Tech Luminary Peter Thiel Parts Ways With Silicon Valley - WSJ: Mr. Thiel has recently said tech culture has become increasingly intolerant of conservative political views since Mr. Trump’s election, an attitude he has said is intellectually and politically fraught.
“Silicon Valley is a one-party state,” Mr. Thiel said last month at a debate about tech and politics at Stanford University. “That’s when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you’re all in one side.”
His concerns are echoed by other conservatives in tech who say they feel alienated by the industry’s broad embrace of liberal values. A majority of the tech workers who responded to a recent survey by Lincoln Network, an advocacy group for conservatives and libertarians in the tech sector, described the cultural norms of their workplace as liberal. More than one-third of workers who identified themselves as conservative said the clash between their views and those of colleagues kept them from doing their best work.
Peter Thiel, seen at a company office in San Francisco in 2014, is relocating his personal investment firms to Los Angeles. PHOTO: JOHN GREEN/TNS/ZUMA PRESS
Mr. Thiel has bucked Silicon Valley conventions since his days as a Stanford University student in the 1980s, when he helped start a student newspaper to promote conservative views. He co-founded PayPal in 1998 and placed an early bet on Elon Musk’s rocket startup, Space Exploration Technologies Inc., in 2008. He also has backed more unusual initiatives such as an institute that advocates creating ocean-based cities outside the reach of governments.
“Silicon Valley is a one-party state,” Mr. Thiel said last month at a debate about tech and politics at Stanford University. “That’s when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you’re all in one side.”
His concerns are echoed by other conservatives in tech who say they feel alienated by the industry’s broad embrace of liberal values. A majority of the tech workers who responded to a recent survey by Lincoln Network, an advocacy group for conservatives and libertarians in the tech sector, described the cultural norms of their workplace as liberal. More than one-third of workers who identified themselves as conservative said the clash between their views and those of colleagues kept them from doing their best work.
Peter Thiel, seen at a company office in San Francisco in 2014, is relocating his personal investment firms to Los Angeles. PHOTO: JOHN GREEN/TNS/ZUMA PRESS
Mr. Thiel has bucked Silicon Valley conventions since his days as a Stanford University student in the 1980s, when he helped start a student newspaper to promote conservative views. He co-founded PayPal in 1998 and placed an early bet on Elon Musk’s rocket startup, Space Exploration Technologies Inc., in 2008. He also has backed more unusual initiatives such as an institute that advocates creating ocean-based cities outside the reach of governments.