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Sam Altman says he's 'politically homeless' in July 4 post bashing Democrats

16 points by tareqak 1y ago

Original Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1941151234775511328 https://twitter.com/sama/status/1941151234775511328

Trasmatta 1y ago
"Billionaire says he doesn't like the party that wants to eliminate billionaires"
- labrador 1y ago
  Ex-Democrat here (I'm politically homeless as well): That's actually incorrect, billionaires are fine as long as they pay taxes like they used to, say in the Eisenhower era in the 50's when the top rate was something like 91% on income over a few million. Back when we could afford to build the interstate highway system.
- dns_snek 1y ago
  A party that wants to eliminate billionaires? In the US? Is there a resurging socialist or communist party that I haven't heard about?
tareqak 1y ago
I used the title from https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/04/openai-altman-july-4-zohran-mamdani.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/04/openai-altman-july-4-zohran-... and made it fit the word limit (“OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he’s ‘politically homeless’ in July 4 post bashing Democrats”).
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  If there was a neoliberal candidate who was halfway decent in the NYC race they could possible beat Mandami but as it is the anti-Mandami vote will be split between several competitors in the “who can be the biggest jerk?” primary. It’s a game Trump can win but nobody else. Billionaires have to face up to taking an L once in a while. When you suppress the left to the extent that (in Germany) the SPD says “we can’t afford the welfare state” pretty soon the AfD is saying “… we can if we get rid of the migrants.” Mandami is terrifying to those people because he’s a plain spoken person who talks to ordinary people about issues that they care about and doesn’t use weird words that scare away minorities and working class people. Guess what, billionaires can pay a little more tax and still… live their lives.
Finnucane 1y ago
Sam Altman's head seems to be firmly at home in his own ass.
- dofubej 1y ago
  [dead]
alganet 1y ago
> make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires It's the other way around. Billionaires lack something: the sense of working to get things. True sense of value. I want billionaires to acquire this precious feeling.
- czbot 1y ago
  There aren’t enough resources for 350 million people to live billionaires do. Sam Altman’s complaint is without merit and he knows this. It is wholly disingenuous of him to pretend otherwise.
  - wredcoll 1y ago
    Literally the entire value of being a billionaire is having things other people don't. If you were content to, like, just have a life where all you needs are met, you could stop well short of a billion.
clipsy 1y ago
This could've been moderately interesting if he'd bothered to elucidate exactly how the Democratic party has moved away from him, because as far as I can tell their policy platforms have not changed dramatically except on some social issues. The only thing I can come up with as speculation is that he's greatly overestimating the popularity of "The Squad" and a handful of other progressives based on social media presence rather than actually examining what the party has tried to accomplish in recent years. (Ok, a more cynical speculation is that he's the one who has changed due to his enormous wealth, and he no longer actually aligns with the Democratic party of 20 years ago; but he'd never consider, let alone admit, such a thing.)
- smt88 1y ago
  > exactly how the Democratic party has moved away from him For a Very Online person like Altman (or me, for that matter), it's easy to assume everyone knows. He's referring to the (very modest) Democratic turn against Silicon Valley. It started with the demonization of Meta and Twitter during Covid, and it's what caused Zuckerberg, A16z, and a lot of other newly-right tech people to become Republicans too. For the record, I think Altman is deeply out of touch with normal people and it's always frustrating to hear billionaires cry about being bullied, but he does have a point that Democrats are no longer tech optimists in general.
  - clipsy 1y ago
    I can't agree that holding tech companies to reasonable account is the same thing as abandoning tech optimism, especially given (eg) Biden's push to try to build fabs in the US, but I can certainly see how the fairly minor slight would send an out-of-touch billionaire into a conniption fit.
  - salawat 1y ago
    No one should be a tech optimist. Tech can't guarantee good outcomes. It's equally applicable to good and evil ends. The ones who blindly go forward disregarding the potential bloodbath down the road from their creation deserve to have ice water thrown on them by the adults in the room.
armchairhacker 1y ago
Politicians are out-of-touch. Altman is also out-of-touch but in a different way. (I'm probably also out-of-touch in yet another way. The average NYCer can't really understand the life of the average rural Texan and vice versa.) More parties in the US would be great, but right now it doesn't look feasible. Maybe we can convince enough people to support a new party, or shrink government, if the alternative gets us too close to Civil War or governance is too unpredictable, which mutually hurts all Americans (and benefits China).
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mergy 1y ago
Sorry dude. You are not homeless. Own it. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/technology/sam-altman-elo https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/technology/sam-altman-elo...
- wredcoll 1y ago
  E404
archagon 1y ago
Tech CEO who gives millions to fascists and parties with the likes of Thiel and Yarvin moans about being politically homeless. Buddy, you definitely have a political home.

