3 ms·

The "enlightened capitalism" meme has fallen hard. HN is itself as good an example as any. Compare early HN to now... People have the same view of media, tech

by netcan 2y ago

The "enlightened capitalism" meme has fallen hard. HN is itself as good an example as any. Compare early HN to now... People have the same view of media, tech companies and political parties as they do of cigarette companies or casinos.

cies 2y ago
They also betrayed us. One claimed "do no evil", when we still wondered "what evil can one do in search results". Now we know.
- bookaway 2y ago
  The double whammy may come when people realize, if they haven't already, that the "do no evil" guy (Paul Buchheit) and--at the individual level--many of the "enlightened" angel investor old guard have one by one decided that the current admin and broligarch movement is actually the lesser of two evils. PG being one of the few remaining holdouts, at least for now.
  - micromacrofoot 2y ago
    PG is out there ranting about "wokeism" like a lot of them now, he's losing the plot.
    - cies 2y ago
      I thought his "rant" was refreshing. I know the "woke" term from the last 5 years, but it apparently has a much longer history. Both PG and myself dont like the fact that it's so badly defined (while being heavily discussed). In my view the woke crowd did a lot of performative gestures w/o event attempting to really solve the underlying problems. PG also believes that way. The woke crowd does not actually discuss things: you are labelled a fascist, racist, transfobe, anti-semite or biggot before you can even make your point. So I've stopped discussing with them and stopped caring for being called these names.
      - micromacrofoot 2y ago
        > you are labelled a fascist, racist, transfobe, anti-semite or biggot before you can even make your point. So I've stopped discussing with them and stopped caring for being called these names. This is being severely co-opted by the alt-right to the point that people become apologists for Elon Musk doing multiple literal Nazi salutes at the US presidential inauguration. Decrying wokeness a week later in a meandering essay is about 8 years too late for the "well actually, some people do go too far with it" discussion. He could have written it at any point within the past decade, but doing it only after a change in who holds the purse strings is obviously just realignment for personal gain. You should indeed stop talking to people who only throw around pejoratives, but this doesn't mean we should discredit all related cause for alarm. Calling the richest man in the world a duck because he's walking like a duck isn't woke. Pretending otherwise is some emperor's new clothes nonsense.
        bookaway 2y ago
        Rightwing snowflakes are a thing, yeah. Bill Burr for one loves to roast them, as he did recently using the LA fires. Elon threw that salute because his man-child ego took a massive beating with the H1B rightwing in-fighting, when the white nationalist wing of Maga started screaming bloody murder at him and Vivek. It's a bullied kid trying to get back in the good graces of the extreme wing of Trump's base. This virtue signaling to your friends and then declaring it to be sarcasm or comedy when called out by your foes goes back to WWII times. [0] That being said, pg has been consistent on the woke stuff since back in the day. He wrote an essay called "What You Can't Say" over two decades ago, for god's sake. His timing on this essay was unfortunate. Although there's never a good time to publish stuff like this. He's also one of the lone "pro-Palestinian" VCs left out there, for what it's worth. [0] https://archive.is/HAE9v https://archive.is/HAE9v [1] https://paulgraham.com/say.html https://paulgraham.com/say.html
        ryandrake 2y ago
        "What You Can't Say" was silly back then, and is still silly now. Here's a guy with a huge online following, multiple channels for speaking his mind and getting his message out, yet complaining about a need to self-censor and that you can't say what you want. It reminds me of the "I Have Been Silenced" cartoon[1]. He also doesn't even list a specific example of something he wants to say but "can't." It's left up to our imagination. 1: https://i1.wp.com/leftycartoons.visionmule.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/08/silenced.png https://i1.wp.com/leftycartoons.visionmule.com/wp-content/up...

by netcan 2y ago

cies 2y ago

They also betrayed us. One claimed "do no evil", when we still wondered "what evil can one do in search results". Now we know.

bookaway 2y ago
The double whammy may come when people realize, if they haven't already, that the "do no evil" guy (Paul Buchheit) and--at the individual level--many of the "enlightened" angel investor old guard have one by one decided that the current admin and broligarch movement is actually the lesser of two evils. PG being one of the few remaining holdouts, at least for now.
- micromacrofoot 2y ago
  PG is out there ranting about "wokeism" like a lot of them now, he's losing the plot.
  - cies 2y ago
    I thought his "rant" was refreshing. I know the "woke" term from the last 5 years, but it apparently has a much longer history. Both PG and myself dont like the fact that it's so badly defined (while being heavily discussed). In my view the woke crowd did a lot of performative gestures w/o event attempting to really solve the underlying problems. PG also believes that way. The woke crowd does not actually discuss things: you are labelled a fascist, racist, transfobe, anti-semite or biggot before you can even make your point. So I've stopped discussing with them and stopped caring for being called these names.
    - micromacrofoot 2y ago
      > you are labelled a fascist, racist, transfobe, anti-semite or biggot before you can even make your point. So I've stopped discussing with them and stopped caring for being called these names. This is being severely co-opted by the alt-right to the point that people become apologists for Elon Musk doing multiple literal Nazi salutes at the US presidential inauguration. Decrying wokeness a week later in a meandering essay is about 8 years too late for the "well actually, some people do go too far with it" discussion. He could have written it at any point within the past decade, but doing it only after a change in who holds the purse strings is obviously just realignment for personal gain. You should indeed stop talking to people who only throw around pejoratives, but this doesn't mean we should discredit all related cause for alarm. Calling the richest man in the world a duck because he's walking like a duck isn't woke. Pretending otherwise is some emperor's new clothes nonsense.
      - bookaway 2y ago
        Rightwing snowflakes are a thing, yeah. Bill Burr for one loves to roast them, as he did recently using the LA fires. Elon threw that salute because his man-child ego took a massive beating with the H1B rightwing in-fighting, when the white nationalist wing of Maga started screaming bloody murder at him and Vivek. It's a bullied kid trying to get back in the good graces of the extreme wing of Trump's base. This virtue signaling to your friends and then declaring it to be sarcasm or comedy when called out by your foes goes back to WWII times. [0] That being said, pg has been consistent on the woke stuff since back in the day. He wrote an essay called "What You Can't Say" over two decades ago, for god's sake. His timing on this essay was unfortunate. Although there's never a good time to publish stuff like this. He's also one of the lone "pro-Palestinian" VCs left out there, for what it's worth. [0] https://archive.is/HAE9v https://archive.is/HAE9v [1] https://paulgraham.com/say.html https://paulgraham.com/say.html
        ryandrake 2y ago
        "What You Can't Say" was silly back then, and is still silly now. Here's a guy with a huge online following, multiple channels for speaking his mind and getting his message out, yet complaining about a need to self-censor and that you can't say what you want. It reminds me of the "I Have Been Silenced" cartoon[1]. He also doesn't even list a specific example of something he wants to say but "can't." It's left up to our imagination. 1: https://i1.wp.com/leftycartoons.visionmule.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/08/silenced.png https://i1.wp.com/leftycartoons.visionmule.com/wp-content/up...