The Politics of Modern Tech
17th October 2016
Project Include drops Y Combinator as Peter Thiel pledges $1.25m to Trump
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s reported $1.25m contribution to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has prompted a high-profile Silicon Valley organization to cut ties with a startup incubator backed by the Republican donor.
Ellen Pao, a former Reddit executive and vocal advocate for diversity in tech, has announced that her group Project Include is ending its relationship with Y Combinator, the well-known startup “accelerator” where Thiel is a part-time partner.
“Thiel’s actions are in direct conflict with our values at Project Include,” Pao wrote on Monday, referring to the not-for-profit group that she and a group of prominent Silicon Valley women formed earlier this year to push for “diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry”.
“Because of his continued connection to YC [Y Combinator], we are compelled to break off our relationship with YC. We hope this situation changes, and that we are both willing to move forward together in the future. Today it is clear to us that our values are not aligned,” Pao continued.
So because of his personal political beliefs, they cut off relations with an uninvolved third party. For the Left, the personal is always political. They won’t be happy until he’s shunned by everybody in Silicon Valley.
You cross the Crust, they punish you.