16 points by tareqak 1y ago

Original Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1941151234775511328 https://twitter.com/sama/status/1941151234775511328

Trasmatta 1y ago

"Billionaire says he doesn't like the party that wants to eliminate billionaires"

labrador 1y ago
Ex-Democrat here (I'm politically homeless as well): That's actually incorrect, billionaires are fine as long as they pay taxes like they used to, say in the Eisenhower era in the 50's when the top rate was something like 91% on income over a few million. Back when we could afford to build the interstate highway system.
dns_snek 1y ago
A party that wants to eliminate billionaires? In the US? Is there a resurging socialist or communist party that I haven't heard about?

tareqak 1y ago

I used the title from https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/04/openai-altman-july-4-zohran-mamdani.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/04/openai-altman-july-4-zohran-... and made it fit the word limit (“OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he’s ‘politically homeless’ in July 4 post bashing Democrats”).

PaulHoule 1y ago
If there was a neoliberal candidate who was halfway decent in the NYC race they could possible beat Mandami but as it is the anti-Mandami vote will be split between several competitors in the “who can be the biggest jerk?” primary. It’s a game Trump can win but nobody else. Billionaires have to face up to taking an L once in a while. When you suppress the left to the extent that (in Germany) the SPD says “we can’t afford the welfare state” pretty soon the AfD is saying “… we can if we get rid of the migrants.” Mandami is terrifying to those people because he’s a plain spoken person who talks to ordinary people about issues that they care about and doesn’t use weird words that scare away minorities and working class people. Guess what, billionaires can pay a little more tax and still… live their lives.

Finnucane 1y ago

Sam Altman's head seems to be firmly at home in his own ass.

dofubej 1y ago
[dead]

alganet 1y ago

> make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires It's the other way around. Billionaires lack something: the sense of working to get things. True sense of value. I want billionaires to acquire this precious feeling.

czbot 1y ago
There aren’t enough resources for 350 million people to live billionaires do. Sam Altman’s complaint is without merit and he knows this. It is wholly disingenuous of him to pretend otherwise.
- wredcoll 1y ago
  Literally the entire value of being a billionaire is having things other people don't. If you were content to, like, just have a life where all you needs are met, you could stop well short of a billion.

clipsy 1y ago

This could've been moderately interesting if he'd bothered to elucidate exactly how the Democratic party has moved away from him, because as far as I can tell their policy platforms have not changed dramatically except on some social issues. The only thing I can come up with as speculation is that he's greatly overestimating the popularity of "The Squad" and a handful of other progressives based on social media presence rather than actually examining what the party has tried to accomplish in recent years. (Ok, a more cynical speculation is that he's the one who has changed due to his enormous wealth, and he no longer actually aligns with the Democratic party of 20 years ago; but he'd never consider, let alone admit, such a thing.)

smt88 1y ago
> exactly how the Democratic party has moved away from him For a Very Online person like Altman (or me, for that matter), it's easy to assume everyone knows. He's referring to the (very modest) Democratic turn against Silicon Valley. It started with the demonization of Meta and Twitter during Covid, and it's what caused Zuckerberg, A16z, and a lot of other newly-right tech people to become Republicans too. For the record, I think Altman is deeply out of touch with normal people and it's always frustrating to hear billionaires cry about being bullied, but he does have a point that Democrats are no longer tech optimists in general.
- clipsy 1y ago
  I can't agree that holding tech companies to reasonable account is the same thing as abandoning tech optimism, especially given (eg) Biden's push to try to build fabs in the US, but I can certainly see how the fairly minor slight would send an out-of-touch billionaire into a conniption fit.
- salawat 1y ago
  No one should be a tech optimist. Tech can't guarantee good outcomes. It's equally applicable to good and evil ends. The ones who blindly go forward disregarding the potential bloodbath down the road from their creation deserve to have ice water thrown on them by the adults in the room.

armchairhacker 1y ago

Politicians are out-of-touch. Altman is also out-of-touch but in a different way. (I'm probably also out-of-touch in yet another way. The average NYCer can't really understand the life of the average rural Texan and vice versa.) More parties in the US would be great, but right now it doesn't look feasible. Maybe we can convince enough people to support a new party, or shrink government, if the alternative gets us too close to Civil War or governance is too unpredictable, which mutually hurts all Americans (and benefits China).

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

mergy 1y ago

Sorry dude. You are not homeless. Own it. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/technology/sam-altman-elo https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/technology/sam-altman-elo...

wredcoll 1y ago
E404

archagon 1y ago

Tech CEO who gives millions to fascists and parties with the likes of Thiel and Yarvin moans about being politically homeless. Buddy, you definitely have a political home.