‘We Care Deeply About Diversity’: Zuckerberg Defends Thiel’s Ties to Trump

If a lowly employee had publicly made a donation to Trump's campaign would we see the same statement from Zuckerberg, or would that employee's time at Facebook come to an end at the next HR-approved opportunity?

Facebook is not "stronger" than the Democratic National Committee or the ACLU or Heritage Foundation because it has a broader array of political opinions among its staff and leadership than those groups do. The organizations simply have different reasons for existing.

What we should concern ourselves with as a society is freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of association. This is different from diversity. In fact these freedoms eventually reduce diversity of thought, as we influence each other.

For example, the belief that slavery should be legal is no longer widely held in the U.S. That is a reduction in "thought diversity" from 160 years ago. And I highly doubt that Mark Zuckerberg would keep a board member who advocated for the return of slavery, in the name of "diversity of thought."

The freedoms listed above include the freedoms to disagree, to dissociate. It would not be unpatriotic or somehow wrong for Facebook to break ties with Thiel based on political disagreement. After all Zuckerberg has already done the opposite: he has sunk millions into efforts to convince the country to pass immigration reform. This despite knowing that a huge number of Facebook customers (and perhaps staff) don't want immigration reform.

If it's ok to create organizational relationships based on shared political beliefs, I don't see how it's wrong to break relationships based on political beliefs.

So: I find the appeal to "diversity of thought" to be not very compelling. The reality is that Zuckerberg probably thinks that cutting off Thiel would cause himself and his company more harm than good.