Peter Thiel Announces Departure from Silicon Valley in Pathetic Fashion

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel is giving up on Silicon Valley and moving his firm to Los Angeles, and according to the Wall Street Journal, his reasons are politically motivated.

Thiel has told friends he’s frustrated with the Bay Area’s reluctance to accept his conservative beliefs. Per the Journal:

Mr. Thiel has grown more disaffected by what he sees as the intolerant, left-leaning politics of the San Francisco Bay Area, and increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for tech businesses amid greater risk of regulation, they said.

“Silicon Valley is a one-party state,” Thiel said in January, at Stanford University. “That’s when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you’re all in one side.”

He’s also considering giving up his spot on Facebook’s board of directors, where he’s drawn public criticism from his co-directors for his views.

Thiel was a prominent donor to Trump's presidential campaign and served on the Trump administration’s transition team as an adviser. The president has told Thiel that the two will be "friends for life."

Media critic and NYU professor Jay Rosen provided the perfect response to Thiel’s woe-is-me complaints:

Rosen couldn’t be more right. Thiel’s support of an administration stacked with climate change deniers and hostile to scientific research proves he has no real respect for science and technology. It's not surprising that Silicon Valley liberals would reject a conservative with a direct line to the Trump White House.

Thiel represents the worst of the tech sector, someone who is out for money and self-interest (let’s not forget his insane theories about transfusing his blood with a young person’s to increase his own longevity) rather than committed to advancing and protecting humanity. His departure from the Bay Area should come as a welcome change.