Behold a perfect Silicon Valley denizen, an archetype: he's been written up in TechCrunch for his hackathon-organizing company. He's been fluffed in Business Insider. And now, inevitably, he's publicly savaged the homeless and generally less fortunate of San Francisco.

Greg Gopman, and his company, AngelHack, offer no apparent utility or value to our planet. It's a startup that begets other startups, a hackathon for hackathons, an engorged, vomiting ouroboros in reverse. His pride orbits around organizing the "largest hackathons" in history—and given that a hackathon doesn't mean much of anything, that's about as weighty as telling the world's longest knock knock joke, or blowing a trillion soap bubbles.

But Gopman thinks he's earned some sort of high social spot, from which he can type out horrid Facebook updates like this one:

Just got back to SF. I've traveled around the world and I gotta say there is nothing more grotesque than walking down market st in San Francisco. Why the heart of our city has to be overrun by crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash I have no clue. Each time I pass it my love affair with SF dies a little.

He's very slightly right, in that large portions of San Francisco are full of people who need help. But help doesn't come in the form of ugly Facebook remarks—it comes in the form of help. To make it absolutely clear that he's condemning these people and not lamenting their situation, he writes further:

The difference is in other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it's a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that's okay.



In downtown SF the degenerates gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, get rowdy, they act like they own the center of the city. Like it's their place of leisure... In actuality it's the business district for one of the wealthiest cities in the USA. It a disgrace. I don't even feel safe walking down the sidewalk without planning out my walking path.



You can preach compassion, equality, and be the biggest lover in the world, but there is an area of town for degenerates and an area of town for the working class. There is nothing positive gained from having them so close to us. It's a burden and a liability having them so close to us. Believe me, if they added the smallest iota of value I'd consider thinking different, but the crazy toothless lady who kicks everyone that gets too close to her cardboard box hasn't made anyone's life better in a while.

All emphasis added.

Somewhere, like a Jedi-ghost Obi Wan, Peter Shih is smiling with pride. But it's odd: I think many San Franciscans would say it's the hackathon organizers, not the destitute, that should be dragged off the sidewalk and pushed into the Pacific Ocean with a bulldozer.

Update: Want to help the people this guy hates? I've heard the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation is a good place to donate.

Photo: The Pageman

