Well, yeah. We've been discussing this for almost two years now.

Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier
#TheRestOfTheList

You monster.

I thought of using the Nic Cage meme again, but I thought that might be overdoing it. :D

*trendy meme*

The closest label for Silicon Valley politics is Libertarian and I think that their specific flavor will soon become the new Right in the US. The social issues are already along the Overton window to policy and acceptance so the real divide is going to be economics. Socialism, being the new Left, is all about regulation and redistribution which no successful business wants any part of.

Funny, I thought the entire point of a successful business was (wealth) redistribution.

To those that directly contribute to it's generation.

You're for the Estate Tax? Excellent.

Nope. You keep what you kill and feed your family.

And then you die of an infected cut from an unfortunate flint knapping mishap before you ever get to finish your cave painting

So taxes right, because its those public goods that would not be done by private industries that allow for a successful business. I mean you can look in places like India where private investment in some industries is stifled from lack of infrastructure. Expensive to open up a factory when you don't have access to roads, power, clean water, or a usefull workforce already present. Building, buying, and importing all of that is not just costly but gets in the way of proper commerce. Although hank and frank can both grow apples, hank does it better and frank grows great dank weed so they profit by specializing and trading.

As much as I absolutely hate this idea I do not think you're wrong. I think Silicon Valley is already becoming the New Left Right.

The fact is that many of the liberals moved out while many of the software engineers that came in, are not, in fact, really liberal.

Interesting times.

It's an interesting mirroring of white flight from CA turning surrounding states red.

It seems like gentrification of California (for lack of a better word) might turn those states heavily liberal again.

The political spectrum has shifted decidedly, not necessarily Left/Right, but the debates have changed.

A big difference is that these people have jobs and pay (lots of) taxes. That tends to change people from their juvenile entitlement and idealism to real world practicality.

How convenient then that they can go from being entitled at a juvenile level where their taxes go towards their needs to a corporate level where other people's taxes go towards their wants.

That's is something never addressed. Companies like google aren't always living up to their social contracts- investing in infrastructure and education etc.

Aren't always is rather polite when it's more often not. Google especially.

I'm very polite.

Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.

Sadly, apparently having so-called "brains" means sacrificing heart.

The only people I ever hear saying that with any sort of seriousness are old conservatives... in between their numerous Doctor appointments that are conveniently covered by medicare. ;)

You don't even live in the US do you? Medicare isn't paid for by old conservatives, it's paid for by the current generation, just like Social Security. The joke is that these poor suckers vote for "conservative politicians" that are dismantling the programs these people rely on. The medical costs of a retiree far outnumbers anything they've paid towards the program in their lifetime.

I just think it's republicans gaining civilized social values. It's hard to hold classic republican social values when your environment and wealth come from globalization and diversity.

European social values, to me, seem much more matured than most places in the United States.

There's a reason San Francisco is called the most European city. Silicon Valley's rise to power was built largely upon the cultural values of the area. It breeds innovation and encourages creativity.

But the issue is now people coming out to California not for the lifestyle, but for the money.

That is your New Right.

A lot of the old hackers that now constitute the new guard grew up in an environment where they were the government's villians. This lead to a pretty heavy anti-government stance, which is totally understandable, but it became like the Republican's anti-government stance; We're not going to do anything to make it better for the people, we're just going to complain while making it worse. The irony of course being that computers break all the molds regarding Intellectual Property and scarcity. Every advance since the creation of computers have been a war on American economic models with the older benefactors doing everything they can to shore up their security instead of letting American society change. Napster and the RIAA being the obvious go to, but it's happening from pharma to manufacturing. Silicon Valley's version of shoring up defense is authoritarionism in the form of data control, see Who Owns the Future. ;)

I'm not a big fan of the word 'diversity' and what it means in our current vernacular. It's thrown around as an unchallenged moral good without justification. As in, just because you're from somewhere that the people don't speak English you automatically are granted favored status.

Diversity of ideas is good. Diversity of opinion is good. Diversity of culture... is not necessarily good. Just because you like the food from a certain region doesn't mean its OK to accept their practice of genital mutilation, female enslavement, or totalitarian theocracy.

Cultures where education, hard work, and values compatible to liberal democracy are good for us. There are certain place in the world where that is just not the case.

Any other words you're not a big fan of? I assume the list doesn't include "Gerrymander".

I don't keep a list handy.

I don't disagree with that, but there are important caveats, in that I don't think there is a need to adopt every aspect of a culture and that logic isn't far from Manifest Destiny or White Man's Budren.

I think the problem is in your idea that, "these companies make more than enough money." A close relative of mine is extremely nouveau riche, and he has admitted to me that once he became wealthy beyond any conceivable need, he became paranoid of losing it, and the best way for him to insure against losing it is to have even more.

Interesting. And leaves me feeling dirty.

Older established families have a variation of the concept of Noblesse oblige. Its self preservation. You do well by the system, it behooves you to keep it running. You have to think large and long though. Shit, the ones that have their act together also have the benefit of being under the radar.


Born Rich: Children Of The Insanely Wealthy

No surprise there, I would expect that views on regulation generally come down to whether it's getting in your way or saving your ass.

You'd think not, but apparently a number of people believe that Silicon Valley's socially left views mean they're going to be our saviour from the right. That's not just a misinformed view, but a dangerous one.

+1 Agree

Though given your other comments I think we would disagree on the value of the "saving your ass" group.

I don't think we're all that far apart. I think social safety nets are good but don't believe you deserve a salary for the job of breathing.

So you're for medicare for all, excellent!

I enjoy having discussions and coming to agreement on issues. I'm pretty centrist on government's role in certain areas.

What I don't particularly get much out of is these trites lifted from the Bernie campaign that pretend to seek common ground but are really just tricks to draw normies to warmth for the newly rebranded Communism.

Oh, I'm not looking for common ground. Just establishing the boundaries of your hypocrisy and ignorance. Entitlements for rich people based on their family's wealth, but not for poor people who that wealth is dependent on. Which makes your mention of cryptocurrencies (that we just had a thread on last month) in another thread hilarious. Don't wory if you don't grasp the link, I'm not expecting you to. You've brought up the Overton window a number of times now, but seem rather ignorant of how it's shifted over the years, or you're just a liar. Haven't decided on that yet. Oh, and you need trigger warnings for anything that helps people, because of communism.

Tell me something, not even a month ago steele posted a series of videos on how MIT is building up the deployment plan of what is essentially replicator technology. How is your 'fuck poor people' ideology going to hold up when anyone can have almost anything they could ever want for practically free? Are you going to join up with the NeoTeaParty (sponsored by Walmart!) on the Washington Mall demanding DRM to keep everyone but the rich poor? What will your sign say? Material Replication is Communism? Keep your government hands off my raw material stamps? No Scarcity, No Peace?

See. I get not liking Chinese and Russian communism but what about communism light (northern Europe, Japan, etc)

They will all fall to the Red soon enough. We must put our faith into the orange guy selling us out to the former KGB guy. It makes perfect sense!