So says a Silicon Valley CEO, describing the liberal echo chamber inside the tech industry that frigthens Republicans into silence:
One startup CEO who has worked in Silicon Valley for more than a decade says that while it’s popular to talk politics in the workplace, the underlying assumption is that everyone has similar views.
The CEO, who generally votes Republican and donates to GOP candidates—he spoke on background to conceal his right-leaning views—said that in 2012, “you wouldn’t want to say you’re voting for Romney in the election.” At the same time, openly expressing one’s support for Obama was “incredibly common.”
His opposition to raising the minimum wage is just one area where he diverges with most of his colleagues. “If you say something like, ‘We need a higher minimum wage,’ you don’t get critiqued,” he said. But he would never reveal his more conservative outlook on the matter.
“They can’t fathom that somebody disagrees with them,” he said. “And I disagree with them. So I’m not going to open up that box.” . . .
You can read the whole thing. How do these bubbles develop? It’s the universities, stupid. Go back and read William F. Buckley Jr.’s God and Man at Yale. In 1951, Buckley described the way liberalism had become an unquestioned belief system inside elite academia. Once liberalism had attained hegemonic authority on university campuses, its intellectual prestige was assured. If it is “smart” to believe in, say, Keynesian economics, then impressionable young people who want to seem smart will parrot the Keynesian orthodoxies. Bad ideas that become fashionable in academia are thus diffused into the larger society, as all the smart young people are herded off to college and indoctrinated in these ideas, before entering careers with other college-educated people.
“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.”
– William F. Buckley Jr., Up From Liberalism (1959)
What happens is that people who never encounter doubt develop a fanatical certainty in their beliefs, and confuse these mere opinions with moral virtue. Consider again the question of Keynesian economics. I am not a government official and thus have neither influence over nor responsibility for our national economic policy. So my opinions about economics — I happen to be a devotee of the Austrian School — are nothing more than opinions. While I can urge others to read Mises and Hayek, and support politicians whose positions are more consonant with these views, it’s not as if doing this makes me better that other people. One sometimes encounters people who strike a “More Libertarian Than Thou” posture, but advocates of economic freedom tend to be tolerant people generally. By contrast, the advocates of interventionism (Keynesians, Marxists and Welfare State socialists) are invariably bullies possessed by a fanatical certainty in their own moral superiority. They expect to be admired and praised for their liberal zealotry, and are insulted if you fail to genuflect in their presence.
Liberalism is to academia what Islam is to Iran. If your worldview is decisively formed within the insular climate of an elite university, the equation “liberal = smart” is a formula you can never permit yourself to doubt, unless you are willing to admit that you have been hustled, scammed and bamboozled. A fellow with a diploma from Harvard or Stanford cannot confront the possibility that he has been swindled like an ignorant hick playing a carnival game at the country fair. This would inflict an irreparable injury to his self-esteem. He therefore seeks to avoid encounters with people who do not share his child-like faith in the Gospel of Liberalism. Thus, in any environment where liberals obtain power, they use that power to exclude and silence dissent. This is how liberals gained hegemony in our colleges and universities, in journalism and the entertainment industry, and how in the Obama Age they seek to institutionalize a Permanent Liberal Regime in government.
Projection. Without individual liberty, there is no liberty at all. I refuse to bow to the false idols of political correctness and the State.
Your ideology is nothing but malice, spite, and personal
prejudice. You’re not kidding anyone.
You’re confusing anti-authoritarian with left-leaning. Have you been in a coma since 2009, when “Dissent is patriotic!” became “Dissent is treason!” ?
Sounds like fun.
The crony capitalists have won. Like it or not, the hard left is up to its idiotic eyeballs in that corruption, and you’re simply too gullible to open your eyes and smell the coffee. Your problem, not mine.
I don’t argue with social justice warriors. If what you wanted were civil rights, the argument would have been over many years ago. Instead, it’s just one thing after another, like a 6 year old in a candy store. There will always be something and when there isn’t you invent the kweer rights movement or some other manure.
If you want an intelligent conversation, then this the place. If you want to whine the social justice warrior whine and be taken seriously, the nursery is down the hall.
So it’s an issue of individual liberty to demean certain groups of people?
Sorry, but you don’t get to define your pet causes as “civil rights” or “fair treatment”. The leftist idea of “fair treatment” is that they and only they get to speak.
If you want to talk to us, quit looking in the mirror. We already know that your ideology is one of hate and spite. We’ve already seen all that and need no further reminders.
You should get a job as a drive-in movie projectionist with that gigantic case of projection you’ve got going on.
Homosexuals have already demeaned themselves beyond anything we can do. Standing for individual liberty is completely different kettle of fish, and you are the last one capable of doing that given the hate filled ideology you’ve come here to spew.
Only a libtard would come here and think to lecture us on these matters. To often artists are little more than parasites on the nanny state. It’s why they tend to leftists.
Yes. I defend the right of SJWs to be sexist, racist, heterophobic bigots, and I defend my right to say so. Unfortunately, they do not return the courtesy, instead trying to bankrupt individuals for practicing their consciences. Without the right to refuse participate in something you disagree with, you are a slave.
Try working in Silicon Valley, but living in San Francisco — with what might, by some, be termed an “arsenal”.
Their “coins” aren’t minted that way.
The obverse, with a smiley, smug, somewhat-stoned ethnic melange of a face (aka “Alex Wagner”), is “smart”. The reverse is snorting, flailing, evil.
Nonsense. The first attack is that a Republican is evil. Secondarily, the Republican may also be dumb, and worthy of pity and (hehe) re-education.
I’m sure they have certain camps already in mind.
Again, just more of your prejudice disguised as morality, and ideology.
Yeah, you guys really care!
Go look in the mirror my child. That’s who you need to be talking to.
