Live data from Hacker News

Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

linkedin.com

91–100 of 1001 posts

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#91
post #27

Edit: Flagged? Wow. This conversation seems extremely relevant to Thiel being in government. Genuinely disappointing that the people in charge of HN do not consider Thiel's extreme views to be worthy of discussion, and instead a "pudding".

We detached this flagged subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12926866 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#92
post #34
post #27

Edit: Flagged? Wow. This conversation seems extremely relevant to Thiel being in government. Genuinely disappointing that the people in charge of HN do not consider Thiel's extreme views to be worthy of discussion, and instead a "pudding".

No he didn't. He suggested, correctly, that women getting the vote was bad for libertarians, because women vote against it. If you read the quote in context, that is very clearly what he's saying.

The quote explicitly names "women getting the vote" as one of the factors that has turned ".. democracy" into an "oxymoron".

Picking and choosing in or out groups is not "democracy".

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#93
post #4

This is good news, I think? Thiel has some extremish views, but I generally regard him as intelligent and thoughtful. And he's in close contact with other smart, influential people (e.g. Musk, Sam Altman, etc.), which gives them some indirect influence. Not that this makes things substantially better. But maybe a little bit? Hopefully?

Thiel has some extremish views, but I generally regard him as intelligent and thoughtful.

"He seems intelligent and thoughtful, but has scarily extremist views" might be a better angle to take.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#94
Is there a kind of "political correctness" that refuses the acknowledgment of facts and likelihoods that sound similar to irrational dismissal? Does that kind prevent people from hearing the following things which I think most people would agree to be true?

-Donald Trump says he wants to completely deregulate the banking industry, which will most likely, in the long term, lead to a crisis on par with or greater than the last banking crisis in 2008. That will probably harm most YC companies in just about every sector, and will negatively influence the value of YC's holdings.

-Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, and millions more of food stamps, decimating our already weak safety net for the poor. He will do more harm to the poor and disadvantaged in his first six months than YC's non-profit efforts have ever achieved and maybe will ever achieve, probably by orders of magnitude.

-Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants. He has stated, and his followers are now performing, an antipathy toward people from other countries, and views their economic success as directly opposed to the success of white Americans. YC is a network that includes many diverse people of all backgrounds, including many immigrants. These people will be persecuted by Trumps followers and oppressed by his government.

-Donald Trump has appointed a "climate skeptic," which means, "dangersous liar," to head the Environmental Protection Agency Transition. He has already sent out many other signals that he intends to cease any US efforts to combat Global Warming, which will have the effect of destabilizing the various international agreements that might have ameliorated its effects. It currently seems likely that Trump will single-handedly prevent the world from achieving a viable response to this threat for another four years. This gravely threatens the entire world, and will cause rippling suffering around the world. Every person who interacts with Y Combinator and their descendants will be unambiguously worse off because of this.

YC should not reject Thiel because "he holds opposing political beliefs." YC should reject Thiel, cut off all relationship with him, publicly condemn him, because he has joined an organization, the Donald Trump Administration, which has stated its intentions to do massive harm to YC and the people of the world. If YC continues its relationship with Thiel, if it fails to acknowledge its association with him as a black mark on its standing among people of conscience, and if it does not muster all of its leverage, economic and otherwise, in the fight to curtail the power of Thiel's organization (The Trump Administration), than they are part of a problem that should terrify anyone who prefers economic growth, the reduction of human suffering, political freedom and the viability of earth as a home for humanity.

Now is a test for many people and institutions in American life. YC doesn't have many days left before it has failed.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you should claim he said that without inserting the actual quote in the interest of accuracy: > Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron. Source: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio... In…

from the article: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. "

Did you look at his reasoning for saying that?

Are you able to make an argument disagreeing with those reasons or would you prefer to just cherry pick quotes to present a narrative that confirms your world view?

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#97
post #4

This is good news, I think? Thiel has some extremish views, but I generally regard him as intelligent and thoughtful. And he's in close contact with other smart, influential people (e.g. Musk, Sam Altman, etc.), which gives them some indirect influence. Not that this makes things substantially better. But maybe a little bit? Hopefully?

He's probably going to be the propaganda tsar since he's known for suing the press.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't agree! I'd blame the democrats alone (the party, leadership, delegates, superdelegates and a section of voters + ~~liar~~ media) for giving away the presidency to Trump. For free, literally. How is Peter Thiel or anyone else (Trump's supporters) responsible for what comes out of the man's mouth when at the same time the other party is clearly doing what's downright corruption/stifling a democratic nomination? I…

>>blame the democrats Don't blame me for Trump. I voted for Hillary. Each of us are responsible for their own vote. Nobody made you vote for Trump. I blame the people who voted for Trump for making him President. After all, we are all adults here, and although Trump never accepts any responsibility for his actions I think that the Trump supporters accept that they voted for him. So yeah, blaming the Democrats for the…

>>blaming the Democrats for the Trump presidency is an oxymoron.

Not really. The dems sabotaged their only electable candidate. I'm not upset about the Trump presidency only because I had come to terms with it as soon as I realised Hillary was going to screw over Bernie and basically guarantee a Trump presidency. Never before has an 'I told so' felt so unsatisfactory. Besides I'm not even sure a Hillary presidency would have been more palatable given her track record.

Post reply on HN