Archive for the ‘Culture Wars’ Category

Russian culture wars take centre stage – The Economist

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Russian culture wars take centre stage - The Economist

Culture, Not Culture Wars – City Journal

Dennis Prager conducted the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra last Wednesday night, and what had threatened to become another dispiriting episode in the culture wars turned instead into an evening of passionate advocacy for high culture and classical music. Santa Monica is one of the most liberal cities in California, so it was not wholly surprising that when the orchestras conductor invited Prager, a conservative talk radio host, to conduct a Haydn symphony for an orchestral fundraiser, a rebellion broke out among some musicians and the citys political class. Two violinists in the ensemble, both UCLA professors, penned a letter suggesting that their fellow musicians boycott the upcoming performance. A concert with Dennis Prager would normalize hatred and bigotry, wrote Professors Andrew Apter and Michael Chwe in their March 27, 2017, letter. A webpage asked readers to urge their friends not to attend the concert, since attending would help normalize bigotry in our community. Local politicians weighed in. Councilman Kevin McKeown warned that the orchestras decision to invite Prager may affect future community support for the Symphony. Mayor Ted Winterer sniffed that he had certainly . . . not encouraged anyone to attend.

Fortunately for the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra, the boycott attempt, despite sympathetic coverage in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, was a dud. And the concert was a rousing success that ideally won new converts to classical music and to the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra itself.

On Wednesday evening, no protesters showed up outside or inside Disney Hall, Frank Gehrys famed curvilinear eruption of steel designed for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The orchestras affable full-time conductor Guido Lamell polled the house, virtually full, before the music began. How many audience members were Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra attendees? he asked. A good number of people clapped in affirmation, leading Lamell to offer his sympathies for their having made the cross-country trip from Los Angeless Westside to downtown. How many were attending their first classical concert? Another burst of applause. Then came the key demographic question: Are there any fans of Dennis Prager here? The response was thunderous. OK, I get the message, Lamell laughed. I wont keep you away from him for too long.

Lamell opened the program with a lively reading of Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro overture, which he rightly introduced as one of the greatest opera overtures of all time (actually, its only competitor for first place is the Don Giovanni overture). Then he turned over the podium to Prager. Two string players joined the welcome, clapping with their free hand on their knee. Prager told the audience about attending his first classical music concert, which brought him to tears and led to a lifelong love affair with Haydn. The Classical period, he said, represents controlled passion, in contrast with the Romantics, who did not control theirsyet passion will break out in the fourth movement of this Haydn symphony as well, Prager explained. Wonderfully, Prager had chosen a work from the criminally underperformed middle period of Haydns prodigious symphonic output. These so-called Sturm und Drang symphonies contain some of Haydns most pathos-filled, dramatic writing, and the Symphony No. 51 in B-flat major, composed in 1771, was no exception. It opens innocently enough with a brief, quizzical exchange between frisky strings and mournful horns before bursting forth into agonizingly poignant and dark harmonies. Cleverly syncopated passages in the first movement make the rhythm tricky. Major and minor keys interweave, adumbrating Schuberts bittersweet longing.

Prager conducted ably enough, keeping the ensemble together and pacing the fourth movement in accordance with Haydns Allegro marking, unlike the late Christopher Hogwood, who took the movement at a quixotically stately pace. Readingand leading froman orchestral score, one of the most complex architectures of the human mind, is a prodigious challenge. But Prager seemed to have the basics down, undoubtedly helped by the caliber of the musicians themselves. Boycott organizer Michael Chwe reported to the Los Angeles Times afterwards that over a dozen players had stayed away, but such a rate of attrition was normal for this volunteer orchestra, Lamell had earlier said. The absences were not noticeable, and most critically, the woodwind and brass sections contained the full complement of musicians called for in the score. Indeed, not only were the orchestras two hornists in attendance, they were also supplemented by a flugelhorn not even written into the piece. This addition of a higher-register brass instrument presumably served as insurance for the symphonys fiendishly difficult and exposed horn writing, which takes the instrument into its highest (and lowest) registers, sometimes through demanding triplet arpeggiation. The oboes are key in the second movement, floating languorously above a string pulse to create the same time-suspended melodic beauty as Cos fan tuttes dream-like ensembles.

