The decision to oust Eich is the reason why I would never knowingly hire people who practiced social justice activism.
There is evidence all over Silicon Valley, including this thread, that they just cannot keep their politics and work separated. Indeed they believe it is their job to mix the two.
It would be like hiring a KKK member in HR. Toxic results would be a foregone conclusion. It is the paradox of tolerance all over again. Social justice actvists will never hire rightists. KKK members are never going to hire blacks. And yes this is a valid comparison because social justice groups such as Black Lives Matter do have people in them advocating violence, being involved in riots and even murder with the sniper in Dallas being one example. Eich was a moderate kind of rightist so there is no chance somebody like me would be allowed to exist.
I would have no problem hiring people who disagree with me on every political subject. The problem starts when you begin using your influence to deliberately select members of your 'tribe' to be appointed to positions. That is the trademark 'feature' that should cause you to deselect them, it is no contradiction to discriminate against negative discrimination.
Look at Ycombinator. It has many well known characters who clearly disagree in politics but it does not turn into a problem for their working relationship. That is the kind of pluralism we should want to have.
> Trump does have the support of one of Silicon Valley's biggest names: Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and Palantir.
And sama says:
> On a personal note, Peter is one of the two people (along with PG) who has taught me the most about how to invest in startups.
So it is possible for people with different politics to work together. In fact I thought that was the whole point of diversity, that it was represented intellectually instead of having just a phenotype of diversity.
Personally I do not believe intellectual diversity is spread equally across all people. Many people look different to each other but exhibit evidence they are the same person because they hold so many views in common with each other. If you meet people who watch television all day you know it is true. Their minds are in sync with that of the hive. They ask the same questions and seek the same answers. That is the essence of tribalism, which is fine in competition or conflict but disadvantageous if you're searching for flaws in something, trying to found a new business model or find an untapped market segment, because that is where it makes more sense to think like a cross-pollinator.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Silicon Valley personalities are drawn to contrarianism. This is probably the biggest reason I don't like social justice people. I don't believe they are capable of being innovators. Their personality mitigates against it. I think they are masquerading as something they are not. I can think of many software projects and I'm sure you can too, in which there is a vocal minority with political opinions that sank the enterprise. The number of lines of code contributed by such people is typically either zero, low or of no real importance.
I think if you look at this upsidedown what I'm saying is obvious. Imagine you had programmers giving each other 'brofist' all the time and breaking into impromptu song 'Onward Christian Soldiers', handing each other leaflets bemoaning the local abortion clinic, maybe trying to get former army buddies onto the board...
