I feel the same way and I think the writing is on the wall for the near future of the world. It is disheartening to see people on a forum like HN who I assumed have values similar to mine fall right in line with conservative propaganda and try to act like this isn't an overtly political action. This decision is political, and it goes a lot deeper than left vs right - its about attacking support for a baseline scientific 'truth' and fully accepting a post-truth world where reality is what the powerful deem it to be. This has always been the case to some extent but it has gotten so lopsided in the last decade that its hard to see how we come back from this.
I similarly share your pessimism. Ironically, I think a lot of the propaganda that is effective on HN's demographic works because it frames itself in a way that makes it appear logical and intellectually robust. Us devs love thinking we're the smartest person in the room and strong, logical thinkers who can't be fooled, but that's exactly why those kinds of propaganda and talking points can work so well. (I'm certainly guilty of it myself at times, fwiw.)
Fwiw, not everyone on 'hacker' news is like this, and many of the thoughtful ones are smarter than I am and skipped this post entirely. But its so disheartening the rot in the Silicon Valley ideology that's everywhere here.
imo, some combination of TESCREAL ideas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL , the "disrupt" and "move fast and break things" startup hustle culture , a distaste for anything "political" , and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" style libertarianism / anarcho-capitalism
After reading that, it seems TESCREAL-ists, for lack of a better word, currently prefer conservative policy due to its loosening of regulation because regulation tends to tighten the reigns on "move fast and break things." I'm not sure how TESCREAL is antithetical to conservatism, which seems to be what you were implying. To me, it seems TESCREAL-ists will support any political party who has the least likelihood to regulate them as the primary deciding factor. This seems to be evident from the political support the TESCREAL-ists described in the article (Musk, Andreessen, Thiel) have given. Can you elaborate more to help me understand how you feel TESCREAL idealism and current conservative ideology are antithetical?
Chain for reference:
>>It is disheartening to see people on a forum like HN who I assumed have values similar to mine fall right in line with conservative propaganda
>Yeah, its pathetic.
Fwiw, not everyone on 'hacker' news is like this, and many of the thoughtful ones are smarter than I am and skipped this post entirely. But its so disheartening the rot in the Silicon Valley ideology that's everywhere here.
I took GP to be saying that they're sad that other HNers are falling for conservative propaganda, and I agree - specifically the sort that appeals to the already rich and incurious.
I don't share that with some of the people here, but we do all find tech interesting. For a while it did really hurt me when I'd see a Supreme Court post talking about how great it is that the EPA is gutted and feel kinda lost, like these should be my people, what am I doing here, sorta thing. Mostly over that now, just have less attachment.
Don't see TESCREAL & conservative thought being opposed. Its silly how someone as Turbo-atheist as Elon is now talking about how schools should teach Christianity