After the symphony concluded, Prager, breathless and patting himself down with a handkerchief, provided a brief demonstration of Haydns genius, in the tradition of Leonard Bernsteins Young Peoples Concerts. He asked the basses and celli to play the agitated G minor section in the rondo finale movement. Then the orchestra played that same passage without the basses and celli. Finally, Prager put the instruments back together again, eliciting delighted applause from the audience, whose ears had been primed to hear the layering of voices.

Prager bantered with the musicians, asking a few when and why they took up their instruments. The principal cellist, Niall Ferguson, said that he started at four because his best friend was already playing the cello. Youre not normal! Prager exclaimed. Not only did you want to play the cello at age four, but your friend did, too. Where are you from? Cleveland, Ferguson answered. That explains it, Prager said. The ribbing went both ways. Prager asked the principal bassist, Jack Cousin, if he felt ignored because conductors dont even look at the basses. Actually, the best conductors do look at us, Cousin said, slyly adding after a pause, and you did as well.

Lamell, who plays violin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, joined in for the Haydn. Afterward, Prager quizzed him, too, about his early instrumental experience. Lamell rebelled at age eight from his violin lessons, he said, but his parents kept up the pressure. Its hard for a parent to push; I, as a parent, have not been that strong. Im grateful that my own parents did, so, thank you Dad! Memo to parents: give your children music lessons and make them persist. They wont regret it.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Prager returned to the stage at the end of the evening, after Lamell had conducted Beethovens Fifth Symphony. Whether intentionally or not, the concert at that point took on a historical cast, imitating the bizarre potpourri of high and low that characterized nineteenth-century concerts. Beethovens Violin Concerto, for example, was interrupted after its first movement at its Viennese premiere so that the violinist could play one of his own compositionson one string, while holding his violin upside down. Only after this parlor trick concluded did Beethovens new concerto proceed to its second movement. At the Disney Hall encore, Lamell and Prager led the audience in America the Beautifulwith Lamell on musical saw and Prager on accordion.

Lamell and the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestras board are to be congratulated for standing by Prager against the opposition. In the program notes, Lamell offered a thoughtful response to the boycott controversy. Prager loves music with every fiber of his being, the conductor wrote. He is also an outspoken political commentator and some of his views are controversial. However, politics changes constantly, ideas evolve. Music, in contrast, is eternal. I believe Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven will be celebrated forever while the politics of our day will change with the wind.

But Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven will be celebrated only if there is an audience. Audience-building is the biggest challenge facing classical music today. While the supply of astoundingly accomplished musicians keeps expanding, lackluster public demand for classical music threatens this monumental expression of the human soul. The Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra is already performing an invaluable service by playing most of its concerts for free. But if Prager can bring more listeners to classical music, any orchestra should get down on its knees in gratitude. There was no normalization of hatred and bigotry at Disney Hall on Wednesday night, just a celebration of greatness that, one hopes, will be infectious.

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor ofCity Journal.

Photo Courtesy of Santa Monica Symphony

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Culture, Not Culture Wars - City Journal

Google Culture War Blow-Back: 60 Female Workers Prepare Discrimination Suits – Breitbart News

Finberg told Londons Guardian newspaper that dozens of current and former female Google workers have complained to him that women are paid less than men, despite having served in comparable positions and having equal qualifications. Finberg added that career advancement opportunities are limitedbecause Google has a culture that is hostile to women.

Googles own diversity figures reveal that 80 percent of its tech jobs and 75 percent of its management are women. About 56 percent of employees are white and 35 percent are Asian; while only 2 percent are black and 4 percent are Hispanic.

