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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

562 points by codybrown 10y ago

williamch11 10y ago
I respect Thiel's loyalty to Trump. As people are hiding from Trump after the bus incident, he comes out writing a check and giving a speech about why trump is the right choice again knowing he will get crucify in the Valley. Hope he does well now considering his influence in the Valley.
FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
Besides the whole Gawker incident, does Thiel have an obsessive need to settle scores like Trump? Mark my words, if Trump starts to raise the national debt by a large amount, pull out of markets and put into bitcoin.
_pius 10y ago
Meanwhile, Trump's already got an RFS in waiting: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-would-certainly-implement-muslim-database-n466716 http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-... https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ The longer YC waits to do the right thing on this, the worse it will get.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  YC's got a friend with a direct connection to the president-elect, they're not going to do a dang thing about Thiel now.
  - dudisbrie 10y ago
    They plan to do NOTHING from the beginning.
- jerf 10y ago
  Yes, that's a great plan for YC. Go up to the next President of the United States and stick their finger in his eye. That'll really show him. That'll Win Friends and Influence People. Can't possibly harm their startups, either, to stick a finger in the President's eye like that. I'm sure they never want to fund a startup ever again that might interact with the Federal government in any way.
  - _pius 10y ago
    Great moral courage there. YC has a choice: do what IBM did in the 1930's or not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust And before you say I'm "going Godwin," remember: It was Sam and Paul who've said they think Trump is a threat of similar proportions. If Sam really thinks that, the moral thing to do is cut ties. And yes, it'll be hard. Would have been easier to do before the election. It will only get harder.
    - AvenueIngres 10y ago
      I guess that makes YC complicit of extrajudicial murders w/ Obama's drone program as well? Somehow actual mass murders didn't matter at the time, but now that a non-progressive candidate has won the general election... YC has to do something about the mean things that candidate said. Wew lad, are you OK? I genuinely feel like it's been a rough ride for you
    - daxorid 10y ago
      What is going on with this community? I feel like I am taking proverbial crazy pills. Clinton advocated for a "Manhattan Project" scope effort to backdoor crypto. She wants no-fly zones over Syria, a place we have NO business being in, to directly provoke proxy wars with Russia. She is extremely antagonistic to freedom of association and free enterprise, and she LOVES the panopticon surveillance state we have. She is NO FRIEND OF EITHER STARTUPS OR HACKERS, and yet, 99% of you are frothing at the mouth over a man who said bad words 18 years ago. It is at the point that I don't even think I can do business with any of you ever again.
      - scrollaway 10y ago
        The subthread you are replying to didn't mention Clinton. Didn't talk about Clinton. Didn't even say the word "Clinton" once. Yet your reply is entirely about Clinton. Why? You'll find that a lot of people in this community actively dislike Clinton. But after the election, she is now essentially irrelevant. So talking about her doesn't advance anything - talking about the upcoming president, however...
- thatswrong0 10y ago
  > NOV 20 2015, 9:27 AM Yeah I'll believe it when I see it
- daxorid 10y ago
  What is "the right thing"?
- throwawayIndian 10y ago
  Don't agree! I'd blame the democrats alone (the party, leadership, delegates, superdelegates and a section of voters + ~~liar~~ media) for giving away the presidency to Trump. For free, literally. How is Peter Thiel or anyone else (Trump's supporters) responsible for what comes out of the man's mouth when at the same time the other party is clearly doing what's downright corruption/stifling a democratic nomination? ICYMI, Peter Thiel did mention that he'd have preferred a race between Sanders and Trump instead (watch his interview to the press club) -- where he quotes: "because they get it" -- and that Trump gets the big things right even though his behavior isn't acceptable. I don't see any reason for YC or any other organization to follow through with your advice. It is also mind numbing that a portion of democrats who made a joke of Trump when he said "he will accept the results only if he wins" are unable to accept the result of the election themselves. Move on folks, open your ears and do your job. On downvotes: I'm pretty sure downvoting over here is symptomatic behavior of a community that doesn't like to listen. Thank you for proving the point. I am happy that Trump is leading us and he is the elected premier for this country despite his weaknesses.
  - user837387 10y ago
    >>blame the democrats Don't blame me for Trump. I voted for Hillary. Each of us are responsible for their own vote. Nobody made you vote for Trump. I blame the people who voted for Trump for making him President. After all, we are all adults here, and although Trump never accepts any responsibility for his actions I think that the Trump supporters accept that they voted for him. So yeah, blaming the Democrats for the Trump presidency is an oxymoron.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      Clinton and her machine threw the only candidate who could beat Trump under the bus. She deserves her loss, and should apologize to the American people for prioritizing her selfish ambition over the good of the country. Hopefully the Democrats learn about running someone electable before 2018. I have already prepared my donation fund for Bernie Sanders' or Tulsi Gabbard's 2020 presidential race (and I'll not vote again in 4 years if the Dems run yet another establishment candidate, learn your lesson already). Your chance for your opinion to matter was when the primaries took place. Don't save your outrage for after it doesn't go the way you wanted.
- fib739mbbh 10y ago
  As usual, the media distorts what Trump actually said. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/24/donald-trumps-comments-database-american-muslims/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/24/...
  - davesque 10y ago
    Not entirely. Trump was extremely unclear and dodgy when asked more about his comments in the days after that interview. People asked him very directly on several occasions if he would, in fact, implement a Muslim database. He never denied that he would. In fact, he confirmed that he wants a database for Syrian refugees.
    - smsm42 10y ago
      "Never denied he would" is not exactly the same as "Would for sure do it". > he confirmed that he wants a database for Syrian refugees. Doesn't the government already have database of all immigrants? I even have a nice card with a number, I'm pretty sure this number refers to a record in the database. Before I had that, I also had to fill in and send out certain forms, which I am pretty sure also went to some government database. So how exactly Syrian refugees are different and what exactly makes the thing that US - and pretty much every other, as far as I know - government routinely does so beyond the pale?
      - leesalminen 10y ago
        Most everyone is just a record in a database. Where we live, go, work, eat, watch, listen to... it's all just a record in a database.
  - kafkaesq 10y ago
    Apparently, the "certainly implement" part was a misattribution. But if you follow the analysis in the article you posted, it's quite clear that Trump basically does favor the idea of such a registry -- and that yes, it would be mandatory for all "legal" entries into the country: Friday, Nov. 20 The next day, an MSNBC reporter asked Trump, "Should there be a database or system that tracks Muslims in this country?" "There should be a lot of systems," Trump responded. "Beyond databases. I mean, we should have a lot of systems." Trump then digressed to talk about a wall along the southern border, before the reporter interjected, "But that’s something your White House would like to implement." "I would certainly implement that. Absolutely," Trump said. Here, we’re not clear if Trump is talking about implementing a wall or implementing a database. But a few seconds later, when asked how he would register people into a database, Trump said, "It would just be good management." Finally, the reporter asked if Muslims would legally have to be part of the database. "They have to be — they have to be," Trump said. "Let me just tell you: The key is people can come to the country, but they have to come legally."
- overgard 10y ago
  "The right thing". Tolerance means recognizing that people have different world views than your own. Sometimes the people you do business with have political opinions you don't agree with. The melodrama over Thiel's political opinions is pointless. If you demand Thiel steps down, are you personally just going to stop doing business with 49% of the country that voted differently? Personally I lean liberal, but I'm pretty disgusted with all the theatrics I've seen in this election from the left. The Trump phenomenon arguably occurred because half the country felt ostracized and decided to lob a brick through the window of washington in the form of donald trump. Maybe we should all get to understand our neighbors instead of doubling down on us-vs-them tribalism.
  - ben0x539 10y ago
    Nah, tolerance means that you gotta be ok with people from different religions, ethnic groups, w/e. The opinion thing isn't as important.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      It's only tolerance when I agree with you /s "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
    - olioli 10y ago
      The guys who wrote the universal declaration of human rights seem to disagree with you. "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." "All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination."
      - ben0x539 10y ago
        Yeah I'm not saying people with abhorrent opinions don't deserve human rights. That doesn't mean tolerance is all about being cool with your hypothetical Nazi neighbor. I'm pretty sure whoever came up with that declaration would be with me on the part where we aren't cool w/ Nazis.
all_blue_chucks 10y ago
As Bezos said, contrarians are rarely right. But rare does not mean always.
- RA_Fisher 10y ago
  Humans tend to underestimate rare events. http://shiny.statwonk.com/birthday-problem/ http://shiny.statwonk.com/birthday-problem/
- pokemonster 10y ago
  .
  - dylz 10y ago
    Care to explain?
  - quaditoco 10y ago
    "Bezos is about to learn that building a business by stealing tax dollars from local communities and using the profits to rig elections is no longer tolerated in our country. He'll be lucky to avoid jail... tax fraud pierces the corporate veil and he made a mortal enemy in Trump who never lets any bad deed go unpunished. If you have any amazon stock best sell it now." Did you delete this once the irony hit?
darawk 10y ago
This is good news, I think? Thiel has some extremish views, but I generally regard him as intelligent and thoughtful. And he's in close contact with other smart, influential people (e.g. Musk, Sam Altman, etc.), which gives them some indirect influence. Not that this makes things substantially better. But maybe a little bit? Hopefully?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  If nominated to the post of Surgeon General, do you think they'd let him have direct access to a blood supply.
- throwaway4job 10y ago
  Thiel is also spiteful, hateful, selfish, hypocritical, and deeply bigoted. The only thing we now know, for sure, is that Palantir investors are likely to get a better return.
- TAForObvReasons 10y ago
  Oddly, both the title and the article skip over the fact that Thiel was a founder of Palantir Technologies (which has plenty of government contracts). Conflicts of interest be damned
