7 ms·

Why does the tech world still embrace Peter Thiel?

12 points by jdp23 10y ago

chinese_dan 10y ago
The entire Peter Thiel situation has taught me that the tech industry, like the mainstream media, is so corrupt, that they have no problem colluding against someone that disagrees with their political views. Just remember: You might be the victim getting your livelihood taken away someday..all because of your differing political views.
- CalChris 10y ago
  Thiel is hardly a victim nor is the tech industry colluding against that particular tech billionaire. We regret the confusion.
  - chinese_dan 10y ago
    "tech industry colluding against that particular tech billionaire." No confusion here. Multiple groups are colluding against him (and so is the media) because they don't like his political views.
    - astrodust 10y ago
      His list of enemies keeps growing with each thing he meddles with.
- bobsil1 10y ago
  Come now, Trump isn't about "small government," and this isn't about "differing political views." It's an attack on the system of gov't itself, women, minorities. In pure biz terms, Thiel's actions are dumb: ML/AI experts are dominated by the foreign-born.
  - chinese_dan 10y ago
    "It's an attack on the system of gov't itself, women, minorities." The Clinton's have attacked more women than Trump. I also don't see how Trump has attacked 'minorities'. Wikileaks has shown us just how corrupt our government has become...and the media continues to cover it up and deflect. Illegal immigrants violating our current laws by being here. This is nothing new. You always have a chance of getting deported if you don't go through the proper channels to become a citizen. Most of the 'foreign-born' as you call it came to this country legally and through the proper channels. Trump has said this from the beginning. He wants to make it easier for people to come here legally. I remember his first speech about Mexico and 'the wall'. He only mentioned illegal immigration and the press ran with it and left out the illegal part. The people that didn't see the speech believed it. The tech industry loves all of immigration because they can hire engineers and other employees at a much lower salary than Americans. The employees get stuck into an essential slave contract because it's very difficult to move to another company while on an H1B visa. Hillary is more of the same corruption, wasted tax dollars, and making back-room deals with billionaires and Wallstreet. The government system needs to be attacked, because it's not doing anything in the best interest of its citizens.
    - bobsil1 10y ago
      That is a perfectly valid argument for a fictional candidate. Trump's campaign is run by a white supremacist and repeatedly RT's neo-nazis. We should marginalize extremists with the national equivalent of hellbanning.
      - chinese_dan 10y ago
        "Trump's campaign is run by a white supremacist and repeatedly RT's neo-nazis" The Clinton campaign is run by a bunch of Fascists and she is friends with the likes of Bill Ayers (someone who actually used explosives to harm innocent people). If the company you keep represents the person, both Obama and Hillary are pretty terrible people. I've never seen Trump re-tweet anything remotely related to neo-nazis...only fake bullshit copied by dummies on Social media.
      - 10y ago
- Nokinside 10y ago
  Here is my counterargument. It would be unethical to team publicly against average person, based on his opinions, but Thiel is not a average person. Large amounts of money change the status of a person. Money and political power are largely interchangeable. Thiel is billionaire and his status and influence is closer to major politician, large company or small state than average joe. Thiel has demonstrated that he is willing to use his money to attack against others he don't like, so I think he should be able to take some blowback. Hie livelihood is not in a stake.
  - chinese_dan 10y ago
    This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s. You have money? You can be treated as less than a human.
    - Nokinside 10y ago
      >This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s. This is accepted principle in liberal democracies. Public Officials and figures get less protection than common man.
      - dreta 10y ago
        Sure, whatever helps you justify crucifying a person for their views.
      - chinese_dan 10y ago
        "Officials and figures get less protection than common man." This is an accepted principle in evil authoritarian countries, not liberal democracies. Everyone should have the same rights, regardless of wealth or status. This is just an excuse, so you can make yourself feel better at night for treating someone as less than human.
- digler999 10y ago
  Just remember: your "livelihood" should never include shaming people for their sexual orientation or exhibiting surreptitiously recorded videos of other people having sex.
adam419 10y ago
I remember as far back as 2012 seeing Gawker articles and truly feeling ashamed for humanity. You had these pompous writers completely mocking and attempting to knock down elon musk as some insane fool for his recent release of the hyperloop plans, etc. So here's a guy actually moving our society forward in transportation and the environment, and these smug writers try to cast him as a clown. Does anyone actually defend on substance any of the activities Gawker was engaging in? These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over reasons that were most often proven false and always self serving to the interests of gawker. I think peter is a smart guy, but I really feel a sense of gratitude to him for ridding the world of that awful organization. Everyone sensationalistically shouts he's an evil billionaire damaging free speech and journalism, but gawker was engaged in voyeurism and bullying. And a court of law agreed with it. We make exceptions to pure free speech all the time, such as not being allowed to shout fire in a movie theater, etc. I don't care to comment about his support of trump, but I also find it curious most of his vocal critics are themselves journalists, and are in my opinion resentful of the fact he set a precedent that the power "journalists" have is also something that can be held accountable.
- Nokinside 10y ago
  >"These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over reasons that were most often proven false and always self serving to the interests of ...." Assuming our opinion is like above, but against Trump, do we have justification to attack Trump and Thiel based on their political opinion?
  - astrodust 10y ago
    It can be your "political opinion" that the government should be small, taxes kept low, and regulation to a minimum. When you start bragging about sexually assaulting women, advocating violence against your opponents, and feeding the flames of racial tension you've moved well beyond mere opinion. It's bewildering that Thiel would support such a character now given how Thiel won't "suffer" from Trump not being in the White House. It was under Bill Clinton that this entire tech party got started: The commercialization of the Internet. Laws favorable to the start-up investment scene. Freeing up investment banks to allocate capital more freely. I just don't get Thiel's motivation here. You don't want a total lunatic in power, you want someone you can talk to and persuade.

