Greetings from Lagos, Nigeria! 👋
This US election has merely reconfirmed what we’ve known for a while. Silicon Valley (aka “they”, representing the left leaning tech space of the US) is a bundle of hypocrisy when it comes to being the beacon of freedom. i.e “you’re free to say / do anything as long as it’s what’s popular over here.”
This election Trumps all they’ve done before.
They are opposed to Trump which is VERY ok. However they have taken it further. They are also opposed to people (Thiel) who support Trump.
Hmm..
Not satisfied with that, they are now attacking those (Y Combinator folks) who refuse to cut ties with those (Thiel) who support Trump.
Huh?!
It doesn’t get more bizarre than this — actually it may. Cos soon there may be calls to boycott YC companies like Airbnb for taking money from YC years ago cos they refused to cut ties with Thiel for supporting Trump. After all, there are calls to boycott Paypal cos he founded the company. It doesn’t matter that they sold it to ebay 14 years ago. #facepalm
“It is different they proclaim. Trump is a THREAT. Trump is anti everything. A sexual predator, racist, insane, etc . Trump is an exception!!”
It’s mind bending that they cannot see how the actions are similar to those of “African Dictators” — to use a term the our friends in the West love so much
As an African that has been ruled by a dictator :)*hi five*. Let me tell you how this works.
A dictator can decide who and what is a threat, then go for them, their supporters (families) and those who refuse to cut ties (friends of their families)
There are those who believe the worship of other gods could bring calamity upon the land. How should those who refuse to disavow those who support those who worship the “bad gods” be treated?
How should Saudi Arabia deal with those who refuse to disavow those who support those supporting same sex marriage?
“Well, with Trump, it is different. It’s OBVIOUS and EVERYONE knows he’s a threat”
Please tell that to the 14 million people that voted for him in the Republican Primaries. and the forty something percent of people polls say support him
I remember when the founder of Mozilla, Brendan Eich was to be destroyed for quietly supporting Proposition 8 which was put on BALLOT!
Now it is the destruction of anything remotely associated with Trump.
As Silicon Valley get’s more powerful we should become much more worried.
- Can Facebook begin to ban communication about those it disagrees with?
- Twitter should not allow Trump to have an account perhaps? He could be classified as a troll like Milo.
- Will Mastercard stop processing Thiel’s credit card transactions?
- Will Uber stop the movement of those it disagrees with? Cos you know, Hitler!
Even during the last elections in Nigeria when people were certain the other person’s candidate was definitely trying to destroy our country, we did not see this level of bile among the citizenry.
I’m thoroughly ashamed of political discourse in America and cannot wait for the 8th of November to come so we can begin to deal with the fallout from all this.
What I am certain is it would be dangerous for Silicon Valley to keep welding power with such proneness to group, one dimensional hypocritical thinking.
A quick recap on my position on the US elections (yes, as a Nigerian, US elections are my business ‘cos US is involved in everyone’s business so outcome affects me DIRECTLY)
To me, both Hillary and Trump are terrible candidates. The worst! A competition between two candidates that could only win against each other.
In these elections series (it’s like a show), the only candidate I’ve supported is Bernie Sanders.
The only candidate I have opposed is Hillary Clinton. Mainly for her leadership role — from “behind” in assassinating an African sitting head of state and mocking him on TV). The result of this assassination has destroyed Libya and destabilized a large chunk of my region in West Africa. And got weapons to Boko Haram.
As for Trump, I liked him during the early seasons of Apprentice, that’s until he began the birther thing against Obama and then this racist tweet. Wrote him off since. However, my opposition to him is not remotely nearly as much as it’s to Clinton.
My opposition to Clinton is personal. Trump’s isn’t
An old time friend of mine is worried on my behalf. Stating that there may be repercussions on my business from my opposing Hillary cos it “could be interpreted” I support(ed) Trump.
So I thought I should clear it cos you know, I need to do so in a democracy.
This explanation doesn’t really matter cos as long as I am not supporting Hillary, I should marked. And frankly, it’s a badge I wear with pride.
Yeah! That’s the level of freedom we have got to.
On Y Combinator’s Paradox Position
PS: Altman set himself and YC up with his strong anti Tump position. Now more anti Trump leadership is (perhaps rightly) expected of him. A large diverse corporation should not take political positions except they are certain it has 90% internal support of all critical to their success.
They are now in the position of dammed in you do, damned if you don’t! as it relates their relationship with Trump supporter Thiel. Dustin Moskovitz was able to take a strong position against Trump without getting Asana involved
If Y Combinator decides to cut Thiel off for his personal political belief, they will have to answer if YC would invest in startups whose founders support(ed) Trump.
If Saudi Arabia beheads people for the crime of being homosexual and Uber has collected money from Saudi Arabia, your riding an Uber makes money for Saudi Arabia and will eventually pay the salary of the beheading fella.
Stop riding/driving Uber and cut off from anyone riding/driving Uber
I know, “it’s different”
Be careful what door you choose to open fellas
PPS: How should this be dealt with? I don’t know. But i sure do know silencing dissenting views is NOT the way to go about it.
PPPS: Marc Andreessen is wisest man in the whole of Silicon Valley
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