Tech Ceos Take Turns Praising Trump at White House Dinner
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Tech CEOs praised Trump at a White House dinner, sparking widespread criticism and disappointment among HN commenters who saw it as a sign of the industry's moral compromise and coziness with controversial figures.
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It's a categorical error. Like expecting a boat captain to be Descartes because they're good at leading people to operate a boat (or, for that matter, expecting Descartes to take first in a marathon because he was really good at applying logic to philosophical questions).
I think it's easy for people to make this error because humans like heroes; heroes simplify things. We want to believe that the people who are succeeding are succeeding because they're virtuous, not because (just spitballing here) the mechanisms we use to evaluate success are fundamentally detached from (if not opposed to) "virtue" as most people would understand the concept. if the latter is true, the world is far messier.
Sometimes it takes all those people voluntarily sitting at the same table as a convicted, unrepentant, and unpunished sexual abuser for the outside observer to "get" it.
Perhaps the still-open question is "Now what should one do with that knowledge?"
I’m well aware of that, no need to get all pedagogical. The system is quite far from what I favour. I’m saying that we shouldn’t be shrugging and saying “well that’s just what they are”, it’s no excuse.
Their forebears, sadly, did not. Specifically the ones who worked at IBM, but others as well.
What in the world is wrong with this man?
In Soviet Union it was a sign of loyalty not to question obviously false statistics and news. In Joe Rogan's circles is laughing at his shit jokes and praising his comic abilities in his podcast.
not to excuse the brazenness of it - i'm as disgusted as you are.
The entire industry gladly dropped their masks. Quite the irony, for a group of people that takes so much pride in "thinking different" and "changing the world".
It just so happens when you have a fragile ego in power, people seeking power will naturally play to that ego for a leg up.
We knew before 2015 that he was easy to manipulate. Easy to push his buttons, easy to flatter.
Frankly if you are a CEO in 2015 and you aren’t flattering this idiot to profit then you are violating your duties to your shareholders
In other words, they are behaving as necessary (and as advised) to avoid later being exposed to a lawsuit.
Or your competitors will. It’s the cost of doing business.
Ah yes, because that's the only thing that matters. Nihilistic capitalism at its finest – there no morality beyond economics. Everything that makes economic sense is moral because it makes economic sense. Whether it actually does is rather dubious by the way, as all of this has the very real possibility of massively damage these businesses in the medium to long term – so also nihilistic short-termism at its finest.
Unless a nontrivial number of the people who are outraged either boycott Apple, Alphabet/Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, or sell their shares, or stop applying to work there then it'll prove that these CEOs were indeed making the right (financial) decision.
What began as feudal rent-seeking in England scaled into global capitalism, a system where those at the top still practice Norman-style exploitation for maximum extraction with no care about those being extracted from. It's all Norman-style exploitation for maximum extraction, stripped of any sense of community, obligation, or service.
It's all fun and games til his policies crash the economy.
Short-sighted perspectives yet again. Short term gains at the cost of long term viability.
I wish this would gain more publicity. But I guess people are already desensitized for such news.
-They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45, Milton Mayer
> But I guess people are already desensitized for such news.
Apple can do no wrong in the eyes of consumers. Tim Cook could be caught on video clubbing seals and nobody would bat an eye.
Much of the Musk blowback has been magnified by Tesla just not being very good cars (even if they have a great charging network). Consumers would quickly forget about Musk being a scumbag if Tesla produced good cars again.
LOOK AT THE FEAR.
These people are terrified. They are the controlling oligarchs of the USA.
The United States is in serious danger.
But if you find their behavior unconscionable and yet continue to work for Apple, Alphabet/Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, Oracle, etc then you're doing the same thing as your CEO, just at a smaller scale -- swallowing your pride to keep your job.
I can't speak to anyone else's situation, but until I built up the courage to quit such a situation myself I never realized how much these compromises weighed on my soul.
I stopped watching it a decade or more ago after becoming a bit repetitive and thought it went away like all the other things. Then the twitter spat with the WH made news and discovered it again.
This administration made it worth watching again for the funnies
I'm surprised Cook was there. I'm sad that I'm surprised Cook was there.
I can likely get away from macOS by EOY. But this phone has a stranglehold on my mobile, digital life.
He isn't responsible for this oddly-personal political system as it is, but he has to take advantage of those weaknesses.
You have had more than a decade to reconcile Tim Cook's friendship (or at least "business relationship") with Donald Trump.
If it disgusts you, then make a move. Cook isn't motivated by emotional pleas and the shareholders won't kick him out until he screws up as CEO.
None of these people will ever suffer any consequences for this.
The view from 'the other side' (from most of the HN readership that is) where the invited CEOs are seen as Some Of The Right’s Biggest Villains - i.e. nobody likes them. For many conservatives, it’s hard to wrap your brain around the visual of billionaire Bill Gates being seated next to a smiling Melania Trump at the recent event, especially given Gates’ villain-like status among Trump’s most loyal base.
This is some real end-of-a-republic degeneracy. Decades down the line, people will point to these events in history books to show that we weren’t remotely as civilized as we thought. In a just world everyone at this table would spend their retirement years in a cell.