Yesterday's bro-tastic, anti-San Francisco screed did wonders to unite the various factions of the city's usually fractured internet commentariat. In fact, the ire directed at local entrepreneur and venture-funded hater Peter Shih reached a fever pitch that broke this morning with at least one person using up all the toner in the office to flyer telephone poles across SoMa with his image.
Reader Martin Shen spotted a flyer at 2nd and Harrison this morning admonishing Shih to move back to New York. Meanwhile, Redditor ElephantEngineer posted a shot of another, more blatant flyer, saying "these were all over SoMa this morning." Readers over at Uptown Almanac have spotted even more.
@SFist People must really hate @ptshih to be posting this at 2nd and Harrison pic.twitter.com/7JVtNCUNHg
— Martin Shen (@martinshen) August 16, 2013
Shortly after Shih's bile-filled post broke wide, he quickly removed some of the more offensive references to PMSing women and transgender people. He also posted a note claiming the piece was meant as satire. [Note: The post has since been completely deleted. It is still preserved for posterity here.]
If you'd like a much sunnier take on this whole thing, try this entry on Medium by local writer Anisse Gross titled "10 ways to open your heart to San Francisco — The Peter Shih Edition A love letter from a dreamer to a d-bag." It's a little touchy-feely, but maybe we could all just use a hug today.
Update: Back on the internet, it seems #PeterShihFacts is now a thing on Twitter. Behold, some sarcasm and flatout bullying from the Twittersphere:
Peter Shih is the one that told @KTVU those were the legit names of the Asiana pilots. #PeterShihFacts
— Dapper Diner (@thedapperdiner) August 16, 2013
Peter Shih keeps calling 911 because he smells pot in Dolores Park #PeterShihFacts
— PORTAL TRAVELLER (@BuffBro) August 16, 2013
Peter Shih is a Dodgers fan. #PeterShihFacts
— Ⓛⓘⓝⓔⓒⓞⓞⓚ (@linecook) August 16, 2013
Peter Shih's favorite band is Train. #PeterShihFacts
— We Built This City (@TheRealWBTC) August 16, 2013
Peter actually uses the @McDonalds gift cards from Klout. #PeterShihFacts
— Andy (@terrapin_sf) August 16, 2013
Update II: Adding another piece to this story, Ollie the notorious Google Glass Hater is now taking credit for the flyers posted around SoMa this morning. In an email to SFist, Ollie writes:
Let me be clear: this is not intended as a mature discussion of the issues Peter Shih wrote about yesterday. I don't disagree with some of the problems he raised--homelessness (NOT "the homeless," a major distinction), public transit, etc. But Y-Combinator-backed asshole Shih is using his position as Airbrite/Celery co-founder to make misogynistic statements, transphobic jokes, heartless statements about the homeless, and demonstrate an infuriating inability to empathize with the city around him. Any valid concerns the guy makes are locked away forever behind his own hateful bullshit. That's not the kind of person I whose company I wish well, and not a person who I want to see represent tech in San Francisco.
Ollie goes on to say, "Peter Shih reveals another big problem with San Francisco: the built-in misogyny, bigotry, and selfishness of the empowered tech class. Peter Shih is not the biggest problem, by any means, but he's the most recently visible."
Previously: Startup Bro Not Completely Stoked On S.F.'s Startup Bro Scene