The Culture Wars Have Come to Silicon Valley

The Culture Wars Have Come to Silicon Valley
“Google drives a big sector of tech into the arms of Trump: fires employee who wrote memo about women in tech jobs,” Dr. Pinker wrote.
In contrast, Mr. Hastings, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, said earlier last year
that Mr. Trump, if elected, “would destroy much of what is great about America.”
“I see our board being about great judgment, particularly in unlikely disaster where we have to pick
new leaders,” Mr. Hastings wrote in the email to Mr. Thiel, a copy of which was obtained by .
One of the most outspoken supporters of Mr. Trump in Silicon Valley has been Mr. Thiel, a founder of
PayPal, who has since faced derision from other people working in tech for his political stance.
The tensions became evident last year with the rise of Donald J. Trump, when a handful of people from the industry
who publicly supported the then-presidential candidate faced blowback for their political decisions.
Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said Mr. Damore’s comments carried additional weight to people on either side of the political spectrum
because he was an engineer at Google, one of the world’s biggest technology companies.
His memo and dismissal transformed Mr. Damore into a hero on right-wing news sites like
Breitbart, which has long criticized the political leanings of the tech industry.