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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#501

Post by jacquesc »

hamtaroPhD06 wrote: post #371
Moshe_Silnorin wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much dislike Trump and would never vote for the man. Both sides use race baiting. Spurious use of the word "racist" against those who dislike government intervention and entitlements has basicly denuded the term of its once-quite-considerable power. They called Bush racist, wasn't true. They called Romney racist, a laughable claim. They called Trump racist and maybe this time there're right, but what does "rac…

When someone is racist and sexist, it is everyone's duty to call what they are: racist and sexist.

Agreed. But if you call anyone who disagrees with you on economic policy a racist and sexist, it opens the door for an actual racist and sexist to get in.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#502

Post by hueving »

tptacek wrote: post #322
edblarney wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, " No - they said they are going to repeal and replace Obamacare with something else. That does not mean they are going to strip people of their health insurance. "Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants" This is a lie.…

There are generations of families --- literally millions of people --- that are linked together through people who are in the US "illegally". People were brought here as children and have known no other life. People who were born in this country and are unassailably citizens, deserving of all the protections previous generations of Americans died on beaches to defend for them, whose parents were brought here illegall…

Why are you scare quoting "illegally"? They are here in violation of the law. If you don't believe in controlled immigration, just state that up front rather than trying to hide behind an appeal to emotion via stories of tearing families apart.

Your argument seems to be either that long time violators of a law should gain immunity to the law; or that we should grant citizenship to anyone who enters the country. Which is it?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#503

Post by system16 »

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 the most orderly and civilized place on planet earth

It's certainly the safest. #2 is Singapore, which also happens to be one of the most multi-cultural places on planet earth.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#504

Post by pcwalton »

dlss wrote: post #489
tptacek wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly am I meant to be comforted by the fact that the craven opportunists --- the lowest of the low of the Republican party, discredited outsiders like Newt Gingrich and John Bolton --- are getting the most important positions in the United States government for kowtowing to Trump? There are important thinkers in the Republican Party. People with ideas and a moral core, people who have given years of service to…

> Why exactly am I meant to be comforted by the fact that the craven opportunists --- the lowest of the low of the Republican party [...] are getting the most important positions in the United States government for kowtowing to Trump? Twenty-three days ago you and Marco sought to get Peter Thiel removed from YC for his support of Trump[1]. This is to say you were explicitly working to ensure that respectable people w…

> As might be expected, Trump is now giving governmental positions to those who didn't distance themselves from him during the election. I don't find that surprising.

Cronyism "might be expected" from politicians. (In fact it's very expected from self-serving, hubristic politicians like Donald Trump.) That doesn't make cronyism OK.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#505

Post by hueving »

sgdesign wrote: post #442
edblarney wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, " No - they said they are going to repeal and replace Obamacare with something else. That does not mean they are going to strip people of their health insurance. "Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants" This is a lie.…

So if Trump's problem is only with illegal immigrants, I'm sure he and his supporters would be more than happy to relax immigration policy and regularize the illegal immigrants that are already in the U.S., thus solving the issue?

If someone steals money from you, you don't gift it to them to stop them from being a thief. The illegal immigrants that are here should have to go through the same process as the rest of us immigrants. Otherwise it's just moral hazard disincentivizing immigrants from following the legal process.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#506

Post by tempestn »

snowwrestler wrote: post #496
tempestn wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the furthest thing from a Trump supporter, but it is a significant leap to take his believe that a judge with Mexican heritage would be biased against him due to his anti-Mexican agenda, and turn that into an opposition of all people of Mexican descent. Trump has said some despicable things, but saying that a person of Mexican descent might be biased against him because he's basically a dick to Mexico seems reaso…

American pluralism, which the GP post was talking about, is the belief that people of many backgrounds can come together as equals and build a society together. Trump's focus on the Mexican heritage of an American judge (who was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA BTW) is a textbook attack on that idea.

I was responding specifically to this line: "Trump confirmed his own opposition to people of Mexican descent when he said judge Gonzalo Curiel had a conflict of interest."

I don't believe that particular incident is strong evidence that Trump opposes people of Mexican descent in general. I can understand his belief that a person of Mexican descent would not like him. I don't like him myself, nor do I agree with any of his stated positions on immigration or immigrants. I expect that if my parents were from Mexico, I might feel even more strongly that way, which is essentially what he suggested. (Again, I don't agree that it constitutes a conflict of interest! Just that the idea that a person descended from Mexican immigrants would likely not be a fan of his is not unreasonable.)

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#507

Post by [deleted] »

Rapzid wrote: post #178
RealGeek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Wasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'?

If we believe all the recently headlines about who he's bringing in it appears pure "pay to play". Lots of individuals who Trump "owes" through either money or support they provided to him; pure cronyism. I'm not sure Trump realizes what worked best in business, or what he felt worked best for him in what business he has done, is not necessarily best for operating policy. I'm not sure he cares. I suspect he might tho…

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#508

Post by hamtaroPhD06 »

jacquesc wrote: post #501
hamtaroPhD06 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When someone is racist and sexist, it is everyone's duty to call what they are: racist and sexist.

Agreed. But if you call anyone who disagrees with you on economic policy a racist and sexist, it opens the door for an actual racist and sexist to get in.

Which is not the case right now. So yes the president elect of the US is racist and sexist and a % of his supporters are openly racist and/or sexist people.

This is not a disputed fact in anyway

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#509

Post by rdtsc »

tptacek wrote: post #426
edblarney wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lots of individuals who Trump "owes" through either money or support they provided to him; pure cronyism." Trump is the most 'free' President in modern history. He 'owes' the least, to the fewest people. This is one thing even the center-left press were talking about. As for Thiel - $1M might seem like a lot - but Trump doesn't really 'owe' Thiel anything, because Thiel doesn't have direct future influence etc., and…

Why exactly am I meant to be comforted by the fact that the craven opportunists --- the lowest of the low of the Republican party, discredited outsiders like Newt Gingrich and John Bolton --- are getting the most important positions in the United States government for kowtowing to Trump? There are important thinkers in the Republican Party. People with ideas and a moral core, people who have given years of service to…

Wondering, who do you think he should have brought on board that you'd think -- "Oh that's a good choice, good for him"?

I would guess nobody? If he brought Gingrich it would have been "He's bringing the old crusty white guy from the establishment, he's been lying all this time he is just like them". If he brought in a woman, people would have just said "he is using her as a token"?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#510

Post by puranjay »

pjdemers wrote: post #275

Disagreeing with each other's views on the economy, international relations, even the environment is good for the country. We need different points of view on important issues. But using race baiting to gain political power crosses a line that should never be crossed. He should not be helping to legitimize this.

At this point, I'm not even sure what's more racist: calling a group of people "lazy and unintelligent", or molly-coddling a group of people because "they need special attention".

The way the left treats minorities is pretty patronizing, to be frank.

(I say this as a minority)

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