You mean I chose MIT. I didn't vote for Trump; I'm not even in the US. And even though I think Trump is a crackpot, I'd rather keep HN on tech, science, and programming. Same with MIT.
this isn't the sort of rhetoric I enjoy seeing on HN
Conversely, I don't enjoy seeing social justice rhetoric on HN. I come here for the tech, startup, and programming news and commentary. So I suppose we're even. The fact that you mistakenly read my view as pro-Trump only highlights the dangers of this kind of content on HN.
I don't live in they Bay area, but from what I keep seeing on HN: A strong hostility to those who say things that support a particular policy that Trump supports. An extreme hostility to those who admit voting for him.
I'm pretty sure I have seen comments on HN which pretty strongly hint that the commenters feel Trump supporters should have no place in SV tech companies, because they are, by virtue of supporting him, bigots. These were not greyed out comments, either.
Would you elaborate? If you're referring to the HN community, a few minutes' reading through the comments will show you that there's a wide range of political views, including Trump supporters.
This explains why you won't vote for him, but that wasn't the question. The question is why the tech industry would differ from the population at large, where Trump has >40% support.
Why does everyone assume that nobody here _likes_ Trump? Granted, it's dangerous to be pro-Trump her in Silicon Valley; getting beaten up for these beliefs really happens. But maybe we should all have open minds.
You're getting downvoted because Trump is anti-intellectual, anti-small-business, and anti-American.
Everyone should feel violated by even knowing he exists. He is everything America isn't. If he becomes President (very unlikely), say goodbye to the Valley, say goodbye to every startup scene in this country, and watch the money flee to pro-business nations.
Side note, I expect to be also downvoted for my view (and for discussing politics on HN at all), but I don't really care.
Right. But are you comfortable with the fact that not all hackers will be on the same political side?
I wouldn't go as far as voting for Trump, but I am one of those crazy ultra-libertarians you occasionally encounter (I support tax cuts AND free migration). There are some well-educated people, even some with PhDs, who actually _did_ vote for Trump (I know a few), and most certainly, there are many Trump supporters right here on HN. Will you be comfortable with that, enabling political discourse?
Everyone wants to change the world, but not everyone is sharing your direction of change.
I'm sure there are some tech workers who support Trump, but education seems to be one of the best predictors for who voted against Trump, and tech workers are probably on average better educated than the general populace...
Forgive me for getting political, but I think Trump was a good non-tech example of 'good because it's new'. Without a voting record and few concrete policies people were free to project their hopes on to him.
I have also noticed the 'dangerous/frightening because it's new' bias. I don't understand why it flips one way or the other. People are weird! :)
Tons of smart people vote for trump (Peter Thiel for example). I mean you get what I'm saying. Just because some smart people use it doesn't mean it's right. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's a success.
I think it's a shame that the only options we'll likely have are Trump or Clinton. I don't support either.
I'm also continually disappointed with some of the small mindedness I see in Silicon Valley towards people that don't think or believe what the herd does.
The audience of HN is quite unique, and I'm genuinely curious to know the reason why the ones who are voting for Mr. Donald Trump are voting the way they do.
Please disregard if political discussion is not allowed on this forum.
According to Blind, at least 40% of Silicon Valley workers support what Trump said regarding this incident. Probably less than 1% support the ideas of Neo-nazis or the Daily Stormer. You're making a false assumption and dehumanizing those who disagree with you.
I voted for Trump, and found my justification after I had decided that I would probably do so. The bottom line was that I wasn't going to vote for Clinton and Trump was the only other viable option.
I've also chosen relatively untested libraries for projects because I'd already used the more mature choice for another project and hated it :)
Why would anybody downvote me on THIS site for opposing Trump? Do you like the bitter Steve Bannon attacks on the tech industry? Do you think immigration is a bad idea? Do you find him to be an honest, decent, likeable man? Do you agree with his moves to get science out of scientific policy-making? Do you favor his attitude of "Truth is whatever I tweet it is?"
You might be surprised by the number of professional scientists and engineers who voted for Trump in 2016. Yes, my anecdotal experience shows they're in the minority, but they're not zero and it's a lot higher than you might imagine. I'm not going to go into the politics of why these folks supported Trump in 2016, though I personally know smart people who made good arguments for Trump in 2016, but an editorial such as this may definitely sway them.
Trump is uniquely dangerous and I would fully endorse YC cutting ties with prominent supporters/backers of his...if that would do anything concrete to reduce Trump's chances of winning the presidency, by even one epsilon. I don't Thiel doing office hours for YC companies gives him any sort of tactical advantage he could parlay into assisting Donald Trump's campaign, though I'm willing to entertain arguments otherwise.
It seems more like the argument is that people would like to disassociate with Trump backers as a matter of basic moral principle; that Trump has made himself such a symbol of hatred, racism, xenophobia etc that organizations should shun working with his supporters to send a message that they don't agree with that hatred, racism, and xenophobia. I think that would be quite a reasonable gesture (and I understand why Ellen is trying to do the same thing here). But so is taking public stances against Trump in other forms, including Sam's post re: trump on the YC blog, and his project voteplz.org, a project which, given the lesser likelihood of Democratic-leaning demographic groups to turn out, will probably do orders of magnitude more damage to Trump than Theil's office hours will help him.
I'd like to see more of a focus on what the tech industry can do in the next three weeks to stop Donald Trump from being president, and a little less focus on which companies can prove their moral purity by shunning Trump supporters.
And if we're really doing the latter, isn't going after Palantir, Founders Fund's LPs+ portfolio companies a much more logical place to start? I really hope (and I mean this earnestly, not saying it to make an argument) for the sake of the broader cause of diversity in the tech industry that Project Include is not planning to disassociate with all the companies on this page: http://foundersfund.com/portfolio/
this isn't the sort of rhetoric I enjoy seeing on HN
Conversely, I don't enjoy seeing social justice rhetoric on HN. I come here for the tech, startup, and programming news and commentary. So I suppose we're even. The fact that you mistakenly read my view as pro-Trump only highlights the dangers of this kind of content on HN.
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