> Over the course of two hours, the CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator personally attacks or retweets criticism of “extremist judges,” whom he accuses of emboldening criminals with the help of local media; any supervisor who dares to oppose bonuses to hire more cops; Nancy Pelosi and lawmakers concerned about the safety of autonomous vehicles; education activists who want to change math curriculum in public schools; venture capitalists who are “evil” to startup founders; “decels” who want to pump the brakes on technological progress; Apple’s monopoly on apps; YouTube censors; and last, but certainly not least, NIMBYs.<p>I once learned a lot about helping people with alcohol addition for a family friend. A few of the things I learned were: 1) labeling the person as an alcoholic will make them drink more 2) yelling at them and forcing them to defend themselves will make them drink more 3) any kind of aggressive intervention will make them drink more.<p>Unfortunately, attacking people generally serves to make them feel defensive and want to defend themselves. When we defend ourselves, that generally makes us dig in further.<p>I'll note that I hope that SF shifts in the direction of Garry's vision, and I'm in favor of the end outcome.<p>If Garry's goal is attention ("if you want to get an audience, start a fight") then attacks are a good method. If his goal is to change minds, I'd note that he may be more successful if he picks up a few books on helping people who have addictions, and borrows some of the methods from them (in short: make them first feel understood by you, and understand their hesitations and what makes them tick).<p>He could kind of treat it like he's doing customer development for a startup. Find people who've gone from one side to the other, talk to them about their journey, and so on.<p>The main point I'm hoping to emphasize is that attacking the other side like this to win may result in victory, but it won't result in peace.