7 ms·

I'm not very political and I haven't decided who to vote for yet, but I don't understand why the tech industry is so anti-Trump. He seems like a relatively sin

• DougN7 10y ago
  From my observations, the tech industry leans pretty heavily liberal/democrat.
• meritt 10y ago
  Because he's a bully with a dangerous trigger-finger mentality. He doesn't have any actual policies. There's the formal GOP policy which he frequently contradicts and his own viewpoints are extremely fluid as well. His only consistency is attacking those who he views as lower than him.
  • inimino 10y ago
    This explains why you won't vote for him, but that wasn't the question. The question is why the tech industry would differ from the population at large, where Trump has >40% support.
    • meritt 10y ago
      Because the US tech industry exists in socially progressive cities: SF/SV, Seattle, Austin, Portland, NYC.
    • rconti 10y ago
      Look at an electoral polling map.
• inimino 10y ago
  Tech leans liberal and highly-educated, demographically not a good fit for Trump.
  • AvenueIngres 10y ago
    Because voting behaviors and income levels are highly correlated. Stop right there if you believe that people dislike Trump because they are "smarter". It is a cheap to make you feel good about yourself.
    • inimino 10y ago
      I'm just pointing out demographics, no need to read into it more than what I said.
      • AvenueIngres 10y ago
        Please accept my apologies then, this is something that I have often seen followed by a direct attack on his electorate's intelligence and/or how democracy is not working since those poor uneducated masses are given a voice. Same happened after Brexit (and some lunatics arguing that London should become a city-state). So because it matched part of the pattern, I assumed this is where you wanted to take the discussion. Anyway, have a nice afternoon.
    • rconti 10y ago
      Education level. Not intelligence.
    • thesimpsons1022 10y ago
      not really. it is really true. can almost guarantee that the IQ percentile of those supporting trump is on average 20+ points lower than the opposite camp. Both income and education level are highly correlated with both IQ and voting against trump.
  • thegayngler 10y ago
    I'm not sure why people don't bring up the fact that Trump has never done anything for anyone other than himself. When has Trump tried to help someone else other than himself? That is the test that both Mitt Romney and Trump have failed for me. Secondly, this idea that they are great businessman because the regularly bankrupt businesses for a living makes me question their ability to actually run a busines and more so a government. Mitt Romney has bankrupted loans from governments which makes me seriously question his actual strengths. Trump stiffs people who work for him which makes me question his strengths as it relates to helping people. They've failed at the helping people level and they mostly used failing businesses as a vehicle to get rich without actually helping the businesses and their stakeholders. How is a Trump going to balance a budget? He's never been able to with all the resources he's had available to him before. Why would he be able to now?
• AvenueIngres 10y ago
  > why the tech industry is so anti-Trump. People don't risk openly supporting Trump unless they have the kind of fuck-you money/assets that allows them to do so. Truth is that the tech industry is probably leaning toward the Democratic party a lot less than it actually seems simply because of the politically motivated discrimination you would face should you endorse the wrong candidate (or embrace the "wrong" opinions in public). I have seen what happened to a couple folks who told "unappropriate" jokes in a private discussion to their friends while at a public event. They lost their job. I have seen how tons of progressives (not to say most) are so entrenched in their own bias that they fail to realize that dissenting opinions to their beliefs are not morally reprehensible. And that their cultish attitude with respect to diversity is as stupid as the white nationalistic obsession of homogeneity. Finally, I have seen how the democrats/progressives systematically demolish the lives of the people who oppose them. That's why I will remain silent. Post anonymously and take action with my vote. And that's why everyone at my workplace believes I am a staunch HRC supporter. And before you accuse me of paranoia or to have a persecution complex I recommend you try to first figure out why so many people are behaving the exact same way I am: telling one thing in public (or to pollsters) and do another when they are protected by the opacity of a voting cabin. edit: I posted this comment 4 seconds ago and it is already at -1. You read very fast!
  • rconti 10y ago
    Many people have bet on the Bradley effect many times before, and they tend to be wrong. Trump's results in the general election were bang-on with what the polls predicted. The general could be different. But there's no reason to believe that it will be. That said, I don't disagree that "polite" coastal society doesn't take kindly to alternative views.
