Moderates/conservatives in tech in US
Has anyone else noticed a lack of moderates/conservatives in tech? As we all know, there are a lot of loud ignorant voices coming from the left and right. Some may disagree with me, but I will never go as far to say the far left wing embodies the left or the far right wing embodies the right. We are all too different as individuals to be classified as supporting all of the idealogy coming from our respective parties. We may agree with some ideas and disagree more with other ideas, pushing us into these categories. DISCLAIMER: I fall into the moderate left category. This may be an incorrect perception on my part, but I tend to see those in tech leaning more to the left. I am not here to speculate why that is. If you have the research to back up a supporting claim, please share. I personally would like to see a balance between left/center/right in tech. I dont think I could find one conservative speaker at SXSW. Has anyone else noticed this? Please keep the conversation constructive.
By definition conservatives like the status quo. Tech on the other hand wants to disrupt. Maybe that's why there aren't many conservative voices in tech.
Conservatives don’t tech. Lol 😀
Conservatives tend skip college, so it makes sense and it's what they've decided. That said, I know plenty of conservatives in tech. But they wouldn't ethically be willing to work at a FAANG
Also, they're in Florida or the East, conservatives notoriously hate the west coast
Honest question. What is a current conservative view that isn’t corporatist or veiled discrimination? Honestly ‘tax the rich less’ and ‘diversity = discrimination against white men’ aren’t the most compelling topics. I could imagine state vs federal power could be good topic for conservatives. Abortion, immigration and 2nd amendment are way to polarizing to have any reasonable discussion.
Your “honest question” starts by taking two conservative view points to a dishonest conclusion. Their view isn’t “tax the rich less” it’s essentially that taxes are theft and everyone should be taxed as little as possible, but the most important piece is actually that the tax code needs to be drastically simplified so that it isn’t ambiguous how much each family owes every year. Also despite what conservative politicians DO, most conservatives believe that federal spending across the board is out of hand. Your second point “diversity = discrimination against white men” is a complete mischaracterization of the view that they are against laws that do in fact discriminate which flys in the face of the free market and open enterprise. State vs. federal is an issue no one besides libertarians has bothered paying more than lip service to for decades. It use to be a conservative value but now thanks to conservatives new found faith in Jesus they have the same “moral superiority” complex that the left has and thinks that they know what’s best for every human on the planet and therefore are just as big of fans of federalism/globalism as the left.
Limited government, letting everyone keep more of their money, free market economics, less regulation, and legal immigration. The US is great because of distrust for government, the entrepreneurial spirit of its people. It’s the most business friendly place in the world which protects the positive tail outcomes but also has more negative tail outcomes.
They just don’t really come out and say it in very liberal tech companies or are libertarians
Interesting question! I think one factor may be historical path-dependency, with the tech industry being situated in California alongside the 60s counterculture. See the book "What the Dormouse Said" for more on this point of view.
IMO, the responses thus far are representative of the ignorance I hear from leftists. Huddled together in an echo-chamber of disbelief; regurgitating the stereotypes they want to believe; endless social posturing based on the above; all while not realizing this is exactly what they “resist” Yet, they wonder why their candidates lost. Shocker: I’m a liberal
I'm Indian, so not a lot of skin in US politics. I absolutely agree with 'The left is Trump's biggest ally' line you see so often. For an outsider it is so obvious how the left pushes people to the right, especially those on the fence. I'm a liberal who thinks that a lot of liberals are wrong in the way they characterize conservatives. The way I see it the right has fewer more concentrated agendas. And the left is all over the place with outraging about everything around them and not attacking the root cause.
This.
1. People who work in tech tend to be smart 2. Conservatives are not smart
I think spending 10 minutes on blind will actively refute your first premise...
Glad to see we're respecting OP's request for constructive conversation here
You don’t know if all techs are truly left~ you saw Trump got elected. I am sure there are many quiet conservatives hiding themselves among many liberal individuals in Tech.
How's that?