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Comment by Trasmatta | Hacker News Reader

I'm extremely disillusioned by the number of people in tech who are supporting Trump despite things like this.

Perhaps we are confusing what we mean by "people in tech".

There are some people in tech who are inventing new algorithms, proving new theorems, developing new frameworks and moving technology further.

There are the "people in tech" who are entrepreneurs. To make money, they rely on tech, sure. But their philosophy is not inherently different from an entrepreneur who is in some other industry.

There is definitely some overlap between the two sets, for sure. But we cant draw the same conclusion about both of these sets of people

The oligarchy is backedby middle managers with 401ks directly dependent on their success.

The march to this point is the use of capitalism to drive out socialism to implement racism. Its just now that the ends meet the justified means.

It would suck then if the oligarchy comes for their 401ks.

401k’s? oligarch have 401k’s? you meant peasants who voted for them from Pennsylvania/Nevada/Georgia have 401k’s (few of them at least might…)?

Well, the 401ks are the market so its both healthcare and retirement plans. No, theyre going to kill medicare and social security. Truly isolate people as feudal slaves.

> extremely disillusioned by the number of people in tech who are supporting Trump despite things like this

more egregiously, he tried to have the results of an election illegally overturned, incited the storming of the Capitol (and threats on elected officials), and today pardoned all those who did so (so obviously he was on their side; just think for a moment how that is going to embolden them)

we can argue about the merits of D vs R policies, but Trump is an affront to our democracy; shame on him and shame on all those who enable him

why do you think people support him? in tech and in general?

social engineering usually amplifies what already exists

When you look at the people that stand lockstep with pg, or viciously defense Elon Musk as he openly admits to being a fake gamer it becomes clear that this was going to be the next step. The tech oligarchs have formed a cult of personality around themselves and have no problem setting the world on fire for an additional buck.

I think the only thing that'll end up shaking people awake is when said oligarchs finally get their way and crash the economy in a way that everyone feels. Because as rich as they are, we're ruled by the dumbest oligarchs alive.

pg supported Harris:

https://www.businessinsider.com/y-combinator-paul-graham-say...

I rooted for Trump precisely for things like this.

Agreed, if he is damaging enough maybe some folks will finally get the message.

What message?

Why?

Disclosure: I don’t believe in individual rights, I think we should hold people down and vaccinate them for the good of the community. But the UN sucks. My dad worked for a USAID contractor his whole career doing international development, and he says the UN is the most bureaucratic and ineffective organization in the world. It’s giant bureaucracy dragged down by all the third world countries that couldn’t efficiently run a popsicle stand.

There’s nothing the US needs to do in the area of health that it needs to do within the context of the WHO.

You don't believe in individual rights and think we should hold people down vaccinate them? That's pretty disgusting.

If the population of a nation trusts each other, shares goals, has a common base knowledge grounded in shared reality, enjoys a standard of living that doesn't make them suffer, etc, you don't need to hold people down to forcefully make them do anything.

A population like that wants to help each other, not outdo each other, not compete with each other over who is more divisive, and so on.

It can be argued that the WHO is a politically influenced organization that made serious mistakes during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, it relied on incomplete or misleading information provided by China in the early stages of the outbreak, which delayed global recognition of the virus’s severity. Additionally, the WHO supported the use of cloth masks long after it became clear that they were largely ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Trump supporters, like myself, think it’s smart not to reduce our nation’s sovereignty by kowtowing to the WHO. We as a nation can make appropriate health decisions.

The WHO is a mechanism to allow a degree of cooperation among the world’s nations on matters of public health. It’s imperfect, as any organisation with such a difficult scope would be.

But the world needs some way to cooperate, especially in matters of public health which do not care about national borders. Casually throwing that away for short term political theatre is so painfully stupid.

Also, no one kowtows to the WHO and no one gives up national sovereignty over their own health decisions. What led you to believe this?

I’m not. They’ve had a front row seat to the last 4 years.

Even the true Blue democrats are jumping ship. What does that tell you?

> Even the true Blue democrats are jumping ship. What does that tell you?

Who are all these true-blue Democrats that are now MAGA?

84% of non-religious white college grads voted for Harris[1]. What this tells me is that this presidency is simply the poorly educated and the believers in the supernatural getting their turn at bat. Oh well, I'll benefit more from the inevitable tax cut for the rich than they will.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-result...

lol, it’s incredible how the virtual signallibg left goes with “white, educated” when they lose power.

What are you saying? That the smart, white people voted for Democrats and clearly they always chose correctly?

This is such nonsense. You're holding an elitist view that does not even evidence the intelligence that you claim. These "college grads," you say, what are their degrees? We have college grads these days that went through school without even reading one book. These statistics lump together someone with a physics degree or even a philosophy degree with those with a "gender studies" or "communications" degree; many of these people are baristas at Starbucks but this kind of tactic tries to make it seem that this group are the intelligentsia. Please. I think you will find there are plenty of people more educated than yourself that voted for him.

> What does that tell you?

Tech bros are not immune to populism

> What does that tell you?

they're just chasing the money, and to hell with the rest

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