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - internaut 10y ago
    Not this again. This just so wrong. Palantir worked for the Clinton Foundation. https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45010 https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45010 For at least several years and definitely before Trump was on the map politically. The Podesta Emails literally have Alex Karp, the CEO, paying 100k to talk to Bill Clinton. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/05/02/3A142FF400000578-3907562-image-m-29_1478314456152.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/05/02/3A142FF40000057...
    - 10y ago
234dd57d2c8db 10y ago
Excellent. I look forward to seeing Peter's expertise help Trump continue the wonderful progress we have made in improving tech in government under the Obama administration.
slowandlow 10y ago
I feel like there's a conflict of interest here...
- joshmn 10y ago
  There's a conflict of interest in each of his secretary picks, too. It's disgusting. I don't write often, or even blog, but I felt the need to vent on some of the issues of the picks here: https://medium.com/@joshbrody_36224/dear-president-elect-trump-5f4ef5b69e7b#.jbjmhzkwg https://medium.com/@joshbrody_36224/dear-president-elect-tru...
  - deelowe 10y ago
    Did you scrutinize Obama's picks just as heavily? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/most-important-wikileak-how-wall-street-built-obama-cabinet http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/most-important-wiki...
    - yolesaber 10y ago
      Yes I did, not that it's relevant now? Remember when Trump was gonna drain the swamp lol
    - heartbreak 10y ago
      Why should that matter? I'm not the OP, but I was 16 when Obama formed his administration, and I was uninvolved in politics at the time. Does that disqualify me from tracking and critiquing the Trump Administration?
      - deelowe 10y ago
        Just pointing out how both parties are two sides of the same coin, but we're too busy calling each other bigots and fascists to realize this.
zeluve 10y ago
I hope this will lead to the so called "revolution" by Thiel in the beginning. He had vision in the past and hopefully that will not become extreme and lead to something bad. I don't think there is no one can control Trump..
- umedzacharia 10y ago
  There will never be one.
  - lucodibidil 10y ago
    Thiel is smart enough to support Trump from the beginning despite all the disagreement from his circles. Although I think he is somewhat an extremist but with a vision. I think there will be change, and in good way.
the_decider 10y ago
Perhaps California's exit from the union will hep YC re-establish its moral integrty. Sam Altman, you wanted to radically change the word (in a positive way)? Well now is your chance!
- charia 10y ago
  Is this satire?
  - Guzba 10y ago
    I hope so.
    - labster 10y ago
      Nope. http://www.yescalifornia.org http://www.yescalifornia.org Calexit is a thing.
      - bpicolo 10y ago
        A "thing".
  - the_decider 10y ago
    No. Its a legitimate idea currently making the headway in our community. And if you think its ridiculous, let me ask you...Is the notion of a seperatist, intelligently run Californian sovereign state any less ridiculous than the notion of a Trump Presidency two years ago? We've always been a community of disruptors...well, now's our opportunity to really distrupt.https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/calexit-is-silicon-valleys-plan-to-pack-up-its-toys-and-leave/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/calexit-is-silicon-valleys...
    - 67726e 10y ago
      Greetings from Charleston, South Carolina. Let us know how your secession plans work out.
meritt 10y ago
This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified 10x after his endorsement of Trump, but I'll at least concede he's a very shrewd individual.
- RealGeek 10y ago
  > I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. Wasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'?
  - tptacek 10y ago
    Every successful politician in the last hundred years has "rallied against crony corruption".
  - zump 10y ago
    get ready to be surprised.
  - notgood 10y ago
    "pay per play" is the game he has always played, that's why people like him can be fined for the many of his scandals[0] but still end up profitable in the long shot. [0]http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-t...
    - sdenton4 10y ago
      I mean, it's basically his platform, too. All the stuff about only doing anything abroad it other countries are paying the US...
  - 10y ago
untog 10y ago
Edit: Flagged? Wow. This conversation seems extremely relevant to Thiel being in government. Genuinely disappointing that the people in charge of HN do not consider Thiel's extreme views to be worthy of discussion, and instead a "pudding".
- darawk 10y ago
  No he didn't. He suggested, correctly, that women getting the vote was bad for libertarians, because women vote against it. If you read the quote in context, that is very clearly what he's saying.
  - ubernostrum 10y ago
    In context his suggestion is that women being allowed to vote is incompatible with enacting his ideal philosophy of government. Which in turn implies that the only way to implement his ideal philosophy of government would be to deny women the right to vote.
    - vinay427 10y ago
      You've stated the contrapositive, which is fine, except that he didn't imply that denying women the right to vote would be a positive strategy regardless of the effects it had on his ideology of choice.
      - ubernostrum 10y ago
        If he could get his Libertopia at the cost of women's suffrage, do you think he'd balk at that? Or do you believe he's not a means-justify-the-ends type?
        vinay427 10y ago
        You're asking me to guess how he would respond to a hypothetical situation, so I will respectfully decline to do so as I am certainly not qualified.
raldi 10y ago
Now go back and read all the HN comments from 26 days ago about how Thiel was flushing money down the toilet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716514
- tptacek 10y ago
  I don't think many of Thiel's detractors denied that he was buying himself this seat at the table. In fact, many of us were animated by exactly that concern.
  - raldi 10y ago
    "He might as well burn that money. Talk about bad investing." "What is the point? He must know that Trump won't win." "I think he is living in a capitalistic illusion" "He's putting his Gawker money to good use." "Maybe he just needed another write off?"
    - gohrt 10y ago
      Nice selective quoting.
      - raldi 10y ago
        What quotes did I omit, besides my own, that argued Thiel wasn't necessarily throwing his money away?
throwmeout55 10y ago
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/796542537255239681 https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/796542537255239681 Congrats, Peter, on all your new friends.
pervycreeper 10y ago
A chance to once again demonstrate the truth of the great man theory of history. May they be favored by fortune.
seesomesense 10y ago
I am far to the left but I believe that demonising someone for political viewpoints different from mine is wrong.
- BryantD 10y ago
  So do I, but I am comfortable demonizing people for political viewpoints that go beyond reasonable norms of discourse.
ForrestN 10y ago
Is there a kind of "political correctness" that refuses the acknowledgment of facts and likelihoods that sound similar to irrational dismissal? Does that kind prevent people from hearing the following things which I think most people would agree to be true? -Donald Trump says he wants to completely deregulate the banking industry, which will most likely, in the long term, lead to a crisis on par with or greater than the last banking crisis in 2008. That will probably harm most YC companies in just about every sector, and will negatively influence the value of YC's holdings. -Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, and millions more of food stamps, decimating our already weak safety net for the poor. He will do more harm to the poor and disadvantaged in his first six months than YC's non-profit efforts have ever achieved and maybe will ever achieve, probably by orders of magnitude. -Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants. He has stated, and his followers are now performing, an antipathy toward people from other countries, and views their economic success as directly opposed to the success of white Americans. YC is a network that includes many diverse people of all backgrounds, including many immigrants. These people will be persecuted by Trumps followers and oppressed by his government. -Donald Trump has appointed a "climate skeptic," which means, "dangersous liar," to head the Environmental Protection Agency Transition. He has already sent out many other signals that he intends to cease any US efforts to combat Global Warming, which will have the effect of destabilizing the various international agreements that might have ameliorated its effects. It currently seems likely that Trump will single-handedly prevent the world from achieving a viable response to this threat for another four years. This gravely threatens the entire world, and will cause rippling suffering around the world. Every person who interacts with Y Combinator and their descendants will be unambiguously worse off because of this. YC should not reject Thiel because "he holds opposing political beliefs." YC should reject Thiel, cut off all relationship with him, publicly condemn him, because he has joined an organization, the Donald Trump Administration, which has stated its intentions to do massive harm to YC and the people of the world. If YC continues its relationship with Thiel, if it fails to acknowledge its association with him as a black mark on its standing among people of conscience, and if it does not muster all of its leverage, economic and otherwise, in the fight to curtail the power of Thiel's organization (The Trump Administration), than they are part of a problem that should terrify anyone who prefers economic growth, the reduction of human suffering, political freedom and the viability of earth as a home for humanity. Now is a test for many people and institutions in American life. YC doesn't have many days left before it has failed.
woofyman 10y ago
I don't understand how a gay man can support a political party who's platform wants to reverse marriage equality.
- rodgerd 10y ago
  The Nazis put most homosexuals in the camps (and the Allies put them back in jail when they emptied the camps) , but Goering did pretty well out of it.
- notgood 10y ago
  Just as an historical counterexample: Leonardo DaVinci was gay but tried to keep that fact away from the Church (very influential at the time), doing otherwise would have prevented him to access many books, and therefore would have stumped his contributions to humanity. And there is a chance some people at the time may have assumed it was all to retain money and power (which he had), but that's irrelevant in perspective.
- ForrestN 10y ago
  As a fellow gay man I can tell you Thiel clearly appears to be quite conflicted about his homosexuality, which is why he victimized Gawker so gratuitously for revealing it to the public. Unfortunately, because becoming a billionaire is often random, sometimes people with mental illness and deep emotional pain can rise to incredible power.
  - kem 10y ago
    Yeah, there's something contradictory about his obsession with Gawker outing him and his asserted openness about his orientation. Actually, Thiel's full of contradictions. A professed libertarian celebrity hunting a media outlet over reporting too much information; someone claiming to be a defender of privacy founding a data mining company providing information to the government panopticon; a Stanford grad bemoaning the educational elite... do I need to go on? Thiel strikes me as someone who heavily hedges their bets, and is probably conflicted with themselves. I'm not surprised he supported Trump, really. I don't think it was about prescience as much as it was attraction to Trump's authoritarian, sensationalistic, prejudicial brand of quasilibertarianism. They're very similar in their political positions or outlooks -- Thiel is just shrewder, less crass, and probably more intelligent.
