Ask HN: Where are the capitalist and conservative technology presentations?
I recently commented on the anti-capitalist bias that RSA Animate seems to tend to have, like "Crisis of Capitalism":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJGAs2KwoWk
and the "high-tech workers don't want raises" presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGkrKfOCvho
But I've also thought that some of the TED talks I've seen tend to have more liberal speakers as well.
I know that political bias is inevitable, and that there are just a lot of liberal and anti-capitalists speaking up recently, but where are the best and brightest presentations of capitalists and conservatives located?
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[ 11.5 ms ] story [ 31.0 ms ] threadSeriously though, Cato, Mises institutes etc might be a good place to start if you don't like these commies infiltrating your precious bodily fluids.
I mean, you don't need to hide who you are, but especially on divisive issues, don't rub it in someone else's face. Be conscious of who you insult; It's pretty easy to insult people on the other side of a political debate, or to demean people with different religions or sexual proclivities. You never know when the guy next to you is one of "those people" and really, you are trying to work. It shouldn't matter if the guy next to you is one of "those people."
Ignoring my own advice here, I think the noise about "high-tech workers don't want raises" and "money doesn't matter" is just MBA propaganda. Nothing to do with "right" or "Left" Usually when companies say that what they really mean is "we'll donate to some BS charity run by our golf buddies rather than giving the workers raises; they are too dumb to know the difference." the truth of the matter is that money isn't everything; yeah, we all knew that. But you know? all other things being equal, almost all of us will choose more money over less.
If you're looking for new capitalist ideas, take a look at seasteading, bitcoin, digital gold currencies, and the like.
The internet by its very nature is liberal. If you're really looking for new conservative ideas, take a look at DRM, national firewalls, paypal data mining, and most of "web 2.0".
(edit: bittorrent is market-based, but not capitalist. there's more market-based technologies than strictly capitalist ones)
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Responding to endtime:
Capitalism was a product of earlier ("classical") liberalism, but has not been fully absorbed into society. A modern capitalist should be against bank bailouts, currency monopolies, and high taxes. These views undermine established institutions and seek to distribute power, and are therefore liberal.
Technology isn't political (by doing instead of talking), but can still be liberal or conservative. DRM, paypal data mining, and national firewalls all seek to slow change and preserve established institutions, which is the fundamental tenet of conservatism.
The technology of web 2.0 is conservative in that it's the old thin-client model. Rather than your computer being your agent, it merely acts as a terminal into a monolithic system run by an institution that you're required to trust completely.
(case in point of having to edit this unrelated comment to post my already-written reply. I trust HN to kill stories to remove them from the front page, but I've no choice but to also allow it/them to prevent an already-established interaction between us.)
>capitalism is a type of liberalism
Come now, sneaky word games don't add clarity. Capitalism might be part of classical liberalism, but that's not what people mean when they identify as "liberal" today.
>conservatism leads to anti-capitalism
Huh? How?
>If you're really looking for new conservative ideas, take a look at DRM...paypal data mining, and most of "web 2.0".
How are these political?
>national firewalls
The only two countries I can think of with national firewalls are both communist.
I agree that capitalism has taken a beating in much of the country (though in my experience it's still alive and well in the valley).