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Project Include Drops Y Combinator As Peter Thiel Pledges $1.25 Million To Trump (theverge.com) 636

Peter Thiel's support for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has given Silicon Valley a headache. This past weekend, Thiel donated $1.25 million to his campaign, which is driving away partners from Thiel's Silicon Valley accelerator, Y Combinator. Today, Project Include, a community for building meaningful, enduring diversity and inclusion into tech companies, said that it would no longer work with Y Combinator startups. "Thiel's actions are in direct conflict with our values at Project Include," the group's co-founder, Ellen Pao, wrote in a Medium post. "Because of this continued connection to YC, we are compelled to break off our relationship with YC." The Verge reports: Founded in 2005, Y Combinator has incubated some of the biggest tech companies of the past decade, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe. It faced a barrage of criticism over the weekend for refusing to dissociate itself from Thiel, who took an advisory role with the organization in 2015. In a series of tweets, YC's president stood by Thiel. "Cutting off opposing viewpoints leads to extremism and will not get us the country we want," Sam Altman wrote. "Diversity of opinion is painful but critical to the health of a democratic society. We can't start purging people for political support." In her post, Pao rejected the idea that Thiel's donation could be dismissed as political speech. "We agree that people shouldn't be fired for their political views, but this isn't a disagreement on tax policy, this is advocating hatred and violence," she wrote. "Giving more power to someone whose ascension and behavior strike fear into so many people is unacceptable. His attacks on black, Mexican, Asian, Muslim, and Jewish people, on women, and on others are more than just political speech; fueled by hate and encouraging violence, they make each of us feel unsafe."
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Project Include Drops Y Combinator As Peter Thiel Pledges $1.25 Million To Trump

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  • Ellen Pao (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lucm ( 889690 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:05PM (#53096689)

    I don't need to know the underlying issue. If Ellen Pao is involved, I'm rooting for the other side.

    Also really the Clintonazis are getting less and less subtle nowadays.

  • virtue signaling (Score:4, Insightful)

    by prof_robinson ( 2632705 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:06PM (#53096695)
    All this is is more virtue signaling; heaven forbid the other silicon valley lefties do not publicly show their disapproval. It's this public displays that lefties live for, after all.
    • by lucm ( 889690 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:12PM (#53096727)

      All this is is more virtue signaling; heaven forbid the other silicon valley lefties do not publicly show their disapproval. It's this public displays that lefties live for, after all.

      Funny enough it's the same people who watch movies like Trumbo and are outraged by the actions of the HUAC and McCarthy. Bunch of hypocrites.

    • Virtue Signalling. Birtherism. Dog Whistle. Criminals. Rapists. Birth of a Nation. Alt Right.
      Tax Returns. No Tax Returns. Bankruptcy. Big Tax Writeoff.
      Delegitimize. Jail Her. Rigged.
      Citizens United. Koch. Adelson. Money = Free Speech.
      Bragging about groping.
      Character.

  • by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:16PM (#53096733) Homepage

    Really quite fucking simply, attack the policies and investigate and report on the politicians. The supporters you leave right the fuck alone because democracy and free choice, you leave the supporters right the fuck alone because otherwise you are anti-democratic, anti-freedom and pro-arsehole.

    Don't care who they support as long as they are doing it legally and not seeking to buy elections. That liberal progressives are launching this kind of attack means they are complete and utterly fake Liberal Progressives and are actually corporate stooges, right wing arseholes (jeebus, WTF, I am having to defend right wing supporters from left wing attacks because the left wing attackers are not actually left wing attackers but just right wing fakers pretending to be left wing).

    When a politician chooses to call voters deplorable, guess who the deplorable person really is and it ain't those voters being slandered (that politician is also far right and most definitely not a Liberal Progressives, stop fucking lying).

    I will always strive to protect voters from corrupt politicians, regardless of whether or not I disagree with the political choices of those voters, I am not a fake left winger.

    • Don't care who they support as long as they are doing it legally and not seeking to buy elections.

      And not trying to bomb an apartment complex in Kansas or setting a Reichstag fire in North Carolina.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

      • Is there evidence that the NC firebombing was in fact a false flag op?

