I don't get it. I grew up in Silicon Valley and I work in tech, and so do many other people I know. They run the gamut from far-left socialists to libertarians to own a bunch of guns. They have all kinds of ethnic backgrounds and religious views.<p>Some of my most libertarian/pro-gun friends have not been shy about their political views and it hasn't hurt their tech careers at all. They are far more welcome here than liberals are in other parts of the country.<p>It seems to me, from personal experience, that the people who feel alienated are the ones who bring politics to work in an overbearing contrarian way, seeking to cause offense under the guise of "debate," and then pretend to be shocked when people don't want to put up with their shit. Work is for working; it's not a debating society, and especially not when the debating is done in bad faith.<p>Peter Thiel has been more politically vocal than most, and he is vocal about things he knows to be unpopular. He can't be surprised that people who disagree with him are also vocal. If he can't take the heat he should stay out of the kitchen.
I'm 37 and, God, people treat me like I'm a dinosaur. I've been programming C for 25 years and it's hard to relate to young people who don't know what a machine register is. We can argue about it, I can get downvoted, whatever.<p>I moved out of the Bay Area after 5 years, and to be honest, the divide between where I am and where the ideological center of Silicon Valley has drifted just continues to get wider.<p>It has little to do with politics, and it has more to do with the role of technology in human life and the future.<p>Silicon Valley is overrun by techno-utopians.<p>I used to be into that, believing that software was this wonderful force that is going to turn man from the ape he is into some kind of artificially-intelligent hyper-being. It's a fail, it's a fantasy. It's just not going to happen, and it's time to wake up from the dream. We're not going to be living on Mars or visit Jupiter or become immortal, not in the next 10 years or in the lifetime of anyone reading this. With high probability you're going to live out your life and die somewhere between 70 and 100. Just like the billions of humans before you. Get used to it! It's OK, even.<p>I moved away to get out of the shouting match, to get away from so many young bright software developers like me straight out of college, who just want to disrupt everything for no reason, and to get out of that echo chamber. Everyone's a unicorn. Everyone's gonna change the world. FFS your stupid chat apps are not going to change the world.<p>Moving out of the Bay Area is not about being disillusioned, it's about focusing on things that actually matter, instead of the silly bubble.
What is crazy about the the situation in SF is that even 5 or so years ago if you asked me what the "echo chamber" there was echoing I would have said libertarianism and some kind of techno-utopianism. The takeover by the proscriptive far-left has been astonishingly rapid, and it is absolutely real. I also know people who have left, and many more who absolutely keep their political and even philosophical views to themselves, especially after Damore.<p>It's been an extraordinarily fast takeover and I'd really like to know exactly what happened those 5 or so years ago to precipitate this seismic shift.
> they feel people there are resistant to different social values and political ideologies<p>This is just bizarre to to me. I moved here from the Midwest, which I found stifling. There's a far greater variety of social values and political ideologies (not to mention backgrounds and interests) here than pretty much any place I've lived. The main hostility I see is to intolerance, but that's hardly surprising given SF's long, welcoming history and the paradox of tolerance. [1]<p>If I were to worry about any sort of uniformity, it wouldn't be political, but in startup culture. 20 years of success has created some very well-greased rails into which most innovation has to fit: bright young founders, seed round followed quickly by A and B rounds. That can be fine as far as it goes, but it has become so orthodox that I think we're not a great place for doing anything other than a plausible Next Big Thing.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance</a>
As someone who is an outsider looking in on this whole situation (someone who both does not live in Silicon Valley and does not live in America), I honestly think the whole place and everyone there is f<i></i>king insane.<p>Both sides are seemingly entirely incapable of accepting that people, with all their complexities can have differing view points and not just assuming they are the devil incarnate.<p>I used to think that I was pretty far-left leaning, but recently, with the attitudes of the so-called progressives, I honestly want nothing to do with these people. How is it that more people aren't terrified that the left has turned themselves into an echo-chamber so against even slightly differing ideals that those who do even slightly go against the norm will have a social-media storm come down upon them to ruin their career and life.<p>And don't think conservatives are any better. Here is a hot tip for all the conservatives out there - white supremacy and neo-nazi's are not the types of people you want to associate yourselves with. The fact that it's been over 70 years since the end of WW2 and you haven't quite figured that out yet is almost as baffling as the idea that conservatives cannot accept that gun-control does not mean people want to take your guns away, but simply want to make sure that people who would abuse guns can not get them.<p>Honestly, if the lot of you could start acting like mature adults who can have a reasonable discussion of actual issues without resorting to calling each other names and organizing mobs, the rest of the world that still follow America's example would be thankful.