  • qq66 10y ago
    I think you are correct that the Democratic Party is much more socially acceptable to support, and that especially today, the penalties for holding the "wrong" opinion are severe and cause people to retreat to the anonymity of venues like Reddit and the voting booth. However, telephone polling generally matches actual election results closely enough to assume that people feel a similar level of anonymity in the voting booth as they do in a telephone poll. The dismal polling results for Trump in the Bay Area are not because of secret Trump voters, it's because even conservatives don't want to vote for a candidate whose capability, sanity, behavior, and temperament are so clearly unequal to the job at hand.
• rconti 10y ago
  I'd argue the opposition to Trump has very little to do with politics -- or, at least, no more so than the (generally Democrat) opposition to (generally Republican) candidates. Most of the repulsion is due to his tone, his personality, his unpredictability, and how generally erratic he is. Frankly, to the extent that you ascertain any coherent political principles he has, they're more moderate than the other candidates in the Republican primary. On top of that, his tax plan, such as it is, would save many of us more money than that of many of the other candidates. I think the reality is successful people hate uncertainty. If you're not doing well, you're more likely to roll the dice and say "what's the worst that could happen?" People who have benefited from society as it is today (and, let's admit it, most of us in tech are in the top 5-10%) believe we have the most to lose from an erratic unpredictable leader. And again, that's nothing to do with politics.
  • sdenton4 10y ago
    Politics is about access to power. Trump's views on women - pieces of meat that which he should be free to sexually assaulted - are a direct attack on the rights and power of women. Rights which were hard won over decades of political engagement. Likewise his views on minority populations. So yeah, many of us oppose him in political grounds. Because he's a misogynistic white supremacist, and having such a person in the White House would be a disaster for a huge swath of the population.
    • rconti 10y ago
      It's late, and I'm not quite sure how to reply as I absolutely agree with you, and I don't want my comments to be construed in any way as pro-Trump who I view as the absolute bottom of humanity's barrel, but I didn't want my comments to appear too "political" and not adequately rational. I apologize if politics got in the way of humanity. My best way to describe it is that I was commenting about "politics" as a set of partisan principles; he is far less Republican than the average primary victor; far more moderate in terms of what policy positions he checks the box of. (The usual guns, abortion, marriage, gay, free speech, trade, etc). That was not meant in any way to say that his views on women and racial minorities are "moderate"; clearly they are not, and clearly his own views denigrate him as a person in ways that no words I could ever summon would.
• stephenboyd 10y ago
  It's a false dichotomy to suggest that opposition to Trump is either based on disagreements with his public policy statements or 'just emotional'. Sometimes people are just not qualified for a position, even if they can occasionally say some of the right answers at the interview. If a tech company is considering hiring a CEO or CTO who has ruined several companies, refused to do business with black people until specifically ordered by a court, sexually harassed dozens of subordinates, publicly and verifiable lied about important topics on a regular basis, or bragged about being exploiting his fame to get away with groping women, it doesn't really matter which tech stack they've been praising. Trump has actually done all of those things, if you don't already know. He actually bought a teenage beauty pageant and then frequently ogled and sexually assaulted (nonconsensually groped and kissed) the contestants backstage. That should tell you everything you need to know about his attitude towards abuses of power and how he'd exploit the Presidency. Please don't dismiss this stuff as 'just emotional'. And you can hardly tell what his policies are anyway because he contradicts his own statements on most topics. On the policies that have been clear, the tech industry is opposed to Trump for the same reasons they're opposed to other Republicans. If you're wondering why he's more unpopular in the industry than a generic replacement-level Republican, it's for the same reasons that he's exceptionally unpopular among Republicans themselves.
  • gallonofmilk 10y ago
    Trump is orders of magnitude more qualified than Hillary Clinton.
    • orf 10y ago
      Well that's just not true is it
      • gallonofmilk 10y ago
        Actually, it is. Prove that Hillary's 30 years of being a political stooge qualifies her to lead the largest democracy in the world? When has she ever created an actual job? How did she make her hundreds of millions of dollars? Did she produce anything? Did she build a product and sell it? Did she build a company? Did she follow through on her promise to create 200,000 jobs in New York as a Senator? How have her foreign policy decisions impacted the world in places like Libya and Syria? How did spending $500 million to train 60 Syrian rebels end up? The left is so hyper-focused on trying to assassinate Trumps character that they can't even talk about her dismal record as a career politician and complete lack of real leadership skills. Pathetic.
