Excerpted from her upcoming book, author Emily Chang provides a little glimpse into what the “enlightened”, “progressive” folks in Silicon Valley are up to:
About once a month, on a Friday or Saturday night, the Silicon Valley Technorati gather for a drug-heavy, sex-heavy party. Sometimes the venue is an epic mansion in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights; sometimes it’s a lavish home in the foothills of Atherton or Hillsborough. On special occasions, the guests will travel north to someone’s château in Napa Valley or to a private beachfront property in Malibu or to a boat off the coast of Ibiza, and the bacchanal will last an entire weekend. The places change, but many of the players and the purpose remain the same.
The stories I’ve been told by nearly two dozen people who have attended these events or have intimate knowledge of them are remarkable in a number of ways. Many participants don’t seem the least bit embarrassed, much less ashamed. On the contrary, they speak proudly about how they’re overturning traditions and paradigms in their private lives, just as they do in the technology world they rule. Like Julian Assange denouncing the nation-state, industry hotshots speak of these activities in a tone that is at once self-congratulatory and dismissive of criticism. Their behavior at these high-end parties is an extension of the progressiveness and open-mindedness–the audacity, if you will–that make founders think they can change the world. And they believe that their entitlement to disrupt doesn’t stop at technology; it extends to society as well. Few participants, however, have been willing to describe these scenes to me without a guarantee of anonymity.
I didn’t bother finishing this story because the first 2/3’s of it contained ZERO evidence of ANY of her claims. I doubt the last 1/3 was any different as the only “photographic evidence” offered was a a stock anonymous hot tub photo from the LAST millennium. I don’t doubt for a second that Silicon Valley power is as morally corruptible as any other unchecked power base we’ve witnessed, but it seems to me ANYONE could write the ‘titillating drivel’ she apparently has.
She should write extensively about Trump and the Russian Collusion Story next, since she seems to firmly believe that EVIDENCE is a non-essential part of any ‘gotcha’ story.
Rich guys organise parties to have chances to have sex with good looking women. Not a Silicon Valley innovation.
The term ‘Leisure Class’ was coined in 1899. The leisure class has made remarkable progressive progress since then.
So then … is this part of the “mee too” movement? Snitching on the geeky (never had a girlfriend) men of Silicon Valley? Or is it really a story about Gold-diggers … using their, uh, “attributes” … looking for a little hush-money from uber-wealthy tech Titans? Mee too will never reverse the … oldest profession in the world.
Wow, rich nerds with poor social skillz using their wealth and power to get laid? Unpossible!
And then, having finally gotten laid, they don’t treat the OBVIOUS GOLD DIGGING BEEOTCHEZ well? Say it ain’t so! Because women didn’t torture them all through high school and university, right?
Still, these are the guys who think you are too stupid to be allowed a gun, a car or a family. And they make phones that you can’t see your own file system without jailbreaking your own property.
So maybe if something bad might happen to the socialist sons of benches, I might have to take a minute or two to work up a tear.
Thanks to The Tooner and Kenji I don’t have to comment beyond my agreement with theirs.
I will add, however, that canuck guy has made the most telling and hence the nastiest comment so far about the subjects at hand.
Are there enough light poles to hang all the deserving politicians, ragheads AND the high tech aberrants?