Cheap take: no matter where you fall on the entire political spectrum, this implosion is incredibly entertaining, even if predicted for a long time now. Musk has managed to unite bitter political divisions against him. It's impressive really.
In the absence of substantive accomplishment, dramatic reality show soma has replaced leadership with a staged performance art that caters to social hierarchy and in-group approval rather than real, stable, effective, efficient benefit and happiness for the protection and thriving of most individuals' needs.
Do you have any evidence for this or is it just speculation? Their drama seem real enough given an elderly con artist and a neurto-atypical weirdo doing lots of drugs, where both seem rather megalomaniacal and used to getting their ways. They're competing for attention, approval, and power.
Part of being a political pundit is getting. blindsided. every. time. You’ve got to be Nate Silver to just be wrong only half the time!
If I drank on Sunday mornings I could have gotten hammered having a drink every time Cokie Roberts said something was ‘unprecedented’ that Nixon did back when Cokie was getting started in her career.
The speed of the implosion is still surprising, as is the fact that Elon mentioned Epstein. It is a much bigger deal to say that Trump is a pedophile (under blackmail by Mossad/CIA)
> It is a much bigger deal to say that Trump is a pedophile (under blackmail by Mossad/CIA)
Did Elon mention Mossad or the CIA at all? I didn't see that, he only mentioned that Trump is in the Epstien files as far as I know. Which I thought we already knew from the released address book and flight logs.
I am sorry but why do Thiel and Musk represent the Valley? They are outsiders who by all account are mentally ill and have more skeletons in their closets than a European monarch. I feel the Valley preceded these charlatans. Neither of them contribute much (SpaceX is unregulated nasa, thiel makes with palantir surveillance to target and maim children through drones). They are less technically savvy than an undergrad at CMU or Berkeley. Those who idolize them need a reality check
This was the obvious outcome of the rich tech crowd trying to play politics. No, you were never "one of the good ones" in the American right wing's eyes. They hate you and everything you stand for. They are not interested in building an efficient government. They are not interested in fiscal conservatism. They are not interested in freedom of speech or any other kind of freedom. Libertarianism is just a fantasy in your own head. They, like all other political blocs, want power, and will use you however they need to get it. All they needed to do was stroke your ego a little bit ("yeah, you tech people are smart and can totally fix the government in a week") and here we are.
Even weirder that this definition holds even here on HN, a site literally dedicated (originally) to Building Something People Want.
The whole demographic of the "tech" scene has shifted from products to finance, up and down the stack. And that's absolutely being reflected in the political cynicism we're seeing. Tech bros couldn't get what they wanted from a Democratic administration so they figured they'd just grease a few orange palms and get it from republicans.
What no one predicted, though, was the abject buffoonery of the whole process. Watching billionaire after billionaire get played, laughed at and discarded by a Trump administration that never cared a bit about any of the issues the VC set wants is just amazing. These are the people we're supposed to trust to guide us into the future?
> Even weirder that this definition holds even here on HN,
I think that a discussion forum sponsored by a startup accelerator in a particular industry being biased to the interests of capital investors in that industry is a very good contender for the least surprising fact in the world.
That might sound mercenary and spineless, but usually that's how politics works. You shop around for your best shot for getting your policy chosen. This isn't Political Simulator where you play the Political Compass game to figure out your ideology and then join a movement.
That's exactly how Labor in the US defected to Trump too btw. Politics isn't political science.
This is also my problem with online discussions in the US Left. Politics is more than just policy positions, it also needs to focus on strategies, solutions, and coalitions. But online the only thing that folks seem interested in talking about is why the US can't implement some EU policy.
"How politics works" usually involves people reaching compromise and getting some of what they want, not shrieking off in a tiff and accusing the president of human trafficing or whatever.
I'm not following at all. This seems like the opposite of "how politics works".
HN is about the Austin of tech sites. It sounds like a really awesome place where people are inventing cool things. Then the techbros show up and start techbro-ing and it becomes a bit less cool. Then the VC's show up and start drawing out the engineers and techbros and … well, you get HN.
