5 ms·

I am not an American but I'm following this election closely. Hilary is really tainted by the FBI remarks and Trump.... what shall I say. Most people say he is

by arkj 10y ago

I am not an American but I'm following this election closely. Hilary is really tainted by the FBI remarks and Trump.... what shall I say. Most people say he is a clown, elites hate him, nytimes and the like are always against him. But Peter Thiel is backing Trump. Are people in the valley silently backing him? or is Thiel and odd one out? I know HN is not the place for politics but this time I couldn't stop asking.

Kequc 10y ago
He holds wide appeal despite what most sources would tell you, he was as popular with elites as Bernie Sanders. He would not have made it this far without receiving record numbers of votes. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-historic-race-record-fashion/ http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-hi... > As a result Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history.
- freyir 10y ago
  > he was as popular with elites as Bernie Sanders So... not popular with elites.
  - zdkl 10y ago
    What the hell is an elite in this context? I keep hearing this but can't figure out wat it means concretely
    - cheez 10y ago
      People who have more rights than you.
    - delazeur 10y ago
      Whichever rich and/or powerful people you don't like, as far as I can tell.
      - freyir 10y ago
        I love elites. But by definition, they're small group of people that have disproportionate influence over an entire population. There's nothing inherently unlikeable about that in principal. In practice, the drive to amass enormous wealth and power and exert control over others doesn't seem to correlate well with being particularly likable.
- mmanfrin 10y ago
  Trump had 10% more votes than the next, but there has been a 9% jump in population since the last open election primary cycle. Using absolute numbers is pretty disingenuous. Additionally, the record number of competitors all split the vote against him, leading to an early point where his competitors had -- mathematically -- a very difficult uphill battle. I disagree with you that he has 'wide appeal'. I think he holds zealous appeal among the demagogic and ideological crowd, but I vehemently disagree that he has wide appeal.
  - jazzyk 10y ago
    You may be missing a lot of just regular folks (including educated ones), who will be holding their vomit bags while voting for Trump, because they can't bring themselves to vote for the ethically challenged, "extremely careless" other candidate.
- whatever_dude 10y ago
  > As a result Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history. Without context, that doesn't mean much. Did he receive more votes than any primaries candidate in Republican history? Yes. But given the fact that these primaries received more votes than any other primaries, that loses significant power. When you look at numbers, it's easy to pick the result that makes a specific case. That's what the author is doing here. In fact, as an exercise, it's easy to make the opposite case - that he had extremely low support compared to previous primaries - by using the same numbers. Look at the table right under that quote. In 2012, Romney had 10,048,134 votes, compared to Trump's 13,406,108. Advantage Trump? Well, if you take a look at the total numbers - 19,272,346 vs 30,335,825, respectively - it means Trump had 44% of the votes, while Romney had 52%. Similar lower percentage numbers repeat when you compare him to other candidates from that table. He ended up winning by getting the right delegates, but not the number of votes. So while saying "Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history" is correct, saying "Trump received the lowest winning percentage of votes from any Republican candidate since 2000" is also correct (the table stops at 2000 so not sure about other years).
CPLX 10y ago
The short answer to your question is that Peter Thiel is an odd man out. He has some very bizarre and extreme political views by both mainstream and especially Bay Area standards. When the election is concluded it is essentially a certainty that Trump will have lost San Francisco and Silicon Valley by huge double digit margins.
coldcode 10y ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/technology/silicon-valley-writes-a-protest-letter-against-trump.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/technology/silicon-valley-... You can find this all over the web. Peter Thiel is not representative of just about everyone.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Red_Tarsius 10y ago
He is a clown because the media says so. I've asked DOZENS of people why they disapprove of Trump's policies and none of them could describe any factual reason. Trump might be [insert something], but we should be worried by the control the media retain over mass opinion. People are genuinely angry at him, people feel a visceral disgust. But they can't grasp why and outsource fact checking and decision making to their favorite tv channel. If you want to know more about candidates' policies, check out to their website: Donald Trump https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions Hillary Clinton https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ Unfortunately, third party candidates are never taken that seriously. There are alternatives: http://www.bealibertarian.com/ http://www.bealibertarian.com/
- CPLX 10y ago
  > I've asked DOZENS of people why they disapprove of Trump's policies and none of them could describe any factual reason. So not one of them said discriminating against people based on their religion and attempting to disqualify public officials based on their ethnicity is disgusting and completely against the values of this country? Perhaps your next task should be to surround yourself with people who don't think that way.
- belltaco 10y ago
  Here's mine. His own words: "Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic." An authority figure saying that on national TV probably caused and will result in many infections, many to children who cannot take vaccines due to medical reasons. I see that he jumps to such quick conclusions on almost every topic instead of delving deeper into it.
lisper 10y ago
Thiel is actually very much like Trump. Both are extreme Ayn-Randian capitalists, and misogynists (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democracy_us_5747079be4b03ede4413f6f5 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democr...). So Thiel's support is not too surprising.

