
Peter Thiel Is a Flawed Messenger with a Crucial Message for Tech - wskinner
https://www.wired.com/story/peter-thiel-is-a-flawed-messenger-with-a-crucial-message-for-tech
======
kosei
As much as I hate to admit, I do agree with Thiel's point (barely mentioned
after the first paragraph) that the vast majority of thought is being driven
by politically intolerant left-leaning liberals. I am absolutely one of them,
but it's amazing that in multiple major tech companies in Seattle, there has
been a near-100% shared liberal mentality, that has only exploded post-Trump.

It's very difficult to make products and apps for _everyone_ , when the people
making them represents only one viewpoint. And interestingly, unlike companies
that localize/culturalize their products by opening local offices, I don't
know of any companies opening satellite offices in Alabama/Mississippi or even
conservative counties in Washington and California.

I remember when it used to be taboo to talk politics in the office. I find
that doesn't even exist anymore, when everyone shares the same left-leaning
mindset.

~~~
bmarquez
> there has been a near-100% shared liberal mentality, that has only exploded
> post-Trump

This is mainly because anyone who doesn't share that liberal mentality has
learned to keep their mouths shut or risk their career.

~~~
speby
And this is kind of the problem with politics. Something I've never understood
with people is why they have a desire to punish others who disagree or don't
share their political beliefs.

Sadly, it is this opposing views between people that causes wars and yet on a
local/individual level, it results in things like not promoting someone who
doesn't share your views or limiting a salary increase or bonus.

It's really disappointing about ourselves, I guess.

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thedailymail
So the author says Thiel's message is that there will be more regulation of
the tech industry, as if that is unquestionably a bad thing. But we've all
seen how the industry, like any large scale human activity, is subject to
manipulations that work against the public good, and specifically the good of
its own users. At this point it seems like many industry leaders acknowledge
the need for regulation, and as is historically the case with other
industries, are seeking to work with the government to design regulations that
will (ideally) strengthen consumer protections but not create undue burdens.
Thiel appears to be staunchly libertarian and so for him regulation per se is
a negative development, but there are certainly other ways to view the
interaction between public and private sectors. I get the sense that lots of
people working in tech can see the case for why a bit more oversight wouldn't
hurt.

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originalsimba
Political division in the United States is insane. People do not think for
themselves. They are complete tools of whatever media outlets they happen to
get their "news" from. They grab hold of catch phrases and chant them as loud
as possible to drown out the voices of the "opposition". There's no rational
thought behind their actions, only blind loyalty to men-as-products who they
think are their friends because they have chosen to be completely ignorant to
the Show-Business Fraud of modern politics.

Despite years of effort and media both fictional and non-fiction, showing
everyone how politics manipulates their emotions and core beliefs, nothing has
improved. If anything it's gotten so much worse. Insanity is the only way that
a person can really summarize it. It's blind rabid insanity.

------
kasperni
One thing I have been wondering about lately is what kind of reputation will
people working in the tech industry have 10-20 years from now. Will people
working outside the industry think of us as the new banker wankers?

Unfortunately, I would not be surprised giving the social implications of much
of the technology that are being introduced through companies such as Amazon,
Uber etc.

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kristianc
"That’s why there is and will be an even greater pushback against the idea
that a small group of companies and executives can reap vast rewards, dictate
the architecture of the online, cloud, AI, and robotic worlds and maintain an
insular, parochial, and narrow worldview marked by groupthink."

Slightly strange from the author of 'Zero to One'..

~~~
Jefro118
I think that's the author of the article speaking though, rather than Thiel.

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arvinjoar
The author can't have listened much to Thiel. He certainly doesn't speak
without a filter, most of what he says he will repeat in interview after
interview, for years. Every now and then he adds something new, but that thing
is seldom very off-the-cuff. Thiel is unorthodox, not unfiltered.

------
natecavanaugh
This is somewhat pedantic to the overall point of the article, but Peter Thiel
is moving to LA because the Valley is a stifling cultural environment, but
then goes on to name multiple tech companies that they consider part of the
Valley, but physically removed.

Why would Thiel moving to LA somehow affect this equation? They start the
article using it for its importance and end it with saying it isn't, and it
feels so contrived for the writer to use it as a way to editorialize on other
matters.

I do happen to agree with a lot of the article, but the editing here feels
sloppy, and while I love a lot of Wired's content, it seems like this
continues to be a problem with their articles.

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nopriorarrests
This thread (50 comments as of now) utterly amazes me.

I mean, I haven't seen americans with different political views talking to
each other in a level headed manner for a long time. Heck, on reddit they just
use different subreddits, /r/politics and /r/the_donald, otherwise they are on
each other throats in no time. Ok, that's reddit, so it should be expected,
but HN is not much different recently. And it's not like we are talking about
war crimes or human lifes here; it's just an opinion from some wealthy VC
dude. Hardly something to be mad about, no matter if you agree with him or
not.

PS: I have to make a disclaimer probably. by some coincidence, I'm russian.
Weather is damn cold in Moscow, thanks for asking. No, I wasn't paid 50 rubles
for this post.

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whatyoucantsay
> "Where Peter Thiel lives is of at best marginal import to anyone but him."

This is not first rate journalism. Does Zachary Karabell not realize that
people go to Mr. Thiel seeking investment? It's not simply a matter of
Facebook. SpaceX and Stripe each had times when they couldn't raise investment
from anyone but Thiel.

