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Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

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Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#171

Post by jariel »

chmod775 wrote: post #168
jariel wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an bad question to ask outside the context of a relationship. It's like asking a very personal question of someone before even meeting them for a first date. 'Who the LP's are' is basically none of your business unless you are entering into some kind of relationship, even then - it may be out of bounds. Of course you have the right to not take money even in that case, but that's a different thing then knowing wh…

You still haven't explained why it is poor form, besides saying "it's a bad question to ask". I see many words but no explanation.

I said it clearly: it's private information.

It would be like some random person on the internet sending you an email, asking about specific details on your cap table.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#172

Post by [deleted] »

chmod775 wrote: post #125
yowlingcat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> potentially because they think it's poor form to ask about LPs. It is, but I'm not sure it's for the reasons you are implying. First and foremost, Saudi money and oil money is an enormous part of global wealth /full stop/. That deep degree of intermixing happened decades ago; there's no putting that cat back in the bag. Asking a question like this to VCs who you are ostensibly trying to make a good first impression…

> It is, but I'm not sure it's for the reasons you are implying. I'm curious now. Why is it poor form? > Perhaps you don't, but phrasing it that way is a seriously tonedeaf way to signal it. So you're saying they should have phrased the question differently - perhaps they did in fact do that. But I think asking is perfectly legitimate. Now I'm not implying you said this, but I feel like I should point something out a…

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#174

Post by simonh »

cheaprentalyeti wrote: post #134
simonh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Egypt had an actual election, it was hardly a putch and it wasn't at all instigated by Obama, he just mildly cheered it along as you would any attempt to move towards democracy. Just as the Conservative British government here in the UK did. Any of his predecessors would have done exactly the same thing, so it's bizarre that you try to make a partisan point out of it. What exactly was Gorge Bush's "Freedom Agenda" po…

1. I'm just repeating what I was told by the guy that temporarily saved me from homelessness back in 2010, who lives in the country in question, instead of "Conservative Britian." Whatever that means these days. 2. Obama did what the "international legal system" told him to do and it funded two entire new fronts in Iran's war with the Sunnis, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. (And at this point they use the…

Do you really think the Obama administration wanted to do this? Let's look at the alternatives.

International courts have the power to freeze and appropriate assets abroad, this has been used many times against various governments. If previous Republican administrations were not prepared to engage in the process, they could have withdrawn at any stage in the last 5 decades.

The problem is, that would mean the US dealing with sanctions, or not being able to use the international court system or arbitration mechanisms in their own interests in future. Bear in mind it's these processes that are used to impose sanctions on Iran and other governments like North Korea. Are you really saying you'd rather walk out on having any influence on these systems?

So what would you have done? It's easy to fling mud when you're unwilling to accept any responsibility for the consequences.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#175

Post by KDJohnBrown »

baybal2 wrote: post #166
KDJohnBrown wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Saying this make no justice to the fact that it's Saudi Sunni Arab Muslims, practicing, or not who suffer the most under the regime. Considering KSA’s funding of terrorists, I would say Iraqis, Syrians, Afghanis and especially Yemenis suffer an order of magnitude more than Saudi citizens. The millions of Philipino, Malaysian, Indian and Pakistani slaves in Saudi Arabia aren’t exactly thriving either.

Indeed, I believe there is now not a single Arab country in which KSA did not try to stage something at some time. From staging coups, to financing armed insurgency, to economic warfare, to an outright invasion.

To be fair, there are few which have mot suffered the same fate from the British Empire or USA either. This is probably why KSA has never faced any punishment from western powers, they are members of the club.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#176

Post by yourapostasy »

KDJohnBrown wrote: post #104

The “wokeness” of the silicon valley is skin deep when it comes to money. It’s about giving us coastal liberals fake warm and fuzzies so that we will ignore the source of our employers’ wealth. “We are super lgbt+ friendly and our CEO is gay. We are so inclusive here is a picture of him with Mohammed BoneSaw, who would gladly behead 80% of the company for being infidels who do not follow wahhabist philosophies”. Don’…

> The “wokeness” of the silicon valley is skin deep when it comes to money.

Realistically, decoupling from that dependency is tough. Just read through the "Free Land - Living off Grid With No Money" thread [1], and the challenges of decoupling are laid out on just the individual level. It's going to be even tougher to accomplish as you scale up.

I think that decoupling is a worthy goal. It adds resilience. But not everyone shares that point of view.

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