Silicon Valley has been cultivating a culture of hyper-liberalism for years. Now it's paying the price.
Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist, has stated that he plans to leave Silicon Valley because of the cultural uniformity that shows disdain for anything and everything outside its credo. Others have made this move in the past, including Tim Ferris, a tech investor and best-selling author of the "4 Hour Workweek."
This shines a spotlight on the homogeneity of Silicon Valley. Although the place is where tech dreams come to life, the people in it are often ostracized if they carry beliefs outside the "Silicon Valley norm."
According to Tim Ferris,
"People openly lie to one another out of fear of losing their jobs or being publicly crucified. It's weird, unsettling, and frankly, really dangerous"
If Silicon Valley is as homogenous as Ferris claims, then we've got a big issue on our hands. America is a mixing pot with people of all different backgrounds, political views, social norms, etc. But if a certain group of people who run America's biggest companies all share the same ideologies, then their ideas/creations/products will all be catered towards people with the same mindset. The lack of diversity will leave a large portion of America in the dust.
Tech-giants such as Facebook, Google, and Apple have a degree of social responsibility to the American people. However, it's hard to do the job when most of the company's employees participate in groupthink and cannot see the perspectives of people who do not share the same beliefs.
I hope that Peter Thiel's departure from Silicon Valley will shed some light on the tech hub's ignorance to non-left groups and continue the conversation of diversity in the workplace.
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