Comment by dTal | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dTal | Hacker News Reader

This tacit endorsement by YCombinator of the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0], it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1].

I found myself hesitating to post this, here on news.ycombinator.com. This forum has always discouraged "politics". But in the final analysis, you cannot separate politics from everything else. The suffering and death that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are currently in the process of expediting[2] is no less real for being "political". And if criticizing YCombinator for endorsing - or at least turning a blind eye to - this death and suffering, is considered "off topic", then this will be my last comment on this platform.

[0] https://abcnews.go.com/US/openais-sam-altman-warned-america-...

[1] This video is currently trending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/donald...

I was debating with someone else on here that the "base layer" is "men with guns" [1]

They responded that the base layer is "money".

I have to concede that the behavior of Tech bosses is easier to explain using the money model.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42938656

> Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0],

Didn't the OpenAI drama (and the other stories about Altman that came out of that) already make it clear he is not a trustworthy person?

> it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1].

I'd take it farther: it's testament to a fundamental terribleness of computer geeks. I remember when people would say we'd make better leaders (and we'd say things like that to ourselves). It turns out our kind is way worse.

In fairness, most of these Trump lickers are not "computer geeks." They're venture capitalists and businessmen working in tech who pretend to be geeks.

> In fairness, most of these Trump lickers are not "computer geeks." They're venture capitalists and businessmen working in tech who pretend to be geeks.

I'm not so sure. For instance Marc Andreessen coded as a kid (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marc-Andreessen) and worked as a software developer employee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen#Early_life_and...). Elon Musk also coded as a kid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Early_life) and was doing development for his earliest startup (at least). They started as computer geeks and became "venture capitalists and businessmen" later.

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