The attacks of anti-technology left-wingers in San Francisco are kicking into high gear with multiple, rowdy protests, bouts of property damage, and graffiti all across the city calling for the death of those “techies” who work for Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Even Twitter has become a hate-filled battleground.
The hate is being perpetrated against high-tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google because the billions these companies bring into the economy in the Bay Area are driving up property values, helping local small businesses thrive, and supposedly driving poorer residents out of the neighborhoods.
The fight between Luddite, lefty advocates for the poor and equally lefty technology companies and their employees has been growing and seems poised to take the step into greater violence. In fact, protesters have already destroyed property when several buses that transport tech company employees to their jobs were stopped by protests and had windows broken.
Last December, protesters even tried to create a fake viral video featuring what they claimed was a hate-filled Google employee attacking the poor people protesting the company. It turned out that the “Google employee” in the video was one of the protesters himself.
The protesters are making some headway against the successful tech companies in local government. In January the San Francisco city council imposed a new fee of $1 per stop on the employee transportation buses which amounts to an estimated yearly fee of some $80,000. Other proposals to penalize the tech companies are under discussion.
However, it is the graffiti that seems to be inciting the most hatred.
Painted on sidewalks, walls, and streets throughout the city are such messages as “Die Techie Scum” and “God Hates Techies.”
Twitter has also become a hotbed of hate spewed at the technology companies and their employees.
Now a new Twitter account called Tech Hate Crimes (@TechHateCrimes) has been created to chronicle that hate.
The Twitter account has found and re-tweeted such hate as “I actually can’t stand tech people,” and that ever-present phrase as seen in graffiti across the city, “God Hates Techies.”
One wonders how long it will be before violence worse than mere property damage, protests, and graffiti meant to incite it will occur. The next step in this fight might naturally lead to physical violence or more extensive property damage that might prove more life threatening than has thus far occurred.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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