On: The 2016 Election

[mejari]

>Thiel doesn't support Trump because he's racist/etc, he does it in spite of that.

How do you know that?

[gkoberger → mejari]

Maybe he's a closet racist, who knows. But I think that's a dismissive assumption.

Here's a great article: http://theweek.com/articles/638051/why-does-peter-thiel-supp...

Some bullet points:

  * He believes we've stagnated (see http://blog.samaltman.com/trump)
  * He sees a unique opportunity to buy into politics at the highest level for a mere $1.25MM
  * He likes being on CNN and on stage. He's famous, but not politics-famous.
  * He found a way to get Republicans to cheer for the phrase "I'm gay"

Again, doesn't justify him... but potentially explains him.

At the end of the day, we shouldn't be surprised that a guy who's famous for asking "What's one thing you believe that no one else does?" is supporting the most contrarian candidate we've ever seen.

[mejari → gkoberger]

I didn't say we should assume he's racist, but you assumed he isn't. In fact you assumed his motivation very explicitly. I was asking how you made such an assumption.

[Analemma_ → gkoberger]

Please acknowledge that this is a huge backpedal from your original statement.

[joncalhoun → mejari]

I believe his point was that you don't know until Thiel actually makes the racist comments himself, so you can't infer that he does.

[mejari → joncalhoun]

You also can't infer that he doesn't, which is what the commentor I replied to did.

[ebola1717 → mejari]

Palantir is under investigation for racist hiring practices, so there's pretty good reason to think he supports Trump because of them.