The National Journal article, which quotes my friend Matt del Carlo liberally, and which still gets former Mozilla head Brendan Eich’s “political status” wrong, even after a supposed correction (there is no such thing as a “registered independent” in California; the registration option is “decline to state”), would have done better if it found and reported on actual examples of people denied working opportunities because of their political affiliations.
I know such people. So does Matt. So do most of us.
Another of my friends in SF is a gentleman who is an official NRA spokesperson. He recently (well, a while back, but after becoming an NRA bigwig) came out as being gay, which was something that all of us who knew him personally, knew already. That wasn’t such a big deal. But the one thing he WILL NOT DO, is come out as a Republican, even though he is.
What you call “civil rights” are actually privileges or entitlements defined by custom and/or law.
Martin Luther King is spinning in his grave over your words.
In his book Revolt against the Masses, Fred Siegel argues “The roots of American liberalism are not compassion but snobbery”
I guess he got that one right
Your ideology is all prejudice against minority groups, and women. How you can even deny that is baffling? Waiting for one of you to start defending michael slagers murder of Walter Scott.
But they were in ROME!
Not some strip mall in American suburbia.
Sez the social justice warrior who thinks everything but what he believes is injustice.
Go talk to the mirror my child. That’s more your speed.
You can speak all you want, just expect a reaction. Yiu don’t have a right to say what you want without that or consequences.
Siegel was correct and our troll is such a good illustration.
Lefties stole that expression from the military. As in, “lean forward in the foxhole”. I used it as a lieutenant.
Crony capitalists! hahaha! Cronyism is capitalism. This idea that there’s a difference is laughable or that corporations aren’t going to use their power to hijack the legal process to dominate the market. Corruption goes hand in hand with money interests. And the idea that it’s the left that facilitates this process is even more of a joke.
But, when the old guard carries the flag horizontal in a parade, they carry with the blue canton corner away from the direction of movement. It should always be carried blue canton corner towards the direction of movement.
Rubes, huh?
And you’re the one whining about “demeaning” and “micro-aggressions”. So long as you say it, thought, that’s just fine.
Thanks for making our point for us.
More like a toilet bowl.
The more you post the more you reveal your abysmal ignorance. What is practiced now IS Crony Capitalism and is always the way it has been in this country, except at the very beginning. Both parties are into it up to the gold plated eyeballs and only gullible people like you are ignorant of the fact.
You SJWs ride that horse all the way to the bank. It’s OK as long as they pay your freight, and that’s only way you morons can get anything funded.
Jazz Hands!
I love when criticism of white male hegemony, or defending homosexual rights is classified as racist sexist and heterophobic. Sorry, that doesn’t exist in terms of the dominant classes.
That’s an assertion, projected from your personal bias.
And certainly an unprovable assertion. For a demonstration of my proof, please re-read Stacy’s article, substituting “artist” and “arts” for “CEO” and “Silicon Valley”.
But your assertions (here and throughout this thread) clearly shows that you are living in your own liberal bubble.
Thereby proving our point again. Thanks!
Patches on the shoulder are not the same thing as flags in a parade.
What Dana says is entirely true.
No……not the successful ones. They tend to gravitate into conservatism (or even ***gasp*** libertarianism) when they feel the hand of govt in their pockets. Interesting how, while mouthing liberal platitudes, folks like Bono hide their money off shore to avoid the high taxes they tout for the rest of us.
No……..liberals would like us to think that all “creative” people are liberals……just like they claim anyone with half a brain pan ascribes to liberal dogma……hence the act of painting the rest of us as window licking mouth-breathers.
I watch what they do…..not what they say.
And while they can certainly yap about this and that, many don’t even come close to walking the walk.
PS…..sorry Jerry…..not a con either.
“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator,
the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he…
Well that makes alot more sense than the flag patch explanation.
Maybe they just disagree with your brand of 17 trillion dollars and counting care?
If libs are so darned smart……why can’t you see what you are doing isn’t working and give something (ANYTHING) else a try? Stop talking about caring, and trying to shame the rest of us and do something REAL. Something that works.
Why don’t you? Because you don’t care. Libs are only interested in winning and being in charge. You sneer at corporations yet grab corporate money with both hands.
Somewhere in the world they have a name for that…….
Hypocrite……that’s it!
Wear it proud.
I agree. I was just pointing out what the Old Guard does. I don’t know why they do it, but I used to be a County Official in Ohio and one of our Probation Officers had served in the Old Guard and he told the local organizations wrong.
I actually learned what’s wrong with ‘basic wage’ while studying econ at university. I also learned that capitalism had lifted 100s of millions of 3rd worlders out of poverty. This was in Australia but my teacher was a Chicago Uni PhD. The problem then, 20 years ago, was that people in journalism school were impervious to facts, only looking for confirmation of prejudices they had before university. No I think he problem is much deeper, and it’s not baby-boomers or the Frankfurt School either – these just colonised a niche which already had opened up. The clue is in the word liberalism. Read JS Mill, check out his masochistic relationship with his female partner, you can see there all our modern problems in seed form, and he didn’t create them either, just sorted out what was already in the air.
[…] The Liberal Bubble: ‘They Can’t Fathom That Somebody Disagrees With Them’ […]
Why should I care about an interloper like you?
And yet you’re shocked by our reactions, idiot troll.
You’re firmly off in “Dead men do bleed!” territory.
And besides just “any Republican”, imagine if Sarah Palin had said it.
Wait. So you mean you deliberately skew terms to make them work for you, but not your opponent in the same context. What a novel idea. Where did you ever come up with such a concept?
It’s not baffling. You’re deliberately obfuscating to pretend to a position of moral superiority. Just saying it doesn’t make it true.
I can’t believe you can continue to dump micro-aggressions on us and keep a straight face.