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I doubt you'd be saying the same if a VC was blacklisted for supporting Hillary.

noir_lord 10y ago
False equivalence though since Hillary isn't Trump, I don't like Hillary much either but I dislike her less than Trump. It's a lose/lose situation but the potential losses are large on one side than the other.
- olalonde 10y ago
  I understood the argument as "it's OK to blacklist people because of their political views if they are powerful" in which case it's fair to question whether that belief would hold for a different set of political views. As you might have guessed, I think blacklisting people based on their political views is a slippery slope and shouldn't be done even to powerful people (especially for political positions that are actually mainstream). I'm not a fan of Trump/Hillary either.
  - int_19h 10y ago
    This seems to imply that all political views are equal. They're not. For example, "Jews are a race of parasites that should be exterminated" is a political view, very popular in some countries back in the day (and in some other countries even today). I don't have any problem blacklisting people who believe in that, and act to make those beliefs a reality, even if the acts themselves are legal (e.g. funding a political campaign to gain power). Do you?
    - olalonde 10y ago
      Can't disagree with that. I guess I should have nuanced my own position a bit, how about: we shouldn't blacklist people based on their political beliefs if those beliefs are shared by nearly half the population and are in no way genocidal? I'd extend the same logic to religion because they both tend to be completely inconsequential at work.
      - morgante 10y ago
        > I guess I should have nuanced my own position a bit, how about: we shouldn't blacklist people based on their political beliefs if those beliefs are shared by nearly half the population and are in no way genocidal? So the millions of Germans who supported Nazism make it okay? Honestly, I don't think it would be a gigantic stretch for Trump to push for genocide against Muslims.
      - int_19h 10y ago
        Well, it's an ethical decision, fundamentally. So the way you approach it should be consistent with the way you approach them in general. If the degree of popular support for some policy or opinion factors into your determination of whether it's ethical or not, then sure. If it doesn't, I don't see why it should be any different in this case.

False equivalence though since Hillary isn't Trump, I don't like Hillary much either but I dislike her less than Trump. It's a lose/lose situation but the potential losses are large on one side than the other.

olalonde 10y ago
I understood the argument as "it's OK to blacklist people because of their political views if they are powerful" in which case it's fair to question whether that belief would hold for a different set of political views. As you might have guessed, I think blacklisting people based on their political views is a slippery slope and shouldn't be done even to powerful people (especially for political positions that are actually mainstream). I'm not a fan of Trump/Hillary either.
- int_19h 10y ago
  This seems to imply that all political views are equal. They're not. For example, "Jews are a race of parasites that should be exterminated" is a political view, very popular in some countries back in the day (and in some other countries even today). I don't have any problem blacklisting people who believe in that, and act to make those beliefs a reality, even if the acts themselves are legal (e.g. funding a political campaign to gain power). Do you?
  - olalonde 10y ago
    Can't disagree with that. I guess I should have nuanced my own position a bit, how about: we shouldn't blacklist people based on their political beliefs if those beliefs are shared by nearly half the population and are in no way genocidal? I'd extend the same logic to religion because they both tend to be completely inconsequential at work.
    - morgante 10y ago
      > I guess I should have nuanced my own position a bit, how about: we shouldn't blacklist people based on their political beliefs if those beliefs are shared by nearly half the population and are in no way genocidal? So the millions of Germans who supported Nazism make it okay? Honestly, I don't think it would be a gigantic stretch for Trump to push for genocide against Muslims.
    - int_19h 10y ago
      Well, it's an ethical decision, fundamentally. So the way you approach it should be consistent with the way you approach them in general. If the degree of popular support for some policy or opinion factors into your determination of whether it's ethical or not, then sure. If it doesn't, I don't see why it should be any different in this case.