I honestly don't think the 'boycott' was reflective the majority's opinion. Unless someone can compile a list of people who've said they outright weren't going to do business with Thiel.
Boycott Thiel in front of your friends (a public position) but continue secretly dealing with him (a private) position. Sound oddly familiar...
As a simplified example; if they are the only option to get funding, it may be fiscally irresponsible to the other share holders to deny that option.
Same thing happens with bankruptcies, mergers & acquisitions, etc all the time - stuff may be sold to a company that the founders or anyone else is very objectionte to but they may have absolutely no say in the matter whether through no control in bankruptcy or simply not enough voting power with multiple interests.
Makes you really think about contracts and other such sometimes, just because you trust this company and it's founders or leadership now doesn't mean you can trust them later if they lose control.
And yet - the zealotry and fanaticism on the left to extinguish any kind of "wrong" thoughts, deviation from the norm, or perceived transgression is extremely off putting - around the time the Eich drama unfolded - I realized that these people are at least as dangerous as the conservative Christians when they had the upper hand in the discourse. They are against all and any forms of discrimination - unless the people discriminated disagree with them.
Destroying someone's livelihood just because they don't have the "right" values showed me that the new cultural overlords are the same as the old one. So I support Trump just to piss them off.
So I would not be surprised if a lot of Trump/Thiel boycotters are Jedi in the streets, Sith in the sheets - because real hackers always have a rebellion streak in them - and right now the left is "The Man"
You mean like suing Gawker out of existence?
the left is "The Man"
I get the impression from a lot of the alt-right that what they object to is not so much "the man" as "the woman".
You wouldn't support people like these government employees to have freedom of political opinion?
This isn't about politics. We're specifically apolitical (https://octopoedi.gitbooks.io/employee-handbook/content/Comp...).
As I choose investors, it's very important that they are aligned with the impact we want to have on the world. Thiel is, to be generous, no where fucking close.
However: "He has a plethora of public comments revealing a shocking lack of empathy or caring about the greater good." Very much "citation needed." If anything, I've seen Thiel genuinely want to improve our world.
https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...
"Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible."
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." -- Winston Churchill
He's mad that women can vote because they don't vote libertarian.
I don't see the problem with this unless he's proposing a constitutional amendment to have their right to vote removed.
Are you going to limit speech to that with which you agree with? You either trust democracy or you don't, and quite honestly I don't. People are disinterested, apathetic, and uneducated on the issues.
And since you are attacking Paul Graham for not disassociating YCombinator with Thiel, why don't you put your money where your mouth is and refund the money you raised to YCombinator?