        I too find it suspicious, but haven't seen any supporting evidence as yet.

        • Is there evidence that the NC firebombing was in fact a false flag op?

          I doubt that we're going to get any before the election. I can't imagine North Carolina law enforcement is going to bust their ass on this one.

      • Russia did it? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Xenographic ( 557057 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @11:26PM (#53097443) Journal

        You base that on your own biases, not on evidence. This is because evidence says that Hillary's team has been inciting violence here. I mean, we have videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

        And if you look up the woman in the video, well, you can see that she's on Hillary's payroll. I mean, unless you're going to say the FEC is lying now? Just look at how they paid her to be at the protests and what she did there:

        https://beta.fec.gov/data/disb... [fec.gov]

        And here's the leak to tie it together: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-... [wikileaks.org]

        It's on video. We saw her in the Arizona protests, blocking the road. It was in the media. How, pray tell, are you going to make this one out to be a false flag?

        • Wait, you're trying to tell me that Hillary pays people that work for her campaign?

          Lock her up.

          • > Wait, you're trying to tell me that Hillary pays people that work for her campaign?

            Should I have realized that violence was your idea of normal campaign work? It kind of proves whose payroll she's on and then you can see the video of her talking about creating violence. I mean, you're already blaming people for a "Reichstag fire" when we have Democrats on Hillary's payroll on video creating violence.

            Might want to re-examine that one a bit. I note that you did not, because you could not, argue with a

    • It's important to remember that even if you hate Trump, a lot of people really do support him, and their reasons aren't all irrational. I am willing to bet that the reason Peter Thiel supports Trump has nothing to do with homophobia, or even hate. Attacking his supporters like this does nothing but shut down communication, which is the only way we can ever overcome our differences.

      That goes for Clinton supporters, too.
    • More examples (Score:2, Interesting)

      On that point, here are a couple of more examples.

      Democrats hired protesters to get into fights [breitbart.com] at Trump rallys, to give the appearance that Trump supporters are violent thugs.

      From that article, note that one of the hired protesters filed suit [breitbart.com] against a Trump supporter claiming that she was punched in the face. The first cited article has a secret recording of the person hired to orchestrate the fights, where he mentions that the protester was one of his group.

      (And here she is [breitbart.com] after the incident, smiling, w

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Mitreya ( 579078 )

        Trump supporters have been pretty polite throughout the election.

        That may be, but Trump is still a dangerous psychopath, far more dangerous than Clinton (who is, admittedly, pretty bad as far as candidates go).

      • Re:More examples (Score:5, Insightful)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @01:57AM (#53097897) Homepage Journal

        Trump supporters have been pretty polite throughout the election.

        Wait, what? When I search google for "trump supporters" (and I really haven't been googling trump stuff) I get "Trump Supporter: 'Hillary Needs To Be Taken Out'", "Trump's supporters talk rebellion, assassination at his rallies", "Why Trump supporters are getting so violent", and "The Night Trump Supporters "Found Me Out" As A Jew" on the first page of results. On page two I get "Maybe it was the photo of the guyâ"attending a Trump rally with his wife and small childrenâ"who opted to wear a âoeShe's a Cunt. Vote Trumpâ ..." as well as "Yes, half of Trump supporters are racist" and of course "Armed Donald Trump supporters caught menacing Democratic campaign office".

        You're a liar.

        We don't put naked statues of Hillary in cities,

        There's plenty of naked Hillary memes.

        or have billboards of her kissing Huma Abedin, or make comparisons of her to Hitler, Stalin, Satan, or Cthulhu.

        What? Yes you do. You (since you want to be part of a group) compare her to hitler, stalin, and satan all the time. I see that shit daily. Sadly, often comments on my friends' posts.

        Expect things to get much *much* worse.

        So you mean Trump supporters will move up from assault and promoting genocide? Do you mean they will actually start murdering people?

        I'm not a fan of the DNC, but you're spouting obvious falsehoods. Is it just trolling, do you want these nonsensical ideas debunks, or what?

    • by dbIII ( 701233 )

      Really quite fucking simply, attack the policies

      Trump doesn't have any.

