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Peter Thiel Parts Ways with Silicon Valley
- alva 9y agoNon-paywall https://pastebin.com/krfQwUVt https://pastebin.com/krfQwUVt
- virmundi 9y agoSo torn about this being posted. I get his relationship to the tech scene. I get how it makes sense. At the same time, the comments are going to quickly devolve onto the very sniping he's leave. Probably more so today given the Florida shooting. With all due respect to @alva, can we let this post wither on the vine? Not today. Not after yesterday.
- aaron-lebo 9y agoDon't really see the connection. You sure your comment isn't more likely to send the conversation that way?
- hashkb 9y agoExpect downvotes to bury this. I don't get it either.
- virmundi 9y agoNo. His stated reason in the article or leaving is an anti conservatism streak in SV. Intrinsic to them is a belief in self defense and weapons ownership. You can't debate the whole concept of his exodus without name calling and vitriolic attacks lobbed by both sides. In the past month there have been two, at least , posts that became so political that they were flagged. Ironically one was on free speech. I just don't have the stomach for it today. In general I'm not sure there is any good to be had with this kind of material on HN.
- toyg 9y ago> I just don't have the stomach for it today. Feeling a bit of shame, possibly?
- IntronExon 9y agoMaybe he just takes the rules here seriously, and a big one seems to be avoiding politics and political flame wars. Looking at this thread, it’s degenersting into predictable armed camps. This is the polar opposite of satisfying intellectual curiosity, it’s stultifying and boring and predictable and tiring. It’s this kind of discussion that poisons a site and its community.
- toyg 9y ago"Having the stomach" has nothing to do with "taking the rules seriously". > it’s stultifying and boring and predictable and tiring I agree. Anything becomes boring when repeated enough times, like once a week in this case. That's why I wanted to move on from talking about laws that will never happen, towards trying to understand what a gun advocate feels when this sort of thing happens. It's interesting from a psychological perspective.
- IntronExon 9y agoIn a perfect world that discussion might happen, but in the world we live in we get this thread and others like it. I really believe that online is the worst way to discuss these matters, and I think that’s a supportable position based on track record alone.
- striking 9y agoNo, seriously. I think I align with at least some of your ideals, but that connection doesn't make any sense. There's nothing wrong with the article, either. I think reasonable discussion can be had about it. If you're for free speech, you'll know you can simply not participate in discussions you "don't have the stomach for today" instead of asking moderators to close the post.
- PaulRobinson 9y agoIt's a loss to the sector to lose somebody who thinks deeply (Zero to One is a good book), cares and wants to make the World better through technology and investment in firms dedicated to the same. It's not a loss to the sector to lose somebody who thinks the path to doing that is intolerance, dominance, lack of accountability and an insistence on some Ayn Rand-ian gibberish philosophy of the World. He was intolerant of Gawker. He dominated them by suing them to the hilt via the Hogan case. He is anti-regulation which in this case is a synonym for anti-accountability. Most of his political and economic philosophy seems to be the same gauche pastiche of SV's obsession with Rand. So, yeah, good riddance. If software is eating the World, it's important the people building and operating it are as diverse as possible, otherwise there is a risk it unconsciously or consciously becomes biased in its actions and consequences towards a single social group at the expense of others. Of course a one-party political philosophy is a problem in the long term, but so is Trump's stance on equality - one Thiel endorses - and for now at least it's important the voices of diversity and accountability win out for the long run. TL;DR: Bye! Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out! Come back when you've got a little more mature and empathic towards others if you want!
- mieseratte 9y ago> He was intolerant of Gawker. Given what Gawker did to him, I can hardly shed a tear. There are plenty of reasons to dislike the man, but that ain't one.
- tuna-piano 9y agoThiel is intolerant of Gawker, true! I'm intolerant of Nazis. The commentor is intolerant of Peter Thiel. It's better to discuss the actual merits of a position, rather than just saying "They're intolerant".
- milankovic 9y agoSilly me, being tolerant of everything...
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- spking 9y agoI grew up in Alameda and have lived in LA for 10 years now. Oakland/Berkeley/SF notwithstanding, LA isn't that significantly different when it comes to politics and I'm sure Mr. Thiel is aware of that.
