←back to thread

370 points sillypuddy | 6 comments | | HN request time: 0.461s | source | bottom
Show context
makewavesnotwar ◴[] No.16407409[source]
Likening people to Thiel is ridiculous. He is personally facing the backlash from openly supporting Trump and being a speaker at his rallies. Nobody else in the valley did anything as absurd or unnecessary. And if he thinks he'll fair better in LA, I think he's sorely mistaken once people start recognizing him en masse. But to my point, this article seems to be generalizing an outlier to make its point. Everyone is being alienated everywhere because the country has a leader who is actively polarizing the populous by demonizing every side that he's not on as an enemy to his agenda, even going so far now as to suggest people who disagree should be labeled as traitors - which coming from the President, is technically a death threat as that is the punishment for treason. Peter Thiel seems to be actively trying to paint a more dystopian portrait of the situation to make himself out to be a victim when in reality people on both sides have been alienated by the dissolution of the "moderate" common ground where we all worked together in favor of a Monday Night Football-esque team based society (or crime drama - good v. bad). More generalizations like this that skew reality aren't going to help anything.
replies(6): >>16407487 #>>16407649 #>>16407696 #>>16408792 #>>16408795 #>>16409087 #
superquest ◴[] No.16407487[source]
"openly supporting" the winning presidential candidate isn't "absurd".
replies(11): >>16407503 #>>16407542 #>>16407625 #>>16407645 #>>16407716 #>>16407763 #>>16407794 #>>16407796 #>>16407828 #>>16407892 #>>16418174 #
1. sigmar ◴[] No.16407763[source]
While I'm not sure I'd use the word "absurd," arguing that "he won, so it couldn't be absurd to support him" doesn't make sense. Lots of demagogues win elections. Winning an election doesn't automatically make you ethical or competent.
replies(1): >>16407841 #
2. shaftoe ◴[] No.16407841[source]
No, but it certainly makes you mainstream.
replies(2): >>16408069 #>>16408260 #
3. evgen ◴[] No.16408069[source]
Agreeing with 46% of the population is mainstream? Okay...
replies(1): >>16408536 #
4. alexqgb ◴[] No.16408260[source]
Not if the election wasn't won with a majority.
replies(1): >>16409772 #
5. nl ◴[] No.16408536{3}[source]
Sure it is. No one claims driving a Honda Accord isn’t a mainstream choice just because they aren’t the number one selling car.
6. PeterisP ◴[] No.16409772{3}[source]
Sure it is, if there's a 30%/70% split of viewpoints then the 30% viewpoint is a mainstream viewpoint as well, not some weird niche - it's also considered normal and conventional (though less popular than the 70% one), shared by a significant part of the people, known / acknowledged by almost everyone including the opponents.