magic5227 10y ago
Great, another climate change denier https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-views-of-the-Thiel-Foundation-on-climate-change https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-views-of-the-Thiel-Founda...
- magic5227 10y ago
  https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m30s https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m30s
  - ChrisClark 10y ago
    > Whenever you hear someone use the word science it's like a tell that they're bluffing Well, that's a horrible way to go through life.
  - pavanky 10y ago
    That has to be the most ridiculous line of reasoning I have seen.
  - kintamanimatt 10y ago
    Wow, that's some faulty logic he's expressing there. As an aside, what's wrong with his cheek? Did he have an accident or some bad plastic surgery?
  - rajathagasthya 10y ago
    What an idiot!
  - zaroth 10y ago
    What's with posting links with a timestamp skipping the overall context? Yeah, watch from t=0 the whole 3 minutes and 42 seconds. I don't hear anything shocking. It's not so much a rebuke of climate change, it's a rebuke of political correctness and the inability to have a debate.
- deleted 10y ago
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kafkaesq 10y ago
What Paul may have failed to consider in taking his "tolerant, neutral" stance towards Thiel's activities is that, in politics, one absolutely is 100% guilty by association with the forces of darkness that one allows one's self to come into (sufficiently close) contact with. Or as that most prescient saying, variously attributed, goes: Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent ("He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas"). On the other hand, if he's finding "heat" that he'll inevitably be taking, by ever-rising degrees, for his association with Thiel (and hence, Trump and everything he stands for) to be not to his liking -- it's still not too late to get out of the kitchen.
shams93 10y ago
If this is the last election it guarantees Thiel not just 4 years of crony paydays but a lifetime. Trump doesn't have to make good on promises when there will never be another election. He can simply gave any one killed who complains about the inequality they nearly have fully autonomous killing drones and Trump will be legally empowered to have anyone he wants out to death at any time without trial.
- tempestn 10y ago
  As much as Tuesday night felt like the end of days, this seems a bit extreme. I won't say utterly impossible, as I already can't believe what's happened, but still very, very unlikely.
- xamuel 10y ago
  I've noticed the president switches between "omnipotent tyrant" and "powerless figurehead" depending whether or not I agree with his party. When he's in my own party, he's a lame duck, unable to effect the slightest change without congressional approval. When he's the opposite party, he's a monarch whose word is law and who answers to no-one. This is extremely convenient as it allows me to avoid all kinds of cognitive dissonance :)
deleted 10y ago
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ilostmykeys 10y ago
Palantir, one of Thiel's companies, will now be able to embed itself even deeper in the surveillance state. It's what Trump needs to "get even" with people who make fun of him or oppose him.
cmsmith 10y ago
Given the choice between Thiel (favors reconstitution of our political establishment and believes in science and technology) and the rest of the Trump hangers-on (are ambivalent towards reconstitution of the establishment and are anti-science), this is a decent outcome.
- randycupertino 10y ago
  "believes in science and technology" Not really, since he denies global warming: https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s
  - mikekij 10y ago
    Not believing in a particular scientific viewpoint does not mean one does not believe in science. Most of the great scientific discoveries were at one point contrary to the collective scientific wisdom, e.g. heliocentricity, evolution, quantum mechanics, relativity. *Note: I'm not equating a lack of belief in AGW with relativity.
    - couchand 10y ago
      ...and when presented with the weight of evidence, we accept reality and start to account for it. For instance, when we noticed that our refrigerants were busting a hole in our house, with strong political will we stopped making them, and today the ozone layer is recovering. Imagine if Reagan had torpedoed the Montreal Protocol. That's what we're talking about here.
  - BurningFrog 10y ago
    The man has spent his entire life working in technology. But since he disagrees with you on one controversial issue, he has not.
- whyenot 10y ago
  He seems to believe that climate change is "more pseudoscience" [than science], at least that was his opinion when Glenn Beck interviewed him in 2014.
markhahn 10y ago
what's the plural noun for assholes? because they flock together.
ktamura 10y ago
I still stand by my earlier comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915345 TL;DR; It's probably a good thing for Silicon Valley, considering the alternative outcome (all other things equal): Trump still winning the election without a single Silicon Valley influencer.
- lxmorj 10y ago
  I like the idea that Thiel was just willing to fall on the sword to get inside. It's a hopefully & almost certainly wrong, but hey...
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betolink 10y ago
People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.
- paulsutter 10y ago
  Here's Peter's speech at the National Press Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4 Could you point out anywhere that Peter supports bigotry? Or even, a single crazy statement in Peter's speech? (I wouldn't defend Trump. I'm defending Peter, who I respect a lot). The speech runs from 2:40 to 15:50, and can be watched in 7 minutes if you change speed to 2x. (Thomas, I respect you a lot too. I've never seen or known Peter to do anything like you describe. I posted this video because it helped me understand his position on the election).
  - betolink 10y ago
    "They(Mexicans) are rapists and murderers" Take a look[1] you may have been stranded on an Island the last 2 years and perhaps you did not hear what Trump have said. Now, not all Trump supporters are racists (maybe Thiel isn't? who knows!), but all of them are telling us implicitly that racism and bigotry are not deal breakers. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zvOZ17eSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zvOZ17eSE
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - BurningFrog 10y ago
      Note that this Trump (mis)quote is in response to asking where Thiel says anything that supports bigotry.
      - betolink 10y ago
        Corrected now, unless I didn't hear right when he refers to Mexico sending people over and then "they are rapists" perhaps his subject changed and he was referring to Aliens?
novalis78 10y ago
This would be fantastic...the closest of getting Elon Musk into the driver's seat. Mike Pence being a huge space advocate and Thiel wanting nothing more than technological progress to pick up speed, this is a very positive development.
davexunit 10y ago
Not surprising that this website doesn't see the problem with Thiel's bigotry.
- JshWright 10y ago
  Which website are you referring to?
- tdaltonc 10y ago
  Can you share a link that concisely demonstrates Thiel's bigotry?
- tptacek 10y ago
  You are part of this website too --- a prominent part of it, in fact, more invested in it than most of Thiel's HN defenders. Speak for yourself.
- noobermin 10y ago
  Don't paint us with a broad brush, there are many represented opinions here and we are having a healthy discussion.
ilovecomputers 10y ago
Don't expect him to protect net neutrality just because he is an exec from Silicon Valley: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_technology_entrepreneur_and_investor/ckfjl5p/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_te...
pjdemers 10y ago
Disagreeing with each other's views on the economy, international relations, even the environment is good for the country. We need different points of view on important issues. But using race baiting to gain political power crosses a line that should never be crossed. He should not be helping to legitimize this.
- Moshe_Silnorin 10y ago
  I very much dislike Trump and would never vote for the man. Both sides use race baiting. Spurious use of the word "racist" against those who dislike government intervention and entitlements has basicly denuded the term of its once-quite-considerable power. They called Bush racist, wasn't true. They called Romney racist, a laughable claim. They called Trump racist and maybe this time there're right, but what does "racist" even mean again?
  - gohrt 10y ago
    Being opposed to urban people getting entitlements, but in favor of rural people getting entitlements, is approximately racist, when you factor in demographics.
  - hamtaroPhD06 10y ago
    When someone is racist and sexist, it is everyone's duty to call what they are: racist and sexist.
    - jacquesc 10y ago
      Agreed. But if you call anyone who disagrees with you on economic policy a racist and sexist, it opens the door for an actual racist and sexist to get in.
      - hamtaroPhD06 10y ago
        Which is not the case right now. So yes the president elect of the US is racist and sexist and a % of his supporters are openly racist and/or sexist people. This is not a disputed fact in anyway
theCodeStig 10y ago
Ironically, Palantir has an engineering office in Singapore.
- auganov 10y ago
  Explain the irony?
t1m 10y ago
Peter Thiel's "Mein Kampf" excludes women and minorities, who he feels have "damaged" democracy: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...
- yolesaber 10y ago
  "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron." Wow. That is...troubling
  - gohrt 10y ago
    Why? Welfare beneficiaries and women lean socialist, and vote socialist. They believe that's good. Thiel believes that's bad.
    - yolesaber 10y ago
      Tens of million of women just voted for a conservative billionaire populist.
      - t1m 10y ago
        Tens of millions of people are going out to the street and are not going to let these little goons take over America.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - confounded 10y ago
      And that tension is called a democracy.
    - walshemj 10y ago
      Not in the UK women tend to vote tory more than the male population did.
cromwellian 10y ago
So the man whose company was funded by the CIA to conduct mass big data surveillance is now going to be helping to decide the structure of the executive branch, with "Law and Order" Giuliani probably as Attorney General. What could go wrong? IMHO, YC had their chance to divorce themselves from Thiel. They can still do it, but this is their last chance. Silicon Valley is not going to forget this conflict of interest.
- cromwellian 10y ago
  Yay, downvoted by a Trumpster.
- pixl97 10y ago
  >Silicon Valley is not going to forget this conflict of interest. The Silicon Valley that was giving Hillary millions so they could vie for the same positions? Or Google staffers that met at the White House over 427 times, during the same administration that expanded surveillance against Americans?
danm07 10y ago
I don't know why but I've got a sinking feeling in my stomach.
- Fluid_Mechanics 10y ago
  Most of us do - the next four years should be a tour de force of everything that's wrong with our society.
- spiritofenter 10y ago
  I could guess why: - Thiel is a founder of Palantir, a.k.a. the private branch of the NSA. - He also has strong vested interests in the health of hedge funds and the financial industry, as well as strong opinions favoring deregulation. - He does not believe in global warming or the urgency of combating it. - His statements in the past have shown lack of respect/consideration for minorities and women.
vivekd 10y ago