- hashkb 9y agoHe wants more money. LA is untapped, relatively speaking.
- muzz 9y agoHe's also a citizen of New Zealand
- gpapilion 9y agoNot that different but I’d say more tolerant. Just more diversity in people an opinions.
- _delirium 9y agoLA definitely feels very different to me too. It's similar politically if you take only one bit of information, "votes mainly for Democrats", in which case yeah it's also liberal. But that's a very broad lens for understanding the political and cultural climate of an area. SF has far more of a very specific kind of liberal, the affluent white liberal who is focused primarily on social issues. LA's median Democrat is instead Latino and makes $50k. His or her politics are also likely to be left-of-center, but not quite in the same way. In some ways probably more left, in other ways less left, but not the same profile of issues or overall cultural feel.
- tannhauser23 9y agoIt goes beyond the general political mindset and what parties people in respective cities vote for. In SV people will blacklist you and even publicly call for you to be fired/ostracized if you are a conservative, as Thiel himself experienced. I have many friends who are moderates - not even conservatives - and they can't speak their minds among coworkers because they fear that their careers will suffer. It's a weird echo chamber where only the most radical left gets to dominate the conversation. In LA, I mean entertainment is a fairly liberal industry, but it's not the only game in town. Plus Orange County is nearby and that's the last bastion of Republicans in the state.
- ErikVandeWater 9y agoRecommend using Read Across the Aisle if you want to get past the paywall: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read-across-the-aisle/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read-across-the-ai...
- SirensOfTitan 9y agoTim Ferris on the same issue: > Silicon Valley also has an insidious infection that is spreading -- a peculiar form of McCarthyism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism) masquerading as liberal open-mindedness. I'm as socially liberal as you get, and I find it nauseating how many topics or dissenting opinions are simply out-of-bounds in Silicon Valley. These days, people with real jobs (unlike me) are risking their careers to even challenge collective delusions in SF. Isn't this supposed to be where people change the world by challenging the consensus reality? By seeing the hidden realities behind the facades? That's the whole reason I traveled west and started over in the Bay Area. Now, more and more, I feel like it's a Russian nesting doll of facades -- Washington DC with fewer neck ties, where people openly lie to one another out of fear of losing their jobs or being publicly crucified. It's weird, unsettling, and, frankly, really dangerous. There's way too much power here for politeness to be sustainable. If no one feels they can say "Hey, I know it makes everyone uncomfortable, but I think there's a leak in the fuel rods in this nuclear submarine..." we're headed for big trouble. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7erct8/i_am_tim_ferriss_host_of_the_tim_ferriss_show_and/dq6zrh1/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7erct8/i_am_tim_ferri... I've witnessed this first hand, and alongside the congestion and housing problems that no one wants to handle, it was a big reason I decided to leave the Bay Area for good.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- matt4077 9y agoFunny, considering Tim Ferris himself is superficial marketing masquerading as profound insight. Really: the guy hasn't answered a single sentence that isn't either obvious, unactionable, or wrong.
- overthemoon 9y agoWhat topics, exactly, are so taboo? McCarthyism was about a specific ideology. And, mind you, people were getting dragged into court over it, which Ferris is certainly not at risk of. In fact, this is in a thread about a guy who shut a media outlet down. What is Ferris worried that he can't talk about?
- notgoingaway 9y agoPeter Thiel is one of the worst humans alive
- milankovic 9y agoThis is not okay here..
- Fricken 9y agoThe worst humans alive aren't okay anywhere.
- milankovic 9y agoAnd this is how it all starts..
- xky 9y agoCan we please try to be generous and empathetic in our discussions with each other?
- guhcampos 9y agoGood news. I may now be available for relocation to SF.
- JoeNr76 9y agoSo basically Thiel is crying and running away because he now gets a little taste of what is means to be a minority? Ha!
