4 ms·

I find this incredibly surprising. Do you give them a chance to? So many of my colleagues (at a big tech co) have expressed various conservative views. Granted

by wrsh07 8y ago

I find this incredibly surprising. Do you give them a chance to? So many of my colleagues (at a big tech co) have expressed various conservative views. Granted, I live in NYC, but this feels a bit like you're experiencing confirmation bias.

manfredo 8y ago
Yes, I've discussed politics with many of my coworkers. Few of them have any hesitation discussing liberal standpoints. I can only assume that conservatives are staying silent. I can't claim to speak for conservatives, but I can totally understand why they would stay silent given the atmosphere. See the reply to my other comment, where a HN poster straight up says they would fire any employees that support Trump: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17864280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17864280
- wrsh07 8y ago
  > Yes, I've discussed politics with many of my coworkers. Few of them have any hesitation discussing liberal standpoints. If the linked commenter were to say nobody would express their conservative views to them, that wouldn't surprise me. However, it seems like you'd be a bit more sympathetic (than the linked commenter). I've found a number of colleagues from red states who supported/support Trump (often for reasons posted in Altman's article about crossing the aisle - single issue voters etc). Lots of conservatives on Wall Street, too (many leave for big tech cos after a few years). Finally, I see a bunch of tech-libertarians, which is sort of a hybrid of some conservative financial ideas and some progressive social ideas.
  - manfredo 8y ago
    I don't disagree with your experience in NY, but it isn't a very good counterexample to my experiences in Silicon Valley. For what it's worth, I grew up in and routinely visit the Seattle area and I don't think it has the same atmosphere as the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area. I have met plenty of conservatives in Seattle (well, mostly in the outer metro areas of Bellevue, Kirkland, etc.).
    - wrsh07 8y ago
      Yes! It's possible that is the entire source of the discrepancy. But I am still a bit surprised that you haven't at least run into some libertarians in CA.
chibg10 8y ago
I don't work in the Valley, but in my large Facebook-analogous Seattle tech company my experience reflects his. I actively (and successfully) avoid discussing politics at work (I'm closest to a classic liberal fwiw). My company lobbies for and promotes several left-leaning positions (e.g. immigration, which I agree with) in official communications, and I've been on both the passive and active receiving-end of multiple left-leaning political rants since I've joined. I've never heard any such officially expressed views or political rants from coworkers expressing right-leaning views. Just a data point but I suspect it's not an uncommon one.

by wrsh07 8y ago

manfredo 8y ago

Yes, I've discussed politics with many of my coworkers. Few of them have any hesitation discussing liberal standpoints. I can only assume that conservatives are staying silent. I can't claim to speak for conservatives, but I can totally understand why they would stay silent given the atmosphere. See the reply to my other comment, where a HN poster straight up says they would fire any employees that support Trump: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17864280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17864280

wrsh07 8y ago
> Yes, I've discussed politics with many of my coworkers. Few of them have any hesitation discussing liberal standpoints. If the linked commenter were to say nobody would express their conservative views to them, that wouldn't surprise me. However, it seems like you'd be a bit more sympathetic (than the linked commenter). I've found a number of colleagues from red states who supported/support Trump (often for reasons posted in Altman's article about crossing the aisle - single issue voters etc). Lots of conservatives on Wall Street, too (many leave for big tech cos after a few years). Finally, I see a bunch of tech-libertarians, which is sort of a hybrid of some conservative financial ideas and some progressive social ideas.
- manfredo 8y ago
  I don't disagree with your experience in NY, but it isn't a very good counterexample to my experiences in Silicon Valley. For what it's worth, I grew up in and routinely visit the Seattle area and I don't think it has the same atmosphere as the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area. I have met plenty of conservatives in Seattle (well, mostly in the outer metro areas of Bellevue, Kirkland, etc.).
  - wrsh07 8y ago
    Yes! It's possible that is the entire source of the discrepancy. But I am still a bit surprised that you haven't at least run into some libertarians in CA.

chibg10 8y ago

I don't work in the Valley, but in my large Facebook-analogous Seattle tech company my experience reflects his. I actively (and successfully) avoid discussing politics at work (I'm closest to a classic liberal fwiw). My company lobbies for and promotes several left-leaning positions (e.g. immigration, which I agree with) in official communications, and I've been on both the passive and active receiving-end of multiple left-leaning political rants since I've joined. I've never heard any such officially expressed views or political rants from coworkers expressing right-leaning views. Just a data point but I suspect it's not an uncommon one.