ninme

The other day I linked to an excerpt from Roger L Simon’s coming book, and requoting just briefly:

If you don’t agree with this particular weltanschauung, even if you dissent from its orthodoxy just a tiny bit, you have but three choices: One, you can argue, in which case you are almost certain to be dismissed as a fool, a warmonger or a right wing nut (all three, probably) and therefore have little or no chance at the writing or directing job that brought you there. Two, you can shut up and ignore it (stay in the closet), in which case you feel like a coward and experience (as I have) a dose of existential nausea straight out of Sartre or, three, you can stop going to the meetings altogether, in which case you have blacklisted yourself.

I wouldn’t have chalked it up to Sartre (the guy who taught philosphy came into our AP English class to talk to us about existentialism after we read L’Étranger and all I really got from that was him throwing a rag doll across the room), but that pretty much encapsulates My Life In Seattle.

Yesterday Peter found this on one of his tech blogs:

Mashable - (Tech) Reality has a Well-Known Liberal Bias. by Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins

The larger point I’d like to get around to is my wonderment at why tech seems to align itself so readily with the left, and why being on the right side of the spectrum is frowned upon thing (and don’t kid yourself on this one, Going.com is more than just sponsoring it, their CEO is speaking at the event as well).

I’m going to come out and say it here, brand me how you like, but I lean libertarian to conservative in my political beliefs, and on my personal blog and podcast, have made no bones about that. It’s given me a unique opportunity to meet other folks in high tech, folks that you know and have heard of from big time reputable companies and Web 2.0 startups, and who’s services you likely use. Many of these same folks have in confidence have told me that as a conservative, they don’t really feel comfortable publicizing their political affiliations for fear of it affecting their business negatively.

Folks on the left seem to have no problem with that. Not but a couple months ago on John Dvorak’s Cranky Geeks, Marc Canter cut loose with harsh words for anyone who’s ever voted Republican in their life, with the comment “Republicans have cornered the market on criminal activity,” and then later said that all Republicans deserve to go to hell. Granted, it’s a slightly extreme example of what I’m talking about, but demonstrates the willingness by many in tech to express their liberal leanings without qualm. Perhaps this is why conservative business leaders might be hesitant to express their politics?

And this comment from “Alan”:

I think a large part of this has to do with the group-think that can happen in a given society.

Look at the hotspots of tech - San Francisco, Seattle, Boston - all liberal bastions.

As a libertarian/conservative type, whenever I am dealing with people at tech companies in these areas, they unknowingly insult me in almost every conversation by injecting their liberal political views into conversations. To respond would be to (a) take the conversation away from the business at hand and (b) likely reduce chances for business.

As well, the global reach of the internet has introduced left leaning conversation (ie. most of the western world is left leaning) into what used to be US-only conversation.

I will stay away from the irony of the open source crowd being against freedom by leaning left and other delicious tidbits… suffice it to say that the self-proclaimed “freedom of speech” crowd is anything but.

Thank you for being brave and posting.

So, I was going to say something, but I won’t so I won’t compromise you-know-who (case in point). Speaking of which, that’s a big reason why I’m sooooo careful about my anonymity (I tell hardly anyone in real life about this blog), so I don’t compromise you-know-who at you-know-where. Or myself, for that matter. I like his co-you-know-whats and I’d rather they didn’t know about my unfortunate tendency towards baby-killing, elderly-starving, monkey-voting, and brown-person-torturing.