- JulianMorrison 9y agoConservatism is tolerating racism, tolerating police shootings, tolerating Nazis, tolerating inequality, tolerating the poor dying of curable disease while the middle class goes bankrupt from the expense of having a baby, tolerating the destruction of wilderness and national parks, tolerating ever growing climate change, tolerating school shootings, tolerating sexual harassment - but refusing to tolerate (LGBT) love, refusing to tolerate women being equal, refusing to tolerate trans people peeing (anywhere at all). Conservatism is morally bankrupt and ethically untenable.It shouldn't be tolerated.
- kthejoker2 9y agoWithout getting into your overall premise, Peter Thiel is gay.
- lightbyte 9y agoSo far in my life I've seen quite a few extremely anti-LGBT republicans end up getting caught with their pants down with another man (or young boy).
- humanrebar 9y agoTo be fair, these days we're seeing a lot of left wing feminist men like Weinstein caught up in basically the same kind of hypocrisy.
- lightbyte 9y agoYeah, usually the people who the loudest at preaching something are themselves going against it.
- unclebucknasty 9y agoI think you're correct that you're not getting into the overall premise. But, it makes me wonder what your point is in lobbing that little factoid in there? So, I'd respond to what you seem to be implying by pointing out that Sheriff David Clarke also exists. So do anti-immigration immigrants. There's also a phenomenon called Stockholm Syndrome. Doesn't really prove anything except that counterintuitive ironies exist and that people don't always act in their own best interest and/or they make tradeoffs. It's actually rational to not be a one-issue voter, especially in a two-party system. In short, a gay person being a member of a party doesn't make that party pro-gay rights.
- bkohlmann 9y agoI spearheaded the Lincoln Initiative study referenced in the article. If you're interested, you can see 5 key findings here: http://joinlincoln.org/viewpoint-diversity http://joinlincoln.org/viewpoint-diversity We have a comprehensive report coming out in a month.
- factsaresacred 9y agoA readable non-paywall version: https://archive.is/N4qEP https://archive.is/N4qEP
- supercanuck 9y agoWho cares what people like Tim Ferris and Peter Thiel think? These guys get their ideas published, and linked to and shared left, right and center, so is it possible, that maybe their political ideas suck? Lack of exposure is not the issue, so what is? Maybe their ideas are just.. stay with me here... bad?
- rdiddly 9y agoI'd stop short of knowing or caring whether their respective ideas suck or not, because getting back to the first point, it's really not so all-fired, gull-darned important what a guy thinks who's being quoted mainly because he's rich (or some other variant of a cult of personality). Take me, add a billion dollars, and boom: instant quotable thought-leader and visionary whose every tantrum and brain-fart is broadcast for all. Elon Musk goes in that box as well. Besides which, you can move wherever you want. It's not like you have to turn in your Silicon Valley membership card and secret key. And there's a big world out there. Especially if you're rich. Just move, don't try to make a "statement."
- qaq 9y agoYou honestly think it's purely based on money? You read many quotes from Rob Walton or Jacqueline Mars?
- rdiddly 9y agoI explicitly said "or some other variant of a cult of personality." But being rich is enough. Some billionaires choose to be quiet, but if tomorrow they decide to become "vocal proponents" of something or other, and make use of their prerogative to be quoted, the outlets will absolutely carry it, knowing the clicks will follow.
- jstewartmobile 9y agoWas that young-people's blood thing ever verified, or is vanity fair getting sued next?
- cm2187 9y agoTwo thoughts: 1. I have the feeling that this is not limited to the silicon valley. It feels very similar in my industry (banking) and I assume some other industries too. 2. I think there is more than one force at hand. A more militant liberalism may be one force but I can think of another major one: social medias. Basically an army of "anonymous" twitter / facebook / other accounts (they may not be individually anonymous but together they are), waiting for any pretext to shout their indignation, always looking for new ways to be offended. I don't think the population and opinions behind is a new evolution, but it just has a very powerful way to express itself now, by inundating social medias with angry comments, memes, effectively running virtual mob-lynchings. This is combined with a traditional bias in medias to give some legitimacy to "the street", i.e. if enough people are demonstrating, vociferating slogans, they are deemed to somehow be representative of the opinion of the population when in reality they only represent the opinion of this limited group. Combine that bias with social medias, and medias tend to report these outrages as a mainstream opinion, even if it is only that of a vocal minority, adding their own weight to the lynching. I don't think we should give much credit to these social media storms, no more than an angry mob should be a party to a civilized debate.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Molaxx 9y agoI don't get why should people be tolerant of bullies?
