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Ask HN: Is there such a thing as a conservative tech company?
Was recently looking at political donations made by major tech companies and it was evident that most divert a large share of their lobbying spending on the Democratic party. I believe this is one such indicator of "liberal" leaning. Another is adoption of woke practices and ideas. It's pretty easy i think to point out liberal or progressive tech companies. Is there the equivalent for conservative? If not, what does that say about the tech sector?
- Bostonian 5y agoTech executives and employees do lean left, but companies will primarily lobby the party in power, currently the Democrats. I don't know if Palantir is a "conservative tech company", but its co-founder Peter Thiel is more popular with the right than the left.
- smt88 5y agoConservatism is about preserving existing structures and hierarchies, or even returning to the past. Progressivism is about changing things in the face of new evidence. So is libertarianism, in some flavors. Why is it surprising that technologists, who constantly think about the future, would be progressive? We also know that one of the best predictors of whether someone is progressive is how much education they've had. Another is youth. Tech founders skew younger and more educated.
- jfengel 5y agoDespite that, I see a lot of very conservative opinion on HN. Although technology has a fundamentally future-facing nature, the amount of money and power involved in tech creates a counter-force. Often, that shows up as a form of libertarian -- other "flavors" than the ones you mentioned. Those flavors tend to focus on property and money rights, and treat tech as an equalizer such that you, too, could have money and property if only you were smart and hard-working. That's conservative in that it tends to reinforce existing patterns. They do tend to be older, but that flavor of libertarianism has long been popular with young men, especially in tech. (Cf the punch line "The other involves orcs".) I don't know how often this translates into conservative tech companies, but HN implies that there must be a lot of conservative tech individuals at these companies.