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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I promise not to argue against you, and certainly not to slur you. Please argue! And thank you for not slurring :) > Would you be willing to articulate your argument for Trump here? I supported Obama. I always considered myself a liberal. I support gay marriage, I support gun control. I support universal health care. I support decent welfare and a safety net. As a programmer, the formative moment for my Trump suppo…

So you were worried that the repercussions for saying whatever you like may be too high, and in exchange you were willing to potentially sacrifice women's rights, minorities rights, lgbt+ rights, the environment, business regulations, and whatever else conservative Trump appointments might do? If only the third-wave feminist bloggers, social justice warriors, black lives matters activists, etc, had kept their mouths…

> you were willing to potentially sacrifice women's rights, minorities rights, lgbt+ rights, the environment, business regulations, and whatever else conservative Trump appointments might do?

You see how here you are saying that I am in favour of sacrificing womens, minorities, lgbt, etc. rights.

You see how it is basically saying: You are are a sexist, misogynist, racist?

Why don't you ask me what I think about those issues? Why don't you ask me my views on how they are best improved, and how the current approach is bad? Why don't we have a debate on the effects of introducing female quotas in workplaces. Why don't we have a debate on illegal immigration?

You know why? Because before we start talking about illegal immigration, you will be calling me a "xenophobe" for not using the correct terminology of "undocumented immigrant" or something like that. Its tiring. But I'm always up for it.

> If only the third-wave feminist bloggers, social justice warriors, black lives matters activists, etc, had kept their mouths shut! It's good they were shown there are repercussions to saying whatever you like.

Sadly its true. If you reach too far, and attack everyone who doesn't hold your viewpoint, there are repercussions.

If people don't agree with your approach, you make an argument about why it will result in a better society. You don't label people sexist and racist, and not worth speaking to. Its childish. And this election was a referendum on this.

You have to make logical arguments and engage in debate. Your ideas have to be able to be challenged.

We all want to help, but no one wants to listen.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#662

Given the choice between Thiel (favors reconstitution of our political establishment and believes in science and technology) and the rest of the Trump hangers-on (are ambivalent towards reconstitution of the establishment and are anti-science), this is a decent outcome.

"believes in science and technology" Not really, since he denies global warming: https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s

The man has spent his entire life working in technology.

But since he disagrees with you on one controversial issue, he has not.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#663
post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can argue that a lot of people (Democrats included) didn't want to vote for Clinton either . By that argument you're justifying both candidates' character flaws by saying "Well, you know the other person is just as bad as my choice, so that makes it OK".

I wasn't agreeing with the claims against Trump. I think they are wrong. I was commenting on the fact that you can find arguments for all those claims for Clinton. Which cancels out the argument - and requires each claim to be taken by itself without supporting evidence and reasoned arguments. The libs got to use to not having to back up their claims through a confirmation bias from their echo chamber.

What I don't understand is that you're telling us how you feel bullied by the libs using generalities, and in doing that you're labeling me a "lib" and doing so in a way that comes across as talking down to me.

I'm not defending the behavior of Democratic Party supporters, but can you recognize the hypocrisy in your behavior just now?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I promise not to argue against you, and certainly not to slur you. Please argue! And thank you for not slurring :) > Would you be willing to articulate your argument for Trump here? I supported Obama. I always considered myself a liberal. I support gay marriage, I support gun control. I support universal health care. I support decent welfare and a safety net. As a programmer, the formative moment for my Trump suppo…

Keep in mind that Thiel sued Gawker to stop freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Trump doesn't care and will appoint Thiel to a major position in his administration anyway. Trump also repeatedly sued (or threatened to sue) newspapers who published factual stories about him as well as women who he sexually abused. This is a chilling precedent for free speech: if you are rich enough, then you can just sue to sil…

You think that this kind of thing only happens on the right?

You think that the right-wing parties are more wealthy than the left-wing parties?

You are trying to confirm the "trump is bad" case. But when it is shown that Clinton is the same, and liberals are the same...we have to argue on a case-by-base basis...which is not as easy as calling out conservatives that you don't like.

