HN user
As always, a reminder that this administration has Silicon Valley money and people up and down its roster. The founders should refuse to take money from the VCs that support this regime, and the engineers should refuse to work for portfolio companies. Things will change quite rapidly if that becomes the norm.
Obligatory response: https://angrytechie.substack.com/p/dont-take-money-from-a16z
Founders need to stop taking money from a16z et al. These VC's brands should be so completely tarnished that they are never given a seat in the halls of serious people ever again
luxury beliefs from people who have never imagined a world where their basic security and economic success was not guaranteed by the mere fact of being US citizens. Founders have so much power to just not take their money, so why do we take them seriously again?
Even before getting into the geopolitics, isn't this almost exactly what the CHIPS act was supposed to do?
You know, the one that the Trump team cut to shreds?
This feels like it's all TV. Trump is doing what he's great at: slapping his name on work other people did in order to steal credit.
This is a really generous take. Much more likely is that the Trump admin is very friendly with Putin, sees Putin as an ally, and sees Ukraine as an enemy. (I'll leave the 'why' for future speculation)
A massive part of modern military operations, including cyberwarfare, is the understanding that a battle happening in someone else's territory is better than one happening at home. Or, more prosaically, "the best defense is a good offense".
Offensive cyberops help us identify when our own systems have been breached and give us valuable information about future attacks, even before you get into the very real physical warfare happening in Ukraine.
Every day it seems more like these guys are _actually_ working for the Russians
He's been "represented by the media, both mainstream and popular-alternative, as some kind of anti-vaxx leader" because he has gone on record multiple times questioning the efficacy of vaccines and advocating for people not to take them. Just because there are people even crazier than he is doesn't change the reality of his beliefs. Don't giga-brain your way into the wrong conclusion, occam's razor is right there.
But just for the readers at home who may want to buy this bs, here's RFK _on video_ with Lex Friedman, timestamped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPtBkw5uD-0&t=6938s
"There's no vaccine that is safe and effective", "the polio vaccine causes cancer". Says the man with brain worms.
One way is to stop taking their money: https://open.substack.com/pub/angrytechie/p/dont-take-money-...
True of Thiel. Andreessen though should be ashamed. He's become everything his techno optimist manifesto calls out as the enemy
What's really infuriating to me is the way in which members of the startup world -- people who claim to wear the mantle of creators and builders -- have actively supported this nonsense. A16Z, Founders Fund, Sequoia all talk a big game about America being the greatest nation on the planet, and then turn around and back this regime in a naked grab for power and money. The hypocrisy is astounding.