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The New York Times is unable to write the truth here for fear of offending their readers: The monoculture in Silicon Valley is that of hyper liberal people. Hy

The New York Times is unable to write the truth here for fear of offending their readers: The monoculture in Silicon Valley is that of hyper liberal people. Hyper liberal people are fine. It's intolerant authoritarian people which are the problem, regardless of where they claim to be on the political spectrum. In activist circles, it's said that no movement can succeed without at least 10% radicals. That's nothing new. What's new in the past several years is the willingness to harass, destroy people's lives and livelihoods, and even to vandalize and enact physical violence. Most of the tech class in SV isn't doing the things I list above. However, many people here give their tacit acceptance of these things. So get out of here with this fake monoculture Orwellian nonsense. The monoculture is a real monoculture. It's also really Orwellian. There's this kind of "seeking out" stance people can take. I remember it when getting profiled from racists. I remember such attention from people questioning my sexual orientation. Now I see it from people I meet here in the Bay Area.

Aloha 8y ago
I think you hit on something here. I find myself allying with anti-authoritarians across the political spectrum, as both parties (though more so the republicans) have cozied up more with more extreme and more authoritarian ideologies. Liberals are all about "we know whats best because of our education and these studies" and conservatives "we know whats best because jesus (tradition, et al)" - in the end, both of them are trying to pass more malum prohibitum laws with dubious effects. I'm dubious of technocrats and religious tests. The thing that I see that scares me the lack of room for disagreement, if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them' whoever them is.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  The thing that I see that scares me the lack of room for disagreement, if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them' whoever them is. Hell, "if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them'" is okay, so long as people remain cordial and just chill. I had that while at grad school at the University of South Carolina. The traddies, folkies, world music people, eastern religious nuts, African drum people, neo-hippies, goths, metal-heads, Harley motorcycle people, punks,... I could go on. We all hung out together. We even got into arguments and tried to point out how the other was deluded and screwed up, and we still hung out together. I guess it's easy if you're a small group of fringers in a sea of mainstream people. When the fringe gets too big, it starts to develop social pathologies of its own. I think the Bay Area fringe is more prone to such pathologies than average.
  - Aloha 8y ago
    I think the point that I was trying to hammer home, is you must be ideologically pure, and in total harmony with all views, otherwise you're branded one of 'them' and you, and any viewpoints you have, are discarded.

Aloha 8y ago

I think you hit on something here. I find myself allying with anti-authoritarians across the political spectrum, as both parties (though more so the republicans) have cozied up more with more extreme and more authoritarian ideologies. Liberals are all about "we know whats best because of our education and these studies" and conservatives "we know whats best because jesus (tradition, et al)" - in the end, both of them are trying to pass more malum prohibitum laws with dubious effects. I'm dubious of technocrats and religious tests. The thing that I see that scares me the lack of room for disagreement, if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them' whoever them is.

stcredzero 8y ago
The thing that I see that scares me the lack of room for disagreement, if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them' whoever them is. Hell, "if you dont agree with us, you're one of 'them'" is okay, so long as people remain cordial and just chill. I had that while at grad school at the University of South Carolina. The traddies, folkies, world music people, eastern religious nuts, African drum people, neo-hippies, goths, metal-heads, Harley motorcycle people, punks,... I could go on. We all hung out together. We even got into arguments and tried to point out how the other was deluded and screwed up, and we still hung out together. I guess it's easy if you're a small group of fringers in a sea of mainstream people. When the fringe gets too big, it starts to develop social pathologies of its own. I think the Bay Area fringe is more prone to such pathologies than average.
- Aloha 8y ago
  I think the point that I was trying to hammer home, is you must be ideologically pure, and in total harmony with all views, otherwise you're branded one of 'them' and you, and any viewpoints you have, are discarded.