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Peter Thiel leaving Silicon Valley because of lack of political diversity


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2018 Feb 15, 12:58pm   6,368 views  22 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-peter-thiel-20180215-story.html
Billionaire Peter Thiel, one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley and its most prominent conservative, plans to move his home and personal investment firm to Los Angeles because he's disaffected with what he sees as the left-leaning politics of the San Francisco Bay Area, a person familiar with his plans said Thursday. ...

More recently, Thiel has said the Bay Area tech industry has become increasingly intolerant of conservative political views. "Silicon Valley is a one-party state," he said in January during an appearance at Stanford University.

"In the Bay Area, it's so concentrated, and tech dominates the civic culture," said Charles Moran, a GOP strategist... "There's a lot more diversity in the civic part of Southern California and Los Angeles. ...

"Mr. Thiel understands that [Silicon Valley] is a monolithic culture and there's a political bubble there that doesn't match the reality around the country"


It's pretty funny that a gay man feels he has to leave San Francisco because it is so intolerant.

Comments 1 - 22 of 22        Search these comments

1   Patrick   2018 Feb 15, 1:23pm  

But is he right? In my own experience here, absolutely. There is no diversity of viewpoints, and it's career-threatening to even hint that the mainstream media's daily litany of complaints might not be entirely valid.

What's really interesting to me is how it got to be that way, and what keeps it that way. I don't quite understand the psychology of it.

I suspect that a big part is that globalization benefits tech workers (myself included), but has been devastating to the middle of the country. So of course Silicon Valley is going to be all for globalization, but not capable of seeing the harm that has been done to US industry. They see themselves as "smart and rich" entirely due to their own merits, and to question that is to question their sense of self-worth.
2   Strategist   2018 Feb 15, 8:18pm  

Patrick says
It's pretty funny that a gay man feels he has to leave San Francisco because it is so intolerant.


It tells me the extreme left is just as fanatical as the extreme right.
It's the extremists on either end that cause most of the problems for the rest of us.
3   Y   2018 Feb 15, 9:16pm  

As a gay capitalist, did peter thiel his billions???
4   Ceffer   2018 Feb 15, 10:48pm  

BlueSardine says
As a gay capitalist, did peter thiel his billions???

Ouch!
5   anonymous   2018 Feb 16, 6:09am  

Strategist says
Patrick says
It's pretty funny that a gay man feels he has to leave San Francisco because it is so intolerant.


It tells me the extreme left is just as fanatical as the extreme right.
It's the extremists on either end that cause most of the problems for the rest of us.


It’s not really on either end though

The people on the right, not just the extremists, always put their childish religion first, and our country second. They’re the biggest voting bloc, so this effects all of us adversely, bigly. To the point it could destroy our republic.

The extremists on the left are green haired dykes and twig soy boys looking like Shaggy from scooby doo armed with a stick. They protest fascism and white privile, which offends people who enjoy their privileges and irritates simpletons who have been programmed to support fascism and fight against liberalism as if it’s a bad thing. As if Liberty isn’t the heart and soul of America.

So while the freaks and weirdos may be an annoyance to the Christian Republicans, they are harmless compared to the right who constantly support things that harm everyone because that’s what the billionaires have programmed them to think.
6   FortWayne   2018 Feb 17, 8:55pm  

I don't blame him. The left pretends to be "inclusive", and yet they banish and condemn everyone who speaks disagreement of their views. Now the left has gone overboard trying to tell companies how many men/women/color they should hire or be labeled and fined for discrimination. Left is ridiculous! Left is the main reason this country elected Trump, to counter their bs.
7   anonymous   2018 Feb 20, 5:38am  

Peter Thiel has had a pretty good couple of years. He helped elect President Trump, speaking on his behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Trump’s tax bill, passed in November of the following year, will undoubtedly grow his multibillion-dollar fortune.

He bankrupted Gawker, the culmination of a decade-long campaign to get revenge on the site after its defunct sister site outed him. He then twisted the knife by placing a bid on the website when it went up for auction.

He has funneled his riches into various bizarre experiments, including one in which young people were given thousands of dollars for their blood.

His wealth and power has given him a platform to not only shape media—his destruction of Gawker has had a chilling effect on the media as a whole—but to push his own ideas, like that the New Deal is bad and monopolies are good. Via his perch on Facebook’s board of directors—Thiel was an early investor in the company, though he sold his 10 percent stake in 2012—he has helped shape one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

It’s a symbolic break, as much as anything—and if Thiel is looking for a libertarian utopia overlooking the Sunset Strip, where he has a $11.5 million home, he’s been misinformed. (His actual plans for a libertarian utopia at sea seems more realistic.)

But Thiel’s departure from Silicon Valley nevertheless underscores a core part of the ideology that has guided him over the past decade: He’s convinced that he and other conservatives are being victimized by Big Tech’s liberal culture.