There is a linguistic sleight of hand at work here: 'libertarian' and 'left' is not what is happening in SV. These terms have been hijacked by the identity politics cartel.<p>The SV political and ideological climate is all about pidgeonholing you into 0.01-0.3% segment ('left-handed bisexual javascript expert'), then maintaining these segments and manipulating the fractured society into neoliberal directions.<p>It is obvious that there is nothing that can be named as a common interest in SV: there is no such discourse. The commonality is restricted to your 0.01-0.3% segment.
Lotta comments here about anti-Trump stuff.<p>Do we really think Trump's candidacy and presidency would've been well received by the west coast in 2012/2013 instead of 2016/2017?<p>I don't think so. Just about everything he said that's been treated as wildly offensive and uninformed the last couple of years would've been no more well-received four years earlier.<p>Heck, you don't even have to be on the left to believe that <i>rejecting white nationalism is why California turned blue in the first place</i>: <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/proposition-187-turned-california-blue" rel="nofollow">https://www.cato.org/blog/proposition-187-turned-california-...</a><p>I think those on the right who don't reject Trump should reflect on how he's changed the Republican party.
None of the three people profiled in this article are tech workers. They are investors, or whatever it is that Tim Ferriss is.<p>To the extent tech workers are leaving Silicon Valley, I'm willing to bet the dominant factor is the cost of housing.
I'm an immigrant. After 20 years in the Bay Area, I'm calling it quits. There are practical reasons, like the high taxes, high cost of living, and widespread social dysfunction and conflicts. But the biggest problem with the Bay Area isn't a left-right issue, it's that it is filled with techies who went from college to being very well off without the usual decades of struggle, without a lot of life experience, and without much knowledge beyond technology. These people will never grow up, because they have enough wealth and power that nothing will ever force them to grow up. Quite apart from running the Bay Area into the ground, those are simply not the kind of people I want to work with or socialize with.
I wonder how alienated employees of Murdoch owned companies feel in their “echo chamber”<p>The victim card being played here is quite pathetic. A religous conservative who is told they can’t discriminate against gay people claims you need tolerate and respect his intolerance and disrespect because of religious freedom.<p>Someone who benefitted from privilege, or born into an upper middle class household, claims discrimination if they write a screed on merit against their coworkers and suffer from it because of efforts to reach out and broaden the applicant base.<p>The “echo chamber” being complained about are broadly shared cultural values we expect Americans to hold, beliefs in All Men Are Created Equal, that really aren’t normal subjects of debate. The only issue debatable is the best policies to maintain them.<p>Many of the complaints don’t argue for how to achieve it, rather they take a rather extremist view of meritocracy and hyperindividualism like they just graduated from Ayn Rand University and try to apply it to the very messy real world.<p>Is it too much to ask to just do your work and if you don’t like policies against sexual harassment or racial or queer harassment at your company to go work somewhere that tolerates it?
I find the recent uptick in progressivism in SV refreshing, and sorely needed. Then again, I've lived my entire life in liberal enclaves and do not personally identify with conservative / "family values" viewpoints.
This last election was not normal. (Or it was more normal than we want to admit.) In my first-hand experience, I saw Republicans in the Bay Area spending money and time trying to stop Trump from being elected. These are not Republicans in name only, these are people who serve in the local GOP, people who worked in the George W Bush White House, people who believe in free markets with all their soul, people who want to drastically change the government. They hated Trump.
It has nothing to do with the content of Silicon Valley beliefs. As far as I can tell, Silicon Valley/Bay Area beliefs are mercurial and change by the month.<p>It has to do with the moral panic over intelligent people dissenting from The Narrative. This is a new and extremely illiberal phenomenon, and it's probably going to get much worse before it gets better.
I don't live in SF and I don't work in tech so I would like to hear what specific conservative opinions people in tech in SF feel like they can't say. Are they economic? international relations? or is it more identity politics based?
