For anyone caring to get out of the echo chamber and near, unfortunately not onto the beach, join us at engageSPARK in Cebu, Philippines. :) https://www.engagespark.com/careers
Might get a different perspective on the stuff inside this bubble. (Obviously, I'm still interested in the echo, since I'm here.)
Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
601–610 of 901 posts
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#602Earlier quoted context omitted.
>racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-welfare-state politics This is not exactly what "conservative thought" is, but the conflation does nicely demonstrate SV's toxic mix of ignorance and intolerance.
You'll find plenty of support for disruption of burdensome and anti-consumer regulatory regimes (see: ridesharing), a mix of free traders and protectionists, opponents of price controls, advocates to unleash private capital to fix societal problems (see: YIMBYs), advocates to reduce the administrative burden of redistribution schemes (see: UBI), and a number of other center-right positions. What gets you in trouble h…
When it comes to really big money principles often go right out the window...
There might be some diversity of economic matterts; depends on whether you make money on walking through the outer fringes of legality (e.g. AirBnB) or not. On social issues that you mention SV is far more of an echo chamber.
Although I do wonder where you're getting the idea about groups that "deserve it". Personal responsibility, vs. identity politics seems to be a rather large dividing line between liberals and conservatives, and "deserve it" as applied to groups is a liberal belief, not conservative.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#603Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to counter this anecdata, the startup I used to work at was founded by 4 conservatives, 2 of whom met working in the George W Bush White House. We used to discuss and debate all sorts of politic topics, and in fact I was quite often in the minority (a position that didn't bother me... it was a good way to learn different perspective on some key issues). They were then and I'm sure still now are quite openly cons…
There are different types of people that call themselves conservative. The Bush's were both pro-business conservatives, but never really expoused the type of populism that Trump does. You could admit in polite company that you supported the Bushes, or Romney. You really can't admit that you support Trump in polite company without being judged harshly.
Maybe it’s worth reflecting on just why that might be.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#604Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, it was not the salt of the Earth Middle America rioting in Berkeley because they dared to invite Coulter or Milo to speak. And you know, Roy Moore lost elections. How many Republicans did SFBA send to Washington lately?
Are you so sure about the rioting in Berkley? It takes two to tango.
You don't need two to break store windows.
And as silly and ignorant as Coulter is, at the moment when one starts saying that she does not have a right to speak here, one signs off on his moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#605There is a linguistic sleight of hand at work here: 'libertarian' and 'left' is not what is happening in SV. These terms have been hijacked by the identity politics cartel. The SV political and ideological climate is all about pidgeonholing you into 0.01-0.3% segment ('left-handed bisexual javascript expert'), then maintaining these segments and manipulating the fractured society into neoliberal directions. It is obv…
That's not quite correct. There are very obvious, very large common intellectual & political interests in Silicon Valley: Equal representation of women and minorities in tech. Wage gap as a result of discrimination. Unlimited low skill immigration; immigration amnesty. Environmentalism, global climate change. Gay rights. Drug legalization, ending policies of mass incarceration. Those topics all have overwhelming supp…
It seems that a lot of the proponents for relaxed unskilled immigration are also the same that decry the use of H1B visas.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#606I'm an immigrant. After 20 years in the Bay Area, I'm calling it quits. There are practical reasons, like the high taxes, high cost of living, and widespread social dysfunction and conflicts. But the biggest problem with the Bay Area isn't a left-right issue, it's that it is filled with techies who went from college to being very well off without the usual decades of struggle, without a lot of life experience, and without much knowledge beyond technology. These people will never grow up, because they have enough wealth and power that nothing will ever force them to grow up. Quite apart from running the Bay Area into the ground, those are simply not the kind of people I want to work with or socialize with.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#607As someone who is an outsider looking in on this whole situation (someone who both does not live in Silicon Valley and does not live in America), I honestly think the whole place and everyone there is f king insane. Both sides are seemingly entirely incapable of accepting that people, with all their complexities can have differing view points and not just assuming they are the devil incarnate. I used to think that I…
Remember that you're looking through the lens of the media. Controversy and strong opinions generate clicks and make money.
Most people aren't strongly on one side or the other. It is possible to vote for the Republican Party and still decry the white supremacists and neo-Nazis. It is possible to be a Democrat supporter and not believe that all Republicans are white supremacists.
In reality, most people simply don't care one way or another. I don't talk to my friends about politics, not because it's controversial, but because none of my friends give a shit.
I'm not American, but I think exactly the same thing applies there.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#608Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nashville as you know is actually pretty liberal, but the biggest difference is that people here live their lives, are friendly to others, and that southern charm is a real thing. People in San Francisco are always so outraged and angry (mainly since Trump took office) and the media constantly feeds them things to be outraged about that they are perpetually angry. People in Nashville for the most part don't let polit…
We do not live in the same Nashville. Not only is it not “pretty liberal” by any definition, people here aren’t any less political than people on the coasts, and they don’t “live their lives” any more, whatever that even means. However, people here are less angry about Trump and the Republicans because they’re much more likely to have voted for him and support what he’s doing. They were plenty angry when Obama was in…
>“southern charm” is real and nice at first, but in my experience it’s actually pretty shallow, cheap, and discriminatory.
Ohhhhh yeah.
I have to admit I have a limited amount of personal experience with the South, but this is both the impression I have from my limited experience and what people who grew up in the South but live in the Northeast now tell me from their experiences.
Or as someone who grew up in Louisiana told me "'Southern Hospitality' and hospitality anywhere else is the same except that outside the South they don't feel the need to brag about it and also offer it to people that aren't white."
It's just sooooooo so so so shallow, some of the stuff I hear Southerners brag about I'm thinking, in my head, "well literally anyone I know would do that but that so I'm not impressed and, nobody would feel the need to brag about it later."
I just hate how shallow and insincere it is dressed up in in the thin veil of sincerity
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#609Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really, in Cuba, like in old USSR and other communist countries, you just don't see the inequality, which is far greater than anything that ever existed in the US. It just goes off a lower baseline.
Obviously there's the political inner circle, who operate with privileges the regular people don't have access to, but I'm really talking about the experience in the places ordinary people tread. And I also do realize that one is simply not allowed to be openly destitute in a place like Havana, as it would discredit The System. By the same token, I think we kind of discredit our own.
I'm not as familiar with Havana, but sure, in Moscow in "good" old times it was illegal to be a bum, or unemployed.
Come to think of it, it would be just as illegal to openly compare the living standard of even a third-rate party apparatchick vs. that of a factory worker, for whom the system ostensibly worked.
I am not sure if hiding the rather natural that people end up differently (even though in places like Cuba or USSR where you end up depends far less on your abilities than in the US) is in any way better than having the differences in the open.
Re: Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’
#610Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't contradicting anything I claimed. If anything, it's reinforcing it. Pointing out the disparity between the prevalence of conservative views (or at least, views that go against the majority in big Bay Area tech companies) on HN vs. in real life reinforces the notion that many tech workers are having to censor themselves and lie to their co-workers to fit in at work. Marc Andressen said something similar in…
My point is, if your political stance is that certain groups should be denied fundamental rights, for instance, then yes, you will feel awkward around those people, and with good reason.
And who gets to decide what is and isn't a fundamental right? Remember, the majority of Californian voters voted to ban same sex marriage in 2008. That would make us (people who think same sex marriage should be a right) the minority. If your boss declared the right to firearms a fundamental right, should it empower him or her to fire anyone who donates to politicians that support gun control (in other words, almost all Democrats)?