4 ms·

I notice the writer doesn't actually quote any specific things Peter has said that would make this a hypocritical move.

by pg 15y ago

yummyfajitas 15y ago
The writer certainly doesn't quote Thiel's actual views: "The elitist view in the U.S. is that even if people concede that college is not for education, the caveat will be that, well, surely it’s for all the smart people. What we want to suggest is that there are some very smart and very talented people who don’t need college." http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-peter-thiel-interview?pg=5 http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-pe... "...are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college--that does not seem like a terribly controversial statement. That the more talented you are, the more narrow the set of choices you should make? And that if you're a really smart person, the only thing in the world you can do is to go to Harvard?" http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-tech-with-peter-thiel-investor-and-philanthropist-q-a/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-tech-...
- pg 15y ago
  I suspected as much. This is someone attacking a straw man to generate controversy. Thanks for finding those quotes.
  - theproblem 15y ago
    The whole charade strikes me as a politician's lie, where he talks around a subject at length, leading people to a conclusion without directly stating it. It's like watching Rumsfeld talk about Iraq and 9/11, never quite blaming them, but using the words closely together so people will get the desired idea. Sure, technically nobody in the Bush administration said that Iraq did 9/11, but there's a reason that a huge swath of America thought they said it, and it wasn't accidental. The same applies here. Just because the guy rails against college, has wrote a book about the evils of "multiculturalism" at Stanford, and gives smart kids money to drop out and be publicized doesn't mean he's against college... he's just sending every possible signal that he is, whilst not quite making the statement. It's a form of propaganda, and it works, because the signal still transmits fairly well, but whenever he's called out on it, somebody (you, in this case) will note that he never exactly stated the message that he's been working hard to convey, so it's a lie. It's a great system, tried and true by politicians for (at a minimum) a century.
- fl3tch 15y ago
  > are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college And he presumes he and his staff are uniquely qualified in identifying those 20 out of 60,000?
  - patio11 15y ago
    He isn't saying "There exist exactly 20 people out of 60k who should not go to college and I have oracular ability for identifying them." He is saying "It is arrogant to assume that, out of 60,000 people attending college, it is impossible to find so many as 20 of them who would be better served by another alternative." Presumably, he thinks the actual numbers is substantially higher than 20, but he doesn't have to get locked in to the extremist position of saying "60,000 of 60,000 people should not go to college" to believe that. It could plausibly be that 99% of people are served perfectly adequately by college and identifying only 20 of the remaining 600 isn't really rocket science compared to the actual rocket science that other Paypal alums are doing.
    - theproblem 15y ago
      Several of his 20 under 20 already graduated from college. The whole thing is nothing but propaganda to advance his long-standing agenda. Anybody who believes otherwise is a gullible fool.
  - justin 15y ago
    When has he ever said anything about being uniquely qualified?
fl3tch 15y ago
But did give him a chance, in person and directly. > Thiel did not respond to requests for comment. Which is a bit better that quoting other comments that might be construed as out of context.

I notice the writer doesn't actually quote any specific things Peter has said that would make this a hypocritical move.

by pg 15y ago

I notice the writer doesn't actually quote any specific things Peter has said that would make this a hypocritical move.

The writer certainly doesn't quote Thiel's actual views: "The elitist view in the U.S. is that even if people concede that college is not for education, the caveat will be that, well, surely it’s for all the smart people. What we want to suggest is that there are some very smart and very talented people who don’t need college." http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-peter-thiel-interview?pg=5 http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-pe... "...are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college--that does not seem like a terribly controversial statement. That the more talented you are, the more narrow the set of choices you should make? And that if you're a really smart person, the only thing in the world you can do is to go to Harvard?" http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-tech-with-peter-thiel-investor-and-philanthropist-q-a/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-tech-...

pg 15y ago
I suspected as much. This is someone attacking a straw man to generate controversy. Thanks for finding those quotes.
- theproblem 15y ago
  The whole charade strikes me as a politician's lie, where he talks around a subject at length, leading people to a conclusion without directly stating it. It's like watching Rumsfeld talk about Iraq and 9/11, never quite blaming them, but using the words closely together so people will get the desired idea. Sure, technically nobody in the Bush administration said that Iraq did 9/11, but there's a reason that a huge swath of America thought they said it, and it wasn't accidental. The same applies here. Just because the guy rails against college, has wrote a book about the evils of "multiculturalism" at Stanford, and gives smart kids money to drop out and be publicized doesn't mean he's against college... he's just sending every possible signal that he is, whilst not quite making the statement. It's a form of propaganda, and it works, because the signal still transmits fairly well, but whenever he's called out on it, somebody (you, in this case) will note that he never exactly stated the message that he's been working hard to convey, so it's a lie. It's a great system, tried and true by politicians for (at a minimum) a century.
fl3tch 15y ago
> are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college And he presumes he and his staff are uniquely qualified in identifying those 20 out of 60,000?
- patio11 15y ago
  He isn't saying "There exist exactly 20 people out of 60k who should not go to college and I have oracular ability for identifying them." He is saying "It is arrogant to assume that, out of 60,000 people attending college, it is impossible to find so many as 20 of them who would be better served by another alternative." Presumably, he thinks the actual numbers is substantially higher than 20, but he doesn't have to get locked in to the extremist position of saying "60,000 of 60,000 people should not go to college" to believe that. It could plausibly be that 99% of people are served perfectly adequately by college and identifying only 20 of the remaining 600 isn't really rocket science compared to the actual rocket science that other Paypal alums are doing.
  - theproblem 15y ago
    Several of his 20 under 20 already graduated from college. The whole thing is nothing but propaganda to advance his long-standing agenda. Anybody who believes otherwise is a gullible fool.
- justin 15y ago
  When has he ever said anything about being uniquely qualified?

fl3tch 15y ago

But did give him a chance, in person and directly. > Thiel did not respond to requests for comment. Which is a bit better that quoting other comments that might be construed as out of context.