If there is anyone I want at the helm of America, it's Peter Theil. If I was going to bet on anyone to solve the nation's problems it would be him. But then, I would be surprised if he accepts the role. He seems like a very private individual and someone who is interested in capital than in politics. It would be a great personal sacrifice for him to turn his back on his business ventures to look into stuff like this that will give him very little return and take up an enormous amount of his time and resources.
tn13 10y ago
Good to see a conservative government put up a Libertarian gay tech person as CTO of USA.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
robomartin 10y ago
The hatred spewing out from the Left defies description. Instead of supporting Thiel he is now the enemy. How sad.
frisco 10y ago
Whatever Trump might do policy-wise with regards to freedom of speech and our democracy, realize that Thiel literally sued a popular media company out of existence over things they wrote about him. I don't think this gets better soon.
t1m 10y ago
I am a Canadian, so I neither have a say, or really can comment on American politics. This Saturday, my two daughters (ages 11 and 8) are driving a 1,700km journey to North Dakota to show our support for the #NoDAPL movement. I am doing it because my eldest is really into Aboriginal rights right now. These people are just trying to preserve their land. I hope we don't get shot by Peter Thiel.
plandis 10y ago
It turns out you can buy access to the president elect.
kriro 10y ago
Maybe there can be some seasteading experiment after all? I'd be really curious to see how it would play out. Seems like a crazy idea worth trying despite all the counterarguments I can think of simply to collect data/experience as it might be valuable for future "crazy" endeavors like populating a different planet.
bleamishboy 10y ago
Is this (post, thread) on-topic for HN? Seems to fall pretty definitively into the politics / TV news category. (Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.)
- joshkpeterson 10y ago
  Are you serious? Thiel is a heavy hitter in tech, and he's an advisor at YC and on the board of FB, one of the largest and most important companies today period. Also, fascism is coming to America, which is relevant for all of us.
eis 10y ago
Interesting that the moderators found it important to remove the "YC partner" part from the submission. It also seems the submission is getting less exposure than other submissions even though it's newer and has more upvotes. For example this submission has 349 points and was submitted 6 hours ago and has rank 17 while "Halite: An AI Programming Challenge" has 158 points and was submitted 12 hours ago and is rank 16. The Leonard Cohen post has just a bit more upvotes and was submitted also 6 hours ago and is rank 2. "Island generator was also submitted at the same time and with just barely over 100 upvotes is rank 7. Can some mod please give some insight into this? I'm gonna give HN the benefit of the doubt, probably some invisible factors playing into it but the ranking plus the editing could look a bit like the story is getting burried.
- quarterto 10y ago
  Post with more comments than upvotes are penalised as a proxy for controversiality (remember HN doesn't have downvotes for posts)
- midgetjones 10y ago
  You'll just get the line that HN readers don't like to talk politics so it was flagged into oblivion.
return0 10y ago
Ahead of schedule, and under budget.
masondixon 10y ago
A huge issue today is the lack of calm, reasoned debate. As a Trump supporter I have never been able to properly explain the rationale to a liberal. I believe there is a worthy debate beneath all the political smear, but it is never reached. I believe the reason for this is the liberal media and the incredibly effective Democratic party election machine. The argument stays at the high level of "how could you vote for someone who said that", "he is a monster", etc. It is "I don't want to listen". All you have to do to realise what is wrong with this is to ask yourself: "What happens if the situation is reversed and someone said they don't want to listen to me?". What if someone else started to restrict what I could say? Thankfully, freedom of speech is such an integral part of the US, that there is not one side trying to control what the other can say, and the other doing the same back. This is what makes the country work. The fact that both sides are not in the business of restricting free speech. This doesn't hold true in many other countries.
- rootlocus 10y ago
  > Thankfully, freedom of speech is such an integral part of the US, that there is not one side trying to control what the other can say, and the other doing the same back. Sure, you and Donald Trump can say whatever you please. Nobody's restricting your freedom of speech. However, what you say betrays who you are. And what Trump said showed he's a liar, misogynist, tech illiterate, arrogant and overall a disgusting human being. > "What happens if the situation is reversed and someone said they don't want to listen to me?" People listen up until the point you prove to them you're not worth listening to.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    > People listen up until the point you prove to them you're not worth listening to. And they decide that based on emotions, which marks them as not being capable of rational discussions.
    - masondixon 10y ago
      After losing control of the entire government, there is still this sense of: "I don't need to engage in debate with you". Its just not rationale.
mrslave 10y ago
I come to HN because of the high level of intelligent conversation. This article, and ever more sadly so the comments herein, are a huge disappointment. Trump is the non-establishment candidate the left asks for from Republicans every presidential election. Hillary is, at the very least, the establishment candidate the left profess to despise. The propaganda is strong in this one. Grow up everybody.
- zymhan 10y ago
  I don't think the left ever widely professed a desire for a non-establishment candidate from the right. They were much more worried about how the Republican party has veered right over the years. This has led them to adopt extremist views such as branding entire ethnic groups as dangerous, and rolling out laws that inhibit the ability of minorities to vote. These are just some of the worries that the left in America has with the Republican party. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/02/this-astonishing-chart-shows-how-republicans-are-an-endangered-species/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/02/this-... http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/04/10/150349438/gops-rightward-shift-higher-polarization-fills-political-scientist-with-dread http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/04/10/150349...
codecamper 10y ago
Just googled Peter's feelings on clean energy. Well I'm hopeful. He has made investments into clean tech. He is both smart & a business guy. So Trump will listen to him & that's good. He is also a connection back to Tesla & energy storage. Hmm. Maybe this Trump thing isn't so bad after all (for the planet). Trump may want more oil -- but the reality of that is that oil is controlled by the market.
BurningFrog 10y ago
Relevant column: "I don't see a moral obligation for anyone to serve in a Trump administration. But people who opposed Donald Trump, on both the left and right, should commit right now to one thing: We will not tar good people for joining the Trump administration. Their motives will not be questioned, and if things do turn out as some of his critics fear, the people in his foreign and domestic policy apparatus will not suffer guilt by association. It is just too important that Trump have good advisers. Trump will be the least policy-savvy president in history. He has built no ideological framework for future policies, much less a set of detailed proposals. He has few advisers, in part because so many of the usual contenders have come out against him." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-09/there-s-no-shame-in-joining-the-trump-administration https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-09/there-s-n...
- thecopy 10y ago
  >He has built no ideological framework for future policies Sounds like a positive thing
  - burkaman 10y ago
    Why?
    - FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
      I find ideologies in general a huge impediment to solving problems. It erects imaginary barriers around potential solutions. We can all agree that universal health care at an affordable price is a good thing. Whether that is by market based solutions or by single payer doesnt matter to me. Whatever is most efficient and provides the best health outcomes is what matters, not some belief based upon... faith
    - defen 10y ago
      Ideological leaders (on the left and the right) were responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the 20th century, for a start. More generally, no ideology can actually capture reality. While they all contain some truth, they are all also fundamentally untrue if you drill down far enough. I'd rather grade someone on results (human happiness) than adherence to an ideological framework. I don't mean this in a simple utilitarian sense, either.
machbio 10y ago
It was a brilliant play by Peter Thiel - it was gamble of 50:50 (I believe he started supporting him only at the Republican Convention).. There would be backlash by technology community, and when you have lot of money and networking available to you; there is no one in the technology community that will stop doing business with you.. Kudos to the HN crowd about the Freedom of Speech, sometimes - I guess you need to be extremist in either being Left Wing or Right Wing..
techxit 10y ago
Peter Thiel is a neocon nightmare who thinks the 19th Amendment was a mistake. Can we have a black bar for America, please?
ehosca 10y ago
i guess soon we'll see if conversion therapy really works...
DLA 10y ago
This thread is sad. We are ALL Americans. President-elect Trump is OUR president. You know how we can make this next four years a success for all of us, realize the Constitution sets out a process for how we elect our leaders. Go read it. No really, now many of the people burning flags, talking about "end of days" BS, and other nonsense have ever read the Constitution? Let alone swore an oath to defend it? Yeah. As I suspected. Stop the hate online. Stop the hate in the streets. Stop talking about states leaving the union (not going to happen). Stop judging people for their choice--voting freedom is sacred. Many have died defending it. Regardless of how you voted get behind the President of the United States of America. America is still the greatest nation the world has ever known. If we all work together and stop this hate, America will be become even better.
- beerbajay 10y ago
  > Stop the hate in the streets. Go tell that to the people scrawling white power slogans, painting swastikas, putting up signs for "colored" drinking fountains, wearing blackface, calling people "niggers", etc. > voting freedom is sacred No, your right to vote is enshrined in the constitution, but you have no right not to be judged a horrible human being for your choice.
  - Chris2048 10y ago
    > people scrawling white power slogans, painting swastikas, putting up signs for "colored" drinking fountains, These things are considered acceptable by the majority of republicans/trump supporters/whites?
- glenda 10y ago
  That is one way of looking at it. But the hate is already being spread and has been spread by our new president's campaign. For non-white people his election is a direct threat against their well-being. If the anti-trump protesters are being sore losers then the KKK are being sore winners.
woofyman 10y ago
Trump gets to work helping LGBT Americans by tapping anti-gay Ken Blackwell to his transition team. “I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed,” Blackwell told the Columbus Dispatch at the time. “I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will.” http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/10/1596184/-Trump-gets-to-work-helping-LGBT-Americans-by-tapping-anti-gay-Ken-Blackwell-to-his-transition-team http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/10/1596184/-Trump-ge...

