4 ms·

As a product decision, I agree. But I think that can still be addressed separately from the fact that all the tech leaders in Silicon Valley are bending the kn

As a product decision, I agree. But I think that can still be addressed separately from the fact that all the tech leaders in Silicon Valley are bending the knee to Trump (e.g. the Mar-a-Lago visits, the "donations" to his inauguration, etc.) I'll give you an example I find analogous. When Bezos forbid the Washington Post from giving a presidential endorsement, he wrote an op-ed, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezo.... I pretty much agreed with the vast majority of what he wrote there. What I think is total BS, though, is his purported rationale and the timing of the decision. I think it's absolutely clear he did it because he didn't want to piss off Trump should he win (the "obeying in advance" part), which he did. The reason I believe this is because he made this decision so close to the election, and he apparently didn't feel the need to do this in previous years, or even the fact that WaPo made other political endorsements (e.g. Senate races in Maryland and VA) just before the presidential endorsement was banned. Bezos subsequent Mar-a-Lago visits and Amazon's inauguration "donation" pretty much confirm my view in my opinion. In Zuckerberg's announcement, I thought the part he put in about fact checkers being "politically biased" was unnecessary (not to mention dubious IMO), and cleared seemed done to curry favor with the current powers that be.

tptacek 2y ago
As someone active in "resistance"-type organization from 2017-2021, with fundamentally the same politics now as I had then: I think all this "bend the knees" shit is mostly working to the benefit of the GOP, and I wish people would stop it. We lost an election, in part because we bet that the median voter was prepared to disqualify MAGA Republicans. They are not. Find a new angle, so we can win in the midterms. This isn't working.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  I'm not trying to convince other voters. The "bend the knee" shit is not something I'm saying to try to change opinions. Like you say, clearly the majority of Americans don't care. But it I'm pretty surprised at the outright transparent speed with which all these business leaders were willing to pay these naked fealty bribes, especially since for so long so many of them talked about these lofty goals besides just making money. Italians in the 1930s didn't care either when Mussolini made corporations an arm of the state. But that doesn't mean what is happening now is any different.
  - tptacek 2y ago
    I'm pretty sure they do this every cycle no matter who wins, but Democrats notice and recoil when it happens after a Republican win, and vice versa. There's also a titration of the news media mining clicks from a framing that de-"normalizes" the Trump administration. But that ship has sailed: you could say "This Is Not Normal" in 2017, which was a fluke nobody saw coming, but Trump won decisively this cycle, and absolutely everybody knew what we were getting into. It's time for the media to retire the schtick.
    - JeremyNT 2y ago
      Is it a "schtick" to report such brazen cronyism? I agree with the parent that Americans in general seem not to mind corruption, but we can't become so jaded as to think that it's not even worth mentioning that this is a problem.
      - tptacek 2y ago
        Referring to public company CEOs warmly greeting the newly elected president as "brazen cronyism" is a schtick, yes. It annoys me a lot that I have to point things like this out, because I think Trump is a grave problem for the country, but you have to beat him at the ballot box, and the schtick obviously isn't working there.
        xorcist 2y ago
        Moving employee jurisdiction to suit the incoming administration is hardly the same as a warm greeting though, is it? In my country we have a different word for people giving large sums of money as gifts to incoming politicians, yet we seldom impose that definition on others. US politics is different and affects the climate here too, even though that population is around 20% or less of all Facebook users.
        mythrwy 2y ago
        The way to win is with a more appealing set of policy proposals. More centralized government control, "Karen" style moralizing, DEI, gun banning, global warming, more bureaucratic (and ineffective) regulation, abortions everywhere and the entire "woke" platform apparently isn't it. I'd suggest defocusing on those and instead return to being the party of the "working man" and a stable economy. "Wealthy corporations want to force you to work 80 hours a week to enjoy unfair profits or they will replace you with immigrant labor" should be the vibe while never once speaking about things like systemic racism or climate change. Also "the rent is too damn high!". Definitely don't have the party fronted by people who appear airheaded or unintelligent. You have to speak to the concerns of the voter which I think are individual freedom and economic prosperity. Once in power you can do whatever you like of course, as is traditional in politics and Trump won't be any exception.

tptacek 2y ago

As someone active in "resistance"-type organization from 2017-2021, with fundamentally the same politics now as I had then: I think all this "bend the knees" shit is mostly working to the benefit of the GOP, and I wish people would stop it. We lost an election, in part because we bet that the median voter was prepared to disqualify MAGA Republicans. They are not. Find a new angle, so we can win in the midterms. This isn't working.

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
I'm not trying to convince other voters. The "bend the knee" shit is not something I'm saying to try to change opinions. Like you say, clearly the majority of Americans don't care. But it I'm pretty surprised at the outright transparent speed with which all these business leaders were willing to pay these naked fealty bribes, especially since for so long so many of them talked about these lofty goals besides just making money. Italians in the 1930s didn't care either when Mussolini made corporations an arm of the state. But that doesn't mean what is happening now is any different.
- tptacek 2y ago
  I'm pretty sure they do this every cycle no matter who wins, but Democrats notice and recoil when it happens after a Republican win, and vice versa. There's also a titration of the news media mining clicks from a framing that de-"normalizes" the Trump administration. But that ship has sailed: you could say "This Is Not Normal" in 2017, which was a fluke nobody saw coming, but Trump won decisively this cycle, and absolutely everybody knew what we were getting into. It's time for the media to retire the schtick.
  - JeremyNT 2y ago
    Is it a "schtick" to report such brazen cronyism? I agree with the parent that Americans in general seem not to mind corruption, but we can't become so jaded as to think that it's not even worth mentioning that this is a problem.
    - tptacek 2y ago
      Referring to public company CEOs warmly greeting the newly elected president as "brazen cronyism" is a schtick, yes. It annoys me a lot that I have to point things like this out, because I think Trump is a grave problem for the country, but you have to beat him at the ballot box, and the schtick obviously isn't working there.
      - xorcist 2y ago
        Moving employee jurisdiction to suit the incoming administration is hardly the same as a warm greeting though, is it? In my country we have a different word for people giving large sums of money as gifts to incoming politicians, yet we seldom impose that definition on others. US politics is different and affects the climate here too, even though that population is around 20% or less of all Facebook users.
      - mythrwy 2y ago
        The way to win is with a more appealing set of policy proposals. More centralized government control, "Karen" style moralizing, DEI, gun banning, global warming, more bureaucratic (and ineffective) regulation, abortions everywhere and the entire "woke" platform apparently isn't it. I'd suggest defocusing on those and instead return to being the party of the "working man" and a stable economy. "Wealthy corporations want to force you to work 80 hours a week to enjoy unfair profits or they will replace you with immigrant labor" should be the vibe while never once speaking about things like systemic racism or climate change. Also "the rent is too damn high!". Definitely don't have the party fronted by people who appear airheaded or unintelligent. You have to speak to the concerns of the voter which I think are individual freedom and economic prosperity. Once in power you can do whatever you like of course, as is traditional in politics and Trump won't be any exception.