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Comment by sgnelson | Hacker News Reader

Because this is not about tech, this is just politics. /s

One thing I've learned since last year; a lot of the tech bros seem to really love fascism. Many others go along to get along. And some hide behind a veneer of "impartiality" to continue to stay in their bubbles. Looking at you ycombinator/hackernews.

Things have changed, but some of these people love it; more money and power for themselves. Some are afraid of rocking the boat, and some choose to maintain willfull ignorance.

I feel like I'm living in a black mirror/silicon valley hybrid tv episode.

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>One thing I've learned since last year; a lot of the tech bros seem to really love fascism.

The current tech-feudalism/AI accelerationist/neo-nazi flavor of American fascism was created by tech bros and nerds who have been deeply influential within the tech community - Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel and the like, and this forum is the nexus of it. The anarchist/anti-capitalist/liberationist strain of hacker culture seems all but dead now.

I really miss the anarcho hacker days, those people were cool

Hacker News is primarily read by young, affluent, intelligent men. In the old days, people like us would often fall hard for Ayn Rand's bullshit (I know I did!), now they fall for this new bullshit.

Really, it's the same thing though - it feels good to have someone tell you that you are exceptional and that your biggest problem is that someone (women, minorities, The Man, bureaucrats) is holding you back from becoming the next Steve Jobs or Frank Lloyd Wright.

You gotta understand that most people are not principled and operate solely on a vibes-based ethical framework: "If it feels good, it's probably right."

The intelligence part is debatable. Clever, maybe, but "clever" is not necessarily intelligent. The latter is commonly taken to be a matter of depth and consideration as well as sharpness, and if you fall hard for "Ayn Rand's bullshit", you probably have neither (if not the capacity to develop them).

I'm not sure if it's "a lot", or more than the general population. I think last time I checked about 40% of the US population still approved of Trump... :-/

But yeah, there's definitely a streak of that, and it also seems people are more bold/outspoken in ways that I didn't see before. Not long ago I saw someone argue that some children TV show was woke garbage because ... it featured mixed race couple. What the actual fuck? "Hi, I'm from the KKK, and I'm wondering if you have time for a chat about the darkies and Jews?"

When that Google AI was doing crazy stuff such as displaying black Nazi soldiers, the Musk crowd was all over it (and according to many, the only possible answer was that it's a woke soyboi beta cuck brainwash attempt). But God forbid Musk does anything wrong... then it's "no politics on HN".

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