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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#341

Post by Retric »

tomhoward wrote: post #247
Retric wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is based on the assumption that understanding someone is enough to accept them. I disagree, cannibalism is just one example of things people do where understanding and accepting are very different. PS: Some people really don't care about safety others don't care about love.

Of course there are extremes. The Gaussian distribution is a natural phenomenon. But this discussion is about the ~50% of voters who supported Trump, because rightly or wrongly, they believe his leadership will provide them with a safer and more prosperous future than those of the alternative candidate. You can disagree with their decision whilst still empathising with their reasons. Indeed you must, if you're ever g…

Cannibalism is actually really dangerous due to disease, so it's a negative in terms of safety.

In terms of trump voters, I don't care about their reasons. And I am not trying to convince them. They made the world significantly less safe, putting literally billions of people at risk. That's just not cool, still as a well off person I don't need to care it's probably not going to get me killed.

As to love, some people flat out can't feel pain. Some, have more than one set of DNA. That's just 2 examples, but humans have a lot more variety than most people think about. Being an outlier and being famous are really separate things.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#342

Post by betolink »

paulsutter wrote: post #294
betolink wrote: post #240

People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.

Here's Peter's speech at the National Press Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4 Could you point out anywhere that Peter supports bigotry? Or even, a single crazy statement in Peter's speech? (I wouldn't defend Trump. I'm defending Peter, who I respect a lot). The speech runs from 2:40 to 15:50, and can be watched in 7 minutes if you change speed to 2x. (Thomas, I respect you a lot too. I've never seen o…

He supports bigotry I think on minute 0:00... by calling to vote for a racist bigot who thinks that climate change is a hoax.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#343

Post by Dagwoodie »

akamaka wrote: post #235
ch4s3 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He thinks women shouldn't be able to vote. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democr...

I looked at your article and it seems he's just saying that when women were enfranchised, the type of democracy we had became less supportive of libertarianism. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but misquoting him is not contributing to an intelligent dialogue.

That quote follows Thiel around on here. Someone always brings it up as damning, even though Thiel's statement is a bit vague and likely exactly what you stated.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#344

Post by raldi »

tptacek wrote: post #328
raldi wrote: post #324

Now go back and read all the HN comments from 26 days ago about how Thiel was flushing money down the toilet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716514

I don't think many of Thiel's detractors denied that he was buying himself this seat at the table. In fact, many of us were animated by exactly that concern.

"He might as well burn that money. Talk about bad investing."

"What is the point? He must know that Trump won't win."

"I think he is living in a capitalistic illusion"

"He's putting his Gawker money to good use."

"Maybe he just needed another write off?"

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#345

Post by borramakot »

lxmorj wrote: post #224
bpicolo wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a climate change denier, it would appear.

An outright denier, or a fuck-it-lets-solve-it-with-cool-shit-like-venentian-blind-satellite-swarms sort of guy?

The most clear statement from him I'm aware of is "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." 1:15 PM - 6 Nov 2012.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#346

Post by pjscott »

woofyman wrote: post #95

I don't understand how a gay man can support a political party who's platform wants to reverse marriage equality.

His Reddit AMA has some interesting comments on that.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_te...

He was asked "Why do you financially support so many anti-gay GOP politicians?" Which is exactly what you're wondering about. And lo, he answered:

"If I thought they were anti-gay, then I would not support them. I do not find myself fully on the side of any of our political leaders -- because none of them are fully on my side."

Reading some of his other stuff, this turns out to be a recurring theme: he's on board with approximately zero electable politicians, and kind of disgusted by the whole mess, so any viable political strategy will necessarily involve kissing a few toads. If you've been near a voting booth recently, you probably did the same.

(I admit that Trump is warty even by the standards of toads, but Hillary probably wouldn't have taken someone with Thiel's... mixed reputation.)

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#347

Post by RCortex »

edblarney wrote: post #268
bqe wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peter Thiel wrote a book called The Diversity Myth where he said that race mixing would destroy white culture. Here's a list of more of his extreme views: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-21/the-strang...

"Peter Thiel wrote a book called The Diversity Myth where he said that race mixing would destroy white culture" This is a lie, and it's exactly the kind of lie that Thiel is trying to call out as insufferable oppression on campus and in intellectual discussion. Having lived in very 'multicultural' places, and fairly homogeneous places, it's clear to me that there are both advantages and disadvantages to each - and to…

Japan is only culturally homogeneous, in the sense that everyone born and raised is japanese.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#349

Post by _qbjt »

betolink wrote: post #240

People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.

Ironically, bigotry is defined as "intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself". I'm not defending Trump but it's fairly obvious to any non-partisan that the left wing is just as guilty of this.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#350

Post by mlangdon »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #274
meritt wrote: post #21

This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified…

Do you realize that $1M is chump change to Trump?

Prove it. Let's see some tax returns. In the absence of evidence, it is reasonable to assume that he is heavily in debt with no liquid assets and effectively poor.

He paid a 7 dollar boy scout fee for his son from his "charity."

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