> What these tech oligarchs are ultimately telling us, dear friend, is that they simply don’t care about us, and when they finally pillage every last resource the Earth has to offer, they’ll happily throw back $64 olive oil shots while dancing like idiots on our graves.
During Trump 1, race and identity were the motivating factors. It’s looking more and more that class becomes the motivating, uniting factor of whatever opposing coalition. comes next. A broad, class-based coalition would be electorally formidable. If the economy tanks due to (AI, tariffs, inflation etc) the result could be fairly revolutionary for these billionaires that have shirked social responsibility.
bix6 · 3m ago
Money is a sickness and it’s got a stranglehold on the bay.
kerpal · 13m ago
Author makes some good points though, I think many of us are feeling a bit of AI fatigue. There's so many platforms and services available now, and a large group will likely be vaporware soon as the market battle plays out.
I'll admit these "far right" labels don't hold much weight, usually just a way to expose yourself (the author here). But I agree with much of the overall sentiment of the article. The AI hype feels a bit dystopian and I say that as someone who has been heavily using LLMs since 2023.
They're very useful but we also have to ask ourselves what the world will look like if we automate everyone out of a job.
lenerdenator · 4m ago
... that's scary, because the old one was pretty damned sinister.
Everything that exists now is just a product of what was. You don't have a bunch of people acting as religious fanatics with AI replacing God unless there was a real culture that was okay with that to begin with.
guywithahat · 37m ago
This author seems to have trouble distinguishing between things she doesn't like and far-right. I don't think downtown SF is "exalt" with far-right inhabitants, and given the largest AI firms are run by a gay man, climate man, and a company who build their brand on left-wing "alignment" I don't think the industry is "exalt" among the right either.
lenerdenator · 17s ago
The current far-right is ultimately Social Darwinism repackaged into a hoodie with an ironic vibe.
These people ultimately see themselves as the elite and those who have misgivings about their work as "less than". To oppose things like mass tech surveillance and mass unemployment through AI isn't just a thing born out of concerns held by many people, it's a literal attack on the order of nature. If your concerns were worth anything, you'd be sharing it with them at an esoteric corporate-backed technology foundation retreat or at a Mar-a-Lago lunch, but you're not.
grammarpolice17 · 22m ago
That's not how the word exalt works, even if you put it in scare quotes.
treyd · 24m ago
It's possible to be gay and be far-right. Most people have some internal conflicts in their personal political positions, if they even think it through that far.
If you're a billionaire, your class interest in protecting capital usually overrides social interests and alliances.
eltondegeneres · 16m ago
> It's possible to be gay and be far-right
It's not uncommon either. Ernst Röhm comes to mind, but there are plenty of contemporary examples too.
quesera · 18m ago
Exalt is a verb. And it's used properly in the article.
I have no idea what you're doing with it.
softwaredoug · 23m ago
It was useful during a talent crunch for CEOs to signal they are left-leaning. In reality their left-leaning stance was just as performative as any cozying-up to Trump, etc.
stego-tech · 4m ago
Literally this. There is no leftist billionaire tech CEO because you cannot both be a billionaire and also have leftist ideals. The two are fundamentally incompatible.
aeternum · 12m ago
Consider that they could have changed their mind given the increased rhetoric against billionaires and ceos, blocked m&a, and attempted use of the judicial rather than legislature to make rules for companies. (I did)
Molitor5901 · 30m ago
To me it felt a little more about being left behind. I felt this undercurrent of bitterness that the city the author once exalted, through the tech boom, the tech bro era, is leaving her behind, and in its place are the natural progressions of that era she whims nostalgically about.
Like the factory towns of the pre-digital era, when it's good it's great, but when they leave, innovate away, or move on it can leave those behind feeling cheated.
andy99 · 26m ago
Yeah I let that go, it seems to be following Orwell's "fascist means anything we don't like" observation. Otherwise I think there is some grain of truth to the high level observations in article, even if the treatment is pretty shallow.
During Trump 1, race and identity were the motivating factors. It’s looking more and more that class becomes the motivating, uniting factor of whatever opposing coalition. comes next. A broad, class-based coalition would be electorally formidable. If the economy tanks due to (AI, tariffs, inflation etc) the result could be fairly revolutionary for these billionaires that have shirked social responsibility.
I'll admit these "far right" labels don't hold much weight, usually just a way to expose yourself (the author here). But I agree with much of the overall sentiment of the article. The AI hype feels a bit dystopian and I say that as someone who has been heavily using LLMs since 2023.
They're very useful but we also have to ask ourselves what the world will look like if we automate everyone out of a job.
Everything that exists now is just a product of what was. You don't have a bunch of people acting as religious fanatics with AI replacing God unless there was a real culture that was okay with that to begin with.
These people ultimately see themselves as the elite and those who have misgivings about their work as "less than". To oppose things like mass tech surveillance and mass unemployment through AI isn't just a thing born out of concerns held by many people, it's a literal attack on the order of nature. If your concerns were worth anything, you'd be sharing it with them at an esoteric corporate-backed technology foundation retreat or at a Mar-a-Lago lunch, but you're not.
If you're a billionaire, your class interest in protecting capital usually overrides social interests and alliances.
It's not uncommon either. Ernst Röhm comes to mind, but there are plenty of contemporary examples too.
I have no idea what you're doing with it.
Like the factory towns of the pre-digital era, when it's good it's great, but when they leave, innovate away, or move on it can leave those behind feeling cheated.