Breitbart News reported how software engineer James Damores publishing a 10-page analysis titled Googles Ideological Echo Chamber on the companys Intranet, exposed the depths of Googles social justice warrior work environment. Damones 10-page article stated that Googles left bias has created a politically correct monoculture. After his article went viral on the Internet and Google fired him, Danmore toldthe Business Insider that being conservative at Google was like the persecution of gays in the 1950s.

Googles motto since 2000 had been Dont Be Evil. But its holding company Alphabet (GOOG:OTC) quietly eliminated the slogan from its code of conduct in October 2015 and replaced it with, Employees of Alphabet and its subsidiaries and controlled affiliates should do the right thingfollow the law, act honorably, and treat each other with respect.

The change came as Googles political lobbying expense had grown by over 1,000 percent from $1.5 million in 2007, to $16.8 million in 2014.

At the time, Google was cranking up election strategies in support of Hillary Clintons 2016 president campaign, according to the Google Transparency Project. They found at least 57 people were affiliated with both Clintonin her presidential campaign, in her State Department, at her family foundationand with Google or related entities. The Clinton campaigns chief technology officer, chief product officer and two key staffers had also been Google employees.

Another 10 people who worked in the State Department under Clinton, were hired by the progressive New America Foundation (NAF), where Googles Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Both Schmidt are major NAF contributors that help fund the Global Gender Parity Initiative and the Black Politics in Trumps America.

Google being ground zero for the culture wars on both the Left and the Right, seems extremely risky for the company that basically undisputedly holds a monopoly on Internet search. According to The Satista Portal, Google held an 86.83 percent worldwide desktop market share for page views by leading search engines in July.

The Interceptreportedin late July that President Trumps former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, argued that tech companies like Alphabet (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB) that are an essential element of 21st-century life,should be regulated like other utilities.

Shortly thereafter, the Democrats unveiled their own plan to break up monopolies called A Better Deal. The Democrats claim their plan will offer families better jobs, better wages and better futures.

Googles market domination allowed the company to maintain a 20 percent average annual profit margin for the last five years. That is over twice the 9.1 percent profit margin of the Standard & Poors 500 and about three times the profitability of a regulated utility, according to an August 18 analysis by Yardeni Research.

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Google Culture War Blow-Back: 60 Female Workers Prepare Discrimination Suits - Breitbart News

Trump embraces culture war with call to preserve Confederate statues – Washington Post

After President Trump's most recent rhetoric about Charlottesville inflamed even more criticism, a handful of GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), are criticizing Trump directly, while others stay silent. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

President Trump on Thursday assumed the role of leading spokesman for the racially charged cause of preserving Confederate statues on public grounds, couching his defense in historical terms that thrilled his core supporters and signaled his intent to use cultural strife as a political weapon just days after deadly violence in Virginia.

Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments, Trump wrote on Twitter.

So foolish! he added, bemoaning efforts in several municipalities to take down Confederate tributes.

Trumps celebration of monuments from a dark chapter of American history sparked wide debate over its consequences for his embattled presidency and the nations civic fabric, as well as over the challenges facing both parties as he delves into the culture wars.

A chorus of Republicans expressed alarm over Trumps words and their potential cost with voters. But Trumps allies inside and outside the White House, most notably White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, argued that Trumps pronouncements would rally his political base while also serving as a welcome distraction from the policy stumbles and investigations that have hobbled the administration.

Democrats reacted with horror at Trumps enthusiasm for memorials to the Confederacy more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War and just five days after white nationalist and neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville left one woman dead and at least 19 more people injured.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others harshly condemned Trumps statements and called for the removal of Confederate statues from the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Some veteran Democrats, meanwhile, said Trumps remarks seemed aimed at rousing his base.

Hes hitting a raw and ugly political nerve around a certain segment of the electorate, said Democratic consultant Robert Shrum. But thats not enough to sustain him to get things done as president or get reelected.