12 points by jdp23 10y ago

The entire Peter Thiel situation has taught me that the tech industry, like the mainstream media, is so corrupt, that they have no problem colluding against someone that disagrees with their political views. Just remember: You might be the victim getting your livelihood taken away someday..all because of your differing political views.

CalChris 10y ago
Thiel is hardly a victim nor is the tech industry colluding against that particular tech billionaire. We regret the confusion.
- chinese_dan 10y ago
  "tech industry colluding against that particular tech billionaire." No confusion here. Multiple groups are colluding against him (and so is the media) because they don't like his political views.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    His list of enemies keeps growing with each thing he meddles with.
bobsil1 10y ago
Come now, Trump isn't about "small government," and this isn't about "differing political views." It's an attack on the system of gov't itself, women, minorities. In pure biz terms, Thiel's actions are dumb: ML/AI experts are dominated by the foreign-born.
- chinese_dan 10y ago
  "It's an attack on the system of gov't itself, women, minorities." The Clinton's have attacked more women than Trump. I also don't see how Trump has attacked 'minorities'. Wikileaks has shown us just how corrupt our government has become...and the media continues to cover it up and deflect. Illegal immigrants violating our current laws by being here. This is nothing new. You always have a chance of getting deported if you don't go through the proper channels to become a citizen. Most of the 'foreign-born' as you call it came to this country legally and through the proper channels. Trump has said this from the beginning. He wants to make it easier for people to come here legally. I remember his first speech about Mexico and 'the wall'. He only mentioned illegal immigration and the press ran with it and left out the illegal part. The people that didn't see the speech believed it. The tech industry loves all of immigration because they can hire engineers and other employees at a much lower salary than Americans. The employees get stuck into an essential slave contract because it's very difficult to move to another company while on an H1B visa. Hillary is more of the same corruption, wasted tax dollars, and making back-room deals with billionaires and Wallstreet. The government system needs to be attacked, because it's not doing anything in the best interest of its citizens.
  - bobsil1 10y ago
    That is a perfectly valid argument for a fictional candidate. Trump's campaign is run by a white supremacist and repeatedly RT's neo-nazis. We should marginalize extremists with the national equivalent of hellbanning.
    - chinese_dan 10y ago
      "Trump's campaign is run by a white supremacist and repeatedly RT's neo-nazis" The Clinton campaign is run by a bunch of Fascists and she is friends with the likes of Bill Ayers (someone who actually used explosives to harm innocent people). If the company you keep represents the person, both Obama and Hillary are pretty terrible people. I've never seen Trump re-tweet anything remotely related to neo-nazis...only fake bullshit copied by dummies on Social media.
    - 10y ago
Nokinside 10y ago
Here is my counterargument. It would be unethical to team publicly against average person, based on his opinions, but Thiel is not a average person. Large amounts of money change the status of a person. Money and political power are largely interchangeable. Thiel is billionaire and his status and influence is closer to major politician, large company or small state than average joe. Thiel has demonstrated that he is willing to use his money to attack against others he don't like, so I think he should be able to take some blowback. Hie livelihood is not in a stake.
- chinese_dan 10y ago
  This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s. You have money? You can be treated as less than a human.
  - Nokinside 10y ago
    >This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s. This is accepted principle in liberal democracies. Public Officials and figures get less protection than common man.
    - dreta 10y ago
      Sure, whatever helps you justify crucifying a person for their views.
    - chinese_dan 10y ago
      "Officials and figures get less protection than common man." This is an accepted principle in evil authoritarian countries, not liberal democracies. Everyone should have the same rights, regardless of wealth or status. This is just an excuse, so you can make yourself feel better at night for treating someone as less than human.
digler999 10y ago
Just remember: your "livelihood" should never include shaming people for their sexual orientation or exhibiting surreptitiously recorded videos of other people having sex.

adam419 10y ago

I remember as far back as 2012 seeing Gawker articles and truly feeling ashamed for humanity. You had these pompous writers completely mocking and attempting to knock down elon musk as some insane fool for his recent release of the hyperloop plans, etc. So here's a guy actually moving our society forward in transportation and the environment, and these smug writers try to cast him as a clown. Does anyone actually defend on substance any of the activities Gawker was engaging in? These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over reasons that were most often proven false and always self serving to the interests of gawker. I think peter is a smart guy, but I really feel a sense of gratitude to him for ridding the world of that awful organization. Everyone sensationalistically shouts he's an evil billionaire damaging free speech and journalism, but gawker was engaged in voyeurism and bullying. And a court of law agreed with it. We make exceptions to pure free speech all the time, such as not being allowed to shout fire in a movie theater, etc. I don't care to comment about his support of trump, but I also find it curious most of his vocal critics are themselves journalists, and are in my opinion resentful of the fact he set a precedent that the power "journalists" have is also something that can be held accountable.

Nokinside 10y ago
>"These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over reasons that were most often proven false and always self serving to the interests of ...." Assuming our opinion is like above, but against Trump, do we have justification to attack Trump and Thiel based on their political opinion?
- astrodust 10y ago
  It can be your "political opinion" that the government should be small, taxes kept low, and regulation to a minimum. When you start bragging about sexually assaulting women, advocating violence against your opponents, and feeding the flames of racial tension you've moved well beyond mere opinion. It's bewildering that Thiel would support such a character now given how Thiel won't "suffer" from Trump not being in the White House. It was under Bill Clinton that this entire tech party got started: The commercialization of the Internet. Laws favorable to the start-up investment scene. Freeing up investment banks to allocate capital more freely. I just don't get Thiel's motivation here. You don't want a total lunatic in power, you want someone you can talk to and persuade.