Lobste.rs is where stuff is actually getting done without much comment.
It's pretty much a guarantee that Musk has copies of federal tax, healthcare, social security, immigration and several other databases on his private servers. DOGE illegally got unrestricted and unaudited access to all of it. His underlings might have privately made copies as well. They were (and probably still are) operating outside the US government structure and laws. None of the employees have security clearance. Musk himself was never officially a government employee, yet had unrestricted authority over the department. What do you think he's going to do with it now?
It's not open: DOGE is overseen by Russell Vought, Christian Nationalist and orchestrator of Project 2025. We're on the brink of a fully post-Constitutional government and it's happened in plain sight.
Early in my career I had this naive starry eyed vision of tech industry being “one of the good people.” Google’s “don’t be evil” motto, companies building stuff to actually help people, solving interesting problems, good work/life balance, etc.
Then I grew up. But after post covid boom layoffs and the last election, I realized it’s no different than any other industry including tobacco and oil who actively harm the public for short term gains. I hate that upper strata with a passion.
I don't think it's you, or me, or us. Tech changed, not us.
The tech industry ethos of the 1960's and 1970's was exterminated by the same get-rich-quick crowd that ruined real estate, broadcasting, and a dozen other industries.
The fervor and excitement over developing AI to replace their employees, who they view with outright contempt, has been particularly eye opening as well.
he's in charge of the company until and unless they sack him, and he chose to give money to Trump and to stand around like a supplicant, same as the rest.
> he's in charge of the company until and unless they sack him
No, not exactly, he is given orders how to run it. A CEO cannot go against the owners, he is just there as an administrator/bureaucrat. A CEO that doesn't follow the owners orders will stop being a CEO very quickly, just like any other worker that doesn't follow orders.
> The person lamented the ongoing economic volatility — caused by tariffs and Trump’s unpredictability — during a presidency that they had been promised would be a boon to business. “We’re all experiencing a liquidity crunch,” they said. “We need public markets to open.”
"Promised", boohoo. These people really don't understand what a society is and are operating at the level of toddlers to put it mildly.
If they ever manage to destroy many jobs by building strong AI, we will hear "We're experiencing a lack of demand".
What awkward questions? They're pretty open about their thinking. Why are we all still pretending that supporting Trump, who won the popular vote btw, is some fringe position to take in America?
There are a lot of situations and policies which are clearly prone to ‘leopards eating faces’ type situations around Trump, and won’t look good when it comes around like it inevitably will.
the awkward questions are going to be of the form ‘what the fuck did you think was going to happen’?
I don't think anyone is pretending it's a fringe position, but maybe people expect smart people to be smart. Personally I don't think many of the billionaire Silicon Valley set were supporting him ideologically, more that they're cowardly, milquetoast lickspittles who care more about their bank balance than anything else.
What does the awkwardness of question has to do with whether Trump won the popular vote or not? Hitler was popular in Germany and there were plenty of awkward questions later.
Trump "won the popular vote" with the support of less than 30% of the total population, and a little less than 50% of the population who voted. That isn't fringe (although what even is fringe anymore,) but neither is it mainstream.
> Trump "won the popular vote" with the support of less than 30% of the total population
What makes you think that all the people who didn't vote not support him for President? There's polling that shows the opposite, that his margins would increase if the turnout was higher.
>What makes you think that all the people who didn't vote not support him for President?
If you're talking about the popular vote, only the people who vote matter. I'm sure there are people who didn't vote for Trump but who support him. Certainly a lot of leftists and erstwhile Democrats stayed home or voted third party because they were disillusioned with Kamala Harris, which implicitly supports whatever the status quo winds up being.
You can find polling that supports just about any narrative you like, but I don't think you can find much objective evidence that a significant majority of the American population supports Trump but most just didn't care enough to show up to the polls. Votes are the only objective data showing intent that we have, and they don't seem to indicate a sweeping mandate on Trump's behalf.