  • by Zontar The Mindless ( 9002 ) <plasticfish@info.gmail@com> on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:26PM (#53096771) Homepage

    Why did I never hear of it before seeing this story? Have I been living under a rock? Did I miss something important?

  • Ellen Pao (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:27PM (#53096775)
    Is this the same Ellen Pao that sued for sexual harassment against a guy who she actually had sex with?
    • Re:Ellen Pao (Score:5, Insightful)

      by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:42PM (#53096877)

      Is this the same Ellen Pao that sued for sexual harassment against a guy who she actually had sex with?

      I'm not sure about that, but it is the Ellen Pao who did poorly at her job and couldn't accept criticism, so she started a gender discrimination lawsuit.

      It turns out she was just not that good at her job, but after failing at Reddit she has found a way to make a living from being a woman.

    • Re:Ellen Pao (Score:4, Interesting)

      by lucm ( 889690 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:46PM (#53096899)

      Yes, and her black husband sued the building where they live for racial discrimination because the board refuse to let him buy a FOURTH condo in the building.

      Those are real people, isn't that amazing.

  • by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:36PM (#53096831) Homepage Journal

    Ellen Pao should cut ties with the American public, because a large portion of them support Trump and therefore she equates them with "advocating hatred and violence" and "Giving more power to someone whose ascension and behavior strike fear into so many people".

    Incidentally, Hillary also strikes fear in the hearts of many people, and makes them feel unsafe.

  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @09:44PM (#53096883)
    Thought she got completely discredited, how in hell did she get another job making more than minimum wage?
    • Reddit needed to make a policy change to keep the site profitable. They knew the changes would make fedora wearing neckbeards like yourself start foaming at the mouth so they made her the "fall guy". The changes were enacted and your anger was directed towards her instead of the site. Mission accomplished.

  • I understand that YC is a group of venture capitalists. What the heck does Pao's group actually provide for their partners? Their website makes it sound like they're diversity consultants, but this is the kind of thing that Slashdot should have included in the summary. Is Pao's group actually helping startups, or is this just an activist group glomming on and getting some publicity?
  • by ooloorie ( 4394035 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @10:04PM (#53096997)

    Today, Project Include, a community for building meaningful, enduring diversity and inclusion into tech companies, said that it would no longer work with Y Combinator startups.

    Pao not messing with your startup sounds like a substantial benefit to me. Thiel got his money's worth right there.

    Looking at Pao's staff [projectinclude.org], I'd also suggest that she work on diversity at her own company a bit before lecturing others.

    • by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @10:26PM (#53097121)

      holy shit - ALL women in her staff?

      yeah, that's real 'diversity' right there.

      as long as there are no white men, its ok. amiright?

      damn, not even a token penis in the whole crowd.

      I didn't think much of that pao woman before, but I think much less of her now. didn't even think it was possible.

      • It's only gender discrimination if it happens to a woman.

        It's also only sexual assault if I think it is, even if I have been sleeping with the guy.

        - Ellen.

    • What? I'm sure some of the various ethnic-group females are lesbian. What other diversity is there?

  • But really I couldn't care less what Ellen Pao says or does.

    Also, this Silicon Valley groupthink requirement is getting ridiculous.

  • by Stormy Dragon ( 800799 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @10:28PM (#53097133)

    I'm not sure Ellen Pao promising she won't have anything to do with your startups from now on is quite the punishment she seems to think it is.

  • While all of us believe in the ideas of free speech

    Everyone says this... few actually mean it.

    and open platforms, we draw a line here. We agree that people shouldnâ(TM)t be fired for their political views, but
    this isnâ(TM)t a disagreement on tax policy, this is advocating hatred and violence

    Giving more power to someone whose ascension and behavior strike fear into so many people is unacceptable

    Roughly half the voting country will be advocating hatred, violence and giving power to Trump when they go to the polls and vote Trump in the next few weeks including roughly 3 million who gave him money.

    Doesn't that blow your mind? How do you sleep at night knowing close to half the country is a basket of ***ist ***phobe advocates of hatred and violence?