562 points by codybrown 10y ago

I respect Thiel's loyalty to Trump. As people are hiding from Trump after the bus incident, he comes out writing a check and giving a speech about why trump is the right choice again knowing he will get crucify in the Valley. Hope he does well now considering his influence in the Valley.

FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago

Besides the whole Gawker incident, does Thiel have an obsessive need to settle scores like Trump? Mark my words, if Trump starts to raise the national debt by a large amount, pull out of markets and put into bitcoin.

_pius 10y ago

Meanwhile, Trump's already got an RFS in waiting: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-would-certainly-implement-muslim-database-n466716 http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-... https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ The longer YC waits to do the right thing on this, the worse it will get.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
YC's got a friend with a direct connection to the president-elect, they're not going to do a dang thing about Thiel now.
- dudisbrie 10y ago
  They plan to do NOTHING from the beginning.
jerf 10y ago
Yes, that's a great plan for YC. Go up to the next President of the United States and stick their finger in his eye. That'll really show him. That'll Win Friends and Influence People. Can't possibly harm their startups, either, to stick a finger in the President's eye like that. I'm sure they never want to fund a startup ever again that might interact with the Federal government in any way.
- _pius 10y ago
  Great moral courage there. YC has a choice: do what IBM did in the 1930's or not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust And before you say I'm "going Godwin," remember: It was Sam and Paul who've said they think Trump is a threat of similar proportions. If Sam really thinks that, the moral thing to do is cut ties. And yes, it'll be hard. Would have been easier to do before the election. It will only get harder.
  - AvenueIngres 10y ago
    I guess that makes YC complicit of extrajudicial murders w/ Obama's drone program as well? Somehow actual mass murders didn't matter at the time, but now that a non-progressive candidate has won the general election... YC has to do something about the mean things that candidate said. Wew lad, are you OK? I genuinely feel like it's been a rough ride for you
  - daxorid 10y ago
    What is going on with this community? I feel like I am taking proverbial crazy pills. Clinton advocated for a "Manhattan Project" scope effort to backdoor crypto. She wants no-fly zones over Syria, a place we have NO business being in, to directly provoke proxy wars with Russia. She is extremely antagonistic to freedom of association and free enterprise, and she LOVES the panopticon surveillance state we have. She is NO FRIEND OF EITHER STARTUPS OR HACKERS, and yet, 99% of you are frothing at the mouth over a man who said bad words 18 years ago. It is at the point that I don't even think I can do business with any of you ever again.
    - scrollaway 10y ago
      The subthread you are replying to didn't mention Clinton. Didn't talk about Clinton. Didn't even say the word "Clinton" once. Yet your reply is entirely about Clinton. Why? You'll find that a lot of people in this community actively dislike Clinton. But after the election, she is now essentially irrelevant. So talking about her doesn't advance anything - talking about the upcoming president, however...
thatswrong0 10y ago
> NOV 20 2015, 9:27 AM Yeah I'll believe it when I see it
daxorid 10y ago
What is "the right thing"?
throwawayIndian 10y ago
Don't agree! I'd blame the democrats alone (the party, leadership, delegates, superdelegates and a section of voters + ~~liar~~ media) for giving away the presidency to Trump. For free, literally. How is Peter Thiel or anyone else (Trump's supporters) responsible for what comes out of the man's mouth when at the same time the other party is clearly doing what's downright corruption/stifling a democratic nomination? ICYMI, Peter Thiel did mention that he'd have preferred a race between Sanders and Trump instead (watch his interview to the press club) -- where he quotes: "because they get it" -- and that Trump gets the big things right even though his behavior isn't acceptable. I don't see any reason for YC or any other organization to follow through with your advice. It is also mind numbing that a portion of democrats who made a joke of Trump when he said "he will accept the results only if he wins" are unable to accept the result of the election themselves. Move on folks, open your ears and do your job. On downvotes: I'm pretty sure downvoting over here is symptomatic behavior of a community that doesn't like to listen. Thank you for proving the point. I am happy that Trump is leading us and he is the elected premier for this country despite his weaknesses.
- user837387 10y ago
  >>blame the democrats Don't blame me for Trump. I voted for Hillary. Each of us are responsible for their own vote. Nobody made you vote for Trump. I blame the people who voted for Trump for making him President. After all, we are all adults here, and although Trump never accepts any responsibility for his actions I think that the Trump supporters accept that they voted for him. So yeah, blaming the Democrats for the Trump presidency is an oxymoron.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Clinton and her machine threw the only candidate who could beat Trump under the bus. She deserves her loss, and should apologize to the American people for prioritizing her selfish ambition over the good of the country. Hopefully the Democrats learn about running someone electable before 2018. I have already prepared my donation fund for Bernie Sanders' or Tulsi Gabbard's 2020 presidential race (and I'll not vote again in 4 years if the Dems run yet another establishment candidate, learn your lesson already). Your chance for your opinion to matter was when the primaries took place. Don't save your outrage for after it doesn't go the way you wanted.
fib739mbbh 10y ago
As usual, the media distorts what Trump actually said. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/24/donald-trumps-comments-database-american-muslims/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/24/...
- davesque 10y ago
  Not entirely. Trump was extremely unclear and dodgy when asked more about his comments in the days after that interview. People asked him very directly on several occasions if he would, in fact, implement a Muslim database. He never denied that he would. In fact, he confirmed that he wants a database for Syrian refugees.
  - smsm42 10y ago
    "Never denied he would" is not exactly the same as "Would for sure do it". > he confirmed that he wants a database for Syrian refugees. Doesn't the government already have database of all immigrants? I even have a nice card with a number, I'm pretty sure this number refers to a record in the database. Before I had that, I also had to fill in and send out certain forms, which I am pretty sure also went to some government database. So how exactly Syrian refugees are different and what exactly makes the thing that US - and pretty much every other, as far as I know - government routinely does so beyond the pale?
    - leesalminen 10y ago
      Most everyone is just a record in a database. Where we live, go, work, eat, watch, listen to... it's all just a record in a database.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  Apparently, the "certainly implement" part was a misattribution. But if you follow the analysis in the article you posted, it's quite clear that Trump basically does favor the idea of such a registry -- and that yes, it would be mandatory for all "legal" entries into the country: Friday, Nov. 20 The next day, an MSNBC reporter asked Trump, "Should there be a database or system that tracks Muslims in this country?" "There should be a lot of systems," Trump responded. "Beyond databases. I mean, we should have a lot of systems." Trump then digressed to talk about a wall along the southern border, before the reporter interjected, "But that’s something your White House would like to implement." "I would certainly implement that. Absolutely," Trump said. Here, we’re not clear if Trump is talking about implementing a wall or implementing a database. But a few seconds later, when asked how he would register people into a database, Trump said, "It would just be good management." Finally, the reporter asked if Muslims would legally have to be part of the database. "They have to be — they have to be," Trump said. "Let me just tell you: The key is people can come to the country, but they have to come legally."
overgard 10y ago
"The right thing". Tolerance means recognizing that people have different world views than your own. Sometimes the people you do business with have political opinions you don't agree with. The melodrama over Thiel's political opinions is pointless. If you demand Thiel steps down, are you personally just going to stop doing business with 49% of the country that voted differently? Personally I lean liberal, but I'm pretty disgusted with all the theatrics I've seen in this election from the left. The Trump phenomenon arguably occurred because half the country felt ostracized and decided to lob a brick through the window of washington in the form of donald trump. Maybe we should all get to understand our neighbors instead of doubling down on us-vs-them tribalism.
- ben0x539 10y ago
  Nah, tolerance means that you gotta be ok with people from different religions, ethnic groups, w/e. The opinion thing isn't as important.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    It's only tolerance when I agree with you /s "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
  - olioli 10y ago
    The guys who wrote the universal declaration of human rights seem to disagree with you. "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." "All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination."
    - ben0x539 10y ago
      Yeah I'm not saying people with abhorrent opinions don't deserve human rights. That doesn't mean tolerance is all about being cool with your hypothetical Nazi neighbor. I'm pretty sure whoever came up with that declaration would be with me on the part where we aren't cool w/ Nazis.

all_blue_chucks 10y ago

As Bezos said, contrarians are rarely right. But rare does not mean always.

RA_Fisher 10y ago
Humans tend to underestimate rare events. http://shiny.statwonk.com/birthday-problem/ http://shiny.statwonk.com/birthday-problem/
pokemonster 10y ago
.
- dylz 10y ago
  Care to explain?
- quaditoco 10y ago
  "Bezos is about to learn that building a business by stealing tax dollars from local communities and using the profits to rig elections is no longer tolerated in our country. He'll be lucky to avoid jail... tax fraud pierces the corporate veil and he made a mortal enemy in Trump who never lets any bad deed go unpunished. If you have any amazon stock best sell it now." Did you delete this once the irony hit?

darawk 10y ago

This is good news, I think? Thiel has some extremish views, but I generally regard him as intelligent and thoughtful. And he's in close contact with other smart, influential people (e.g. Musk, Sam Altman, etc.), which gives them some indirect influence. Not that this makes things substantially better. But maybe a little bit? Hopefully?