~~~
cambaceres
It is worth questioning why they even wrote this article in the first place if
that statement were true.

------
bwang29
For those who wants to find the "Crucial Message" quickly, I think it is
hidden in the 4th last paragraph :

"That’s why there is and will be an even greater pushback against the idea
that a small group of companies and executives can reap vast rewards, dictate
the architecture of the online, cloud, AI, and robotic worlds and maintain an
insular, parochial, and narrow worldview marked by groupthink."

Or was it somewhere else?

To be fair, it is not a small group of companies, but rather clusters of
companies working decades together to make it all happen, and I was hoping
there was at least a tiny bit of appreciation in the article. But I quickly
realized that while the author did the name dropping he had to point out
Amazon is not technically in the Valley but part of the equation. I was hoping
he could find companies like Western Digital is also making most of the hard
drives that contribute to whatever agenda he thinks the silicon valley is
doing.

~~~
discodave
This is the 'crucial message' that the author is trying to promote:

> His rationale, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, is that the
> Valley is now a politically intolerant culture, left-leaning in the extreme
> and to the exclusion of any contrarian viewpoints

And it is bullshit. Who can be found shutting down democracy via
gerrymandering? Republicans. Who can be found threatening the media from one
of the most powerful pulpits in the land? Trump, who seems to have the
unyeilding support of the Republican party. Who runs online harrassment
campaigns with the explicity aim of silencing people? Gamergate and the red-
pill brigade.

The left has made some mistakes and could do a lot of things better, but they
can't hold a candle to the right when it comes to insular, parochial, and
narrow worldviews marked by groupthink

~~~
elefanten
No, it's bullshit simply because it's prima facie bullshit.

"The Valley" (something no one here says out loud) has the same liberal bias
it's had for decades. It has changed in some ways, much the same way our
national politics have changed over time. There are ebbs and flows in what's
liberal vs conservative, to what degree, on which issues... etc.

But "the Valley" has not suddenly become some unique bastion of intolerance
(beyond the general shift in polarization that's been, again, nationwide) or
'groupthink', the newly beloved piece of mud to sling by right-y cultural
agitators. It's just a large target for the current wave of culture clash and
change.

Thiel is welcome to go chill wherever he feels happy. But no need to be such a
baby about it really.

------
funkythingss
I don't understand the medias obsession with Thiel since Trumps election.

He's a republican. K

He's gay. K

He's critical of the Silicon Valley echo chamber. K

He's a great businessman. K

There's not really a great boogieman story to make from. this.

~~~
stryk
Him and Hulk Hogan got in a tag team fight versus the online version of a
supermarket checkout aisle tabloid. And won! That's pretty cool I guess...

I agree the obsession with the guy is weird, but then the entire cult of
celebrity thing never really made a lot of sense, imho.

~~~
Mountain_Skies
Think it is his refusal to toe the valley's ideological line that's causing
the obsession. He's pretty much the same guy he has always been but the
landscape around him has changed. He refuses to change with it. That makes him
confusing to those who have successfully bullied everyone else into groupthink
compliance. Why won't he just submit to the hive?

~~~
narrator
I think being at the head of Palantir maybe gave him a deep understanding of
what's really going on inside the federal government and he's a believer that
there is indeed a swamp.

This seems to be one of the big issues that separates the Trump supporters
from everyone else. Everyone else seems to think the government was run
perfectly under Obama's presidency and Hillary's state department and Trump
threw the whole world into chaos.

~~~
carlmr
People are bad at thinking in absolutes. Humans always think in relative
terms. Our perception of how well the government operates is in relation to
how we perceive the change to previous governments. Obama, Bush, Clinton, Old
Bush, Reagan all seemed kind of like a natural progression with some ups and
downs. Trump is a breaking change . People are noticing it.

I see leftists posting articles about how normal Bush was. Do you remember
Bush being Hitler just 15 years ago? I remember. It's all about comparison.

Obama was a scandal free presidency! Do you remember Obama getting a Nobel
Peace Prize and then proceed to bomb 7 countries? Whatever happened to closing
Guantanamo? Enabling the greatest surveillance state ever conceived? That's
scandalous.

It's all normal now.

~~~
specialist
Believe me when I tell you that no one misremembers the Cheney Administration.
We just didn't think it could get any worse.

