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Comment by LyndsySimon | Hacker News Reader

From my perspective, SV isn't an option for two reasons: I don't want to raise a family there, and the politics of the Valley aren't compatible with my own.

I rarely see the latter mentioned, but it's increasingly a driving concern for many Americans.

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I hate SV politics too. The upside is: the kind of conversations you can have behind closed doors is very different from what you hear on the public place :)

> The upside is: the kind of conversations you can have behind closed doors is very different from what you hear on the public place :)

How is this an upside? That seems extremely toxic.

Meant the silver lining* (ESL here)

Silver lining makes more sense IMO.

Can't agree with you more, the political atmosphere in the Valley and the tech. companies is simply unbearable.

Living in the valley in general and especially in SF basically means being subjected to a daily deluge of left-wing ideology that the people living in that bubble self-perpetuate and feed upon.

The Trump election came as a much deeper shock to the SF/Valley locals than the rest of America: most people there were totally dumbstruck when he won.

The very idea that this was even remotely possible was simply not part of their tiny self-contained world.

We may never know but I would say that most people were surprised that Trump won not because his policies are conservative but because he is a very crappy person and makes statements that no political leader should ever make in the 21st century, IMO. You can have lots of opposing views towards the common political ideas found in SF and not have to be someone like Trump. I think the fact that won was very shocking because of who he is and how he acts rather than the fact that the rest of the country would vote republican.

>because he is a very crappy person

I don't disagree with you there.

But you have to realize that the rest of America is so disgusted with the silicon-valley style lefties at this point that they are willing to vote for someone like Trump.

Self-introspection time imo.

Silicon Valley? Left wing? You've got to be kidding me.

SF is like the ultimate neoliberal bubble.

This kind of comment is exactly what we're referring to. I'm sorry to be blunt, but it's so false that I wonder if it's a parody. SF's government is one of the most left wing of the entire country. Taxes are very high, the economy is extremely regulated (getting a building permit can easily take 6-10 years) and there's a ton of public aid.

In case anyone is wondering SF county (& many of the counties around it) pay 16.2% of their income in taxes putting them in the top 20 of the country [1]. SF/Oakland have some of the longest waiting for permits for residential at 10.2 months on average [2]

I can't seem to find any good sources on exactly how much public aid is spent.

Because I was wondering, the SF MSA ranked 25th out of ~1k in terms of worst income inequality [3]

All of these data points come from different sources and from different years.

[1]: https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/map-income-taxes-in-y...

[2]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/building-permit-delays-choke-u-...

[3]: https://www.epi.org/publication/income-inequality-in-the-us/

SF and California at large is run by liberal Democrats, but that's a far cry from actual leftism.

Do you know how many members of the San Jose City Council are Republicans?

One. And he's Vietnamese.

I grew up in the American south and was also dumbstruck. Heck I’m pretty sure the man himself was.

It's not really true. Many of us are living "in the closet". Indeed, some of the staunch virtue signalers are just pretending in order to fit in.

Yes, and that is f*ing annoying to have to do. Even if there are others doing the same thing, you end all end up being quiet about it. Super dumb that it's become acceptable to openly talk leftist politics in the office

Just because OP doesn't agree with the prevailing politics doesn't mean they agree with your particular beliefs.

This is true. Now that this is a couple of days old and unlikely to start a flame war, I’ll say: I’m an anarchist-capitalist. I tend to get along with the right merely because I grew up around them and my “social camouflage” fits them better.

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