
Trump-Supporting CEO Kicked Out of Y Combinator Startup Incubator - minimaxir
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/trump-supporting-startup-ceo-kicked-out-of-y-combinator
======
minimaxir
Additional context:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12934388](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12934388)

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zzalpha
Alternate less click baity title: Abusive Bully CEO Kicked Out of Y Combinator
Startup Incubator

Admittedly less interesting, though...

~~~
akhilcacharya
Well, in fairness, one was just elected president, so maybe we should give
them more leeway.

/s

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yongjik
If an apprentice in one of Trump's reality shows was caught on video telling
others to "fuck off", after being repeatedly told not to do that, Trump
himself would've said "You're fired!" Probably kicked him out of the door
himself.

Good riddance.

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danieltillett
Does anyone know how you can tell the good buzzfeed articles from the
clickbait without clicking?

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cptskippy
I wasn't aware they had good articles.

~~~
pavlov
BuzzFeed has an actual team of investigative journalists these days:

[http://www.poynter.org/2016/how-buzzfeed-built-an-
investigat...](http://www.poynter.org/2016/how-buzzfeed-built-an-
investigative-team-from-the-ground-up/396656/)

But I don't know how to tell the good articles from the clickbait built-for-
viral chaff either...

~~~
grzm
I find it's increasingly a problem with the web in general these days. As for
HN, maybe someone can work out an algorithm that digests the content of the
piece after it's posted and provides a quality score.

The step after that is for each of us to train our own bots to comment as we
would ourselves.

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sparkzilla
I asked Paul Graham on Twitter if YC would discriminate against Trump
supporters, and while his answer was fine [1], I never did get a response from
Sam Altman about the same issue. I also never got a decent response from an
anonymous thread I posted here [2]. Sam Altman's statement of support for
Hillary [3] was fine, of course he is entitled to his opinion, but it was
incumbent upon Altman to make a statement that neither he nor the YC
application review team would discriminate on the basis of political
affiliation. He didn't, and one has to wonder, given this new situation,
whether there really is systemic bias at YC.

[1][https://twitter.com/sparkzilla/status/788684294130630656](https://twitter.com/sparkzilla/status/788684294130630656)
[2][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12733252](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12733252)
[3][http://blog.samaltman.com/the-2016-election](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-2016-election)

~~~
leot
How bad does a leader have to be before supporting him is a genuine moral
outrage?

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jamesmp98
I definitely believe the guy was in the wrong here, but what would have
happened if it were a leftist harassing Trump supporters?

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tkone
when leftists want to kick people out of the country or be supported by the
KKK or grope/molest woman, etc we can be worried about your thought
experiment.

when the candidate you choose to support openly wants to make life harder,
more difficult or even non-existent for groups of people you've chosen your
side and be prepared to defend it.

~~~
flyinglizard
So, what you're saying is that in 2016, there's only one valid side to the
political discussion?

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cptskippy
I hate the fact that we've come to the point where everything is now open for
discussion and sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming is considered
a valid debate style. These days it's the person who holds out the longest
that wins, right or wrong.

~~~
flyinglizard
I didn't see any chance for a debate. Once one side was labelled misogynist,
racist, antisemitic and homophobic, it was the end of public discussion and
open season on every one of its supporters.

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jondubois
You have to admit though that this guy is smart. Getting kicked out of YC is
probably exactly what he wanted. It will be PR magic for his startup... He
almost definitely planned the whole thing from the beginning.

~~~
minimaxir
On the other hand, the very public circumstances of the dismissal will make it
_impossible_ to get funding for the startup from legitimate investors.

~~~
jondubois
I don't think so. He will find even stronger support among conservatives
(especially when you factor in the nature of his startup). That's the thing
about capitalism; there is no down-vote button.

The more controversy you create, the better it gets financially. Friends pay
well and enemies don't cost much.

I think that this guy was secretly hoping for a Clinton win; then he would
have looked even more like a victim; and the defeated, angry Trump supporters
would have been cheering him on with pitchforks in their hands.

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jtedward
I get this is a a technology forum a people generally shouldn't post
politically charged stuff.

