
Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions - dougludlow
https://medium.com/projectinclude/peter-thiel-yc-and-hard-decisions-2b91bab83764#.i5u3cgjst
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aclimatt
The first time it had 270+ upvotes and was flagged off the front page:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12726970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12726970)

There seems to be some censorship going on...

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torgoguys
sctb says it is user flags:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12728092](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12728092)

~~~
MBCook
I'm not surprised. There are a _lot_ of people who don't like discussing this
stuff (either because they don't agree with it or they just don't want to deal
with any more stuff about politics/social issues).

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dozzie
> There are a lot of people who don't like discussing this stuff [... or
> because] they just don't want to deal with any more stuff about
> politics/social issues

Especially those of a foreign country, in which they don't have right to vote
or even visit (because of visas).

~~~
thecolorblue
But you can still have an opinion, correct? It seems this conversation,
whether it is productive or not, is relevant to this community.

If I can't here the other sides arguments here, where will I hear them?

~~~
dozzie
> But you can still have an opinion, correct?

But do I really _have to_? And do I really _have to see_ this completely
irrelevant to me topic?

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wanderingjew
Disregarding any issues surrounding the author of this piece, Theil himself,
and a cornucopia of issues surrounding the RNC keynote, I must ask one
question: Why is political speech only an issue when that speech comes from
the political right?

This isn't a modern thing, either. I've never seen anyone claim Brendan Eich
didn't have a _right_ to donate to his cause, it's just that he donated to the
_wrong_ cause, at least in they eyes of the media and the Twitterverse, of all
places. Here, we're seeing it again with Thiel: he has the _right_ to donate
to whatever cause he wants, but we criticize him for donating to the wrong
causes.

For all the talk of cultural and gender diversity, political diversity is
shunned. This is far more pernicious than criticizing a startup because they
haven't hired enough women or PoC

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ryanobjc
Wow, I really couldn't disagree with you more.

It's not left vs right, its humanity denying stances.

Denying LGBT are human (which is what the "8" people were about) is a critical
issue. Eich tied himself to the wrong side of history, and epically fucked up
his CEO response proving he was a bad candidate for that role. He made his own
bed and now lies in it.

As for Trump... well, this is a presidential candidate describing HOW exactly
he sexually assaults women. It wasn't a theoretical "what I could do"
conversation, it was a "this is what I do" bragging talk. Again, dehumanizing
51% of the population.

Maybe basic human rights is just a "cause" for you, but for the 60-70% of
humanity you're trashing, it's kind of their lives.

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peterhadlaw
No one is trashing rights. No one is denying LGBT people, their humanity.
Thiel is literally a homosexual, why do you choose to ignore that. I don't
think it is in his self interest to dehumanize himself.

~~~
ryanobjc
It's quite well known that rich people are the least affected by policies like
anti-LGBT. Thiel may not personally have much to lose if gay marriage was
banned, but for many people it makes a huge difference. For example child
rights, tax advantages, end of life decisions.

Anyways, you're actually very wrong - people ARE trashing rights. People in
Trump's camp ARE denying LGBT their humanity. Evangelicals for example. How
about "kick out every muslim"? The constitution explicitly doesn't call for a
religious test to apply.

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peterhadlaw
Oh yeah, explain this [https://shop.donaldjtrump.com/products/lgbtq-for-trump-
mens-...](https://shop.donaldjtrump.com/products/lgbtq-for-trump-mens-ss-t-
shirt-white?variant=26468926918)

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SEJeff
Sam's post on this was great where he admits it strained his relationship with
Peter Theil:
[http://blog.samaltman.com/the-2016-election](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-2016-election)

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jpt4
Reporting for future record: This post was flagged less than ten minutes after
being posted, without any comments.

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fooey
The author is Ellen Pao, so it's a safe bet this is an instance of the
messenger getting in the way of the message

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zelon88
I get that this is a big deal and it will keep coming back... But is there
anyone other than Ellen Pao who could tell this story? Seriously?

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dredmorbius
The discussion appears live here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12726970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12726970)

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postcarnival
wow talk about delusional... how does she reconcile this?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuJGHuIkzY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuJGHuIkzY)

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dredmorbius
"Money doesn't talk, it swears."

\-- Some Nobel Prize Dude.