    How can you not be constantly "triggered" knowing half the country actively supports Trump by voting for and ad

  • by jdavidb ( 449077 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @11:40PM (#53097517) Homepage Journal
    Did I miss something? Y Combinator used to be Paul Graham's organization. I searched the Wikipedia article and couldn't even find Peter Thiel mentioned. I never heard him mentioned in conjunction with Y Combinator until just very recently. What exactly is his relation to it?
  • by Karmashock ( 2415832 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @11:56PM (#53097571)

    Lets just have the democrats be the ruling party of the United States. They can take care of everyone for the greater good. The party leaders will determine what is in the interest of the community... We can call it "communism".

    Seriously, this blacklisting of people for even daring to support anything but the democrats has grown grotesque.

    And to make things sadder, we have evidence that the democrats rigged their primaries to get Hillary the nomination. Which means you're not merely a bastard for voting for something besides the democrats but you're also a bastard for voting for the democratic candidate that wasn't picked by the party bosses.

    That's fucked up, gents. And if you keep buying into this shit, then the democracy is gone. We're all back to being peasants again as we will have proven ourselves to be unworthy of being anything more than that.

    Cue the gaggle of retarded ACs that will either call me a literal nazi for suggesting that democracy requires freedom of speech, freedom of political thought, and freedom to express that in a politically effective way... and if they don't call me a Nazi they'll instead suggest I'm a brain washed sub human zombie because I don't do exactly what I'm told to do by our lords and masters.

    People... I'm not saying you have to vote one way or the other on anything. Vote your own personal conscience. However, that very sentiment I issue there is predicated on the perpetuation of our republic. Should the republic be subverted to such an extent that the will of the people is truly meaningless... Your opinion about anything will at that point equal zero. Your feelings or interests or will or thoughts... of no value. So for the preservation of your own ability to even matter in the first place... I would ask you consider whether you should be voting for a political agenda that goes out of its way to silence any dissent. Today that opposition might be someone you disagree with... but tomorrow that might be you. And when that rolls through who will be there to save you? Because what we're seeing out of the modern DNC... is fascism. We're seeing orchestrated "brown shirt" type operations. Collisions between industry, government, law enforcement, foreign governments, the media.

    I'm not saying you have to change the way you feel about any particular issue. I rather draw your attention to the character of the modern DNC... to their morality and ethics. This is who apparently many of us wish to rule the United States. "these" people.

    if anyone is at all curious, my own desire is to devolve powers to the states and out of the Federal Government. Let Oregon run Oregon. Let Maine run Maine. Concentrating all that power in Washington is going to lead to an Emperor, a civil war, a grand national collapse, some combination of the above, or various other unpleasant consequences I haven't enumerated.

    This is not sustainable. It has to stop. The level of corruption on display is crying out for some response... and it will come. From the top or the bottom... from without or within. This is going to end one way or another. I believe the best solution is to reduce the value of the prize so that there are fewer assholes drawn to the power. Absent that... I think we're headed for bad times. And I don't think vilifying what remains of the democracy is helping.

    • Seriously, this blacklisting of people for even daring to support anything but the democrats has grown grotesque.

      Dismiss this as a nitpick, but that's not accurate. It's blacklisting of people for even daring to support Trump, unless you have evidence that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein supporters are also being blacklisted.

      Also, I disagree with you singling out the Democrats for actions that the Republicans are also guilty of, but that's an entirely different discussion. Full disclosure: I rarely vote for candidates put forth by either of the two major parties, and this year will be no exception.

  • by TimothyHollins ( 4720957 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @04:09AM (#53098235)

    "We agree that people shouldn't be fired for their political views, but this isn't a disagreement on tax policy, this is advocating hatred and violence,"

    Is it just me or is she actually saying "We shouldn't fire people for political beliefs, but let's fire people for their political beliefs" ? As head of a company focused on making money off diversity and inclusivity, Pao doesn't seem very inclusive of diverse views.

    • by gfxguy ( 98788 )
      You missed a step: we shouldn't fire people for their political beliefs, we should fire people for advocating hatred and violence, which is what we can say about anybody who doesn't agree with my political beliefs.

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