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Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

There was a series of articles a few years ago about closet GOP supporters in the tech industry fearing being "outed" for the damage it would cause to their careers. In your experience do you feel that this concern is justified?

(I think there was at least one startup CEO who declared that if he found out that anyone at his company had voted for Trump, that he would fire him/her)

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Absolutely. I've been lucky enough to be self-employed for a bit, but if you walk into any bay area startup nearly everybody will be a vitriol against Trump and conservatives very publicly. It is not even subtle. I'm the kind of person who actually enjoys a debate, and my lack of PC offends some. If I were an employee, probably would be problematic.

Reason is that the political debate is no longer right vs left in the US. Trump and his posse have proven to be compulsive liars.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trump...

This means there is little left to debate.

? The "appropriate" size and role of the federal government is still a very worthwhile and earnest point of debate, and that is a classic left/right issue.

Sorry but nobody is for small government. Nobody is for a balanced budget. It is a farce.

We all have two piles: a. Things we want the government to do b. Things we don't

If you're for a balanced budget, you'll oppose current tax cut plans and demand government cut spending. The problem is of course where do we cut spending? Find me a dollar of "waste" and I'll show you someone who benefits from it. Can we please stop pretending?

> Find me a dollar of "waste" and I'll show you someone who benefits from it.

I expect others who've also worked on Government projects would find that as preposterous as I do.

Trump has actually proven his bone fides for small government in the sense of reducing regulatory burden.

I find it interesting that people feel the need to defend Trump because he’s in “their team”. Can’t help but feel this is an effect of the two party system.

He’s objectively a problematic person as a leader but since there is no other conservative around now conservatives feel the need to clinch to him more than is healthy.

There was an article about that a few days ago that got a lot of attention here on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15595586

We still have a secret ballot in this country, and this is why.

Without sources for any of your claims (GOP supporters fearing an outing, CEO that would fire Trump voters) your comment comes over as a way to incite a heated discussion here, AKA trolling.

I didn't read it that way, it's a valid question even without the references, and it's a problem that warrants discussion.

For the former, a sibling commenter has provided a HN discussion regarding a CNN article with a 10+ minute interview with people who are being interviewed with a voice changer for fear of being outed.

Regarding the latter, here's Grubhub's CEO calling for Trump voters to resign: The CEO of Grubhub, an online food delivery service, sent a company wide email Wednesday suggesting employees who agree with President-elect Donald Trump’s behaviors and his campaign rhetoric should resign.[1].

I remember reading articles from reputable media outlets for both issues, but I personally do not know peers who feel this way (which makes sense because well, if the news were true, many of them are in hiding). Hence the genuine inquiry towards an actual person -- a HNer -- who would have first hand experience with such attitudes. It's honestly a very rare chance to be able to ask someone this; I frankly only know one GOP voter within the several hundred tech people I am acquainted with.

I sincerely must ask in return whether you are trolling me, since you seem to be unaware of the fact that these issues have been widely reported on in the past.

[1] regrettably the link is fox news: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...

Not supporting Trump — supporting his behaviors and campaign rhetoric. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to tell people who support attacks on Gold Star families or Hispanic judges to reconsider their place of work. That goes way beyond a difference of opinion.

Not to Godwin the thread, but where does a company need to draw the line? On the extreme end of the spectrum, I would assume that no company would want someone with Nazi-supporting political beliefs on their staff, and that most people would find it acceptable to fire a Nazi. That means there's some point on the line at which, on one side it's acceptable to fire someone for their political beliefs, and on the other side, it's not. So, where along the line from socialist, to liberal, to conservative, to Trump-supporter, to Nazi should that point be established? Who decides?

The debate they were having was whether or not it is true that Trump supporters and people who are merely conservatives, are correct in their fear of being "outed".

Whether or not it is "moral" to fire people for being a Republican is a separate issue, that you can decide for yourself on.

We are merely stating that these fears are legitimate fears.

It seems reasonable to fear any activity that could damage your career. If I know companies will fire me (or not hire me) because I'm a Dodgers fan, I'd be right to be afraid of being outed as a Dodgers fan.

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