• api 10y ago
  Can't speak for others, only myself. To me he's an obvious off the charts narcissist... so much so that his narcissism actually seems extreme against the backdrop of Washington politics and the media. That's kind of amazing. IMHO that disqualifies him from the presidency regardless of his policies. It's analogous to why you can't get a pilot's license with bad eyesight. A narcissist is a person with a dangerous addiction to domination, attention, and approval, and giving such a person the power to start wars is just irresponsible. (Of course IMHO the president should have less power to act unilaterally with the military, but that's another matter.) I am not much of a fan of his politics either, but he has said some good things. He is the only politician in the lineup who has made an issue out of the collapse of the American interior. That wins points with me and many other people. If he were constitutionally fit to be president I might consider it. I also wonder if Thiel, being from Cleveland, is perhaps also affected by this last issue. I am also from Ohio and I can relate. You coastal types have no idea. I am not being hyperbolic with "collapse." Huge swaths of the American heartland are essentially de-developing. Maybe Thiel just wants to make some kind of point. He's rich and that's not a lot of money for him. Might just be a costly f-u.
  • douche 10y ago
    I think your last point holds a lotof the key. I'm technically coastal, but where I come from is more Rust Belt in character. Things used to be good, maybe not great, but a lot of people made a living doing honest work and supported strong communities a generation ago. People in those areas today look around and see a gutted, graying, opiod-dependent third-world wasteland where they used to thrive. Things are not better for them.
    • Tempest1981 10y ago
      Has Trump provided a credible plan to help these people?
      • douche 10y ago
        I'm not sure whether what he has proposed would actually be beneficial. But he's one of the few that hasn't told these people to go pound sand, and taken positions on issues that they see as impacting their livelihoods, like immigration, outsourcing, free trade, and tariffs that might possibly help them, rather than exacerbate their problems.
• bjourne 10y ago
  Views on Global Warming: "Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. ... " "NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?" "I don’t believe in climate change." "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
  • api 10y ago
    Saying the Chinese invented Global Warming is batty, but it is certainly true that they have become more competitive in manufacturing by game theoretically "defecting" on it -- going crazy with cheap coal power to undercut all the other nations who have taken at least some steps to reduce CO2 emission. Of course Trump's point was not that nuanced. He said the batty thing as near as I have heard, and I have not heard any substantial proposals on how he might correct the trade imbalance without wrecking the economy by starting a trade war in a fragile economy.
    • ubernostrum 10y ago
      His "nuance" consisted of deleting the relevant tweets and then denying he ever said it. The easiest way to make Trump lose a debate is to make Trump of right now debate the positions of Trump of five (seconds/minutes/months/years) ago.
• seanieb 10y ago
  He suggested banning folks with a particular religion from entering the country...that's some crazy dangerous fucked up shit. He has a bunch more crazy policies, but this is the most dangerous and frankly unheard of before Trump.
  • nolepointer 10y ago
    *Temporarily banning. He's since changed his tune, saying that we need to heavily scrutinize those coming from countries that are terrorist hot beds. Jimmy Carter did something similar, so don't say it's "unheard of."
• equityloan 10y ago
  I upvoted you because I don't think you should be downvoted for stating a political opinion. Democracy is about everyone getting a vote, even if the other side thinks your vote is wrong.
• matt4077 10y ago
  I don't believe you. There is no way you're incapable of making the distinction between Trump and HC. I can get why people would vote for Trump. He's obviously a dangerous idiot, put we all knew there's a market for that (though the size is somewhat scary). It's simply not possible to be undecided between these two for anyone who has spent more than five minutes on it. Regarding your question why people hate Trump: he's openly stigmatizing minorities including calls for violence against African-Americans at his rally. He's threatening to use his power as president for criminal persecutions of his opponents. He advocates for laws making it illegal to criticize him in the media. He has a history of ventures peddling get-rich-quick-schemes to barely literate people for tens of thousands of dollars. There are now more women accusing him of sexual assault than Bill Cosby. He has recently spend a week calling some woman nobody knows fat on Twitter. Reading any of his interview transcripts makes me doubt he'd pass a Turing test.