3 ms·

> Silicon Valley In this case, does that mean something more like "an exclusive clique of lucky tech-bros that converge on political views in their private cha

by Terr_ 1y ago

> Silicon Valley In this case, does that mean something more like "an exclusive clique of lucky tech-bros that converge on political views in their private channels"? As a larger region/industry, I can't see why SV would "panic" about a city mayor of a different city in another state thousands of miles away, no matter how populous the city is.

mlinhares 1y ago
Its just a bunch of people that see "socialist" and panic.
- code_for_monkey 1y ago
  they dont even know what it means, its just the big scary word.
  - lazyeye 1y ago
    Either that or they understand exactly what it means, the actual reality of it as compared to the "sounds nice in theory..."
    - cosmicgadget 1y ago
      What's the reality of having a mayor who is described as socialist?
      - lazyeye 1y ago
        Well I guess he is "described" as a socialist in the same way the sky is "described" as blue. Your question is easy to answer...look at all of human history and around the world right now to see what you get when the far left gets their hands on the levers of power.
        shadowgovt 1y ago
        In the US, "socialist" describes the people supporting Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. So in the US, socialism would be a net positive.
        archagon 1y ago
        I see European quality of life, not some imagined demons.
        Terr_ 1y ago
        Yeah, we were plagued by [checks notes] the New Deal followed by multiple decades of American prosperity and the growth of the middle class.
        shadowgovt 1y ago
        One of the more interesting parts of that story is that in that time, the fascists actually tried a takeover of the US government, executing on a plan to sideline the President and replace him with a shadow government. Fortunately, they failed. They tried to recruit a populist veteran into their ranks who had no particular love for a government that had abused its World War I veterans... But had less love for a bunch of (essentially) early-twentieth-century technocrats that had profited off the sacrifices of the veterans. He refused to keep the conspiracy and blew the lid off it, and his reputation was both public enough and spotless enough that the conspirators couldn't either silence him or tarnish him. Wikipedia overview is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot There are better scholarly sources for the details, but an entertaining source for a summary is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-insurrections-the-business-plot-when/id1373812661?i=1000507699889 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-insurrectio... (The conspirators were never prosecuted. One hypothesis as to why is that Roosevelt saw an opportunity and co-opted the plot: some of his New Deal policies were facing pushback and he might have put on the table for the conspirators "You can dodge a treason trial if you just back the new policy with your capital and your political will"). (p.s: I probably shouldn't extrapolate this historical anecdote to the modern era, but this story does give me reason to wonder if a rule like "In the industrial era, massive inequality due to under-regulated capitalism leads to attempts at reform, and those attempts breed counter-reform in the form of fascists and their sycophants formed by those who perceive they have the most to lose in reform..." might hold water).
- lwansbrough 1y ago
  That seems like a reductive defence of a platform that is pitching rent control and socialized housing without addressing underlying demand. Which is basically the recipe the entire western world has used for half a century and has resulted in the worst housing price inflation in history. The hard truth is that New York isn't even remotely dense enough for the demand. The entirety of lower Manhattan from Canal St. to midtown is "low" density. As is everything above 59th. And this is codified. So no wonder NYC housing prices are out of control. NYC should look like Sao Paulo based on demand.
  - ericjmorey 1y ago
    He's been very clear about addressing underlying demand through increased supply.
wat10000 1y ago
I imagine that is indeed what it means. It's probably like using "Washington" to describe the higher-ups in the US government. It doesn't really refer to the ordinary people who live there.
jerlam 1y ago
The "panicking" people mentioned in the article all seem to be more politically oriented than tech. No one thinks Linda Yaccarino is a tech-bro or in Silicon Valley.
ModernMech 1y ago
I'll break it down for you. For a long time, neoliberals like Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have run the Democratic party. They have enjoyed soaking up the progressive votes from the more left parts of the party, but they have done everything possible to prevent those elements from rising too high in the power structure. You saw it in 2016 when the party leadership coalesced around Hillary to nudge out Bernie, and again in 2020 when they did the same with Biden after Bernie won Nevada. Neoliberals and the left have a lot of tension. The left believes that liberals, due to their affinity for corporations, will side with fascists over socialists when it comes time to choose sides. To date, liberals have proven that correct. The result has been for my lifetime that no matter which party is in power, corporations are treated favorably. But times are changing. The neoliberals are getting old, and it's time for them to retire and pass the torch. My whole life, I'm 40, Democratic leadership have been pro corporation liberal boomers: Clinton, Gore, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer... they held onto power as long as they could, but time is ticking and it's time for millennials to takeover. And millennials are decidedly less pro corporation. We are not like our parents, we are not going to treat corporations like our parents did. For my whole adulthood, we've been told by the boomer generation that our ideas about society and governance are not good, and progressive ideals are unelectable. AOC began a wave of congressional elections that proved them wrong, at least for local congressional elections. Then we started to see rising stars like Buttigieg get top leadership positions in government. Now, Mamdani represents the next milestone -- a progressive millennial at a high executive position for a huge city like NYC. So that's what this race is about and why it has national implications. It's progressive versus neoliberal, and if the progressive wins, it's going to be harder in the future to claim that progressives are unelectable. If he (god forbid) ends up doing a good job, then it's going to be harder to claim progressive policies are wrongheaded. It's also millennial versus boomer. Cuomo and Adams are both boomers. It's probably not lost on a lot of people that if they lose, it might be the last time a boomer will ever be elected as Mayor in NYC. Mamdani's election would really be the end of the post 9/11 era for New York and the start of something new for the city. So why is SV anxious? Mamdani is a harbinger for a new age. It means the neoliberal boomers are going to the wayside, and the progressive millennials are coming to power. Which, if you listen to what they have to say about billionaires, might make you nervous if you're a billionaire.
- 1y ago

by Terr_ 1y ago

mlinhares 1y ago

Its just a bunch of people that see "socialist" and panic.