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
If nominated to the post of Surgeon General, do you think they'd let him have direct access to a blood supply.
throwaway4job 10y ago
Thiel is also spiteful, hateful, selfish, hypocritical, and deeply bigoted. The only thing we now know, for sure, is that Palantir investors are likely to get a better return.
TAForObvReasons 10y ago
Oddly, both the title and the article skip over the fact that Thiel was a founder of Palantir Technologies (which has plenty of government contracts). Conflicts of interest be damned
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- internaut 10y ago
  Not this again. This just so wrong. Palantir worked for the Clinton Foundation. https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45010 https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45010 For at least several years and definitely before Trump was on the map politically. The Podesta Emails literally have Alex Karp, the CEO, paying 100k to talk to Bill Clinton. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/05/02/3A142FF400000578-3907562-image-m-29_1478314456152.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/05/02/3A142FF40000057...
  - 10y ago

234dd57d2c8db 10y ago

Excellent. I look forward to seeing Peter's expertise help Trump continue the wonderful progress we have made in improving tech in government under the Obama administration.

slowandlow 10y ago

I feel like there's a conflict of interest here...

joshmn 10y ago
There's a conflict of interest in each of his secretary picks, too. It's disgusting. I don't write often, or even blog, but I felt the need to vent on some of the issues of the picks here: https://medium.com/@joshbrody_36224/dear-president-elect-trump-5f4ef5b69e7b#.jbjmhzkwg https://medium.com/@joshbrody_36224/dear-president-elect-tru...
- deelowe 10y ago
  Did you scrutinize Obama's picks just as heavily? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/most-important-wikileak-how-wall-street-built-obama-cabinet http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/most-important-wiki...
  - yolesaber 10y ago
    Yes I did, not that it's relevant now? Remember when Trump was gonna drain the swamp lol
  - heartbreak 10y ago
    Why should that matter? I'm not the OP, but I was 16 when Obama formed his administration, and I was uninvolved in politics at the time. Does that disqualify me from tracking and critiquing the Trump Administration?
    - deelowe 10y ago
      Just pointing out how both parties are two sides of the same coin, but we're too busy calling each other bigots and fascists to realize this.

zeluve 10y ago

I hope this will lead to the so called "revolution" by Thiel in the beginning. He had vision in the past and hopefully that will not become extreme and lead to something bad. I don't think there is no one can control Trump..

umedzacharia 10y ago
There will never be one.
- lucodibidil 10y ago
  Thiel is smart enough to support Trump from the beginning despite all the disagreement from his circles. Although I think he is somewhat an extremist but with a vision. I think there will be change, and in good way.

the_decider 10y ago

Perhaps California's exit from the union will hep YC re-establish its moral integrty. Sam Altman, you wanted to radically change the word (in a positive way)? Well now is your chance!

charia 10y ago
Is this satire?
- Guzba 10y ago
  I hope so.
  - labster 10y ago
    Nope. http://www.yescalifornia.org http://www.yescalifornia.org Calexit is a thing.
    - bpicolo 10y ago
      A "thing".
- the_decider 10y ago
  No. Its a legitimate idea currently making the headway in our community. And if you think its ridiculous, let me ask you...Is the notion of a seperatist, intelligently run Californian sovereign state any less ridiculous than the notion of a Trump Presidency two years ago? We've always been a community of disruptors...well, now's our opportunity to really distrupt.https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/calexit-is-silicon-valleys-plan-to-pack-up-its-toys-and-leave/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/calexit-is-silicon-valleys...
  - 67726e 10y ago
    Greetings from Charleston, South Carolina. Let us know how your secession plans work out.

meritt 10y ago

This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified 10x after his endorsement of Trump, but I'll at least concede he's a very shrewd individual.

RealGeek 10y ago
> I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. Wasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'?
- tptacek 10y ago
  Every successful politician in the last hundred years has "rallied against crony corruption".
- zump 10y ago
  get ready to be surprised.
- notgood 10y ago
  "pay per play" is the game he has always played, that's why people like him can be fined for the many of his scandals[0] but still end up profitable in the long shot. [0]http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-t...
  - sdenton4 10y ago
    I mean, it's basically his platform, too. All the stuff about only doing anything abroad it other countries are paying the US...
- 10y ago

untog 10y ago

Edit: Flagged? Wow. This conversation seems extremely relevant to Thiel being in government. Genuinely disappointing that the people in charge of HN do not consider Thiel's extreme views to be worthy of discussion, and instead a "pudding".

darawk 10y ago
No he didn't. He suggested, correctly, that women getting the vote was bad for libertarians, because women vote against it. If you read the quote in context, that is very clearly what he's saying.
- ubernostrum 10y ago
  In context his suggestion is that women being allowed to vote is incompatible with enacting his ideal philosophy of government. Which in turn implies that the only way to implement his ideal philosophy of government would be to deny women the right to vote.
  - vinay427 10y ago
    You've stated the contrapositive, which is fine, except that he didn't imply that denying women the right to vote would be a positive strategy regardless of the effects it had on his ideology of choice.
    - ubernostrum 10y ago
      If he could get his Libertopia at the cost of women's suffrage, do you think he'd balk at that? Or do you believe he's not a means-justify-the-ends type?
      - vinay427 10y ago
        You're asking me to guess how he would respond to a hypothetical situation, so I will respectfully decline to do so as I am certainly not qualified.

raldi 10y ago

Now go back and read all the HN comments from 26 days ago about how Thiel was flushing money down the toilet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716514

tptacek 10y ago
I don't think many of Thiel's detractors denied that he was buying himself this seat at the table. In fact, many of us were animated by exactly that concern.
- raldi 10y ago
  "He might as well burn that money. Talk about bad investing." "What is the point? He must know that Trump won't win." "I think he is living in a capitalistic illusion" "He's putting his Gawker money to good use." "Maybe he just needed another write off?"
  - gohrt 10y ago
    Nice selective quoting.
    - raldi 10y ago
      What quotes did I omit, besides my own, that argued Thiel wasn't necessarily throwing his money away?

throwmeout55 10y ago

https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/796542537255239681 https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/796542537255239681 Congrats, Peter, on all your new friends.

pervycreeper 10y ago

A chance to once again demonstrate the truth of the great man theory of history. May they be favored by fortune.

seesomesense 10y ago

I am far to the left but I believe that demonising someone for political viewpoints different from mine is wrong.

BryantD 10y ago
So do I, but I am comfortable demonizing people for political viewpoints that go beyond reasonable norms of discourse.

ForrestN 10y ago

Is there a kind of "political correctness" that refuses the acknowledgment of facts and likelihoods that sound similar to irrational dismissal? Does that kind prevent people from hearing the following things which I think most people would agree to be true? -Donald Trump says he wants to completely deregulate the banking industry, which will most likely, in the long term, lead to a crisis on par with or greater than the last banking crisis in 2008. That will probably harm most YC companies in just about every sector, and will negatively influence the value of YC's holdings. -Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, and millions more of food stamps, decimating our already weak safety net for the poor. He will do more harm to the poor and disadvantaged in his first six months than YC's non-profit efforts have ever achieved and maybe will ever achieve, probably by orders of magnitude. -Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants. He has stated, and his followers are now performing, an antipathy toward people from other countries, and views their economic success as directly opposed to the success of white Americans. YC is a network that includes many diverse people of all backgrounds, including many immigrants. These people will be persecuted by Trumps followers and oppressed by his government. -Donald Trump has appointed a "climate skeptic," which means, "dangersous liar," to head the Environmental Protection Agency Transition. He has already sent out many other signals that he intends to cease any US efforts to combat Global Warming, which will have the effect of destabilizing the various international agreements that might have ameliorated its effects. It currently seems likely that Trump will single-handedly prevent the world from achieving a viable response to this threat for another four years. This gravely threatens the entire world, and will cause rippling suffering around the world. Every person who interacts with Y Combinator and their descendants will be unambiguously worse off because of this. YC should not reject Thiel because "he holds opposing political beliefs." YC should reject Thiel, cut off all relationship with him, publicly condemn him, because he has joined an organization, the Donald Trump Administration, which has stated its intentions to do massive harm to YC and the people of the world. If YC continues its relationship with Thiel, if it fails to acknowledge its association with him as a black mark on its standing among people of conscience, and if it does not muster all of its leverage, economic and otherwise, in the fight to curtail the power of Thiel's organization (The Trump Administration), than they are part of a problem that should terrify anyone who prefers economic growth, the reduction of human suffering, political freedom and the viability of earth as a home for humanity. Now is a test for many people and institutions in American life. YC doesn't have many days left before it has failed.

woofyman 10y ago

I don't understand how a gay man can support a political party who's platform wants to reverse marriage equality.

rodgerd 10y ago
The Nazis put most homosexuals in the camps (and the Allies put them back in jail when they emptied the camps) , but Goering did pretty well out of it.
notgood 10y ago
Just as an historical counterexample: Leonardo DaVinci was gay but tried to keep that fact away from the Church (very influential at the time), doing otherwise would have prevented him to access many books, and therefore would have stumped his contributions to humanity. And there is a chance some people at the time may have assumed it was all to retain money and power (which he had), but that's irrelevant in perspective.
ForrestN 10y ago
As a fellow gay man I can tell you Thiel clearly appears to be quite conflicted about his homosexuality, which is why he victimized Gawker so gratuitously for revealing it to the public. Unfortunately, because becoming a billionaire is often random, sometimes people with mental illness and deep emotional pain can rise to incredible power.
- kem 10y ago
  Yeah, there's something contradictory about his obsession with Gawker outing him and his asserted openness about his orientation. Actually, Thiel's full of contradictions. A professed libertarian celebrity hunting a media outlet over reporting too much information; someone claiming to be a defender of privacy founding a data mining company providing information to the government panopticon; a Stanford grad bemoaning the educational elite... do I need to go on? Thiel strikes me as someone who heavily hedges their bets, and is probably conflicted with themselves. I'm not surprised he supported Trump, really. I don't think it was about prescience as much as it was attraction to Trump's authoritarian, sensationalistic, prejudicial brand of quasilibertarianism. They're very similar in their political positions or outlooks -- Thiel is just shrewder, less crass, and probably more intelligent.