by arkj 10y ago

Kequc 10y ago

He holds wide appeal despite what most sources would tell you, he was as popular with elites as Bernie Sanders. He would not have made it this far without receiving record numbers of votes. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-historic-race-record-fashion/ http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-hi... > As a result Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history.

freyir 10y ago
> he was as popular with elites as Bernie Sanders So... not popular with elites.
- zdkl 10y ago
  What the hell is an elite in this context? I keep hearing this but can't figure out wat it means concretely
  - cheez 10y ago
    People who have more rights than you.
  - delazeur 10y ago
    Whichever rich and/or powerful people you don't like, as far as I can tell.
    - freyir 10y ago
      I love elites. But by definition, they're small group of people that have disproportionate influence over an entire population. There's nothing inherently unlikeable about that in principal. In practice, the drive to amass enormous wealth and power and exert control over others doesn't seem to correlate well with being particularly likable.
mmanfrin 10y ago
Trump had 10% more votes than the next, but there has been a 9% jump in population since the last open election primary cycle. Using absolute numbers is pretty disingenuous. Additionally, the record number of competitors all split the vote against him, leading to an early point where his competitors had -- mathematically -- a very difficult uphill battle. I disagree with you that he has 'wide appeal'. I think he holds zealous appeal among the demagogic and ideological crowd, but I vehemently disagree that he has wide appeal.
- jazzyk 10y ago
  You may be missing a lot of just regular folks (including educated ones), who will be holding their vomit bags while voting for Trump, because they can't bring themselves to vote for the ethically challenged, "extremely careless" other candidate.
whatever_dude 10y ago
> As a result Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history. Without context, that doesn't mean much. Did he receive more votes than any primaries candidate in Republican history? Yes. But given the fact that these primaries received more votes than any other primaries, that loses significant power. When you look at numbers, it's easy to pick the result that makes a specific case. That's what the author is doing here. In fact, as an exercise, it's easy to make the opposite case - that he had extremely low support compared to previous primaries - by using the same numbers. Look at the table right under that quote. In 2012, Romney had 10,048,134 votes, compared to Trump's 13,406,108. Advantage Trump? Well, if you take a look at the total numbers - 19,272,346 vs 30,335,825, respectively - it means Trump had 44% of the votes, while Romney had 52%. Similar lower percentage numbers repeat when you compare him to other candidates from that table. He ended up winning by getting the right delegates, but not the number of votes. So while saying "Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history" is correct, saying "Trump received the lowest winning percentage of votes from any Republican candidate since 2000" is also correct (the table stops at 2000 so not sure about other years).

CPLX 10y ago

The short answer to your question is that Peter Thiel is an odd man out. He has some very bizarre and extreme political views by both mainstream and especially Bay Area standards. When the election is concluded it is essentially a certainty that Trump will have lost San Francisco and Silicon Valley by huge double digit margins.

coldcode 10y ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/technology/silicon-valley-writes-a-protest-letter-against-trump.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/technology/silicon-valley-... You can find this all over the web. Peter Thiel is not representative of just about everyone.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Red_Tarsius 10y ago

He is a clown because the media says so. I've asked DOZENS of people why they disapprove of Trump's policies and none of them could describe any factual reason. Trump might be [insert something], but we should be worried by the control the media retain over mass opinion. People are genuinely angry at him, people feel a visceral disgust. But they can't grasp why and outsource fact checking and decision making to their favorite tv channel. If you want to know more about candidates' policies, check out to their website: Donald Trump https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions Hillary Clinton https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/ Unfortunately, third party candidates are never taken that seriously. There are alternatives: http://www.bealibertarian.com/ http://www.bealibertarian.com/

CPLX 10y ago
> I've asked DOZENS of people why they disapprove of Trump's policies and none of them could describe any factual reason. So not one of them said discriminating against people based on their religion and attempting to disqualify public officials based on their ethnicity is disgusting and completely against the values of this country? Perhaps your next task should be to surround yourself with people who don't think that way.
belltaco 10y ago
Here's mine. His own words: "Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic." An authority figure saying that on national TV probably caused and will result in many infections, many to children who cannot take vaccines due to medical reasons. I see that he jumps to such quick conclusions on almost every topic instead of delving deeper into it.

lisper 10y ago

Thiel is actually very much like Trump. Both are extreme Ayn-Randian capitalists, and misogynists (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democracy_us_5747079be4b03ede4413f6f5 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democr...). So Thiel's support is not too surprising.