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Peter Thiel is doing just fine. If Y Combinator walked away from him, he would not be hurt or marginalized or ostracized in the least. This is not about persecu

Peter Thiel is doing just fine. If Y Combinator walked away from him, he would not be hurt or marginalized or ostracized in the least. This is not about persecuting people who vote for Trump. But to support Trump with an enormous sum of money _after_ Trump has revealed himself to be willing to resort to borderline anti-Semitic slurs, to welcome the support of the white supremacy movement, to call for locking up his political opponent, to threaten the free press, to call for an end to Bill of Rights protections for accused criminals, to pre-emptively claim that the election is rigged, that voting fraud is rampant and to encourage his supporters to intimidate voters, to promise to ban an entire religion, and to brag about sexual assault in professional situations is to make a statement that these are the things Thiel is okay with advocating. Whatever other positions Trump might have that Thiel supports, these things are part of the package. Trump is not just a normal candidate. He's a true threat to our democracy.

grey-area 10y ago
He's a true threat to our democracy. The responses he provokes are also a threat to democracy. It's important not to become that which you oppose by calling for opponents to be punished in some way (e.g. be locked up, or lose their job) because of their beliefs.
- mikeash 10y ago
  He's doing his best to convince people that the results of the election will be fraudulent. He has hinted that his supporters might want to assassinate his opponent. That's what a threat to democracy looks like. Saying that a business might want to reconsider who they work with because of the political donations made by a partner is not remotely a threat to democracy.
massysett 10y ago
" is to make a statement that these are the things Thiel is okay with advocating." Clinton supporters are never held to this standard. No one calls on Clinton supporters to publicly disavow her statement about the "basket of deplorables". Clinton also shipped classified information to her basement server and destroyed thousands of records when under subpoena. No one claims that Clinton supporters are supporting this behavior. Indeed, it seems just fine for Clinton voters to support her despite her activities which were, at best, "extremely reckless." Clinton supporters can say that, despite her flaws, they will vote for her. But for some reason, any Trump voter automatically supports every bad thing he ever did.
- widowlark 10y ago
  Because those things aren't even close to being on the same level.
jshevek 10y ago
> This is not about persecuting people who vote for Trump. No, if you look at the arguments being made and the people making the arguments, it's clear that "this" in the larger sense is exactly about ostracising people who support Trump. Thiel himself is just the target of the moment.

grey-area 10y ago

He's a true threat to our democracy. The responses he provokes are also a threat to democracy. It's important not to become that which you oppose by calling for opponents to be punished in some way (e.g. be locked up, or lose their job) because of their beliefs.

mikeash 10y ago
He's doing his best to convince people that the results of the election will be fraudulent. He has hinted that his supporters might want to assassinate his opponent. That's what a threat to democracy looks like. Saying that a business might want to reconsider who they work with because of the political donations made by a partner is not remotely a threat to democracy.

massysett 10y ago

" is to make a statement that these are the things Thiel is okay with advocating." Clinton supporters are never held to this standard. No one calls on Clinton supporters to publicly disavow her statement about the "basket of deplorables". Clinton also shipped classified information to her basement server and destroyed thousands of records when under subpoena. No one claims that Clinton supporters are supporting this behavior. Indeed, it seems just fine for Clinton voters to support her despite her activities which were, at best, "extremely reckless." Clinton supporters can say that, despite her flaws, they will vote for her. But for some reason, any Trump voter automatically supports every bad thing he ever did.

widowlark 10y ago
Because those things aren't even close to being on the same level.

jshevek 10y ago

> This is not about persecuting people who vote for Trump. No, if you look at the arguments being made and the people making the arguments, it's clear that "this" in the larger sense is exactly about ostracising people who support Trump. Thiel himself is just the target of the moment.