magic5227 10y ago

Great, another climate change denier https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-views-of-the-Thiel-Foundation-on-climate-change https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-views-of-the-Thiel-Founda...

magic5227 10y ago
https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m30s https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m30s
- ChrisClark 10y ago
  > Whenever you hear someone use the word science it's like a tell that they're bluffing Well, that's a horrible way to go through life.
- pavanky 10y ago
  That has to be the most ridiculous line of reasoning I have seen.
- kintamanimatt 10y ago
  Wow, that's some faulty logic he's expressing there. As an aside, what's wrong with his cheek? Did he have an accident or some bad plastic surgery?
- rajathagasthya 10y ago
  What an idiot!
- zaroth 10y ago
  What's with posting links with a timestamp skipping the overall context? Yeah, watch from t=0 the whole 3 minutes and 42 seconds. I don't hear anything shocking. It's not so much a rebuke of climate change, it's a rebuke of political correctness and the inability to have a debate.
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kafkaesq 10y ago

What Paul may have failed to consider in taking his "tolerant, neutral" stance towards Thiel's activities is that, in politics, one absolutely is 100% guilty by association with the forces of darkness that one allows one's self to come into (sufficiently close) contact with. Or as that most prescient saying, variously attributed, goes: Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent ("He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas"). On the other hand, if he's finding "heat" that he'll inevitably be taking, by ever-rising degrees, for his association with Thiel (and hence, Trump and everything he stands for) to be not to his liking -- it's still not too late to get out of the kitchen.

shams93 10y ago

If this is the last election it guarantees Thiel not just 4 years of crony paydays but a lifetime. Trump doesn't have to make good on promises when there will never be another election. He can simply gave any one killed who complains about the inequality they nearly have fully autonomous killing drones and Trump will be legally empowered to have anyone he wants out to death at any time without trial.

tempestn 10y ago
As much as Tuesday night felt like the end of days, this seems a bit extreme. I won't say utterly impossible, as I already can't believe what's happened, but still very, very unlikely.
xamuel 10y ago
I've noticed the president switches between "omnipotent tyrant" and "powerless figurehead" depending whether or not I agree with his party. When he's in my own party, he's a lame duck, unable to effect the slightest change without congressional approval. When he's the opposite party, he's a monarch whose word is law and who answers to no-one. This is extremely convenient as it allows me to avoid all kinds of cognitive dissonance :)

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ilostmykeys 10y ago

Palantir, one of Thiel's companies, will now be able to embed itself even deeper in the surveillance state. It's what Trump needs to "get even" with people who make fun of him or oppose him.

cmsmith 10y ago

Given the choice between Thiel (favors reconstitution of our political establishment and believes in science and technology) and the rest of the Trump hangers-on (are ambivalent towards reconstitution of the establishment and are anti-science), this is a decent outcome.

randycupertino 10y ago
"believes in science and technology" Not really, since he denies global warming: https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s
- mikekij 10y ago
  Not believing in a particular scientific viewpoint does not mean one does not believe in science. Most of the great scientific discoveries were at one point contrary to the collective scientific wisdom, e.g. heliocentricity, evolution, quantum mechanics, relativity. *Note: I'm not equating a lack of belief in AGW with relativity.
  - couchand 10y ago
    ...and when presented with the weight of evidence, we accept reality and start to account for it. For instance, when we noticed that our refrigerants were busting a hole in our house, with strong political will we stopped making them, and today the ozone layer is recovering. Imagine if Reagan had torpedoed the Montreal Protocol. That's what we're talking about here.
- BurningFrog 10y ago
  The man has spent his entire life working in technology. But since he disagrees with you on one controversial issue, he has not.
whyenot 10y ago
He seems to believe that climate change is "more pseudoscience" [than science], at least that was his opinion when Glenn Beck interviewed him in 2014.

markhahn 10y ago

what's the plural noun for assholes? because they flock together.

ktamura 10y ago

I still stand by my earlier comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915345 TL;DR; It's probably a good thing for Silicon Valley, considering the alternative outcome (all other things equal): Trump still winning the election without a single Silicon Valley influencer.

lxmorj 10y ago
I like the idea that Thiel was just willing to fall on the sword to get inside. It's a hopefully & almost certainly wrong, but hey...

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betolink 10y ago

People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.

paulsutter 10y ago
Here's Peter's speech at the National Press Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4 Could you point out anywhere that Peter supports bigotry? Or even, a single crazy statement in Peter's speech? (I wouldn't defend Trump. I'm defending Peter, who I respect a lot). The speech runs from 2:40 to 15:50, and can be watched in 7 minutes if you change speed to 2x. (Thomas, I respect you a lot too. I've never seen or known Peter to do anything like you describe. I posted this video because it helped me understand his position on the election).
- betolink 10y ago
  "They(Mexicans) are rapists and murderers" Take a look[1] you may have been stranded on an Island the last 2 years and perhaps you did not hear what Trump have said. Now, not all Trump supporters are racists (maybe Thiel isn't? who knows!), but all of them are telling us implicitly that racism and bigotry are not deal breakers. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zvOZ17eSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zvOZ17eSE
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - BurningFrog 10y ago
    Note that this Trump (mis)quote is in response to asking where Thiel says anything that supports bigotry.
    - betolink 10y ago
      Corrected now, unless I didn't hear right when he refers to Mexico sending people over and then "they are rapists" perhaps his subject changed and he was referring to Aliens?

novalis78 10y ago

This would be fantastic...the closest of getting Elon Musk into the driver's seat. Mike Pence being a huge space advocate and Thiel wanting nothing more than technological progress to pick up speed, this is a very positive development.

davexunit 10y ago

Not surprising that this website doesn't see the problem with Thiel's bigotry.

JshWright 10y ago
Which website are you referring to?
tdaltonc 10y ago
Can you share a link that concisely demonstrates Thiel's bigotry?
tptacek 10y ago
You are part of this website too --- a prominent part of it, in fact, more invested in it than most of Thiel's HN defenders. Speak for yourself.
noobermin 10y ago
Don't paint us with a broad brush, there are many represented opinions here and we are having a healthy discussion.

ilovecomputers 10y ago

Don't expect him to protect net neutrality just because he is an exec from Silicon Valley: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_technology_entrepreneur_and_investor/ckfjl5p/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_te...

pjdemers 10y ago

Disagreeing with each other's views on the economy, international relations, even the environment is good for the country. We need different points of view on important issues. But using race baiting to gain political power crosses a line that should never be crossed. He should not be helping to legitimize this.

Moshe_Silnorin 10y ago
I very much dislike Trump and would never vote for the man. Both sides use race baiting. Spurious use of the word "racist" against those who dislike government intervention and entitlements has basicly denuded the term of its once-quite-considerable power. They called Bush racist, wasn't true. They called Romney racist, a laughable claim. They called Trump racist and maybe this time there're right, but what does "racist" even mean again?
- gohrt 10y ago
  Being opposed to urban people getting entitlements, but in favor of rural people getting entitlements, is approximately racist, when you factor in demographics.
- hamtaroPhD06 10y ago
  When someone is racist and sexist, it is everyone's duty to call what they are: racist and sexist.
  - jacquesc 10y ago
    Agreed. But if you call anyone who disagrees with you on economic policy a racist and sexist, it opens the door for an actual racist and sexist to get in.
    - hamtaroPhD06 10y ago
      Which is not the case right now. So yes the president elect of the US is racist and sexist and a % of his supporters are openly racist and/or sexist people. This is not a disputed fact in anyway

theCodeStig 10y ago

Ironically, Palantir has an engineering office in Singapore.

auganov 10y ago
Explain the irony?

t1m 10y ago

Peter Thiel's "Mein Kampf" excludes women and minorities, who he feels have "damaged" democracy: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...

yolesaber 10y ago
"Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron." Wow. That is...troubling
- gohrt 10y ago
  Why? Welfare beneficiaries and women lean socialist, and vote socialist. They believe that's good. Thiel believes that's bad.
  - yolesaber 10y ago
    Tens of million of women just voted for a conservative billionaire populist.
    - t1m 10y ago
      Tens of millions of people are going out to the street and are not going to let these little goons take over America.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - confounded 10y ago
    And that tension is called a democracy.
  - walshemj 10y ago
    Not in the UK women tend to vote tory more than the male population did.

cromwellian 10y ago

So the man whose company was funded by the CIA to conduct mass big data surveillance is now going to be helping to decide the structure of the executive branch, with "Law and Order" Giuliani probably as Attorney General. What could go wrong? IMHO, YC had their chance to divorce themselves from Thiel. They can still do it, but this is their last chance. Silicon Valley is not going to forget this conflict of interest.

cromwellian 10y ago
Yay, downvoted by a Trumpster.
pixl97 10y ago
>Silicon Valley is not going to forget this conflict of interest. The Silicon Valley that was giving Hillary millions so they could vie for the same positions? Or Google staffers that met at the White House over 427 times, during the same administration that expanded surveillance against Americans?

danm07 10y ago

I don't know why but I've got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Fluid_Mechanics 10y ago
Most of us do - the next four years should be a tour de force of everything that's wrong with our society.
spiritofenter 10y ago
I could guess why: - Thiel is a founder of Palantir, a.k.a. the private branch of the NSA. - He also has strong vested interests in the health of hedge funds and the financial industry, as well as strong opinions favoring deregulation. - He does not believe in global warming or the urgency of combating it. - His statements in the past have shown lack of respect/consideration for minorities and women.