Trumps comments came as he also ratcheted up his rhetoric on the threat of Muslim extremists in the wake of a deadly van attack Thursday in Barcelona. Taking to Twitter, Trump recycled a discredited tale that he had promoted during the 2016 campaign, asserting that Gen. John J. Pershing had ordered that bullets be dipped in pigs blood and used to execute Islamic terrorists in the Philippines. Historians have widely debunked the story as a fabrication.

Inside the White House, Trump advisers said the president is being guided chiefly by his own instincts, chafing at critical news coverage of his handling of the Charlottesville protests and charges of racism.

Bannon a hard-line nationalist whose position has been threatened in recent days by his clashes with moderate colleagues and his blunt remarks to a liberal magazine has fiercely defended Trump in internal staff discussions, according to White House officials.

In an email to The Washington Post on Thursday, Bannon said Democrats do not understand Trump and underestimate his appeal.

President Trump asked if statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson should be removed since they owned slaves while speaking in New York on Aug. 15. (The Washington Post)

This past election, the Democrats used every personal attack, including charges of racism, against President Trump. He then won a landslide victory on a straightforward platform of economic nationalism, Bannon wrote. As long as the Democrats fail to understand this, they will continue to lose. But leftist elites do not value history, so why would they learn from history?

Others in Trumps orbit agree with him, believing there is a potential strategy in decrying identity politics and political correctness a message that resonates with his base. But even within Trumps circle, there are those who wonder whether Trump has gone too far and risks alienating some of the swing voters who voted for him last year with hope for change, not racial division.

He was saying that this political correctness could lead to trying to rewrite American history. The problem is thats not the time to bring this up, said one Republican operative and unofficial White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. Now is the time to lower the emotional temperature of the country.

Many Republican leaders and lawmakers cringed as the president tweeted, and they sought to distance themselves from the White House. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a moderate, went so far as to call for Bannon to be fired.

Associates of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that Trump would be putting the partys already stalled legislative agenda at risk if he continued to carry the cause of defending Confederate statues.

Its a pretty tough transition from white supremacists arent so bad to lets do tax reform, Josh Holmes, a longtime McConnell ally, said in an interview.

But the concerns ran deeper than prospects on Capitol Hill. Some prominent Republicans said they were unsettled by the caustic nature of Trumps comments this week and what those remarks revealed about his ability to articulate positions on race and history that unite rather than divide the country.

What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised when Tuesday happened, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the GOPs lone black senator, told VICE on Thursday, referring to a news conference in which Trump said both sides shared blame for the violence at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has worked closely with Trump in the past, underscored the growing Republican unease when he told reporters Thursday that Trump has not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation.

He has not demonstrated that he understands what has made this nation great and what it is today, and hes got to demonstrate the characteristics of a president who understands that. And without the things that I just mentioned happening, our nation is going to go through great peril, Corker said.

Anything less than complete & unambiguous condemnation of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK by the @POTUS is unacceptable. Period, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) wrote Thursday on Twitter.

Trump shrugged off the criticism. Earlier Thursday, he slammed Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) for their criticism of his leadership in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy.

On Twitter, Trump called Flake WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate, and praised Flakes primary challenger.

McConnell responded with a tweet later in the day, calling Flake an excellent Senator and a tireless advocate for Arizona and our nation.

He has my full support, McConnell added.

There is little public polling over what to do with Confederate monuments. An NPR-PBS survey conducted Monday and Tuesday by Marist College found that 62percent of respondents said statues honoring Confederate leaders should remain as a historical symbol; 27percent said they should be removed because they are offensive to some people.

That poll found a large partisan divide: Republicans prefer to keep statues by 86percent to 6percent, while Democrats split 44percent for keeping them and 47percent for removing them. Among African Americans in the survey, 44percent favored keeping them, and 40percent favored removal.

