This article from Joel Kotkin calls out the hypocritical leftwingnut Silicon Valley snobs who practice the very misogynist, discriminatory, privacy-violating crap they rail against.
From Real Clear Politics.
Excerpts:
……beneath the veneer of good intentions, the world being created by the tech oligarchs both within and outside of Silicon Valley fails in virtually every area dear to traditional liberals. On a host of issues—from the right to privacy to ethnic and feminine empowerment and social justice—the effects of the tech industry are increasingly regressive.
The valley elite may have won its gender discrimination lawsuit against Ellen Pao, but this does not dispel the notion that it runs largely on testosterone. The share of women in the tech industry is barely half of their 47 percent share in the total workforce. Stanford researcher Vivek Wadhwa describes Silicon Valley as still “a boys’ club that regarded women as less capable than men and subjected them to negative stereotypes and abuse.”
The ‘boys club’ extends to the upper echelons of political power, Obama’s war on women includes paying them less than male White House staffers, and creating a hostile work environment. So much for equal opportunity. All that pretense about being a female-friendly touchy-feely political faction has been blown to shit.
Race is another hot spot for progressives, but outside of Asians, the valley’s record is nothing short of miserable. Some of this reflects the rapid de-industrialization of the industry—the valley has lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs alone since 2000—as companies shift their industrial facilities either to China or to states like Utah and Texas, where they can escape the tax and regulatory regime that they so avidly support back in California.
Well, Obama’s science czar stated in no uncertain terms that he wanted to “de-develop” the United States, preferably into a third world country.
California’s economy, infrastructure and political system is in the toilet after years of destructive DemProg idiocy. That’s why businesses are leaving in droves.
So good blue-collar jobs go elsewhere, and the valley’s own African-Americans and Hispanics (who make up roughly one-third of the population) now occupy barely 5 percent of jobs in the top Silicon Valley firms. They have not done well in the current tech “boom”: Between 2009 and 2011, earnings dropped 18 percent for blacks and 5 percent for Latinos, according to a 2013 Joint Venture Silicon Valley report.
You think it’s bad now? Just wait until the full effect of Obama’s unlawful, unconstitutional amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens reverberates across the U.S. economy.
Nor can we expect tech firms to go out of their way to train or develop too many American-born workers, of whatever race, for their jobs. Instead the industry’s elites seek to get their employees through H-1B immigrants, largely from Asia. These workers are likely to be more docile, and more limited in their job options than native born or naturalized citizens. Given that there is a surplus of American IT workers, this brings to mind not global consciousness but instead the importation of the original coolie labor force brought to California to build the railroads.
Obama couldn’t care less about H-1B skilled workers. He’d much rather have uneducated, poor illegals in the country. They’re easy to manipulate and he can herd them into the Dem voting bloc.
Not all denizens of Silicon Valley are concerned with skilled workers, either.
Marc Andreessen, a raving moonbat and Facebook board member, thinks illegal aliens are ‘the best thing for the country’ because “birth rates are going to drop” in wealthier societies and claimed that America’s economic growth would be slower if not for “illegal immigration.”
Except for the fact that none of these illegals are exactly qualified to work as IT engineers at places like Facebook. Their presence puts a strain on the economy.
Similarly, despite claims of a commitment to personal freedom, valley firms like Google are renowned for their calculated violations of privacy. Support the free movement of labor? Others, notably Apple, are also leaders in seeking to restrain employees from changing jobs.
Speaking of ‘violations of privacy’: Obama’ Pal Google CEO Eric Schmidt implied that ‘if you don’t like our spying, stay off the internet’. Indeed, Google collaborated with the NSA’s blanket spying program on the entire country.
And what about the sensible liberal idea that the rich and corporations should pay their “fair share” of taxes? That’s a progressive ideal paid for by your Main Street businessman or your local dentists, but don’t expect your tech oligarchs to play by the same rules.
True, Bill Gates has voiced public support for higher taxes on the rich but tech companies, including Microsoft, have bargained to evade paying their own taxes. Facebook paid no taxes in 2012, despite profits in excess of $1 billion. Apple, which even the New York Times described as “a pioneer in tactics to avoid taxes,” has kept much of its cash hoard abroad to keep away from Uncle Sam.
If these actions were taken by oil companies or suburban developers, the mainstream media would be up in arms. Yet by embracing “progressive” values on issues like gay rights, the tech oligarchs are trying to secure a politically correct “get out of jail free” card. Monopolistic behavior, tax avoidance, misogyny, and privacy violations are OK, as long as you mouth the right words about gay rights and climate change—and have the money and the channels to broadcast your message.
‘Tax avoidance’ and the media: The leftwing derelicts at MSNBC have a habit of owing a substantial amount of unpaid taxes. As usual, they got a pass.
‘Mouthing the right words’: Silicon Valley is a leftwing echo chamber. If you hold values and principles that are opposed to the party line, be prepared to fight with hostile co-workers and management. Republicans who work in the industry usually stay in the closet. Remember what happened to Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich?
……None of this is to say that the tech elites need to be broken up like Standard Oil or stigmatized like the tobacco industry. But it’s certainly well past the time for people both left and right to understand that this oligarchy’s rise similarly poses a danger to our society’s future. By their very financial power, plutocratic elites — whether their names are Rockefeller, Carnegie, Page, Bezos or Zuckerberg — need to be closely watched for potential abuses instead of being the subjects of mindless celebration from both ends of the political spectrum.
On one hand, you have a corrupt oligarch in the White House who abuses power to an incredible degree, and harbors and abject hatred toward successful entrepreneurs, telling them, “you didn’t build that”. On the other hand, you have successful businesses (albeit owned by hypocritical leftwingnuts) who donated piles of money to the shitbag and helped install him, twice.
Potential abuses? Too late.