"I have found a single sample from which I will generalize broadly about the entire country."
Sorry, are you unaware of any people who've been attacked by Trump supporters? Really? Besides the obvious politicians (Senator Ben Sasse, for example), there are viral incidents like these: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/2...
Putting aside the question of why she felt she was being discriminated against, that's a story about a woman who said some nasty things.
Is that the worst of it?
Hardly comparable to what's been done to Trump supporters.
But back to the matter at hand. You seem to be arguing that Thiel faced particular abuse for being a Trump supporter, given the example of Reed Hastings calling him out after Trump secured the Republican nomination (the GP comment [0]). I think it's worth pointing out the pre-conditions in this situation: Thiel, a known conservative, is allowed to serve on the board of directors for one of the biggest institutions (Facebook) in one of America's most famously liberal enclaves [1]. When it's revealed that he's a Trump backer, the liberals, who far outnumber those of Thiel's mindset in his peer group, threaten to kick him out. And let's be fair, Thiel is by far not the only example, as similar liberal outrages have been inflicted upon conservatives in other liberal enclaves, such as Hollywood.
But that's exactly what happened to the Clinton-supporting members on the board of directors for Hobby Lobby and the NRA. Oh wait, no such Clinton-supporting members exist. At least that we know of. If those conservative institutions could even tolerate a Clinton-suppporting board member in the first place, I imagine those Clinton-supporting members would face the same kind of backlash from their colleagues that Thiel faced from his for supporting Trump.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14968956
[1] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nearly-all-of-silicon-v...
May I assume that you also don't know of any?
Search for "fired for supporting Trump" or "Trump supporters assaulted" if you'd really like a list.
Here, I'll just mention what I consider the most egregious example:
In San Jose, a leftist mob attacked people leaving a Trump campaign event, while police stood aside and watched. "The only people arrested the day of the rally, Dhillon added, were those who attacked police officers."
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/15/san-jose-new-allegatio...
There have been worse events, including kidnapping, torture, murder and attempted murders, but in that case the police seem to have been accomplices.
OK, just try to list ones that you think are important examples.
> In San Jose, a leftist mob attacked people leaving a Trump campaign event, while police stood aside and watched
OK, here you go:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/man-accused-of-assaulting-...
http://www.lex18.com/story/35275736/transylvania-university-...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/us/pizzagate-attack-sente...
> There have been worse events, including kidnapping, torture, murder and attempted murders, but in that case the police seem to have been accomplices.
OK. Yeah, I guess if police are covering things up, then there are all manner of awful events that we don't really know about.
I consider the organized attacks by companies, protestors, and other groups, some with the tacit approval of the government, to be worse.
> Do you have any examples of people punished for supporting Clinton? I'd be interested to hear about them; I'm not aware of any.
I'm not particularly interested in getting into a link-fest fight that will ultimately stall at a No-True-Scotsman appeal. I took issue at your apparent complete obliviousness of violent attacks originating from the right-wing. Are any of the incidents I've mentioned sufficient for you and all those awful incidents you have in your head but can't be bothered to find the links to?
Oh what the hell. Here's another one for you: "Couple charged with assault in shooting, melee during UW speech by Milo Yiannopoulos"
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/couple-charge...
Oh, I guess that doesn't count as a "mob", because apparently when members of one group of protestors shoots another protester in the stomach, police swoop in and shut everything down. Do you imagine that if the police weren't there, that the right-wing protesters (including the ones carrying and firing guns) would have amicably resolved things?
I don't expect to find scores of examples of angry right-wing mob action. The winning side tends to have less reason to protest or lash out. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are aware of angry anti-Obama protests and retaliation that happened back in 2009. But let me know if you are equally oblivious of such incidents and I can search the news archives for you.
As a registered Republican, I can only imagine what my reaction as a Democrat would be upon hearing of attacks on Obama supporters. I would hope that my reaction would not be to assume that such attacks were coordinated by Senator McCain/Governor Palin, or use such incidents as a sweeping indictment against the Republican party. It's been several hours since you claimed that there were "so many" anti-Trump attacks and yet you've still only been able to come up with that one link from the Mercury News. Save yourself the effort, I can think of several incidents in which Trump supporters were harmed, but I'm not the one who was ignorant of such incidents nor do I deny that such incidents, whether they involved angry words or actual violence, were considerably harmful to the victims.
But -- looking at the most recent election cycle -- it's hard to ignore that the most direct examples of a party's leader sanctioning violence comes straight from Trump himself, which is why a lawsuit accusing him of inciting violence has been allowed to go forward:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/3/trump-campaig...
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/both-sides-blame-tru...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/03/th...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/get-him-out-racial-t...
Again, not a mob action since campaign attendees far outnumbered the protesters, meaning that a few punches could put an end to the protests before things descended into a riot. I don't think that makes the situation better.
So, are you now aware of attacks against Trump opponents?
Of course there were actions by crazy individuals on both sides. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about people punished by organized groups and the powerful. I'm talking about Google firing people and the police ignoring mob attacks.
And you still haven't mentioned any such things.
I agree Trump's rhetoric was dangerous but he hasn't acted on it, as far as I know.
The police chief/city officials ignoring mob attacks based on politics is indeed a huge problem. If I'm reading the example you posted correctly, and the most recent update [0], a judge has so far dismissed claims against the defendants who would have the power -- e.g. the mayor and police chief -- to tell police to not protect Trump supporters. Did police officers intentionally decide to harm Trump supporters? I suppose the court case will examine that, though it's worth noting that Trump was endorsed by the nation's largest police union [1], so the thought of police being part of a conspiracy to hurt Trump would be pretty surprising.
In case you were unaware of Democrat-supporters who were either fired, or were threatened to be fired, for their support of Democrats, here you go:
- https://www.aol.com/2013/01/18/utah-terry-lee-forensics-fire...
- http://www.cbsnews.com/news/was-employee-laid-off-for-voting...
- https://www.mediaite.com/online/fired-for-voting-ohio-woman-...
- http://www.salon.com/2017/01/20/newt-gingrich-wants-to-fire-...
- http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/09/news/economy/siegel-email-em...
For your own pro-Trump files:
- http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...
[0] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/15/judge-wont-throw-out-t...
[1] http://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494451660/the-nations-largest-...
That being said, Clinton was pretty tepid and corrupt, not openly offensive and terrifying the way Trump is. Unless you're REALLY desperate you can't honestly say supporting one or the other is the same.
A big part of her campaign strategy was to generalize from a few actual white supremacists and paint everyone who opposed her as a deplorable sexist Nazi white-supremacist who couldn't stand the idea of a woman President.
That kind of McCarthyism is always a threat, but it was doubly dangerous in the current environment, with leftist groups declaring that violence was justified against anyone they thought fit that description.
> racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic
> ... irredeemable
Basket of deplorables...