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'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

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Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#141

Post by arcticbull »

tempsy wrote: post #134
arcticbull wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reaction feels like pearl-clutching to be honest. This is the kind of shitpost most people would be able to get away with, but Tan is now too important -- and will have to curate his communications more. Especially if he's going to take such a strong position against incumbent politicians cautious of their own images. It also feels like a smart political play by his targets to discredit him. They were probably wa…

Threatening to kill someone isn’t a “shitpost”. The fact it’s a Tupac lyric is not like common knowledge. I doubt a random poll of Twitter users would show most people would know the reference immediately.

Sure, and that was the misstep here. He clearly wasn't threatening to kill anyone, it was misinterpreted, he thought people would get a reference that they clearly did not. He's apologized, it's time to move on. There's better things to spend our outrage budget on IMO than someone who cares a little too much about city politics and has probably learned not to overestimate his audience's knowledge of Tupac.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#142

Post by [deleted] »

tpmoney wrote: post #92

> He employs partisan and apocalyptic language, calling opponents “cronies,” “corrupt” or “doom loop accelerationists,” and claiming they want to “destroy public safety” and “ruin” or “destroy” the city. Whether it should be or not, this is basically par for the course for modern political discourse. What a weird line for the article.

[deleted]

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#143

Post by fortran77 »

cj wrote: post #44

As a YC alum who worked with Gary Tan directly, this is… odd. Anyone who knows Gary knows he’s a (relatively) gentle human being. I can’t imagine him hurting a fly. His tweets seem totally out of character compared to the Gary Tan I personally knew. Maybe he has changed? I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

A man who said he wants “7 elected officials to die slow” you call “gentle”. I’d hate to hear who you consider aggressive.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#144

Post by publius_0xf3 »

infamouscow wrote: post #20

[flagged]

>This is nothing more than activist journalists hating successful people for leading a stand against a self-destructive ideology ruining lives.

There's plenty of people in this very thread who profess a sympathy for Tan's causes but think his drunken remarks are deplorable and reflect poorly on him, even if not legally actionable. I'm among them.

Wagon-circling is a sad pathology of politics. Nobility requires that we rise above it.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#146

Post by jdietrich »

cj wrote: post #44

As a YC alum who worked with Gary Tan directly, this is… odd. Anyone who knows Gary knows he’s a (relatively) gentle human being. I can’t imagine him hurting a fly. His tweets seem totally out of character compared to the Gary Tan I personally knew. Maybe he has changed? I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not sure what Tan's specific beef is, I could never endorse violent rhetoric in politics, but the level of avoidable human misery caused by the dysfunction of politics in San Francisco is sickening. If you can walk through the Tenderloin without becoming utterly enraged at the people responsible, there's a piece of your soul missing.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#148

Post by infamouscow »

meepmorp wrote: post #131
infamouscow wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> I sincerely wish the worst things imaginable for these activist journalists. They are the enemy of the people. This is unironically the kind of shit that authoritarians love to say about journalists.

That's an association fallacy and doesn't make it any less true.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#149

Post by mistermann »

publius_0xf3 wrote: post #144
infamouscow wrote: post #20

[flagged]

>This is nothing more than activist journalists hating successful people for leading a stand against a self-destructive ideology ruining lives. There's plenty of people in this very thread who profess a sympathy for Tan's causes but think his drunken remarks are deplorable and reflect poorly on him, even if not legally actionable. I'm among them. Wagon-circling is a sad pathology of politics. Nobility requires that w…

So too with the premature formation of conclusions.

Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant

#150

Post by AlexandrB »

cj wrote: post #44

As a YC alum who worked with Gary Tan directly, this is… odd. Anyone who knows Gary knows he’s a (relatively) gentle human being. I can’t imagine him hurting a fly. His tweets seem totally out of character compared to the Gary Tan I personally knew. Maybe he has changed? I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I think the failing here is using Twitter at all - or at least without an intermediary like an editor. Twitter is almost purpose made for stripping context. Tweets are, traditionally, short and pithy and so are easy to misinterpret or misrepresent. If you're even a semi public figure, Tweeting a lot is a huge liability.
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