- Caveman_Coder 9y agoI think it depends on how one defines "bullies"...
- balthasar 9y agogood riddance.
- drukenemo 9y agoWell, is it really that surprising that the Silicon Valley is not this thought freedom paradise, being under such strong government control in so many levels? Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want. Silicon Valley companies are very much subjected to the NSA and other governmental agencies. Have you seen all the projects funded by DARPA? http://www.alphr.com/features/373546/10-brilliant-darpa-inventions http://www.alphr.com/features/373546/10-brilliant-darpa-inve...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- sjg007 9y agoThis is good for LA and the broader community. I don't believe that Thiel will be getting out of tech.. but maybe media tech is his next big thing. I think there is a big play in the conservative social network news area. These filter bubbles become their own verticals as Murdoch knows well. He can also have a big impact shaping the LA tech industry. This is also good for UCLA and USC. The Liberal / Conservative culture wars need to stop and we need to have debate. There is too much passive aggressive behavior on both sides. If debates have to be moderated than so be it but the moderators need to do their jobs and people need to respect them.
- taternuts 9y agoI just hope LA can carve out it's own culture and not become the next SV. I really, really don't want that.
- baby 9y agoI can't read the article on the website.
- RickJWagner 9y agoSociety goes back and forth on what is considered 'right' and 'wrong'. You only need to look at older movies to see how things change. What was once considered neutral or even progressive is now considered racist/sexist/etc. Watch 'Dumbo', 'Animal House', 'Blazing Saddles', etc. None of those would be filmed today. Yet we still have not cured many of the ills that plagued society in both times. The left must relent and let conservative voices be heard. In the long run, it will be destructive to the left if they do not.
- RickJWagner 9y agoSorry, I left two points disconnected: If you are on the left side of the aisle and are not disturbed by this modern day McCarthyism because you are absolutely certain you are 'right', you need to review what was 'right' in past days and realize it is all relative and will change. Persist in smothering free speech and you'll end up as tomorrow's Nazi.
- IntronExon 9y agoConservatives have the legislative and executive branches of government. How much more of a voice do you need to feel “heard” exactly?
- mlloyd 9y agoBillionaire financier who took down a famous blog out of revenge, helped elect a President, and bankrolled a not insignificant amount of companies that are changing the world takes his ball and goes home because his neighbors don't agree with his political views. Film at 11. Sorry Mr. Thiel, I don't think I feel sorry for you here. Your freedom of speech is constitutionally guaranteed and you've exercised it on many occasions as you are allowed to do as a citizen of this country. However, there is nothing that says that anyone has to like you for it or agree with you about it. There are a lot of places in this country, unfortunately, where your views are accepted and shared as the majority. Perhaps you should visit on of them? Hint: It's not LA...well maybe Louisiana.
- bassman9000 9y agoYou're right. Let's congratulate ourselves on getting rid of all dissenting opinions. What could go wrong?
- ythn 9y agoSometimes I wish California would simply purge all republicans so it can become the bluest of blue state. That way, we can have a large scale experiment to see what kind of "utopia" will be cooked up under 100% liberal control.
- muzz 9y agoDon't we already have this on a small scale in the San Francisco Bay Area?
- primewave 9y agolol. SF home owners & board of supervisors have over time voted against housing density to keep a neighborhood as-is, believe it was perfect the day they arrived, and that proposed changes to it must be stopped, definition of a conservative. Many of these were the anti-establishment in the 1960s and 1970s turned conservative once they became the establishment. They just don't want to admit it to themselves.
- primewave 9y agoDitto but reverse it all with Texas.
- kamaal 9y ago>>That way, we can have a large scale experiment to see what kind of "utopia" will be cooked up under 100% liberal control. You don't even have to wait for that. The economy of California today rivals economy of certain continents and large countries like Russia. And people are some of the most awesome kind assembled in there, in the entire history of human race. Only nice things seem to be coming out of this experiment.
- andrethegiant 9y agoSo, Burning Man?