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Time to Take a Stand

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Time to Take a Stand

#521

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

kasey_junk wrote: post #90
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Anyone in a position of power who took a look at Trump and didn't recoil with disgust needs to be exiled from civil society. I don't like Trump, but fighting him isn't worth going against the very principles we fight for. People have a right to their beliefs, even if their beliefs are stupid. If not, than what kind of country are we?

I'm not sure of any nominal principle that says we have to do business with, work for or to invite to things people who behave abhorrently. That Thiel can get a table at a restaurant in SV proves all the talk about changing the world tech leaders do is so much nonsense.

That's different from being exiled from civil society.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#522

Post by anigbrowl »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #396
anigbrowl wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've sen a lot of angst over the last week about people on the left expressing approval for 'punching nazis' following Richard Spencer suffering a whack on the ear during a TV interview. It's true, someone, probably form the left, carried out an act of physical violence while he was just standing there talking. But let's not forget that Spencer and various members of his social circle have - for years now - been expr…

I have questions about a few of your comments, if you don't mind indulging me: 1. Who is speaking for ethnic cleansing and genocide? Can you provide citations? I hear a lot of people talking out against illegal immigration, since it drives down wages and makes it harder for poor Americans to compete and make a living. I also hear politicking regarding banning muslims from entering the U.S., due to the fear of terrori…

Glad to!

1. Here are some examples of people calling for ethnic cleansing/genocide or similarly oppressive policies. If you're basically liberal then these articles will be pretty offensive:

  http://www.amerika.org/politics/the-peat-party/
  http://www.amerika.org/politics/why-we-need-three-castes/
  http://www.counter-currents.com/2015/07/sexual-liberation-and-racial-suicide/
I don't want to get sidetracked into quantitative analysis, but if you really want I can direct you to material compiled by a former US intelligence officer that is documented with hundreds if not thousands of citations. The animus you'll find in the links above directed at people of other races, 'cultural Marxists' and so on may be novel to you, but I've been observing this particular social group on the net for nearly 15 years now.

2. I'm OK with physical violence against people who are actively promoting violence like this, yes. People can have differing opinions about all sorts of subjects and I'm fine with that. I am even wiling to defend the concept of free speech for people like neo-nazis and the kkk - but only up to the point where they endorse violence against others as opposed to merely asserting their own superiority.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#523

Post by gns24 »

deno wrote: post #257
ebola1717 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took 2 seconds of googling to fact check you http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refu...

Your source doesn’t dispute the accuracy of this number at all: > Cruz is rounding up, but he is correct about the percentage of Christians among the Syrian refugees who have resettled in the United States. > A total of 2,290 Syrian refugees have arrived in the United States since fiscal year 2011, which is when the Syrian civil war began, through Nov. 20, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center…

Or maybe the areas where most Christians live were less affected by the war?

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#524

Post by braindead_in »

thilmo wrote: post #350
braindead_in wrote: post #213

I question how effective this policy is going to be in stopping the actual terrorists. Just as a determined hacker will always find a way to break into your server/network, the terrorists will find a way to illegally enter.

They'll enter somewhere and kill infidels, it just won't be the United States. It will probably be Europe, or Australia, at least until those places start imposing similar bans. I reluctantly support this policy. Islamic terrorism has become sufficiently decentralised that we can no longer fight it with the means we've been using. Either we turn our own countries into police states where everybody is constantly monit…

Or maybe treat the disease? No?

If history has taught us anything, it is that the we survive. Wars, disease, plague has not killed us off. We will survive this as well. The question is at what cost. I am not ready to give up my humanity. That is the only thing separating me from a monkey.

And US is not the only country affected by Islamic terrorism. A visa ban is hardly the magic panacea for terrorism.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#525

Post by mark_l_watson »

Scirra_Tom wrote: post #86

I think it's shameful to have an open Trump supporter as part of the upper echelons of YCombinator (Thiel). Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But when you openly support a candidate who likes to "grab [women] by the pussy", and now is making headway into some sort of Muslim ban which was a campaign headline, how will female and muslim applicants feel if they know part of their process might be controlled by som…

I am a life time Democrat, but every time I hear someone bring up the poor taste pussy grabbing comments, I have to ask: do you give Bill Clinton a pass on what happened with Paula Jones? Listening to old interviews as a very young woman, Paula Jones paints an awful image of what Clinton did. There is plenty to criticize Trump for, but nasty comments are not as bad as nasty deeds.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#526

Post by potatosoup »

stonogo wrote: post #168

> This is very important people It's also complete bullshit. I actually live in a Trump-supporting area, and everyone I know who voted for him is ecstatic about this disgusting, offensive action. Trump is a bad person, and the people who voted for him are bad people, and I hope to God I 'push them away' as far as they'll get from me.

> this disgusting, offensive action

Why is this a "disgusting, offensive action," but droning and killing of Muslim people by Obama/Secretary of State Clinton/others not? Shouldn't actual, tragic loss of life evoke a bigger outrage than revising our border policy?

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#527

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

cobralibre wrote: post #286
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Anyone in a position of power who took a look at Trump and didn't recoil with disgust needs to be exiled from civil society. I don't like Trump, but fighting him isn't worth going against the very principles we fight for. People have a right to their beliefs, even if their beliefs are stupid. If not, than what kind of country are we?

> People have a right to their beliefs, even if their beliefs are stupid. If not, than what kind of country are we? Politics is a process of conflict and negotiation between varied, competing interests. In a liberal democracy, "people have a right to their beliefs" is the starting point for that process, not the endpoint.

Yes, but it's a starting point we shouldn't loose sight of.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#528

Post by dang »

Senji wrote: post #391
RangerScience wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. And when you find yourself calling people unamerican, you're doing horribly. Historical example? McCarthyism. Does the ACLU stand for American as in persons, American as in culture, American as in country...? Unless you work there, not up to you. ACLU getting in on this implies America as a lot of things. America as a dream. America as a land of laws. America as a corporate entity honoring agreements. And more. Y…

McCarthy was right. There were actual card carrying communist subversive active in the US. The Russians got the nuclear bomb faster then they would have precisely because of communist spies handing them the research. Don't screach about McCarthy being wrong.

> Don't screach about McCarthy being wrong.

We've banned this account for repeatedly violating HN's civility rule.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#529

Post by gcp »

myblake wrote: post #159
tadasv wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only small companies can take a public stance and they won't for numerous reasons. No large company will ever take a political stance like this. There's too much at stake. I've been saying this for a long time. US is a capitalist country, it does not matter that it's been built by immigrants.

Let's not give up so quickly: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/28/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-f...

Uh, I'd hope any large enough company in the USA (who's likely to have affected employees) sent out a similar message. They literally risk having personnel that was away on business travel get stuck outside the USA with nowhere to go.

Re: Time to Take a Stand

#530

Post by artursapek »

gizmo wrote: post #496
artursapek wrote: post #191

Trump has an anti-Muslim position because the recent bombings, shootings, stabbings, and semi-truck attacks in Europe have all been committed by Muslims. And it's not a coincidence - their ideology says that they are rewarded in the afterlife for killing "infidels" (us). Christians don't live by this kind of ideology.

None of this justifies discrimination against Muslims. I'm flagging this because this kind of incendiary racism has no place on HN.

- Islam is not a race, it's an ideology

- Go live in one of these European cities that have been turned into a refugee ghetto by their government, and come back and tell me that

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