In his tweets Thursday, Trump appeared to equate Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, who commanded Southern forces in the Civil War to secede from the United States, with Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as potential targets of criticism because of Washington and Jeffersons status as slave owners an argument he first advanced at his Tuesday news conference.

You ... cant change history, but you can learn from it, he tweeted. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson whos next, Washington, Jefferson?

Charlottesville wasnt the first place that white supremacists had gathered recently to oppose the removal of a Confederate statue, but last weekend was the first rally marked by deadly violence. More rallies are planned for other cities as a show of force to pressure municipal officials into leaving Civil War symbols in place.

Trumps new enthusiasm on statues stands apart from his views last year. On the campaign trail, Trump said he agreed with the decision in 2015 by then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to remove a Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds following the mass shooting by Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine African Americans at a black church in Charleston. Haley now serves as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

I would take it down, yes, Trump said at the time. I think they should put it in a museum and respect whatever it is you have to respect.

Democrats moved aggressively on Thursday to counter what they described as a disturbing turn.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trumps tweets Thursday represented an attempt to divert attention away from the presidents refusal to unequivocally and full-throatedly denounce white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and other forms of bigotry.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and a small group of Democrats called for a congressional resolution to censure Trump. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said he would seek to introduce articles of impeachment. Neither measure faces a chance of success in the GOP-controlled House.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced late Wednesday that he intends to introduce legislation after Congress reconvenes next month calling for the removal of at least a dozen statues of Confederate soldiers and politicians inside the U.S. Capitol.

That collection includes two statues selected by each state, and the presence of Confederate political and military leaders among them as well as other figures with well-known discriminatory views has previously attracted protests.

There is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country, Pelosi said.

A spokesman for Ryan said congressional Republicans would not intervene to remove the statues without the states consent.

These are decisions for those states to make, said Ryan spokesman Doug Andres.

Sean Sullivan, Ashley Parker and Scott Clement contributed to this report.

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Trump embraces culture war with call to preserve Confederate statues - Washington Post

Google Protests Bring Culture Wars to Silicon Valley – NewsFactor Network

With plans to protest outside Google's offices this weekend, conservatives are taking America's culture wars directly to Silicon Valley, a place that was long insulated from political rancor but is now one of the most important ideological battlegrounds.

The rallies were inspired by James Damore, the former Google engineer who was fired last week for posting a 10-page internal memo arguing that the lack of women in tech could be attributed to biological differences. His dismissal sparked an outcry from conservatives who say their opinions are being muzzled by liberal technology companies and led Damore to criticize his former company for promoting a "particularly intense echo chamber."

"The March on Google stands for free speech and the open discussion of ideas," wrote event organizer Jack Posobiec, a conservative media figure who pushed the "Pizzagate" and Seth Rich conspiracy theories and was recently retweeted by the president.

Posobiec, who did not respond to questions sent to his Facebook page, said the marches planned for Saturday are not "alt-right" events and that he wanted to avoid the violence and mayhem experienced in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend.

The Details

Protests are planned Saturday at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and other company offices such as Venice, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Seattle. It's unclear how many people are expected.

Google did not respond to a request for comment, and the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday that it had no information yet about a demonstration.

But the Mountain View Police Department confirmed a planned demonstration for two hours at Charleston Park across from Google headquarters. The department said organizers were not connected to Charlottesville participants.

"We want you to know that we are working with both Google and with the event planners to ensure the protest is a peaceful one," the department said in a statement.

Damore told CNBC that he is not involved with the marches, adding that "I don't support efforts to try to hurt Google directly."

Still, his memo pointed to the clash of ideas within the technology industry at a time when its products play an increasingly bigger role in the daily lives of Americans.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Snapchat and other social media occupy 5 1/2 hours of the average U.S. adult's week, according to Nielsen, a span that has grown sharply in recent years. And the online platforms' power to spread and enforce cultural values has become a matter of contention across the political spectrum.

