Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner?

Posted by voodoomagicman on Thursday July 14, 2016 @06:16PM
from the self-post dept.

Peter Thiel became a part time YCombinator partner in march 2015. [1] Thiel will serve as a delegate for Donald Trump and speak at his nominating convention. Among other things, Donald Trump has proposed banning muslim immigration and building a database of muslim americans.

Paul Graham has said that "We just cannot let Donald Trump become president. It would destroy this country." [2]

Sam Altman has said that "To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it's chilling to watch Trump in action". [3]

[1] https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-peter [2] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/727902623597105153 [3] http://blog.samaltman.com/trump

Obviously people with differing political beliefs can put them aside and work together, but these are some unusually strong statements from Graham and Altman. Thiel's participation in YCombinator also raises some troubling issues for potential founders. Are there any Latino or Muslim ycombinator founders? Are they expected to interact with Thiel?

( 10 comments | 90 points | on HN )

Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by jpeg_hero on Thursday July 14, 2016 @06:58PM (#12097824)

Interested in getting a statement from sama or pg

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by MichaelBurge on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:30PM (#12097978)

Are people really going to go on a witch-hunt looking for Trump supporters now?

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by sb8244 on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:11PM (#12098383)

Does changing "Trump supporters" to "racist bigots" change anything? I think that is the point OP makes. If one fully supports Trump, then another can easily extrapolate that one supports his major positions.

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by zorpner on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:53PM (#12098512)

Yes, of course. It's a strong moral imperative to challenge violent bigotry at every opportunity.

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by bxb1552 on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:05PM (#12097857)

His name is spelled Thiel.

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by voodoomagicman on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:06PM (#12097861)

edited to correct spelling

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by voodoomagicman on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:07PM (#12097863)

clickable links:

[1] https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-peter

[2] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/727902623597105153

[3] http://blog.samaltman.com/trump

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by gojomo on Thursday July 14, 2016 @10:40PM (#12098654)

Purges suck.

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by throwaway274739 on Thursday July 14, 2016 @10:00PM (#12098533)

If he still is, then that's just sad, pathetic and hurtful.

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Re:Is Peter Thiel still a Y Combinator partner? by stonogo on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:31PM (#12098438)

The difference between Graham/Altman and Thiel is: someone asked Thiel to speak at a political event. Graham and Altman suffer from severe Dunning-Kruger effect, specifically in the realm of politics.

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