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Comment by artursapek | Hacker News Reader

Sam gives off incredibly strong “pride cometh before the fall” energy.

There's certainly a part of me that wonders if Altman incorrectly assumes last year's rules still apply, when in fact he just ensured retribution from the man who counts all three branches of the United States government as his underlings.

Well, I certainly hope people like sama are still willing to push back, and don't just bend the knee immediately to President Musk. Surely there's at least one or two people out there in Silicon Valley that still have a backbone.

It's a sad state of affairs when the hope is that Elon's illegal ravaging is stopped by Sam Altman.

I think Sam is at least stubborn and willing to be ruthless, so I feel like he's a good person to stand his ground

Is that not the exact same argument people make for Musk?

Not that I agree with that position either, but interesting how those traits appear to be perceived positively now by some.

It's the kind of trait you perceive positively when they are applied against people you dislike, and you perceive negatively when they are used against you.

Don't be so glum, some of us like watching the rich eat each other for a change.

There's a difference between saying no and poking the bear. The reply was essentially a middle finger. A simple thanks but not at this time, or no reply at all, would probably have been a safer move. As CEO of a company, you should probably put said company's safety above pride. My .02.

That's not how you deal with Elon "Go Fuck Yourself, Bob" Musk.

Who are they? Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta have already kissed the ring

Microsoft is the most influential business wise, and they did not align themselves with the new administration.

Microsoft very much has. They've done a good job staying away from the photo-ops. https://www.semafor.com/article/01/15/2025/trump-musk-dined-...

I mean, Altman also wrote this (https://x.com/sama/status/1882234406662000833):

> watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap).

> i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!

Next: Trumps blasts OpenAI as "un-American" and DOJ opens an investigation into "improper x". Investors get nervous given Trump's unpredictability, share price drops. Elon et al get it for half price. Nice little scam.

(Not that I would feel bad. Altman can crash and burn and the world would be better off.)

Ah, but that’s assuming that things can’t go from bad to worse, which is a potentially fatal mistake to make.

To be fair, so does Musk.

So does Musk, and Trump, and Bernie, and AOC, and basically everyone who is a "personality" in today's America.

...which is probably accurate. I remember reading a r/AskHistorians question on why Robespierre was unable to maintain control of the Committee for Public Safety, and the answer was basically that in revolutionary France, everybody who stuck their neck out got it cut off. Within 10 years of the revolution's start, basically all of its leaders were dead. In times of crises, people with big egos volunteer to fix it, but the crises cannot be fixed, and then those egos become the scapegoats who are executed to salve the public's cries for blood.

I don't think Bernie fits here. You can disagree with him, but he basically makes political / policy comments (the same ones he's made for decades too.

AOC falls a bit into the twitter-feud commentary, but Musk and Trump are on another level of embarrassing, lie-filled, garbage (also at all hours of the night, I think which tells you something too)

You know who he is when I mention him by first name. That is what makes him a target, irrespective of the quality of his ideas or whether he's a decent person.

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