The 11th Reason to Hate San Francisco
A few weeks ago Peter Shih, a startup founder in San Francisco wrote a post on Medium titled "10 Things I Hate About You: San Francisco Edition." The post was taken down, but things don't get erased from the internet. There's a screenshot of it here.
Response to his post wasn't friendly as it was called a "hateful screed" and he was called a "d-bag" for poking fun at the city's homeless problem and women who, "are obviously 4's and behave like they are 9's." And therein is what Shih forgot to put on his list. The 11th reason to hate San Francisco: uptight, political correctness speech bullies that can't take a joke.
If you watch TV or follow politics, chances are you know the game. These people spend their time being "outraged" at others for saying something inadvertently offensive or intentionally pretending that a joke was said (or written) in the form of a statement. Their objective isn't to enlighten but to shame and beat a person down till they apologize, whether they mean it or not.
In this case, they even swung into action for a guy writing a ranting, humor intended article. And that's what it was, even if the uptight, phony outrage crowd want to pretend otherwise. How can we be sure it was meant to be humorous? Because anyone who references a "Transvestite to Taxi" ratio is clearly going for some laughs.Â
But, one of the first rules of going for laughs is to know your audience. This is where Shih failed, because there's a group in San Francisco that has zero sense of humor.
(Comedians explaining context & the failure of the PC handbook)Â
 One article responded by asking that startup founders in the city, "Demonstrate that they care about this city more than they care about their self-involved money making interests." It goes on to ask tech founders to, "write a full-fledged editorial, with the passion that inspired Shih to pen his silly piece, talking about why you care about San Francisco." If this plea wasn't genuine, it would by a great example of satire.
Why should tech founders have to profess their love for the city to appease the no sense of humor crowd? That's like asking people who love the city but aren't fans of the tech scene to grovel and give thanks to all the industry has done for the city. If the tech scene is not your thing it's completely unnecessary to bow at the altar.
Another post on Medium full of condescension, responded by saying, "I just don’t have it in me at the moment to shame you more than the cruel Internet already has." Of course, the author goes on to do just that and writes, "I’m going to put aside my entire dissertation on your hatred of women." Hatred of women? If a single girl complains that "men are jerks" does that mean she literally hates the male gender? Obviously not.
The apology bullies seem to really enjoy their role because not only do they get to trash someone else and feel great about themselves but...wait for it...it's also about MONEY! Just like politicians play off the latest "outrage" the higher level members of the apologize or else crew use things like this to raise funds for their causes.
Looking forward to the large donation @ycombinator will be making to Glide Memorial Church in Peter Shih’s name very soon.
— Mike Monteiro (@Mike_FTW)
August 16, 2013
The crowd who went after Peter Shih think they're open minded but they're of one mind. They follow a rule book and lack the ability to discern between a joke and a statement. Their thin skin leads to childlike reasoning in online tantrums. And while it's true that some of these people genuinely have a love affair with San Francisco, for others it's just another city and a means to an end. Everyone has things they love and San Francisco doesn't have to be one of them. Not until its residents get a sense of humor anyways.