This is called bias.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#665

A huge issue today is the lack of calm, reasoned debate. As a Trump supporter I have never been able to properly explain the rationale to a liberal. I believe there is a worthy debate beneath all the political smear, but it is never reached. I believe the reason for this is the liberal media and the incredibly effective Democratic party election machine. The argument stays at the high level of "how could you vote for…

Wise decision to create a new account for this comment!

I have the same problem trying to explain to my european friends why trump won and why it is not all crazy.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#666

A huge issue today is the lack of calm, reasoned debate. As a Trump supporter I have never been able to properly explain the rationale to a liberal. I believe there is a worthy debate beneath all the political smear, but it is never reached. I believe the reason for this is the liberal media and the incredibly effective Democratic party election machine. The argument stays at the high level of "how could you vote for…

>Thankfully, freedom of speech is such an integral part of the US, that there is not one side trying to control what the other can say, and the other doing the same back.

That is exactly what the recent HN front page articles proposing that Facebook 'stop misinformation' are aiming to accomplish.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#667
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…

Here is what I said 25 days ago:

> I think Thiel is hedging for both himself and as a proxy for Facebook. If Trump wins, Facebook gets the most favored corporation status currently awarded to Google. If Trump loses, Thiel perhaps assumes everyone will forget soon enough and Zuckerberg can diss-avow any Facebook connection.

In retrospect, the one thing I think I was wrong about were the odds. I thought it was a long shot.

Facebook has sentiment analysis and definitely had a better guess on how the election would turn out than perhaps anyone else in the world. While pollsters were trying to extrapolate on what the entire population would be doing based on small samples and proprietary methods, Facebook just had the data. Not only can Facebook say you are a Trump supporter, but they can know by how much and as time series!

Make no mistake, "Most favored tech company" status just swapped Google with Facebook.

I don't support Trump, I believe very, very little of what he has said he supports or will do. However, I am fairly upset about the public support Hillary received. From foreign policy to domestic issues, her track record is appalling and with the exception of pro-war moderates, everyone who supported her should at least be embarrassed about it.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#668
post #529
post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, he seems to plan the J1 and the H1B Visas. So, he is seemingly against potential legal immigrants too..

H1B program is completely broken and is heavily abused by Indian bodyshops. US needs a skill-based migration system, like any other developed nation.

That would be awesome, if it was actually possible. The reason it is not done is that suddenly it would become much more difficult for Americans to get high paying jobs. H1B's lottery system is infuriating for those who go through it, but it is quite difficult to exploit deterministically.

Who would you prefer coming to the US? 50000 semiskilled workers from TCS/Infosys/etc, or 50000 extremely talented engineers that will be no-brainer hires for any company every year?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#669
Relevant column:

"I don't see a moral obligation for anyone to serve in a Trump administration. But people who opposed Donald Trump, on both the left and right, should commit right now to one thing: We will not tar good people for joining the Trump administration. Their motives will not be questioned, and if things do turn out as some of his critics fear, the people in his foreign and domestic policy apparatus will not suffer guilt by association. It is just too important that Trump have good advisers.

Trump will be the least policy-savvy president in history. He has built no ideological framework for future policies, much less a set of detailed proposals. He has few advisers, in part because so many of the usual contenders have come out against him."

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-09/there-s-n...

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you were worried that the repercussions for saying whatever you like may be too high, and in exchange you were willing to potentially sacrifice women's rights, minorities rights, lgbt+ rights, the environment, business regulations, and whatever else conservative Trump appointments might do? If only the third-wave feminist bloggers, social justice warriors, black lives matters activists, etc, had kept their mouths…

> you were willing to potentially sacrifice women's rights, minorities rights, lgbt+ rights, the environment, business regulations, and whatever else conservative Trump appointments might do? You see how here you are saying that I am in favour of sacrificing womens, minorities, lgbt, etc. rights. You see how it is basically saying: You are are a sexist, misogynist, racist? Why don't you ask me what I think about thos…

> You see how it is basically saying: You are are a sexist, misogynist, racist?

Oh cry me a river. It's starting to look like your only debating tactic is "stop oppressing me".

You said it yourself that you voted for quoting "a racist, sexist, misogynist, xenophobe" because "One side is for freedom of speech, the other side is for controlling what you can say."

How is floodyberrys post not a fair representation of your views?

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