I am more then happy to never post any political crap here again, but I like
to know why/how my recent post was flagged. I apologize, if I violated the
etiquette or something.

~~~
grzm
Is this the comment you're referring to?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12940111](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12940111)

As to how, it was flag-killed, which means enough users flagged it to trigger
its removal.

As to why, I can only speculate, but it may have been a combination of things:

\- invoking "moral obligation" and "dignity as human beings" implies that
people who don't agree with you are somehow immoral, which they might react
strongly to

\- "any means necessary" can be interpreted to mean that anything goes,
including violence, which is pretty strong language, and more of a call to
arms than an invitation to civil discussion (which is the purpose of HN, in
part)

Some of the child comments point to reasons it was flagged as well.

And things are pretty heated in general around HN right now.

I wouldn't take it personally. Move on, reflect, figure out ways to engage
more constructively if you choose to.

Hope this helps. This isn't meant as a criticism, just trying to read it as I
see it, since you asked.

~~~
jtedward
"By any means necessary", was in retrospect an inflammatory statement, which I
should not have used. I don't believe violence is necessary, or even helpful
in achieving a moral society.

As for judgements about the morality of others, this is my opinion. I don't
apologize for it. I know I'm unlikely to be directly persuasive using this
moral judgement as an argumentative tactic, but to make people conscious of
the intangible, quasi-spritual ramafications of their political beliefs does
at least as much good as simply getting someone to believe what I believe.

Thanks for your superb analysis.

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SuperPaintMan
Shitposting has severe consequence.

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jarnix
Could anyone give more (insider) explanations? Not clicking on a buzzfeed
link.

~~~
TAForObvReasons
[https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-
static/static/2016-11/12/1...](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-
static/static/2016-11/12/13/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web10/sub-
buzz-11163-1478974596-1.png?no-auto) probably says it all.

If you don't want to click on the image, it's a post from Andrew Torba which
reads

> All of you: fuck off. Take your morally superior, elitist, virtue signaling
> bullshit and shove it.

> I call it like I see it, and I helped meme a President into office, cucks.

I can understand why YC would want to distance itself from that.

~~~
tptacek
That's not all that happened. Torba did more than antagonize people on a
Facebook feed. He carefully chose a screenshot that left out the context of
his actual harassment of YC batchmates. In the most recent instance, he
screenshotted the Facebook status of a Latino batchmate expressing concern
about the election --- not to him, but to their personal Facebook feed --- and
posted it publicly to Twitter with a "build the wall" taunt.

If the roles had been reversed and, on November 10th, a Clinton supporter
(like myself) had done that to someone expressing relief on their personal
Facebook feed that Trump had pulled off his upset, I'd have booted that person
too.

But I'm not sure even that was enough to get him booted! It seems like the
last straw was that, upon being confronted with his behavior and how it made
his colleagues feel, he had an entitled temper tantrum. This could have been a
Bears/Packers argument and still have been a fireable offense in a real
company.

Since this is probably obvious to anyone over the age of 15, let alone to
people with Philosophy/Business degrees, I think this is one of those rare
cases where the most cynical explanation succeeds: this is a person whose YC
Facebook advertising startup failed†, saw little future for themselves in the
California startup market, and decided to burn their relationships for PR
fuel.

† _I should have been way more careful here. I have in fact no idea how well
this advertising startup was doing. I apologize for characterizing something I
have no real info on (I think the company changed names, and I was going off
Twitter feed activity and LinkedIn bios). For all I know, the company was
doing great before the founder pivoted to an alt-right social network.
Cynicism loses again!_

~~~
x0x0
It is sadly amusing to look at the utter lack of empathy though. From the
article, re his move to Texas:

    
    
       I didn’t feel safe anymore in Silicon Valley as a conservative. I felt like 
       such a minority that I just didn’t feel safe being there anymore.
    

The inability to connect that to how the Mexican founder he mocked is feeling
is instructive about Torba's character.

~~~
idlewords
I think that's just mockery.

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vuanotino
I think the "Trump supporting CEO" part of the title is largely irrelevant—he
was not kicked out because of that, but because he acted like a fucking
retard.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
> retard

Maybe think about not using this word in 2016.

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mulletbum
That thinking is how Trump won. sigh.

I agree with you btw.

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hash-set
Corporations and the Silicon Valley echo chamber itself are going to get the
smack down for being such insufferable Marxists. It's only a matter of time.
They might want to study some history and stop being such annoying know-it-
alls. Might be a good idea to apologize to your conservative-leaning
customers, too--they are at least half of your sales.

~~~
yongjik
An investor, someone who provides _money_ in exchange of certain promises,
decided the behavior is unacceptable and said "You will no longer have my
money."

And that makes the investors Marxist?

Does the word "Marxist" even mean anything now?