vivekd 10y ago

If there is anyone I want at the helm of America, it's Peter Theil. If I was going to bet on anyone to solve the nation's problems it would be him. But then, I would be surprised if he accepts the role. He seems like a very private individual and someone who is interested in capital than in politics. It would be a great personal sacrifice for him to turn his back on his business ventures to look into stuff like this that will give him very little return and take up an enormous amount of his time and resources.

tn13 10y ago

Good to see a conservative government put up a Libertarian gay tech person as CTO of USA.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

robomartin 10y ago

The hatred spewing out from the Left defies description. Instead of supporting Thiel he is now the enemy. How sad.

frisco 10y ago

Whatever Trump might do policy-wise with regards to freedom of speech and our democracy, realize that Thiel literally sued a popular media company out of existence over things they wrote about him. I don't think this gets better soon.

t1m 10y ago

I am a Canadian, so I neither have a say, or really can comment on American politics. This Saturday, my two daughters (ages 11 and 8) are driving a 1,700km journey to North Dakota to show our support for the #NoDAPL movement. I am doing it because my eldest is really into Aboriginal rights right now. These people are just trying to preserve their land. I hope we don't get shot by Peter Thiel.

plandis 10y ago

It turns out you can buy access to the president elect.

kriro 10y ago

Maybe there can be some seasteading experiment after all? I'd be really curious to see how it would play out. Seems like a crazy idea worth trying despite all the counterarguments I can think of simply to collect data/experience as it might be valuable for future "crazy" endeavors like populating a different planet.

bleamishboy 10y ago

Is this (post, thread) on-topic for HN? Seems to fall pretty definitively into the politics / TV news category. (Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.)

joshkpeterson 10y ago
Are you serious? Thiel is a heavy hitter in tech, and he's an advisor at YC and on the board of FB, one of the largest and most important companies today period. Also, fascism is coming to America, which is relevant for all of us.

eis 10y ago

Interesting that the moderators found it important to remove the "YC partner" part from the submission. It also seems the submission is getting less exposure than other submissions even though it's newer and has more upvotes. For example this submission has 349 points and was submitted 6 hours ago and has rank 17 while "Halite: An AI Programming Challenge" has 158 points and was submitted 12 hours ago and is rank 16. The Leonard Cohen post has just a bit more upvotes and was submitted also 6 hours ago and is rank 2. "Island generator was also submitted at the same time and with just barely over 100 upvotes is rank 7. Can some mod please give some insight into this? I'm gonna give HN the benefit of the doubt, probably some invisible factors playing into it but the ranking plus the editing could look a bit like the story is getting burried.

quarterto 10y ago
Post with more comments than upvotes are penalised as a proxy for controversiality (remember HN doesn't have downvotes for posts)
midgetjones 10y ago
You'll just get the line that HN readers don't like to talk politics so it was flagged into oblivion.

return0 10y ago

Ahead of schedule, and under budget.

masondixon 10y ago

A huge issue today is the lack of calm, reasoned debate. As a Trump supporter I have never been able to properly explain the rationale to a liberal. I believe there is a worthy debate beneath all the political smear, but it is never reached. I believe the reason for this is the liberal media and the incredibly effective Democratic party election machine. The argument stays at the high level of "how could you vote for someone who said that", "he is a monster", etc. It is "I don't want to listen". All you have to do to realise what is wrong with this is to ask yourself: "What happens if the situation is reversed and someone said they don't want to listen to me?". What if someone else started to restrict what I could say? Thankfully, freedom of speech is such an integral part of the US, that there is not one side trying to control what the other can say, and the other doing the same back. This is what makes the country work. The fact that both sides are not in the business of restricting free speech. This doesn't hold true in many other countries.

rootlocus 10y ago
> Thankfully, freedom of speech is such an integral part of the US, that there is not one side trying to control what the other can say, and the other doing the same back. Sure, you and Donald Trump can say whatever you please. Nobody's restricting your freedom of speech. However, what you say betrays who you are. And what Trump said showed he's a liar, misogynist, tech illiterate, arrogant and overall a disgusting human being. > "What happens if the situation is reversed and someone said they don't want to listen to me?" People listen up until the point you prove to them you're not worth listening to.
- tdkl 10y ago
  > People listen up until the point you prove to them you're not worth listening to. And they decide that based on emotions, which marks them as not being capable of rational discussions.
  - masondixon 10y ago
    After losing control of the entire government, there is still this sense of: "I don't need to engage in debate with you". Its just not rationale.

mrslave 10y ago

I come to HN because of the high level of intelligent conversation. This article, and ever more sadly so the comments herein, are a huge disappointment. Trump is the non-establishment candidate the left asks for from Republicans every presidential election. Hillary is, at the very least, the establishment candidate the left profess to despise. The propaganda is strong in this one. Grow up everybody.

zymhan 10y ago
I don't think the left ever widely professed a desire for a non-establishment candidate from the right. They were much more worried about how the Republican party has veered right over the years. This has led them to adopt extremist views such as branding entire ethnic groups as dangerous, and rolling out laws that inhibit the ability of minorities to vote. These are just some of the worries that the left in America has with the Republican party. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/02/this-astonishing-chart-shows-how-republicans-are-an-endangered-species/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/02/this-... http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/04/10/150349438/gops-rightward-shift-higher-polarization-fills-political-scientist-with-dread http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/04/10/150349...

codecamper 10y ago

Just googled Peter's feelings on clean energy. Well I'm hopeful. He has made investments into clean tech. He is both smart & a business guy. So Trump will listen to him & that's good. He is also a connection back to Tesla & energy storage. Hmm. Maybe this Trump thing isn't so bad after all (for the planet). Trump may want more oil -- but the reality of that is that oil is controlled by the market.

BurningFrog 10y ago

Relevant column: "I don't see a moral obligation for anyone to serve in a Trump administration. But people who opposed Donald Trump, on both the left and right, should commit right now to one thing: We will not tar good people for joining the Trump administration. Their motives will not be questioned, and if things do turn out as some of his critics fear, the people in his foreign and domestic policy apparatus will not suffer guilt by association. It is just too important that Trump have good advisers. Trump will be the least policy-savvy president in history. He has built no ideological framework for future policies, much less a set of detailed proposals. He has few advisers, in part because so many of the usual contenders have come out against him." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-09/there-s-no-shame-in-joining-the-trump-administration https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-09/there-s-n...

thecopy 10y ago
>He has built no ideological framework for future policies Sounds like a positive thing
- burkaman 10y ago
  Why?
  - FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
    I find ideologies in general a huge impediment to solving problems. It erects imaginary barriers around potential solutions. We can all agree that universal health care at an affordable price is a good thing. Whether that is by market based solutions or by single payer doesnt matter to me. Whatever is most efficient and provides the best health outcomes is what matters, not some belief based upon... faith
  - defen 10y ago
    Ideological leaders (on the left and the right) were responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the 20th century, for a start. More generally, no ideology can actually capture reality. While they all contain some truth, they are all also fundamentally untrue if you drill down far enough. I'd rather grade someone on results (human happiness) than adherence to an ideological framework. I don't mean this in a simple utilitarian sense, either.

machbio 10y ago

It was a brilliant play by Peter Thiel - it was gamble of 50:50 (I believe he started supporting him only at the Republican Convention).. There would be backlash by technology community, and when you have lot of money and networking available to you; there is no one in the technology community that will stop doing business with you.. Kudos to the HN crowd about the Freedom of Speech, sometimes - I guess you need to be extremist in either being Left Wing or Right Wing..

techxit 10y ago

Peter Thiel is a neocon nightmare who thinks the 19th Amendment was a mistake. Can we have a black bar for America, please?

ehosca 10y ago

i guess soon we'll see if conversion therapy really works...

DLA 10y ago

This thread is sad. We are ALL Americans. President-elect Trump is OUR president. You know how we can make this next four years a success for all of us, realize the Constitution sets out a process for how we elect our leaders. Go read it. No really, now many of the people burning flags, talking about "end of days" BS, and other nonsense have ever read the Constitution? Let alone swore an oath to defend it? Yeah. As I suspected. Stop the hate online. Stop the hate in the streets. Stop talking about states leaving the union (not going to happen). Stop judging people for their choice--voting freedom is sacred. Many have died defending it. Regardless of how you voted get behind the President of the United States of America. America is still the greatest nation the world has ever known. If we all work together and stop this hate, America will be become even better.

beerbajay 10y ago
> Stop the hate in the streets. Go tell that to the people scrawling white power slogans, painting swastikas, putting up signs for "colored" drinking fountains, wearing blackface, calling people "niggers", etc. > voting freedom is sacred No, your right to vote is enshrined in the constitution, but you have no right not to be judged a horrible human being for your choice.
- Chris2048 10y ago
  > people scrawling white power slogans, painting swastikas, putting up signs for "colored" drinking fountains, These things are considered acceptable by the majority of republicans/trump supporters/whites?
glenda 10y ago
That is one way of looking at it. But the hate is already being spread and has been spread by our new president's campaign. For non-white people his election is a direct threat against their well-being. If the anti-trump protesters are being sore losers then the KKK are being sore winners.

woofyman 10y ago

Trump gets to work helping LGBT Americans by tapping anti-gay Ken Blackwell to his transition team. “I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed,” Blackwell told the Columbus Dispatch at the time. “I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will.” http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/10/1596184/-Trump-gets-to-work-helping-LGBT-Americans-by-tapping-anti-gay-Ken-Blackwell-to-his-transition-team http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/10/1596184/-Trump-ge...