
Why does the tech world still embrace Peter Thiel? - jdp23
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/20/peter-thiel-donald-trump-donations-facebook-zuckerberg-support-diversity
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adam419
I remember as far back as 2012 seeing Gawker articles and truly feeling
ashamed for humanity. You had these pompous writers completely mocking and
attempting to knock down elon musk as some insane fool for his recent release
of the hyperloop plans, etc.

So here's a guy actually moving our society forward in transportation and the
environment, and these smug writers try to cast him as a clown.

Does anyone actually defend on substance any of the activities Gawker was
engaging in? These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over
reasons that were most often proven false and always self serving to the
interests of gawker.

I think peter is a smart guy, but I really feel a sense of gratitude to him
for ridding the world of that awful organization.

Everyone sensationalistically shouts he's an evil billionaire damaging free
speech and journalism, but gawker was engaged in voyeurism and bullying. And a
court of law agreed with it. We make exceptions to pure free speech all the
time, such as not being allowed to shout fire in a movie theater, etc.

I don't care to comment about his support of trump, but I also find it curious
most of his vocal critics are themselves journalists, and are in my opinion
resentful of the fact he set a precedent that the power "journalists" have is
also something that can be held accountable.

~~~
Nokinside
>"These people pushed wrong narratives and destroyed lives over reasons that
were most often proven false and always self serving to the interests of ...."

Assuming our opinion is like above, but against Trump, do we have
justification to attack Trump and Thiel based on their political opinion?

~~~
astrodust
It can be your "political opinion" that the government should be small, taxes
kept low, and regulation to a minimum.

When you start bragging about sexually assaulting women, advocating violence
against your opponents, and feeding the flames of racial tension you've moved
well beyond mere opinion.

It's bewildering that Thiel would support such a character now given how Thiel
won't "suffer" from Trump not being in the White House.

It was under Bill Clinton that this entire tech party got started: The
commercialization of the Internet. Laws favorable to the start-up investment
scene. Freeing up investment banks to allocate capital more freely.

I just don't get Thiel's motivation here. You don't want a total lunatic in
power, you want someone you can _talk_ to and persuade.

~~~
dreta
The only people who keep fuelling racial tensions are Democrats, notably Obama
and Clinton, constantly telling black people they’re oppressed and that the
police is racist. Trump had to cancel a rally in Chicago after democrats
started rioting, he’s not the one instigating the violence, but whenever it
breaks out, it’s always described as a “fight breaking out”, and never as
democrats assaulting Trump supporters, which is what it is.

Trump doesn’t bring race to anything. He’s just called “racist” by people who
don’t understand the term “illegal alien”, or that Islam is not a race.

Trump said these terrible things a decade ago. A decade ago Clinton and Obama
were strongly, and publicly, against gay marriage. A decade ago Clinton
praised sen. Robert Byrd as her “mentor”, a former KKK member, and noted
racist. Go back further, and you have tapes of her laughing at the victims of
her husband and destroying their lives. The thing with Hillary though, is that
you don’t have to go that far with her, if you stop ignoring the fact she
should be in jail right now, and not running for office.

~~~
astrodust
I'm sorry, which candidate was endorsed by the KKK and other white power
groups?

I have no idea where you get your news from but the wild assumptions you're
making are absurd.

~~~
dreta
Who cares who endorses which candidate, that’s out of their control. Hillary
was endorsed by the Californian leader of the KKK, if you care, i don’t. I’m
not making any assumptions. Hillary’s on tape calling Byrd her “friend and
mentor” after his death.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryweuBVJMEA&ab_channel=U.S.D...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryweuBVJMEA&ab_channel=U.S.DepartmentofState)

~~~
astrodust
It's hardly cut and dry: [http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-
klan/](http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-klan/)

You really need to stop listening to people like Alex Jones.

~~~
dreta
My point is not that these things are or are not true, nor whether they matter
or not. My point is that you’re labelling Trump as the worst human being in
history based on such minuscule things, but ignore everything remotely
questionable about Hillary Clinton.

~~~
astrodust
The point of an election is not to find the perfect human being, it's to pick
between the lesser of two evils.