There is no doubt that Thiel’s views are unorthodox in Silicon Valley—but, then again, Thiel’s brand of libertarianism would be unorthodox anywhere. In 2009, he wrote that he “no longer believes that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

He sees monopolies as a natural outgrowth of capitalism and has suggested that they surpass the federal government in many respects. In his vision, writes Noam Cohen in The Know-It-Alls, “tech businesses set policy priorities rather than elected officials.”

Silicon Valley has made Peter Thiel both wealthy and powerful, but he sees the rejection of his views—whether his libertarianism or his support of Trump—as an act of oppression.

The fact that his opinions are rejected (and occasionally mocked) by his peers is apparently proof of a liberal cabal out to stifle the free exchange of ideas.

But Thiel has had plenty of forums for his ideas. He has written widely and spoken at universities throughout the country.

Given his role in the demise of Gawker, it would be more than fair to draw the opposite conclusion: that there is an effort underway to silence both dissent and unpopular speech, and it’s being led by billionaires like Thiel.

https://newrepublic.com/article/147109/peter-thiels-lonely-culture-war
8   anonymous   2018 Feb 20, 10:18am  

Social Commentary: On White Male Victimhood and “Meninism.”

While bemoaning the “oppression olympics,” these same communities of young white men have become obsessed with specious ideas like “reverse-racism,” and “reverse-sexism.”

After patronizingly admonishing other communities for playing “victim games”, they turn around and emphasize their own victimhood, painting themselves as innocent bystanders in a revisionist history where people like them have always been abused by “black rage” or “feminine hysteria,” among other things.

This tactic is frustrating because it’s essentially a grown up bully’s equivalent of “no, you are!” but it’s also more insidious than that. These communities victimize themselves so they can be absolved of all responsibility in other people’s suffering; they aim to steal the fire behind other people’s liberation, to commandeer the reigns of other people’s success.

They are employing a desperate, violent defense against the recent gains of social justice by pretending that they are the ones who need justice most of all.

These men want what feminism can offer them, but they want it only on the condition that they A. Keep all of the power and privilege they’ve always had and B. Be absolved of all blame or responsibility.

To that point, I would argue that meninism is not an ideology comparable to feminism, but a solipsistic, reactionary panic against it. White male victimhood exists in opposition to feminist and anti-racist movements not because those movements actually victimize men, but because those movements ask white men to look critically at their own identities and histories.

To men who want liberation but have no interest in critical reflection, I have only one piece of advice: get out of the way.

https://rmbartonblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/social-commentary-on-white-male-victimhood-and-meninism/
9   anonymous   2018 Mar 1, 6:19am  

Tim Aurora says
Patrick says
But is he right? In my own experience here, absolutely. There is no diversity of viewpoints, and it's career-threatening to even hint that the mainstream media's daily litany of complaints might not be entirely valid.


I can complain the same here in North Georgia but we all have to make a living and have hard choices. Peter has the luxury of choosing his enviornemnt
This is Tim's roundabout way of saying "yes", he's right.
10   zzyzzx   2018 Mar 1, 7:28am  

Is LA really that much different?
11   FortWayne   2018 Mar 1, 8:23am  

zzyzzx says
Is LA really that much different?


it's a bit better, but not wildly different. major parts are strongly democrat, there is a fag community somewhere too. Suburbs are mostly Republican. Government is strongly democratic, so stupid policies, lots of taxes. schools teach liberal priorities, religion is banned.

There are lots of homeless here too though, Garcetti keeps on inviting them and taxing us more. water is expensive, keeps going up every year. government refuses to build desalination plants, because liberals think fish are more important than people.

LA is though cheaper if you are willing to live on the edges. Center is very expensive, it's outrageously expensive. Government works very hard to keep prices high by keeping development down.
12   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 8:34am  

zzyzzx says
Is LA really that much different?


Depends on the area.

South OC is very moderate/right leaning.

LA County itself can be moderate in "some areas" that are not 10 miles from LA Proper. But overall it is very blue.
13   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 8:43am  

Kakistocracy says
Given his role in the demise of Gawker, it would be more than fair to draw the opposite conclusion: that there is an effort underway to silence both dissent and unpopular speech, and it’s being led by billionaires like Thiel.

https://newrepublic.com/article/147109/peter-thiels-lonely-culture-war


Uh, this article is total fucking bull shit.

Gawker outed very personal details about his life that he DID NOT want public.

He wasn't silencing dissent and unpopular speech, he was fucking Gawker up the ass for invading his private life. I'm glad he bankrupted them. It sent the right message to anyone who thinks leaking someone's private life is "entertainment".
14   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 8:58am  

Feux Follets says
Getting in old stuff now from on the forum - be careful.


Doesn't apply. That individual willingly exposed his private life, which was then leveraged by someone who didn't like the individual. That's a totally different situation than Thiel.

