[yummyfajitas]

This article is stupid. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs are all Democrats and Obama supporters. Most valley leaders are.

The reasoning of the article laid out explicitly: Peter Thiel is guilty of hypocrisy because (democrats) Larry Page and Steve Jobs failed to live up to Peter Thiel's libertarian principles.

[edit: CEO of Adobe, also involved in this mess, is a Democrat and selected by Obama to be on his PMAB.]

[DanielBMarkham]

Yeah a person could write trash like this all day long.

"If humans are such a great species, how come I don't like rabbits?"

"Mother Theresa talks a good game. If that's true, why was Hitler such a bad person?"

This is a terrible essay.

[joesmo]

Thank you.

These people are about as libertarian as my cat and we certainly didn't need this article or this court case to know that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

What the article sort of draws attention to indirectly is the fact that these CEOs are unfairly put up on a pedestal (especially Jobs) by so many people who adore them despite their less than stellar actions and criminal activity. Perhaps if they spent half their fortunes on charity, a la Gates, I'd be willing to be rethink my opinion of these scumbags.

[rayiner]

Also, Peter Thiel isn't all that libertarian from what I can tell.

[3pt14159]

Thiels a Forbsian libertarian. Focused on the economy, focused on the short term, thinks libertarianism is the best for the long term, but doesn't want to get bogged down in ideological debates about whether or not net neutrality is a libertarian position or not while the government is spending 5% of the GDP on the military and healthcare consumers almost 20% of GDP.

[ap22213]

"Most valley leaders are" - I really doubt this.

Even for those of whom it is true, I would bet that they appear 'Democrat' only to help them sell stuff, as part of their brand.

Most people who use software are in the cities. And, city-dwellers are generally liberal-leaning. So, it makes sense for these leaders would try to seem liberal as part of their marketing campaigns.

[jrs99]

is collusion even anti libertarian?

[yummyfajitas]

Whether it is or not (I'd generally say not, but I don't want to speak for true libertarians [1]), this article is stupid.

[1] I'm only weakly libertarian, so I don't want to speak for them. My values are almost entirely left wing liberal, but I haven't drank the koolaid on economic theories designed to justify the status quo and protect party cronies.

[chilldream]

It depends on which stripe of libertarianism you're talking about, although I'd argue that it's the worst variants that would say "no". It's not a use of force in the strictest sense, but it is an attempt to subvert market pressures in order to maintain concentrations of power.