I recently moved (fled) from downtown San Francisco to Nashville TN and couldn't be happier. I lived in SF for over 5 years, and there is absolutely a mass exodus of people and engineers leaving the bay area because of extreme ideology, hypocrisy, constant outrage, and the echo chamber that engulfs everything. Downtown San Francisco is a great place to visit for a few days but no place to start and raise a family.
I agree with the premise of this piece. I have lunch with some people that lean right, all of us keep our mouths shut for fear of reprisal whenever politics comes up or a progressive work program is discussed. No one actually cares what we think, no reason to suggest anything at odds with echo chamber.
Conservative people always emphasize that equal opportunity is all a society needs, and there is no need to worry about the actual outcome.
And now they find themselves in a minority position in one area of the US, and ask for affirmative action for themselves?
Funny!
I feel alienated by the awful beliefs and behavior of Peter Thiel and his portfolio companies. Now many people can breathe a sigh of relief that someone who wields billions to support Palantir, Trump, and spurious lawsuits will finally leave us alone.
Who ever said that cities are supposed represent all values equally? Move to a different area of the country if you don't like a particular city's political leanings. There are plenty of Republican leaning areas of the country.
If Hacker News and Reddit comments roughly approximate SV attitudes, SV would be very right-wing compared to mainstream Europe on the whole.<p>In any case, this sounds more like other people's distaste is slowly grinding Thiel down and he's just trying to rationalise it to himself with talk of echo chambers and whatnot. You'd think he'd have more sympathy for minorities who have had to put up with that from birth but he does come across as someone who is frustrated when others don't subscribe to his exceptionalist view of himself.<p>It's not SV, it's Coventry he doesn't like, and he'll be sent there wherever he goes.
Intellectually honest 'conservatives' who identify as republicans who aren't actively trying to reform their party and are aligning with the current anti LEGAL immigration, anti gay, white-christian identity politics of the modern GOP shouldn't be shocked that they feel alienated in a place that is largely enlightened on all these things decades ago. Even if you put the social issues asside, the GOP sure loves their deficits and big government. That's been true since the W years. What the hell is conservatism now?
For anyone caring to get out of the echo chamber and near, unfortunately not onto the beach, join us at engageSPARK in Cebu, Philippines. :) <a href="https://www.engagespark.com/careers" rel="nofollow">https://www.engagespark.com/careers</a>
Might get a different perspective on the stuff inside this bubble. (Obviously, I'm still interested in the echo, since I'm here.)
Most silicon valley employees don't really care about any of this. If anything most have extremely conservative opinions, they'll be all for Trump if they could vote on H1
No, it's mainly just housing and traffic that are SV's main problems right now. It is completely unpassable here. And the area can't seem to fix its problems.
Silicon Valley has more college-educated, younger and more diverse work force than average, so it doesn’t surprise me that this work force is more liberal.
I have seen the far left and far right discriminate in nearly every job I've been in since the mid two thousands. It was worse on the right in the finance industry, but recently someone provided me with a blacklist of right wing individuals in which my name was on it. I found this funny as I am basically a socialist who dedicated a huge portion of my spare time to helping minorities in tech. The world is polarized, just make sure to call it out when you see people being stupid.
what would be the reception to someone who just doesn't care about politics, doesn't care about who does what, who likes who, who eats what, who drives what? Libertarian but without the politics, I suppose.
Escaping liberal Silicon Valley for super conservative Los Angeles huh? If it were Orange county I might buy it, but moving to Hollywood Hills...come'on.<p>Seems like a PR stunt.
I agree with people that say that SV is an echo chamber. I'm software eng., and found it very hard for a year before election to work there. Happy to explain if someone cares to know. It is a bit hard when people on left were told: 'you are smart to vote left' - they just talk down to me. I'll give you one example, on TV, they had a right wing person getting egged - I'm sure most here saw the news/video. And I had friends I knew for years call me racists. Scary. Etc.
After the election - it got worse. So I left SV for NY. I understand if right wing leaves, I know now what it is to be hated. I think you should ashamed - there is no way right wing would treat you that way. (ex: See x-TYT video of Red Pill Black - let me know if you can't find it )
I hate to have sympathy for the devil here, but I see their point.<p>Hackernews is living proof. Pre-election, you could voice a contrary opinion here and have a discussion. Post-election, even the faintest wrongthink shibboleth gets silently downvoted into oblivion.