code_for_monkey 1y ago
they dont even know what it means, its just the big scary word.
- lazyeye 1y ago
  Either that or they understand exactly what it means, the actual reality of it as compared to the "sounds nice in theory..."
  - cosmicgadget 1y ago
    What's the reality of having a mayor who is described as socialist?
    - lazyeye 1y ago
      Well I guess he is "described" as a socialist in the same way the sky is "described" as blue. Your question is easy to answer...look at all of human history and around the world right now to see what you get when the far left gets their hands on the levers of power.
      - shadowgovt 1y ago
        In the US, "socialist" describes the people supporting Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. So in the US, socialism would be a net positive.
      - archagon 1y ago
        I see European quality of life, not some imagined demons.
      - Terr_ 1y ago
        Yeah, we were plagued by [checks notes] the New Deal followed by multiple decades of American prosperity and the growth of the middle class.
        shadowgovt 1y ago
        One of the more interesting parts of that story is that in that time, the fascists actually tried a takeover of the US government, executing on a plan to sideline the President and replace him with a shadow government. Fortunately, they failed. They tried to recruit a populist veteran into their ranks who had no particular love for a government that had abused its World War I veterans... But had less love for a bunch of (essentially) early-twentieth-century technocrats that had profited off the sacrifices of the veterans. He refused to keep the conspiracy and blew the lid off it, and his reputation was both public enough and spotless enough that the conspirators couldn't either silence him or tarnish him. Wikipedia overview is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot There are better scholarly sources for the details, but an entertaining source for a summary is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-insurrections-the-business-plot-when/id1373812661?i=1000507699889 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-insurrectio... (The conspirators were never prosecuted. One hypothesis as to why is that Roosevelt saw an opportunity and co-opted the plot: some of his New Deal policies were facing pushback and he might have put on the table for the conspirators "You can dodge a treason trial if you just back the new policy with your capital and your political will"). (p.s: I probably shouldn't extrapolate this historical anecdote to the modern era, but this story does give me reason to wonder if a rule like "In the industrial era, massive inequality due to under-regulated capitalism leads to attempts at reform, and those attempts breed counter-reform in the form of fascists and their sycophants formed by those who perceive they have the most to lose in reform..." might hold water).
lwansbrough 1y ago
That seems like a reductive defence of a platform that is pitching rent control and socialized housing without addressing underlying demand. Which is basically the recipe the entire western world has used for half a century and has resulted in the worst housing price inflation in history. The hard truth is that New York isn't even remotely dense enough for the demand. The entirety of lower Manhattan from Canal St. to midtown is "low" density. As is everything above 59th. And this is codified. So no wonder NYC housing prices are out of control. NYC should look like Sao Paulo based on demand.
- ericjmorey 1y ago
  He's been very clear about addressing underlying demand through increased supply.

wat10000 1y ago

I imagine that is indeed what it means. It's probably like using "Washington" to describe the higher-ups in the US government. It doesn't really refer to the ordinary people who live there.

jerlam 1y ago

The "panicking" people mentioned in the article all seem to be more politically oriented than tech. No one thinks Linda Yaccarino is a tech-bro or in Silicon Valley.

ModernMech 1y ago

I'll break it down for you. For a long time, neoliberals like Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have run the Democratic party. They have enjoyed soaking up the progressive votes from the more left parts of the party, but they have done everything possible to prevent those elements from rising too high in the power structure. You saw it in 2016 when the party leadership coalesced around Hillary to nudge out Bernie, and again in 2020 when they did the same with Biden after Bernie won Nevada. Neoliberals and the left have a lot of tension. The left believes that liberals, due to their affinity for corporations, will side with fascists over socialists when it comes time to choose sides. To date, liberals have proven that correct. The result has been for my lifetime that no matter which party is in power, corporations are treated favorably. But times are changing. The neoliberals are getting old, and it's time for them to retire and pass the torch. My whole life, I'm 40, Democratic leadership have been pro corporation liberal boomers: Clinton, Gore, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer... they held onto power as long as they could, but time is ticking and it's time for millennials to takeover. And millennials are decidedly less pro corporation. We are not like our parents, we are not going to treat corporations like our parents did. For my whole adulthood, we've been told by the boomer generation that our ideas about society and governance are not good, and progressive ideals are unelectable. AOC began a wave of congressional elections that proved them wrong, at least for local congressional elections. Then we started to see rising stars like Buttigieg get top leadership positions in government. Now, Mamdani represents the next milestone -- a progressive millennial at a high executive position for a huge city like NYC. So that's what this race is about and why it has national implications. It's progressive versus neoliberal, and if the progressive wins, it's going to be harder in the future to claim that progressives are unelectable. If he (god forbid) ends up doing a good job, then it's going to be harder to claim progressive policies are wrongheaded. It's also millennial versus boomer. Cuomo and Adams are both boomers. It's probably not lost on a lot of people that if they lose, it might be the last time a boomer will ever be elected as Mayor in NYC. Mamdani's election would really be the end of the post 9/11 era for New York and the start of something new for the city. So why is SV anxious? Mamdani is a harbinger for a new age. It means the neoliberal boomers are going to the wayside, and the progressive millennials are coming to power. Which, if you listen to what they have to say about billionaires, might make you nervous if you're a billionaire.

1y ago