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Most Cities Would Welcome a Tech Billionaire, But Peter Thiel? (bloomberg.com)
Sarah McBride, writing for Bloomberg: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is moving to Los Angeles from San Francisco, adding another dose of legitimacy to a burgeoning startup scene in Southern California -- along with some controversy. The co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, Thiel runs Founders Fund, one of the more-respected venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. He comes with a little baggage, though, including his staunch support for President Donald Trump, his secretive funding of the legal battle between Hulk Hogan and Gawker.com, and comments some people say have been derogatory toward women. "I'm not sure why Peter Thiel believes he'll receive a warmer reception on the L.A. tech scene than he's had in Silicon Valley," said Tracy DiNunzio, chief executive officer of Tradesy, a fashion-reselling company based in Santa Monica, California. "Our venture and startup ecosystem is fairly left-leaning."
Guy's a Trump troll who also bankrolled lawsuits against media whose main crime was breaking the law.
Fixed that for you.
If you're a startup and you need funding and you've got a demonstrably astute tech investor with a deep rolodex and sacks of money to invest, why do you care who he votes for?
I certainly wouldn't.
This politicization of every aspect of life is way out of hand.
Why do conservatives insist on coming to California if it's such a shithole? It's the most liberal state in the country and SF and Silicon Valley are much further to the left and have been that way for the last century. Just make your own tech companies in the podunk flyover states you come from.
Stop trying to leech off our companies and our success. You aren't welcome here and, to be quite honest, you can't compete here. Be gracious that we subsidize your podunk state and stay out.
You subsidize them? Who builds your cars, grows your food, makes your clothes? Here's a hint - it's not f'ing you. Skipping over the fact that third world countries subsidize most of the developed world, in terms of actual tangible work, the "podunk" states you so despise do much more to maintain your standard of living than you think. Try heating your home or feeding your family with HTML5, AI, blockchain, or whatever it is you clowns rave about these days. Fact is most of the crap coming out of silicon valley is less than useless, distracting the rest of the world with constant noise while reducing their productivity and ability to solve problems themselves, and turning future generations' brains to mush. That's not economic value creation, it's destruction, and the world is finally starting to come around to that realization. So get off your high horse and wake up to the fact that it is you that is subsidized by actual hard working people, and their views matter as much as yours.
Personally I wouldn't choose to live the lifestyle that working for Google etc forces on you, no matter what they paid me.
Apart from anything else, being surrounded by the obligatory bunch of neckbearded hipster millennials who all think they're "alternative" yet all look, dress, speak, think and act exactly the same, and all march lock-step according to extreme peecee liberal brainwashing, would drive me nuts.
people need to stop suppressing the beliefs of others simply because you disagree with them.
The problem is that so many Leftists adamantly believe in an ideological/political structure that cannot hold up to logical, intellectually-honest debate or comparisons with others. If such were widely allowed in public discourse, they would not gain adherents and would lose nearly all support.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Extremely well said and concise. Bringing into how we relate to people because of their personal politics (conservative vs liberal vs progressive vs socialist) is extremely toxic. If we cannot talk or do business with people that hold differing political views - the civility of society will only continue to decline.
A bunch of retarded hicks that are easy to manipulate. Thanks Cleetus.
And the Committee to Re-elect Trump fires off their favorite line, which will ensure his victory in 2020.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Since when is supporting the government "baggage"?
Since that part of our government is a piece of shit, that's since when.
I don't respond to AC's.
Thiel would not be a good fit for Los Angeles. He should come to Arizona, where we love his politics and where he would appreciate the lower rents and cost of housing for workers. The Phoenix area is a burgeoning tech scene that has grown up around Arizona State, Intel, Honeywell, and a host of newer and smaller tech enterprises. Hardly a Silicon Valley yet, but he can help make it one.
Why would there be an article like this?
"Our venture and startup ecosystem is fairly left-leaning."
So intolerant then. If Peter Thiel wouldn't be welcomed because he's not like you, what does that make you? I guess it has finally become obvious to everyone how intolerant and exclusionary "left-leaning" cultures are.
we're already here and have been all along.
California is the state of Ronald Reagan, Bob Dornan, etc.
The left was only able to hijack the state and make it one-party-rule by super-majorities in the state house by importing millions of immigrants from leftist countries. Now we have the highest gas taxes in the nation, while our trasportation infrastructure crumbles. We now have some of the highest income taxes in the nation, while we hae the worst income inequality. We now have some of the highest business taxes and regulations, while our manufacturing businesses flee the state (SpaceX and Tesla do NOT offset all the other losses). We now have the highest levels of homelessness and poverty and the highest rates of welfare consumption in the nation.
The very same progressives who try to hush all this stuff up by claiming California is a "net maker" and other states are "net takers" are outraged that Trump just partly unmasked that lie by taking away PART of the SALT federal tax deduction that Democrats in places like New York and California have for decades used to hide the true impact of their tax-and-spend policies. California lawmakers are currently trying to re-classify California taxes as "charitable deductions" to try to thwart this and keep hiding the effects of their policies. As a general rule, if you think you need to be that dishonest in your lawmaking, you are almost certainly in the wrong.
The sad truth about morons like you is that the "tech workers" who are the most liberal are the ones working on phones, and tablets, and web sites, whereas those of us who work in aerospace, defense, and other areas that actually matter and where lives are on the line tend (Musk and some of his people being outliers) to be on the political right - and plenty of us are still here but finding the place increasingly fascistic and jack-booted. Right wingers in tech tend to keep their views to themselves, not having that National Socialist tendency to demand that others listen to their views and agree with them, so you might well have right wingers working around you who would surprise you. You guys on the left, however, lack the self-control to shut up and just do the work; the rest of us are all forced to notice you, so we know who you are. California may well be currently in the death-grip of you Marxist-leaning loons with your propaganda and speech codes and intrusive bloated totalitarian government worship, but things that connot be sustained won't..... and we'll be here to pick up the bits and pieces when your drug addled fantasies collapse .... we like the weather.