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I guess it’s kind of a provocative statement, but the logic really is analogous: Thiel’s views must be reasonable because there are millions of people who agree with him. But there are millions of people who agree with the late Osama Bin Laden’s views as well – therefore they must also be reasonable.
Nonetheless, people who just react to how the words make them feel instead of the logical structure might have trouble distinguishing such a statement from a comparison between the beliefs of Republicans and those of jihadis, so yeah should probably have been communicated in a more positive and productive way.
Also, I don’t really agree – I think it’s stupid to expect all of America to start shunning Thiel because he’s a Trump supporter. My neighbors are Trump supporters – should I refuse to lend them my lawnmower or give them a cup of sugar? My stepfather is a Trump supporter – should I refuse to get him a Christmas gift? This election is making everyone stupid.
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Are your neighbors giving $1.25M to Trump?
There’s a big difference between support and material support.
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They probably would if they were billionaires. It’s probably not unreasonable to suppose some may have given time and money that is proportionally equivalent to what Thiel has given, taking into account the obvious discrepancy in wealth.
I think Trump’s a bad candidate, but he’s not a terrorist and neither are people who prefer him to Clinton.
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I tried to ask you in another thread, but do you think boycotts or generally refusing to do business with someone for ethical reasons is itself unethical? It seems like it couldn’t possibly be because free association, but then again if everyone refuses to do business with someone it’s blackballing and it’s supposed to be bad. A lot of people who would probably be OK with Thiel being blackballed are probably not OK with the bakers who didn’t want to make a cake for a gay wedding, and likewise wouldn’t be OK with someone refusing to do business with someone because of their race or ethnicity, which seems inconsistent…but I don’t see how one can be consistently anti-blackballing and pro-free association. Don’t you have to kind of choose one or the other at some point?
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LOL. Right, so no Republicans on your BoD because of Trump? Ostracize anyone right of middle on Facebook? Further split America because one can’t tolerate support for a different party?
Fun fact - lots of businesses have people in power who give to political parties - both Republican and Democrats. Are we supposed to sift through the endless data and boycott any business that supports the wrong party? What if they have people who support both? Have you vetted not only the CEOs and board of directors, but the employees at your local business?
I just can’t stand the “outrage” and incredulous ethical arguments over shit like this. It is just more political bullshit being piled on.
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You can see “Zhang’s” name…?
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In order to stay diverse, we must include those who stand against diversity.
Sure… that makes perfect sense.
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I am absolutely 100 percent OK with both. Does that adequately explain my position?
Sure that would be a fine position, though it doesn’t explain the position you seemed to argue in the Thiel thread with the “they go low we go lower” stuff, which seemed to be against Thiel being blackballed.
I’m only asking because you are like pretty much the only person who upfront argues for conservative viewpoints on BB, which means you often have perspectives I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Not trying to be a dick.
There’s a difference between blackballing somone for what they are (LBGTQI, Scottish) and what they believe (anti-vaxxers, 911 troofers, Thiel).
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I suspect the difference isn’t quite so stark as you might want to believe. See: Jews.
Punishing people for having beliefs you disagree with incentivizes conformity.
Too early to tell. Three men were arrested recently who were planning to massacre a building full of Somali muslim immigrants. Trump supporters.
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I’m more libertarian than conservative, and as an atheist I am emphatically not a member of the religious right. To paraphrase Matt Stone, “I hate conservatism but I really fucking hate liberalism”.
My comments re Thiel were not so much intended to convey
“blackballing Thiel is wrong”
as they were
“for decades, liberals whined about the martyrdom of those who lost their jobs due to Communist associations. Now that the power to blacklist is in liberal hands, they gleefully exercise it without the slightest indication that they are aware of the hypocrisy”
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Using identical logic, people who prefer Clinton to Trump are child molestors.
I think people are missing an important piece in the analysis:
Peter Thiel is kind of an asshole.
He’s not being ostracized because of Trump. He’s being ostracized because that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I said that I don’t care if Gawker is destroyed, because it needs to be destroyed (satellite publications earn it no credit on my book). The precedent might be troubling, but right now no real legally-binding precedent has been set. So I lose little sleep over it.
Similarly Thiel has the assets to manage. This isn’t some mid-level manager at Greycorp with a Trump bumper sticker. Thiel has injected himself into the public eye. If people don’t want to associate with him… well much like Gawker, he needs to be destroyed (to some extent, obviously “destroy” applied to an individual is a too harsh). It doesn’t set a meaningful precedent. Again, not losing sleep over it.
I understand people worry they’re gonna lose their jobs because of political affiliation, but partnerships at the executive level don’t fall into the category of people who need protection. Even if there was a law preventing people from being fired for political views, basically no one wants to limit freedom to contract at the top of the pile, Thiel himself would want to choose his business partners according to his own criteria. He’ll be fine.
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How so?
Blackballing someone for being Jewish != ok (see: Nazi Germany)
Blackmailing someone who believes Jews are untermensch = very much ok
What is it that makes someone Jewish?
When my grandfather passed away, we found out he was the illegitimate child of an Israeli. We had know idea. As far as we knew, we were all Irish Catholics.
Did we suddenly become Jewish when we found out about my grandfather’s parentage? Were we secretly Jewish the whole time without realizing?
Blackballing someone who thinks there should be fewer H1-B’s taking away jobs from coders in the Valley = hell no, that’s a perfectly valid position
Blackballing someone who thinks there should be fewer unskilled immigrants taking jobs away from working class and poor Americans = hell yes, fuck those racists
Thats a good semantic question.
It’s also a fucking pointless semantic rabbithole to disappear down.
