Summary
In 2017, tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin supported progressive causes, yet over time many shifted toward pro-business, conservative stances.
Changing economic conditions, capital crunches, and reduced growth diminished the appeal of progressive policies, prompting tech firms to prioritize profit and market dominance.
Biden’s aggressive regulatory actions, including antitrust cases and wealth tax proposals, further alienated Silicon Valley, significantly intensifying its shift toward conservative support.
Such realignment poses significant political challenges, forcing Democrats to urgently reconsider policies and strategies while balancing public interests against ever-growing corporate influence.
Why can’t all dictators be benevolent? Why can’t all cops be paragons of virtue?
You can’t create a system of incentives that drive people towards terrible behaviours and then expect them to behave well in spite of those incentives. That’s living in a dream world.
So because of people being shitty one can’t hope for people not being shitty?
I think a good example proves that people are capable of such a thing, and still be very well of, without added incentives.
That’s not remotely what I’m saying.
People generally tend to behave in very pro-social ways, when they’re allowed to. But capitalism creates a perverse set of incentives that penalize pro-social behaviours and incentivize anti-social behaviours. You can’t have a system that’s set up to allow only the worst behaviours to survive and expect good behaviours to come out of it.