The dirt on Clinton is well known: Her hawkish attitude to war, her
enthusiastic use of drones, her embrace of free-trade policies like TPP, and
so on.

The dirt on Trump is way, way worse, and more keeps coming to light: What has
he paid in taxes? What is he hiding? Why do his businesses keep failing in a
spectacular way? Why is he constantly being sued by thousands of people? Why
does he flip out at the slightest provocation?

Trump isn't the worst human being in history, but he's the worst major party
candidate for president in the last hundred years.

If Thiel was supporting Romney, Cruz, hell, _any_ of the last round candidates
in the last twenty years, nobody would be upset. Why he chose to get in bed
with this particular turd, I don't know.

~~~
dreta
Most of the negative things you had to say about Trump are a part of being a
high-profile entrepreneur. How does any of that come even remotely close to
purging a private e-mail server you used for communicating top-secret
documents while in office, or collapsing on a warm day is beyond me.

~~~
astrodust
Maybe Trump is just like every other entrepreneur that has a trail of wreckage
behind them, but when running for President there's different standards and
the tradition has been, virtually without exception, that you release your
taxes and a doctor's assessment of your health.

"Collapsing on a warm day" from pneumonia? Seriously? You've got some issues
if you're busting on someone for making every effort to show up to an event
relating to September 11th.

Speaking of purging email servers:
[http://www.salon.com/2015/03/12/the_george_w_bush_email_scan...](http://www.salon.com/2015/03/12/the_george_w_bush_email_scandal_the_media_has_conveniently_forgotten_partner/)

Trump is a train-wreck _in progress_. If you're tied to that wagon you're in
for some disappointment, win or lose.

~~~
dreta
We all know why he won’t release his tax returns. He knows the system, he can
fix it. Hillary can complain about that all she wants, but she didn’t do
anything about it while in office. That’s been one of his main campaigning
points since the beginning.

Why would you even talk about Trump’s health records as a Clinton supporter.
First it’s not pneumonia, then it’s pneumonia. She collapses from it, then
hugs a child after it miraculously gets through the Secret Service, even
though the disease can be contagious. Pneumonia can cause serious
complications, Clinton doesn’t tell you about it, and now you praise her for
how strong she is? Why would you do that?

Who cares what Bush did. He’s not running for president, why would that be
even remotely relevant to the discussion.

The only bad thing you managed to say about Trump is that he’s a wild card,
while completely ignoring, or trying to awkwardly justify, that Clinton
committed crimes, and showed utter incompetence while in office.

~~~
astrodust
What Bush did, what Clinton did, what _countless others_ have done is delete
email. You want to hold her to account, sure, but you better be prepared to
accept that others have done the same thing. If that's a crime, there's a long
list of criminals.

The FBI, however, has concluded that there was no crime. So hey, take it up
with them.

If you think Trump's the candidate to vote for that says a lot about your
judgement. Many people are voting for Hillary simply because there's no
reasonable alternative.

------
chinese_dan
The entire Peter Thiel situation has taught me that the tech industry, like
the mainstream media, is so corrupt, that they have no problem colluding
against someone that disagrees with their political views.

Just remember: You might be the victim getting your livelihood taken away
someday..all because of your differing political views.

~~~
Nokinside
Here is my counterargument.

It would be unethical to team publicly against average person, based on his
opinions, but Thiel is not a average person.

Large amounts of money change the status of a person. Money and political
power are largely interchangeable. Thiel is billionaire and his status and
influence is closer to major politician, large company or small state than
average joe.

Thiel has demonstrated that he is willing to use his money to attack against
others he don't like, so I think he should be able to take some blowback. Hie
livelihood is not in a stake.

~~~
chinese_dan
This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s.

You have money? You can be treated as less than a human.

~~~
Nokinside
>This sort of mentality is sounding more and more like Germany in the 1930s.

This is accepted principle in liberal democracies. Public Officials and
figures get less protection than common man.

~~~
chinese_dan
"Officials and figures get less protection than common man."

This is an accepted principle in evil authoritarian countries, not liberal
democracies.

Everyone should have the same rights, regardless of wealth or status. This is
just an excuse, so you can make yourself feel better at night for treating
someone as less than human.