Not saying I agree with what happened, but it's not the same situation.
15   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Mar 1, 8:59am  

Goran_K says
Gawker outed very personal details about his life that he DID NOT want public.

Yep, Gawker was a nasty site that outed people who really had nothing to do with anybody. Some married minor official or executive was outed for being gay, this person was not in the public eye, not a politician, not somebody who put himself out there, just a regular dude.

Jesus, they put a video up of Hogan banging some chick with her husband's approval which is an invasion of privacy: Hogan isn't somebody that's involved in a morality debate.

It's one thing to out some Gay Exodus leader who is still doing the homo thing, it's another thing to out somebody who doesn't take part in a debate about gays one way or the other.

Just a bunch of nasty click-bait gossip assholes.
16   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 9:00am  

Feux Follets says
Public figures have public problems with things they would rather not have the public see or know lest they be as well thought of.


Doesn't matter. There has to be some limit and there are limits to speech in the United States regardless of any libertarian interpretation of the 1st amendment. Obviously Thiel didn't want those details known to anyone outside of his circle. It was not Gawker's right to expose Thiel's private life, plain and simple.
17   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Mar 1, 9:02am  

Feux Follets says
When you are a public figure - you take whatever goes along with that.


Sorry, I don't believe that swinging in your private life, if you are a Pro Wrestler that takes no stand on Morality or on Politics generally, should subject you to have a sex tape put up by a nasty bunch of gossips looking for click revenue.

If you were some sanctimonious Pastor, Politician, or "All Sex is Rape" Feminist, it's fair game because it's of public interest that you're a hypocrite. Otherwise, you should be prepared to be sued.

Gawker has ruined lives of ordinary people who aren't public figures over a tweet or remark, often taken out of context, that almost everybody makes once in a while.

Let's not act a media company valued in the many millions with millions of clicks a day was some powerless entity unfairly picked on by Mr. Big.
18   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 9:11am  

Feux Follets says
When you are a public figure - you take whatever goes along with that.


Why? Why shouldn't someone have recourse to sue someone for invading their privacy?

Would you feel the same if someone had exposed something about your personal life you DID NOT WANT in the public?

If not, why should it be different for someone else because they are famous?
19   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Mar 1, 9:22am  

Feux Follets says
If you are a CEO etc. - you take the good with the bad. Plenty of others in Silicon Valley have been dragged around in the media.


The issue is not Peter Thiel being gay. The issue is all the "little people", literally, ruined by Gawker. They would declare somebody a "Douchebag" and then everybody, including pre-school children, became "Fair Game" in a scientology-style smear campaign. Example:
http://gawker.com/304568/elijah-pollack-is-going-to-be-a-horror

Elijah Pollack was a fucking preschool kid.

Gawker put up a video of Hogan's sex partner giving a BJ in a bathroom. Now this woman (and probably not the BJ recipient) is definitely NOT a public figure.
https://nypost.com/2016/03/11/blah-blah-blah-gawker-editor-blew-off-woman-who-begged-him-to-remove-possible-rape-video/

What public interest is it that Conde Nast's CFO - basically the chief accountant - is a Married Guy who likes some dick occasionally? A guy who has most definitely did not inject himself into any public debate at all.
https://archive.is/EUkg0

Gawker was cyberbullying for profit, and it's a laugh fest that the same Media Companies who regularly run articles and editorials about how bad cyberbulling is among 11-year old girls on Facebook, thinks it's okay for multi-multion/multi-billion media enterprises to do the same for clicks and profits, often to non-public figures.
20   Goran_K   2018 Mar 1, 9:24am  

Feux Follets says
Don't want your information out in the public, choose your path in life carefully.


What did Thiel not do carefully? Just being a successful billionaire? It's not like he was marching in pride parades with nipple tassles out.
21   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Mar 1, 9:30am  

How about smearing people in your industry you don't like, like Michael Wolf's wife, for getting pregnant with "An Awful Person".
http://gawker.com/michael-wolffs-awful-girlfriend-is-pregnant-1684410627

Nasty, disgusting little gossip shits. How dare they even THINK to lecture me about how to behave; they don't have a drop of moral authority. I'm sorry they were jealous of the popular kids in school and always wanted to spread gossip to ruin other people's lives so they feel better about themselves. They even do it to each other, the stinkers.

Our libel laws are too weak; Britain's are too strict. It needs to be possible to sue the shit out of Media for printing Mean Girl Gossip that has no public relevance.
22   Bd6r   2018 Mar 1, 11:14am  

Goran_K says
It's not like he was marching in pride parades with nipple tassles out.

Nothing wrong with that, in principle - if they march in parade and not demand public money.

With respect to Thiel, I think that everyone in US should be able to reasonably assume that their private life will remain private, unless the person is a politician or media personality, in which case different rules apply. Thiel is neither of those, so his life should remain private.

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