Tech Bros
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
People use the term "tech bro" in a pejorative manner. This blog post is meant to be a cultural analysis of why people hate tech bros, and, in general, this blog post is meant to be a cultural analysis of tolerance and intolerance towards groups of people. In general, I believe that progressive or liberal cultural values are just as intolerant as conservative cultural values; progressives will tell me that this is wrong for many reasons, and I will try to give my best explanation as to why the common retorts are made from a misinformed stance.
I think related to the culture of hating tech bros is hating self proclaimed smart people. Many like to make sarcastic or ironic remarks after people self-report intelligence, even though downplaying identity in any other context would be culturally unacceptable. In general, this is the case for people that are confident in any conventionally useful identity trait. People are, generally speaking, much more tolerant of "punching up" – a concept that shouldn't exist if you take a postmodern outlook on identity. The rich are often made fun of in various ways, for example. In response to the statement I just made, someone might make fun of that fact, say, "oh no, not rich people!", or some sarcastic or ironic statement to that effect. I think this cultural phenomenon is toxic – the statement "these people are doing better, therefore I can make fun of them" is not logically valid. A does not imply B – "these people are doing better" does not imply "therefore, I get to be mean to them". It is just not a good reason to punch up. Ideally you'd consider the fact that the quality of categories of people doesn't matter in the face of individual people.
Now, I understand the mentality of people that do this. There are common arguments that this is to be expected because of they themselves are a part of many marginalized groups; punching up seems to be an empowering way to use that against those same people who punch down. What people in general don't understand, I think, is that there are no groups of people, only individuals inside those categories. People that others in general make fun of aren't a monolithic group, and even progressives seem to not be able to register this fact at times.
1.1. Sexism and Feminism
Now, I will also point out that sexism literally exists for everyone, not just women. I've heard the statement "I hate men" many times throughout my life, genuinely unable to tell whether or not they are being ironic. Obviously, one could say they are expressing their own personal life experiences, many of which may be negative, but people who are otherwise sexist or racist also do that. And, no, I don't think it's because "men lose out from the patriarchy too"; I think most people that subscribe to feminist analysis in practice don't pay attention to this after giving some minor lip service to this. I have no problem with feminism; it's a useful tool for observing the world, and the patriarchy is just a descriptive term (it is a model of the world that can be correct or incorrect, just like other models), and people may have their opinions about what is happening in the real world based on said descriptive models. But for most people, I don't think having said prescriptive opinion is useful because most people can't meaningfully change other people. If that is the case, it makes more sense to create a descriptive model than a prescriptive model. Unless, of course, your goal is to appear morally righteous to your peers. If that is the case, I'm not even judging you – I'm just calling this behavior out because it doesn't currently get enough attention.
I'm not a feminist, but I'm not an anti-feminist. There are interesting points to be discussed regarding feminism, but I think there is value in using the same descriptive outlooks and coming to different conclusions. Yet, something tells me that there are some things that people would not like to actually think about from a morally neutral perspective (I am personally favorable to the argument that patriarchy is a bad thing – but then again, I think Capitalism is a good thing, and apparently Capitalism implies patriarchy. Wait, what does good or bad mean in the first place? Well, I actually think those terms are ultimately meaningless – but that's for another article).
1.2. Race
The only race of people for which there is no slur is white people. Now, the term "cracker" might be seen as a slur, but many don't consider it to be, and the fact that I'm able to put it in quotes and just put it there as opposed to the N-word or the C-word might tell you that there's a special status assigned to "cracker" (note that I myself am allowed to say the C-word, or "chink", as I am asian. Yet I don't think this rule "should" exist either).
Using the same "punching up" mentality, you can make the argument for assigning this special status. Yet, it's kind of psychotic in my opinion to make fun of someone's race. I've heard people say, "I hate white people" in the same way I've heard people say, "I hate men". I think they use irony to mask what they think in the same way ultra white-nationalist people do. Not to compare them in any other way, though.
Not everyone that has white privilege feels it. Depending on your definition, not all white people may even have white privilege. It's not very empathetic or progressive to just say you hate white people. In truth, it is pretty deranged. The same is true for saying you hate men.
1.3. Confidence/Intelligence
People who are confident about their intelligence or some other form of personality trait generally considered positive often are the butt of jokes. You get the point already, "I am oppressed, they are not, therefore let's be assholes" is not a logically coherent reason to just be an asshole to someone i.e. mock them when they are trying to tell you something that probably reflects some reality.
1.4. Class
Same argument applies in almost the exact same way, read above.
2. Conclusion
This is to say, tech bros are one of the most well-paid, intelligent, disproportionately white and male populations on the planet. I believe this is why they are also the most hated people in the progressive sphere, and one of the more misunderstood classes of people in my culture as a result. That statement might sound really wrong to you. I don't want any conservative audience either championing anything that I say, because I think the conservative/"libertarian" crowd is one of the main sources of people shutting their brains off. Still, conservative sounding statements are just tasteless to the progressive culture, even if they point to some reality. I wish to live until the day we ask ourselves why.
And everything that I've said applies in the opposite direction, obviously. This should go without saying, but saying that you "hate women" is even more deranged than saying you hate men, and the same with race as well. Though, I didn't include this because everyone in my culture already knows. They need to desperately hear the other side of the story. Not to say that I have any influence over culture, anyway – but it's fun sometimes to try.