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Would there have been a way to keep them at least neutral with nothing more than flattery?

You can mock lack or laugh at it. But if your self image is tied to feeling like the nerd building and innovating large business and being treated lower than PE wealth extractors, it's going to hurt. Ultimately they took a gambit the corrupt dude would be corrupt for them to fix that.

I think this is an insider perspective but doesn’t really matching the experience of workers or users.

Invalidated! I'm crushed. www.wsj.com/articles/vc-...

I think it’s less worker power and more privacy, consumer rights, and antitrust.

Paulina Borsook called this out almost 25 years ago! www.cyberselfish.com

So, Revenge of the (Edgelord) Nerds, Early 21st Century Late-Stage Capitalism Edition?

Radical wealth untethers people, especially those who are basically morally indifferent. They start by voting their book, then look to manipulate the outcomes to achieve whatever billionaire bro outcomes they now fancy

Well, they were significantly different in their agenda and focus and power then, too. Have talked to him a good bit about this.

Correct. Obama helped Musk a lot. Because we think our government should shovel our currency to the top of the economy with no strings attached While the masses are poor or rely on bank loans to fuel household consumption

Privatizing space is insane It’s creating a state within a state And the problem is that we no longer understand that a corporate charter is just a law that says: Here you go. You have tons of power to organize our economy

Yep. They are who they are. Great point on the flattery aspects of the bullshit narratives that sway them.

What amazes me is how little they tend to understand actual tech, too. Like, sure, they love to think of themselves as smarter than everyone but if they need to print something off their phone they’re totally helpless.

“tech lord” is the explanation. They believe their brilliance renders them superior to all others, therefore they should rule the ignorant masses.

It’s just like imagine Kendall Roy

💯💯💯

Also, laughably un tech savvy. Like the kind of guy who would need an interns help to edit a pdf

Elections are about who shows up and votes. The sample's characteristics and the population's characteristics are rarely the same when the sample is self selected (ie through voluntary voting)

It turns out that gov’t’s create quite a lot of legitimacy! Who knew? /s

And what workplace and consumer safety regulators could do to complicate his situations.

Honestly the level of ignorance he brings, is astonishing. I also don’t understand why the Tesla shareholders or his creditors & clients at other companies tolerate all the BS, because he is doing a bad job, period.

Blaming the drugs for his behavior is a bit lazy, IMO. The drugs didn't make him a racist entitled, self-serving prick; he was one already and the drugs accentuated that.

This. They are greedy, they are selfish, they think they are smarter than everyone, and they hate women so of course they are going to go GOP when they find a made up reason to justify it.

They don’t want to hear it.

* Markets Not “marchers”

Is there any actual evidence that Silicon Valley tilted particularly rightward or did the Libertarian regressive elements that always existed there just combine in a new meaningful way with other aligned ideologues this election?

Yeah there truly is.

It’s rather simple & human that way. A terrible way, to be sure.

Do you think we would be here if Biden had invited Elmu to the Electric Vehicle Summit?

He didn’t win INVESTIGATION NEEDED

So in the absence of a business reason to be mildly left-leaning, they're instead going for the default billionaire stance of "who lets us solidify our money & power the most?"

All of that plus just Leon going nuclear on trans because of his daughter

Above all they are insecure

Oh yeah, I remember that bullshit!

Oh, I don’t agree with them. I think it’s asinine. Was more just underscoring what Anil was saying about the thinking

They are acting like non-suped Homelander and their power is money and influence… but absolutely need constant adoration

They were always libertarian not liberal. They always wanted less rules for them and more rules for everyone else. Uber wasn't started by middle aged guys, but it is one of the most anti-labor companies that exists today.

Me too.

I’d add that perhaps more than other industries, “making it” is defined as becoming one of the vaunted founders of unicorns. Classic American story of being anti-taxing the billionaires because then I’d be taxed when I’m a billionaire.

A combination of rising working power and Biden admin regulatory chops as evidenced in FTC, SEC and CFPB - the broligarchs hate all that. Oh, and the executive order to mandate responsible GenAI dvlpmnt …

Male Gen X'rs screwed us...they've always been major rethugs and they love mango mussolini. I'm a GenX female and had to be in school with these assholes...in the south...it wasn't fun.

It’s also true that high-risk capital favors cluster b pathologies over all other traits in the founders they fund. They strongly disfavor empathy and rule-following behaviors.

Agreed. A lot of entrepreneurs - and nearly all “disrupters” - like the smell of their own farts and after finding success think everyone else owes them everything which fits the “don’t take my money” anti-tax libertarian ass buckets.

Or taxes. Harris' promise to make billionaires pay more in taxes. And they should be paying A LOT more. Basically, turn the billionaires all into millionaires. Boo Fucking Hoo! Anyway, that's my father-in-law's theory and he was dean of a business school for a long time.

I’ve worked with these guys my entire career. In the 90s we built our own desks and created the new economy. When the stock options vested and the money got huge, they convinced themselves it wasn’t luck, it was their brilliance. That should not be questioned. They know best.

I don't know how you've handled working with these type of folks, Anil. It would have broken me.

That tracks!

I think this is true.

They freaked over their workers having more power post pandemic and saw their vc friends targeted by me to. What’s the phrase, for those in power equality feels like fascism

Add to that a generation or two of pushing STEM and ignoring humanities.

I think I level of education is most telling with this election.

Yep, garbage trained on garbage trained on garbage...

it's a capital strike and it has been since at least the coordinated layoffs started

Most of it feels like a lifetime ago, but this year I’ve been very in my feelings about it. My daughter decided to study computer science, and it’s brought up memories of my younger years. Not all good.

They still have infested this space plenty, but the corporate values overrule that enough that as a woman I’ve enjoyed it a lot more.

“Rising worker power” 🎯🎯