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I found the piece rambling and incoherent, but I don't really see how this follows. This is an individual Jordanian founder who made a political statement. That
by cholantesh 9mo ago
I found the piece rambling and incoherent, but I don't really see how this follows. This is an individual Jordanian founder who made a political statement. That's not really the same thing as the deep integration between the Israeli state, Zionist organizations, and big tech.
- simulator5g 9mo agoThe coin is wealthy people. They're different sides of that coin. Hence why the commenter above is sensing some malice from both sides.
- refulgentis 9mo agoBoth sides of...what? I'm confused. Is the idea "all these people have a lot more money than I think they'll ever need and it makes me mad"? Me too. Just don't see how it's relevant.
- hn_throwaway_99 9mo agoThe idea is that as money gets so concentrated, so does real political power. And with that concentration of political power comes extreme disregard for the opinions of the masses. I think it's a fair argument that the world has always catered to the will of rich people, but the difference now is that rich people are so unfathomably rich, and so much wealth is concentrated in so few.
- refulgentis 9mo agoI see, thank you. More plainly on my part, though I'm worried sounds like berating when the comments are viewed consecutively: what does that have to do with the article we are discussing?
- close04 9mo ago> “There was an aspect of, like, ‘Fuck the system,’” Masad said. “‘We need to remake civilization.’” No matter what the political views, running into "real" money radicalizes most people and gives them the impression that they reached a superior evolutionary stage that uniquely entitles them... no, demands from them that they bend society and human civilization to their will, reshape it in their image, make it better because they are better. A sort of messianic complex. This is the famous horseshoe paradox that says extremes are closer to each other than to the center. They might look completely different in their views but in reality they're back to back in the same place. 2 sides of the same coin. Different imprint, same value.
- csallen 9mo ago> but the difference now is that rich people are so unfathomably rich... Compared to when? How many times in history has wealth been less concentrated? As far as I'm aware, for almost all of history post-agriculture, wealth was highly concentrated while the average person lived in abject poverty (think: kings vs peasants). The mid-20th century was an era of mass prosperity in the US and parts of Europe, but it was an anomalous few decades, not the norm.
- TitaRusell 9mo agoIn the past you could find rich people on the battlefield. The last time America tried that was in Vietnam. That is what has changed.
- lukan 9mo ago"The mid-20th century was an era of mass prosperity in the US and parts of Europe, but it was an anomalous few decades, not the norm." But to those living and remembering that era - it was the norm that they (we) compare with, so it is the reference that matters.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoThank you
- stavros 9mo ago> How many times in history has wealth been less concentrated? Mostly all of them! There have been periods where inequality dropped, but mostly it's been rising since at least the 1300s. I'm on mobile and can't link research, but there are a few papers that investigate this. > As far as I'm aware, for almost all of history post-agriculture, wealth was highly concentrated while the average person lived in abject poverty (think: kings vs peasants). And yet it was less unequal than now, an era where we've managed to use technology to concentrate wealth at an unprecedented scale. No longer is the richest person you know the king who collects your taxes next door, now it's a SV trillionaire on the other side of the world.
- Sammi 9mo agoThe only difference being that he wants to replace those with himself and his.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoAs the article mentions, Saudi Arabia is aiming to build its own deep integration with big tech, which Masad is enthusiastically participating in despite the Saudi government's own human rights issues. (He argues, quite conveniently if true, that the Replit tools he sells to the Saudi government won't be used for any of the bad stuff.)
- cholantesh 9mo agoThis clarifies things, thank you. I've gotten the impression that Masad doesn't have a very coherent worldview so I doubt he has given this contradiction much thought.
- ebbi 9mo agoWhat gives you that impression?
- kingkawn 9mo agoHis own incoherent worldview
- cholantesh 9mo agoReading the article? The only thing resembling an ideology in there is a vague libertarianism of the like a lot of founders express.
- ArneBab 9mo agoLast I checked the Koch Brothers weren’t Israeli. Do read up on them. Oversimplified narratives are bullshit.
- darubedarob 9mo ago[dead]
- UltraSane 9mo agoWhat does "Zionist" mean to you? I honestly don't understand what it means when Israel has existed as a Jewish state for 76 years and seems likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
- flumpcakes 9mo ago[flagged]
- cess11 9mo ago[flagged]
- flumpcakes 9mo ago[flagged]
- soldthat 9mo ago[flagged]
- Amir_A 9mo ago[flagged]
- dang 9mo agoWe've banned this account for using HN primarily for political/national/etc. battle. That's not allowed here, regardless of which side of which battle you are or aren't on. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.