To understand what is going on here please read Rand's article "Anatomy of Comprise" in her anthology "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" and her article "The Establishing of an Establishment" in her anthology "Philosophy: Who Needs It."<p>Rand wrote; "It is precisely those ends ([sacrifice]-collectivism-statism) that ought to be rejected. But if neither party chooses to do it, the logic of events created by their common basic principles will keep dragging them both further and further to the left. If and when the "conservatives" are kicked out of the game altogether, the same conflict will continue between the "liberals" and the avowed socialists; when the socialists win, the conflict will continue between the socialists and the communists; when the communists win, the ultimate goal of [sacrifice] will be achieved; universal immolation."<p>In short we are witnessing the end of the Rep party as they are kicked off the social/political stage because they stand for nothing except watered-down ideas/goals of the Dems/Left. Who needs them?<p>Trump was never a Rep and used the Rep party for a self-aggrandizement, and big FU "Ill show you" to the NY Dems who rebuffed Trump in the '90s when he wanted leadership positions for all the money he was donating.<p>What Thiel, et. al. don't understand is that they are objecting to the left/liberal Establishment propagated by Academia and based on collectivism/sacrifice as political and moral ideals shared by both parties. The only way to end this process is for Thiel or the Reps to stand up for individualism and selfishness or their protests will be a footnote in history.
Then leave, you can drop a pin on pretty much 95% of America and end up in a conservative place where people will share your values.<p>Don’t like being conservative in the Bay Area because you feel ostracized and judged? Cool, now you know what it feels like to be gay in 95% of America.<p>Get over it.
Off topic: I am legit interested to know how paywall sites get to the front page of HN. I wouldn't have guessed that the WSJ has a team of people to upvote their content to the front page, but now I'm second guessing that assumption. Or, does HN have some hidden allegiance with certain news agencies that lets paywall content through? Obviously TechCrunch gets in free, since it's used for YCombinator startup advertising, but the WSJ surprises me.
Likening people to Thiel is ridiculous. He is personally facing the backlash from openly supporting Trump and being a speaker at his rallies. Nobody else in the valley did anything as absurd or unnecessary. And if he thinks he'll fair better in LA, I think he's sorely mistaken once people start recognizing him en masse. But to my point, this article seems to be generalizing an outlier to make its point. Everyone is being alienated everywhere because the country has a leader who is actively polarizing the populous by demonizing every side that he's not on as an enemy to his agenda, even going so far now as to suggest people who disagree should be labeled as traitors - which coming from the President, is technically a death threat as that is the punishment for treason. Peter Thiel seems to be actively trying to paint a more dystopian portrait of the situation to make himself out to be a victim when in reality people on both sides have been alienated by the dissolution of the "moderate" common ground where we all worked together in favor of a Monday Night Football-esque team based society (or crime drama - good v. bad). More generalizations like this that skew reality aren't going to help anything.
*Right leaning tech workers who have never experienced working outside of their bubble.<p>News flash: not every place aligns with your political ideology. Try being a liberal in the Midwest or the South.
I'm supposed to feel bad for Peter Thiel? The guy is a billionaire. He can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants.<p>He thinks it's hard to be a conservative in California? Try being a liberal in most of the red state parts of the country who actually has to work for a living.<p>Give me a break.
So we should all take a lesson from how people in the Bible belt treat those who are agnostic or atheist, right? <rolls eyes><p>If the Valley is such a "liberal echo chamber", why is it that women, homosexual, transsexuals, etc. are the ones still receiving the death threats.<p>When I see rich, conservative, white men shivering in fear from getting <i>death threats</i> for expressing their religious or political beliefs, I'll worry about your "echo chamber" my precious fragile little snowflakes.
Everyone here knows SV company environments are hostile working environments for conservatives. Even multi-billion dollar companies espouse far left populous views. You learn to keep your opinions to yourself especially when the office discussion reaches ridiculous levels. Since my views are conservative/libertarian, I won't bother replying to LinkedIn invites from Google/Levi's/The Gap/Facebook or other far left companies. Particularly companies whos' marketing departments are extensions of San Francisco/Oakland/Berkeley extremists.
The thing is, if you like private property and private contract, this is what can happen to you. If you think any company is within its rights to police speech, then you agree that it's fine for Google to exclude conservative or libertarian speech.<p>Nobody owes you space for your views. Your place, your rules. Their place, their rules. That's the deal.