Elon Musk's Statement on His Membership in the Presidential Advisory Forum | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk's Statement on His Membership in the Presidential Advisory Forum

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6 pointsnickjarboe5 comments

What chance you think people like Musk should take really depends on whether you believe that our current President is willing to anyone other than his inner circle, or whether he cares about anyone outside of his base.

I tend to believe the answer to both questions is no, and that all the President's tech advisory council is accomplishing is giving him something to boast about. It may also be benefiting the individual companies that sit on it to the point that they are willing to play along with Trump's agenda.

Even if it doesn't work, the reality is: He's the President. Advising him may not help, but refusing to advise him -definitely- won't help.

We don't have to like him, but he's there. He was elected. And God help him and us survive it. And if there's even a 2% chance Elon Musk or anyone else can make a difference, they should go for it.

> Even if it doesn't work, the reality is: He's the President. Advising him may not help, but refusing to advise him -definitely- won't help.

The President is not all powerful, and is subject to both formal and informal constraints. Visible opposition (or even lack of visible support) can fairly directly contribute to the informal constraints, and increase political pressure on the institutions, particularly Congress, which exercise formal restraints. And, thus, definitely can help.

> tech advisory council

It's not tech specific. I think it has more finance CEOs than tech, even if we're fairly generous about who's a "tech CEO".

Great news. The more rational and intelligent people stop boycotting and actually start debating and working to convince / give their good advice to the POTUS the better. At the end of the day, he and his team are making decisions for the whole country and that team should be as well informed as possible.

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