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Comment by taylodl | Hacker News Reader

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What? Paul Graham has been making statements that people found "too right wing" for at least 20 years. I have never seen him express pro-censorship or radical DEI views like the big U.S. corporations did.

We see now that all these corporations are A-grade hypocrites, which was already clear in 2020 but forbidden to say.

You cannot accuse Paul Graham for suddenly changing his views.

Can you provide a few examples? I honestly don't remember anything this bad

https://paulgraham.com/say.html

OP is basically an update of that after 20 years

Timing is everything. There's been a procession of tech leaders prostrating themselves before Trump, and Trump hasn't even had his coronation. Now Paul Graham has joined the fray.

So excuse me if I see it as a pathetic capitulation. A "me too" moment following all the other so-called tech leaders.

Most of them have just been handing Trump one million bucks of protection money. There is really no need to go above and beyond and post an article like this, Trump isn't even going to read it.

As many of us here who came from less fortunate places can tell this kind of adversity is the ultimate character test. Nobody is surprised with opportunists. But even among generally nice people, those infirm will fold and prostrate even before they are asked to.

https://x.com/search?q=trump+(from:paulg)

Some people are scared of what trump et al might do.

They'll do what we allow them to get away with. The quote "the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy" applies here. Trump is revealing who these people really are.

Saw yesterday a post on Reddit where someone proposes to change "et al" to "and gang" in academia. I think that would fit here much better.

Yeah, you're right. It would fit better but it's too late to edit the comment :/

Yes. What we're seeing here, and with Facebook and other platforms explicitly allowing racism and companies rolling back DEI, etc, is compliance in advance. It's a common fear response to authoritarianism. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.

I believe we are at last seeing the person for who they really are.

Not very many profiles in courage awards going around in silicon valley these days.

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