to do this. Sure people gave money, but god forbid they had to do any work.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#75

Post by Balgair »

A lot of commenters are saying that Pastor Stevens is right, and that more should be done. I encourage all people to volunteer and to try to make our world a better place, not just through donations, but through labor as well. The joys and rewards of volunteering and helping others are innumerable and ever growing; even The Economist of all magazines thinks so too [https://www.economist.com/node/8023307]. If you see that your world is not what you want it to be, please consider volunteering. Here are some organizations I have worked with and can vouch for:

http://www.bacbsa.org/contact/48588

https://www.bgcp.org/

If you know of other organizations in need of volunteers, please reply for others to see too.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#76

Post by mattnewport »

watwut wrote: post #43

"Jesus was a homeless Jew who said it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle" Ok, I agree, but that seem to be unusual take for American nominations. At least my impression was that they did not tend to preach help to poor, rather the opposite. Did I had wrong impression or is this take really the minority one?

I think you have the wrong impression. Studies repeatedly find that religious Americans give significantly more to charity than non religious Americans, e.g. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Religious-Americans-Giv...

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#77

Post by dnautics »

simonsarris wrote: post #20
vowelless wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No True Scotsman fallacy? I personally give the respect to people to refer them as they would like to be identified. If a Muslim jihadi says he is a jihadi, I respect his self identification and call him that. Similarly, I respect these people's self identification as liberal or progressive.

Claiming someone's actions don't line up with their words is not a no-true-Scotsman scenario. I think he's simply alleging that their revealed preferences do not line up with their stated preferences.

> Claiming someone's actions don't line up with their words is not a no-true-Scotsman scenario.

No, but claiming someone isn't truly in a category to defend the category from the hypocrisy of the individual is, because it ignores the possibility that the category lends itself to hypocrisy.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#78

Post by eli_gottlieb »

rsync wrote: post #69
williamscales wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree with you more. I moved to the Bay Area a few years ago from Vancouver which certainly has its share of extremely wealthy residents and expensive housing problems. I was blown away by the level of social inequality in SF exactly as you describe. In Vancouver, you at least see the rich people partying near you. Perhaps at the next restaurant over on the beach which is much nicer than the one you're at,…

"I couldn't agree with you more. I moved to the Bay Area a few years ago from Vancouver which certainly has its share of extremely wealthy residents and expensive housing problems. I was blown away by the level of social inequality in SF exactly as you describe. In Vancouver, you at least see the rich people partying near you. Perhaps at the next restaurant over on the beach which is much nicer than the one you're at…

>Many, many people (rich, successful, young, etc.) are just here for a few years and have no intention of making long term investments in the community or becoming true stakeholders (by, for instance, raising their family here).

And many of the long-term residents like it that way.

Re: Silicon Valley pastor decries hypocrisy of area's rich liberals

#79

Post by eli_gottlieb »

matte_black wrote: post #71
le-mark wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always say what you mean and mean what you say. That's a radical notion for almost everyone, not just the rich! Surprisingly difficult in practice too.

It’s no longer difficult once you drop the mask and stop trying to be who you think people expect you to be.

It's not difficult at all when you were simply never good at pretending ;-).
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