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The Secret Republicans of Silicon Valley

posted by on Thursday April 09 2015, @09:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the shhh-don't-tell-anybody dept.

Ethanol-fueled writes:

National Journal's Rebecca Nelson reports about the Republicans lurking in the shadows of the Bay Area:

Deep in Silicon Valley, where the free market reigns and the exchange of ideas is celebrated, a subset of tech workers are hiding their true selves.

They're the tech company employees, startup founders, and CEOs who vote for and donate to Republican candidates, bucking the Bay Area's liberal supremacy. Fearing the repercussions of associating with a much-maligned minority, they keep their political views fiercely hidden.

The consequences for being outed for conservative views can be dire. In a highly public controversy last year, newly-hired Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich stepped down after critics attacked his 2008 donation to support Proposition 8, the anti-same-sex marriage law in California. Eich, who declined to comment for this story, faced an internal uprising from within the Mozilla community, as well as boycotts from other tech companies, and quit after just two weeks on the job.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:05PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:05PM (#168329)

    I don't get into discussions of religion at work either (unless you count my opposition to systemd and preference of emacs over vi). Or my views on a wide variety of other topics.

    You can still be cordial at work, you just keep those topics out by focusing on something much safer: "Hey, Mike, how was your holiday weekend?" rather than "Hey, Mike, did you hear what that nutjob Ted Cruz said yesterday?"

    There are some things you just don't talk about at work under normal circumstances: Religion, politics, which coworkers your sexually attracted to, what you did in the bathroom, the sound your significant other makes when you're getting it on, the graphic details of your mother's cancer treatment, etc.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:16PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:16PM (#168338) Homepage
    Taboos are of course culturaly relative, and Finns have *way* fewer taboos than you. Now they've started communicating at all, there's little that can't be the topic of conversation.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves