I enjoyed this piece a lot. The introspection is real. Also, what the hell is the controversy at the core here? It was never linked referenced. What spawned the meeting?
What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
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Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#12I enjoyed this piece a lot. The introspection is real. Also, what the hell is the controversy at the core here? It was never linked referenced. What spawned the meeting?
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#13I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…
What views do you find you can't express?
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#14I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…
I was with you until the third paragraph. You're engaging in the same kind of extreme stereotyping that you're complaining about.
Those guys probably disagree profoundly with you; it doesn't mean they are evil narcissists out of a dystopian novel.
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#15> "What happened to us?"
The thing that drove me, a lifelong conservative, into the arms of Bernie Sanders; the Republican party (and the conservative group in particular) are so hard core on social issues that are to be blunt, disgusting (things like preventing homosexual marriage and abortion) and completely antithetical to the idea of "keeping government out of things." No I don't like everything the Left wants to do, but I also have no love left for the Bible thumping I'm-ignorant-and-proud-of-it crowd.
I have too many homosexual friends who I know are good people. I have too many friends who had their contraception fail and aren't in any position to raise a child, recognize that, and want to wait to accept abortion. And more and more I'm realizing that the party of "leave us alone" wants the Government involved in way more things than the other one.
I don't know when this happened, I don't know why, but if you want the explanation there it is. You guys bank harder and harder on ignorance and fear every year until now you've got a candidate like Trump, with practically no ideas and nothing to offer except new things to fear.
I won't belong to the party of fear.
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#16I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…
And Glenn Beck's "I looked into his eyes..." trope reminds me of George W Bush looking into Putin's soul. Facebook trending topics had/has bias the same way any mainstream newsroom has for the last 60 years - made worse by the fact that it's filled with low-paid 20-something liberal arts majors.
Yet Beck can't say that. He runs a media site. Getting cut off from social networks would be a death sentence. He has to go to Zuckerberg for the publicity and he has to stay positive after the meeting... due to the real possibility of retaliation.
Remember, 1984 was a warning, not a how-to manual.
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why, I don't usually see author titles on blog posts? In fact, none of the front page links have author names right now.
In this case, it's better off without the name in the headline. Many people would probably assume that anything by Glenn Beck would be far-right nonsense (sorry, I would, even if you wouldn't) but it seems to me that it's actually an honest and fair report. I thought he made some good points.
Agree. It's a very honest post. TBH I often feel the same, from the other point of view: when did "being a leftist" started meaning "pitchforks on Twitter on the slimmest excuse"? But it did -- because, in the end, any group of humans, no matter how well-intentioned, will eventually encounter the same old problems with groupthink, enforcing rules and so on. Any group.
So it's really nice to see the occasional individual going "hang on, we weren't supposed to do this!" and self-criticize a bit, show some real doubt. Even if it's fake (it might all be a play to score honesty points, who knows), it's still nice to see and I wish more people on all sides could do it more often.
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#18Please add the pundit's name [Glenn Beck] in the submission.
Its hilarious how this comment alone exemplifies exactly what he's talking about when he says that conservative voices are being marginalized in silicon valley. We need to make sure we brand the post with his name so us cushy liberals can be protected from these mean and different viewpoints, right?
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#19I'm a Republican. Been working in or for valley companies since 1998. Engineering then business. The last five years I've felt my views become increasingly marginalized. The left in the valley has become increasingly vocal, from the c-suite down, and I've been reluctant to express my views for fear of retaliation (See Mozilla's ex-CEO.) The valley isn't a place focused on the innovation and free thinking that gave it…
Do you have any proposed solutions to these issues? I'm asking because I can't think of any that aren't extremely liberal in character, like government putting limits on these businesses or affirmative action for conservatives, as Beck discusses in the article.
Perhaps he's wrong but your complaints of being "marginalized" and against the "money and power" of big business don't sound traditionally conservative. The traditional conservative line would be that you should stop complaining. Mark Zuckerberg et al are more talented and deserve the money and power they've attained because they worked harder and smarter than you have. If you would just work harder and smarter you would easily overcome these problems on your own.
Re: What disturbed me about the Facebook meeting
#20> "What happened to us?" The thing that drove me, a lifelong conservative, into the arms of Bernie Sanders; the Republican party (and the conservative group in particular) are so hard core on social issues that are to be blunt, disgusting (things like preventing homosexual marriage and abortion) and completely antithetical to the idea of "keeping government out of things." No I don't like everything the Left wants to…
While the question you wanted to answer is a great question to be asking in the era of Trump, that's not the question that Beck was asking.
"What happened to us?" in this context was, "Why are supposedly conservative groups telling Facebook how to run their business, using many of the same tactics and arguments they've objected to when used by their ideological opponents?"