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Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

(www.wsj.com)
370 points sillypuddy | 4 comments | 18 Feb 18 16:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.012s | source
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twblalock ◴[18 Feb 18 21:03 UTC] No.16408620[source]▶
I don't get it. I grew up in Silicon Valley and I work in tech, and so do many other people I know. They run the gamut from far-left socialists to libertarians to own a bunch of guns. They have all kinds of ethnic backgrounds and religious views.

Some of my most libertarian/pro-gun friends have not been shy about their political views and it hasn't hurt their tech careers at all. They are far more welcome here than liberals are in other parts of the country.

It seems to me, from personal experience, that the people who feel alienated are the ones who bring politics to work in an overbearing contrarian way, seeking to cause offense under the guise of "debate," and then pretend to be shocked when people don't want to put up with their shit. Work is for working; it's not a debating society, and especially not when the debating is done in bad faith.

Peter Thiel has been more politically vocal than most, and he is vocal about things he knows to be unpopular. He can't be surprised that people who disagree with him are also vocal. If he can't take the heat he should stay out of the kitchen.

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1. T2_t2 ◴[18 Feb 18 21:44 UTC] No.16408911[source]▶
Isn't the rebuttal your post the heart of the whole current, I'm not even sure how to describe it, "listen" movement: your experience won't be the same as anyone else's? I wonder why that doesn't extend to a white, male, gay, conservative?

I also think it is odd that we can see the flaws in everyone everywhere else, but the flaws in our own environ seem so hard to spot. I'm reminded of this in these times: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

> Diff present ideas against those of various past cultures, and see what you get. Some will be shocking by present standards. Ok, fine; but which might also be true?

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2. twblalock ◴[18 Feb 18 21:46 UTC] No.16408918[source]▶
Thiel has a larger platform for his views than most people, and his success in Silicon Valley is ironically the reason he gets such a platform. He gets blowback because people are listening, and don't like what he says. Everyone's right to free speech is maximized when he says what he thinks and people who disagree with him say what they think.
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3. anigbrowl ◴[18 Feb 18 21:58 UTC] No.16408974[source]▶
I wonder why that doesn't extend to a white, male, gay, conservative?

Thiel has been around for a long time and his views have been given extensive consideration - I'd say he's a well known public figure out here on the west coast. It seems to me that people have listened to him and that a significant fraction have subsequently arrived at a negative conclusion about him.

4. manfredo ◴[18 Feb 18 22:17 UTC] No.16409125[source]▶
This article isn't mainly about Thiel. He's in the rare position in that he knows he can live comfortably for the rest of his life even if his employment opportunities are reduced to zero. This article is more about overall atmosphere and culture experienced by standard tech workers. The full excerpt from Tim Ferris (part of which OP's article quoted) really captures this:

> Now, more and more, I feel like it's a Russian nesting doll of facades -- Washington DC with fewer neck ties, where people openly lie to one another out of fear of losing their jobs or being publicly crucified. It's weird, unsettling, and, frankly, really dangerous. There's way too much power here for politeness to be sustainable. If no one feels they can say "Hey, I know it makes everyone uncomfortable, but I think there's a leak in the fuel rods in this nuclear submarine..." we're headed for big trouble.

I can definitely identify with this sentiment.