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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

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

While on one hand I agree that getting this worked up over speech is weird, Gary is a (not so) unique case in that when he is able to incite the Twitter activist mob mentality on his side , against other people’s speech, he will happily do so with no hesitation whatsoever. A while back somebody put up some stickers with his face on an octopus and the tentacles holding his various assets. The Twitter mafia went all ou…

Wow. Gary Tan sounds like a fucking idiot

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

#353
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, apparently it was a pop reference, and that makes it okay? The problem with references is that not everybody gets the reference, and without that (and possibly even with) this is a death threat. And with today's highly polarized and volatile political situation, you need to be really careful with that. I've come to expect this sort of behaviour from random internet trolls, but a CEO really should know better. I…

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If his rapper persona had tweeted the lyrics to a diss track but clarified the theatrical kayfabe by breaking the fourth wall, that arguably could be less of a threat but still demonstrate questionable judgment, so I agree with you there.

But violent rhetoric certainly increases the likelihood that others will escalate violence against the target, and so the risk (threat) of death and harm very much does increase as seen in many unfortunate cases.

That is how asymmetric information warfare has a chilling effect on democracy and infringes others’ fundamental liberties (life, pursuit of happiness), and is different from “free speech”.

It doesn’t require sophisticated thinking to discern the difference, but X is where discourse goes to die.

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

#354
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it's extremely disturbing that someone would consider this whole thing as extremely disturbing in the first place. Whether people in the US are extremely oversenstive to tweets and words, or that the tweets and words have the power to suddenly make regular people hateful and violent - neither of those states are normal . Either that, or the country really is a few Twitter sparks away from civil war, which agai…

I wish I could find the clip, I think it's another Tupac song, where it plays a news clip of a stressed sounding woman saying "he says he wants to see his rivals deceased" (roughly) in response to what I assume is a line in "Can't C me". Anyway, it's funny because that clip was making fun, but sounds a lot like all the "calling for someone to die is never ok" feigned pearl clutching I've seen here. The tweet was dumb…

That's the intro to To Live and Die in LA

Also, the name of a great song by Wang Chung. I had never heard it until asking Google to play To Live And Die in LA and it played the Wang Chung song instead of Tupac.

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

#355
I wonder if he accepts the same conduct targeted at him for example from those on his staff e.g. "Fuck my life. The CEO came in drunk again. I wish his liver would finally give out and make space for a CEO who deserves the title instead of this useless motherfucker." Would he consider that normal social media use or would he see it in a different light when its about him or done by gasp an underling?

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

#357
Technically we are all dying slow. If we are going to take his statement literally then we should consider how literal the entire statement is.

We all “should die slow” as that is inherit to the human condition. Each breath we inhale is slowly oxidizing us from the inside out. If he said they should die fast I would be more concerned.

If he said they should all die on x date at y place by z method then that is definitely more of a real threat than drunken word play for attention.

“They should” also implies he has no intent of a threat. A threat would be more like “I will”.

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

#358
> Tan “should not have done any of that. He should go for a while. He should not represent tech anymore,”

I'd argue that anyone who cares this much should "go for a while".

For over at least a decade now it's made no sense that we hold people in certain roles to a higher standard than anyone else. These high standards are a form of power transfer that hurts those who believe in them. Can't we just admit we're all human?

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

#359
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's immature and poor judgement Which is enough to make him unfit for the position at YC and justifies his resignation. Walmart cashiers are being fired everyday for things like immaturity and poor judgment, why should YC CEO be held under lower behavior standards than blue collar workers?!

If being immature and showing poor judgement means you can run a VC fund 100% of VC funds would be firing their CEOs. Thats a ridiculous position to say he’s unfit. But I get it. He’s threading the political establishment so they’ll make hay with this to tear down an opponent. It’s politics.

Yes it's politics and working with computers and man-children all day is poor training. Stick to your lane tech billionaires you couldn't win an election if you were the last person alive.

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

#360
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main consequence to him so far has been a lot of people thinking less of him. It was also consequential for the subjects of the tweet, and to a much lesser extent, to all of us who've been exposed to it.

Okay sounds like he faced those exact consequences and a bunch of people are acting like victims because they chose to take him too literally. I don't think Gary really cares what you or some others think. He's developed a thick skin for this sort of stuff maybe others should too. I think more of him though. Sort of like when a polite old woman tells someone to fuck off and they're literally shook. A lot of people co…

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