(Bloomberg) — Joe Lonsdale, a founding father of Palantir Applied sciences Inc. and a prolific enterprise capitalist, stoked a debate on Twitter about parental go away, saying any distinguished man who takes six months off together with his new child is “a loser.”
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The remark was made in response to a tweet about Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. Transportation secretary who took day without work to take care of his baby, and criticism from the podcast persona Joe Rogan.
Among the many many responses to Lonsdale’s publish Wednesday, the founders of one other enterprise capital agency, Initialized, provided a rebuke. Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan defended their parental coverage, which is 4 months. Tan mentioned he took the go away and hoped his workers would observe swimsuit.
A father of three, Lonsdale is an everyday critic of “woke” politics. He’s a longtime affiliate of Peter Thiel, the highly effective conservative billionaire. Lonsdale’s enterprise investments embody Flexport Inc., Joby Aviation Inc. and Oculus, which was acquired by Fb Inc. He additionally runs an advocacy group together with his spouse known as the Cicero Institute, which focuses on prison justice, well being care and different causes.
Final yr, Lonsdale decamped from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, as a result of he disagreed with San Francisco metropolis leaders and was drawn to the extra liberal gun legal guidelines and absence of non-public revenue taxes within the state. (Austin is, in fact, not essentially the most conservative place in Texas.)
Regardless of his repute, the response to Lonsdale’s message Wednesday was unusually robust and largely adverse. In a while Twitter, he mentioned utilizing the phrase loser was “uncalled for,” however he doubled down on the significance of sustaining conventional gender roles.
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