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And it’s working like a charm. Look at half the comments here who didn’t read the article and go off on an anti-libertarian tangent.

colpabar 3y ago
Anything posted here about thiel or musk (especially musk) is bound to be full of useless comments that boil down to nothing more than "i don't like him." It doesn't matter what the article is about, if the headline can be used to justify that dislike, those will be the majority of the comments.
- ksec 3y ago
  Musk, Thiel, Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and their respective company along with Qualcomm. To the point for a number of years ycombinator wouldn't even mention Thiel or Musk at all. Things only got back a little easier in the past 12 months or so.
oooyay 3y ago
Frankly a good number of those same people have ideological compasses that spin at a high rate of speed. People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them.
- ameister14 3y ago
  While I don't think that his status as an informant is particularly newsworthy, think it is nasty for this article to be published and in fact would praise his patriotism, they don't think they are punching up, they are punching up. Beyond being a gay man who got outed as a confidential source, Thiel is also one of the most powerful people in the world. He is a billionaire who bankrolled multiple people's campaigns for federal office in the last few years. Your average HN commenter does not approach that level of power and influence and never will. The problem I see is that these people think that "telling" on criminals and international intelligence operations is wrong, for some reason. That's weird and really negative for our country.
  - oooyay 3y ago
    The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point is why "punching up", which usually involves some amount of drift from norms and ethics, is problematic. The people willing to engage in that and who think doing patriotic duty is a problem is a near circle.
    - HelloMcFly 3y ago
      > The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point What arm wrestling? It's pretty simple: anyone "taking shots" at him on Hacker News is definitionally punching-up because Thiel has more power and privilege than anyone here, power and privilege he routinely exercises on local and national stages. I don't have any issue with his actions working with the FBI here for what it's worth.
      - oooyay 3y ago
        It's the timing. There's a time for rife comments aimed at Peter Thiel; I have plenty of those. As I put it before, when a gay man is outted in explicitly stated retributive fashion for being a CHS informant for doing his duty as a defense contractor it starts to color the people who are doing the punching. The whole situation should give us pause, not the reflex to punch someone.
        anigbrowl 3y ago
        Nobody gives a shit about the fact that Peter Thiel is gay. It's the palling around with fascists and having massive reach into the political and defense spheres that makes people dislike him.
        jonathankoren 3y ago
        And let’s be honest about Thiel. He was in the glass closet. Literally everyone in SV knew he was gay. He didn’t hide it. He just didn’t want it published so he could more easily raise money from Mohammed Bonesaw al-Saud. Then again, since when MBS care about staying in anyone’s good graces?
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  > People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them. What on earth has Thiel's sexuality got to do with this? And the whole trope about Gawker "outting" Thiel has to stop: 1. Don't want to be "outed" as gay? Perhaps don't fill your social media with pictures of you partying on gay cruises. 2. Whether you agree or not, billionaires are considered public figures by the courts, because of their "outsize influence on public opinion and politics".
MrMan 3y ago
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colpabar 3y ago

Anything posted here about thiel or musk (especially musk) is bound to be full of useless comments that boil down to nothing more than "i don't like him." It doesn't matter what the article is about, if the headline can be used to justify that dislike, those will be the majority of the comments.

ksec 3y ago
Musk, Thiel, Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and their respective company along with Qualcomm. To the point for a number of years ycombinator wouldn't even mention Thiel or Musk at all. Things only got back a little easier in the past 12 months or so.

oooyay 3y ago

Frankly a good number of those same people have ideological compasses that spin at a high rate of speed. People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them.

ameister14 3y ago
While I don't think that his status as an informant is particularly newsworthy, think it is nasty for this article to be published and in fact would praise his patriotism, they don't think they are punching up, they are punching up. Beyond being a gay man who got outed as a confidential source, Thiel is also one of the most powerful people in the world. He is a billionaire who bankrolled multiple people's campaigns for federal office in the last few years. Your average HN commenter does not approach that level of power and influence and never will. The problem I see is that these people think that "telling" on criminals and international intelligence operations is wrong, for some reason. That's weird and really negative for our country.
- oooyay 3y ago
  The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point is why "punching up", which usually involves some amount of drift from norms and ethics, is problematic. The people willing to engage in that and who think doing patriotic duty is a problem is a near circle.
  - HelloMcFly 3y ago
    > The kind of mental arm wrestling you just engaged in to explain that point What arm wrestling? It's pretty simple: anyone "taking shots" at him on Hacker News is definitionally punching-up because Thiel has more power and privilege than anyone here, power and privilege he routinely exercises on local and national stages. I don't have any issue with his actions working with the FBI here for what it's worth.
    - oooyay 3y ago
      It's the timing. There's a time for rife comments aimed at Peter Thiel; I have plenty of those. As I put it before, when a gay man is outted in explicitly stated retributive fashion for being a CHS informant for doing his duty as a defense contractor it starts to color the people who are doing the punching. The whole situation should give us pause, not the reflex to punch someone.
      - anigbrowl 3y ago
        Nobody gives a shit about the fact that Peter Thiel is gay. It's the palling around with fascists and having massive reach into the political and defense spheres that makes people dislike him.
        jonathankoren 3y ago
        And let’s be honest about Thiel. He was in the glass closet. Literally everyone in SV knew he was gay. He didn’t hide it. He just didn’t want it published so he could more easily raise money from Mohammed Bonesaw al-Saud. Then again, since when MBS care about staying in anyone’s good graces?
FireBeyond 3y ago
> People think they're punching up so mocking a gay man who just got outted for retribution as a CHS informant on global news doesn't register to them. What on earth has Thiel's sexuality got to do with this? And the whole trope about Gawker "outting" Thiel has to stop: 1. Don't want to be "outed" as gay? Perhaps don't fill your social media with pictures of you partying on gay cruises. 2. Whether you agree or not, billionaires are considered public figures by the courts, because of their "outsize influence on public opinion and politics".

MrMan 3y ago

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