Conservatives point to years of evidence of a liberal agenda in the tech industry. They've drawn comparisons between Damore's case and Mozilla Chief Executive Brendan Eich, who stepped down a decade ago following outrage over his support of a ban on same-sex marriage.

More recently, right-wing activists say YouTube is filtering conservative videos so that they won't appear unless users toggle their settings to accept graphic or potentially offensive content.

Shifting Politics

The conditions are a far cry from just a few years ago, when technologists were thought of as political neophytes -- the descendants of a counterculture that turned hippies into billionaires like Steve Jobs. If there was a political streak in the valley, it tended to be libertarian.

But the 2016 presidential election demonstrated just how influential the region's platforms are to American public opinion.

Where would Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign have gone without the rabid support of smartphone-wielding millennials spreading #FeelTheBern?

And how long would Donald Trump's campaign have lasted without his supporters' memes and the candidate's personal Twitter account?

Jeremy Carl, a former tech worker who serves as a fellow at conservative think tank Hoover Institution, said the anger among his ideological peers stems from "egregious" actions taken by Google and other big tech companies.

Efforts to take down or stunt the growth of potentially offensive online publications have reached a "ridiculous" level, he said.

Despite Trump's victory last year with the aid of a fearsome social media strategy, conservatives accuse Facebook, Twitter and Google of censoring their points of view by suspending accounts and firing employees like Damore who speak out against diversity training.

"The recklessness of the industry and its partisan politics have brought us to this point. They have no credibility among the right to do self-regulation," said Carl, who has advocated for treating Google as a utility company that must provide a neutral service.

At stake is the future of news and information in a country where facts are so often viewed through a political lens. Control of these digital platforms, once thought to be apolitical, could swing the national conversation around culture and politics.

No Alternatives

What also irks critics is that there are few alternatives to Google and Facebook. So conservatives who don't like those companies' politics feel they have no choice but to keep using their services.

"Internet people brag about freedom of expression in the U.S. relative to what's available in China, but that's just not the case when you look at the Internet monopolies in the U.S.," said Ron Unz, a Palo Alto software entrepreneur who launched unsuccessful campaigns for California governor and English-only education.

"You're talking about something closer to modern totalitarianism," Unz added.

(By comparison, China tightly monitors discourse on its closed-off Internet, employing thousands of censors and trolls to promote the government's positions and stifle open dissent).

Unz said he thinks tech companies should be held to the same standards as the government when it comes to freedom of expression because of their market dominance.

"If the government is legally prohibited from censoring certain forms of speech, it seems wrong to allow Google to do what the government can't do," Unz said.

Uncertainty About the Agenda

It doesn't help either that tech companies operate in near secrecy -- driving suspicion that the Googles and Facebooks of the world are stifling conservative views with lines of hidden code.

"The "tech industry's point of view is embedded deep in the product, not announced on the packaging," wrote Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox. "Its biases are quietly built into algorithms, reflected in platform rules, expressed in code few of us can understand and fewer of us will ever read."

It's been difficult for Silicon Valley to adapt to the new political order. Many companies are at odds with conservative positions on immigration, climate change and sexual identity -- taking stances that seemed safely mainstream until recently.

Nonetheless, they've tried to appear more welcoming to President Trump and his supporters.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, head of Google's parent company Alphabet, are among the big names that agreed to advise the president on his technology council.

Google has also tried to hire more conservatives for its lobbying and policy initiatives, and Facebook donated money to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. The social network also replaced its news editors with an algorithm after conservatives said employees were suppressing right-wing content.

To be sure, Silicon Valley counts some conservatives and Trump supporters among its list of top entrepreneurs. None is more famous than Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a billionaire venture capitalist, who spoke strongly in support of then-candidate Trump at the Republican National Convention last year. Thiel, despite running large investment funds, has become an outcast in some circles of the industry for his work with Trump.

2017 Los Angeles Times under contract with NewsEdge/Acquire Media. All rights reserved.

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Google Protests Bring Culture Wars to Silicon Valley - NewsFactor Network