Liberal Sexism and Science Denialism

Two days ago I mentioned the sacking of Uber board member David Bonderman for the unpardonable sin of making a sexist joke at an Uber meeting:

“There’s a lot of data,” Ms. Huffington said, “that shows when there’s one woman on the board it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board.”

“Actually,” Mr. Bonderman said, “what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking.”

Hyuck, hyuck. Bye, bye, Bonderman.

But it turns out Bonderman is a liberal Democrat (which fits with Silicon Valley’s preference for Democrats), as reported this morning in the Wall Street Journal:

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Mr. Bonderman supported John Kerry and told The Wall Street Journal that President George W. Bush was “turning out to be the worst president since Millard Fillmore —and that’s probably an insult to Millard Fillmore.”

To borrow from Glenn Reynolds, why is liberal Silicon Valley such a hotbed of sexism?

P.S. Turns out Bonderman may not be all that great at investing, either:

[Bonderman’s hedge fund] put $1.35 billion into Seattle thrift Washington Mutual Inc.  in April 2008, only to see its investment wiped out when regulators seized the bank the following September. Other investments of that era, such as in the power company now known as Energy Future Holdings Corp., casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp. and telecommunications-gear supplier Avaya Corp. soured, with the companies all filing for bankruptcy.

TPG’s $15 billion buyout fund raised in 2006 has returned 5.3% annually after fees through September, according to Oregon Public Employees Retirement System data, while a 2008 fund returned 11.6%. Private-equity firms have historically sought returns of roughly 20% annually.

Chaser:

Sorry to interrupt, dear, but women really do talk more than men (13,000 words a day more to be precise)

Uh oh. This could be a problem, because neuroscientists think there might even be a genetic basis for this sex difference (Charles Murray, call your office):

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that women talk a lot, and science frequently backs up that claim. Women utter more words per day than men — about 20,000 to men’s 7,000, according to one study. And the female sex’s gift for language starts young, with girls learning to speak and read faster than boys.

Why, exactly, has yet to be determined, but new research published in The Journal of Neuroscience points to a possible answer: Girls’ brains contain higher levels of a protein produced by a gene that’s partially responsible for our ability to vocalize.

Exit question for Uber: The science is settled. Why are you such a science denier?

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