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

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: 0, Flamebait) by jmorris on Thursday April 09 2015, @05:53PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Thursday April 09 2015, @05:53PM (#168420)

    The only area where I've run into genuine intolerance is in areas of religion...

    And here is the explanation you seek. To a Progressive there is no religion but the State, i.e. politics has substituted for religion in their worldview. Everything within the State, nothing without the State, nothing opposed to the State.

    Diversity of opinion is not possible, because you are not only wrong, but evil.

    They are right to believe this and it is Conservatives who are quite wrong on this point, a defect my team must soon correct or perish.

    Take the Ten Commandments for a moral checklist (since it is held in common amongst all three major religions) and produce a similar 'top ten listicle' for the secular American creed, Free Speech, RTKBA, Rule of Law vs Rule of Great Men, (small R) republicanism, limited and divided government, right to own property/your labor, capitalism/free market, etc. Then work down that list and assign points for the two great warring political philosophies thus:

    5 We would die before betraying this ideal
    4 We believe in this, but might have sinned a bit now and then... flirted with banning flag burning or something
    3 This should be codified in law.
    2 It is a good idea, but opinions can vary amongst otherwise good people
    1 It is a bad idea. At minimum the State should not enforce or be bound by this rule.
    0 Violating this 'law' should be mandatory.

    Doing this for both lists gets a score between 0 and 100. I'd bet any honest self assessment would put the median Progressive activist in single digits or under twenty by any assessment, the median American in the seventies and a Tea Party member in the eighties or higher. In other words, by the moral compass of a Progressive I -AM- Evil. They realize this and have been acting on this knowledge for almost a Century now to destroy me and mine. My team still operates under the delusion our opponents are misguided, insane or just ignorant. Not Stupid, Evil.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -2  
       Flamebait=1, Overrated=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Flamebait' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   0  
  • (Score: 1) by rondon on Thursday April 09 2015, @08:15PM

    by rondon (5167) on Thursday April 09 2015, @08:15PM (#168474)

    I don't understand how this is flamebait? I don't agree with all of his assumptions, but his methodology is interesting and his point was made without resorting to slander. In fact, it was barely confrontational.

    Whoever modded this flamebait, please explain why. I'm genuinely curious. Thank you.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @11:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @11:01PM (#168539)

      I didn't mod it, but it starts off with insults - saying that "the state" is an all encompassing religion for the people he disagrees with. Then the meat of the post is just sophistry - expecting the reader to prove his point for him with the explicit claim that if you don't come to the same conclusion you aren't being "honest." Seems inflammatory to me.