this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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News

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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.

top 22 comments
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Why can't all big tech be like valve?

[–] boaratio 13 points 13 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 93 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

That's a lot of words when 'greed' would have sufficed.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It’s not even greed… just pragmatism with no morals to keep the companies in check.

[–] pdxfed 13 points 21 hours ago

Exactly. Look at our "news" industry, built on supposedly the critical function of journalism. When $ is the output and $ becomes the input, it can easily be steered to antisocial ends. Medicine, higher education, they've all been distorted and corrupted by profit motive.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 14 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The issue with ascribing everything to personal greed is that it leads people to think the solution is to turn to companies with more benevolent executives, when the problem is really an institutional one that requires institutional changes.

[–] FlyingSquid 9 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Capitalism is systemized greed. It is exactly the right word.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I didn’t say it was wrong, I said it leads people to seek the wrong solution.

At least if you present it as a one-word summary, without an accompanying explanation that would be substantially longer than the thing you’re claiming to summarize.

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 18 hours ago

Why do you think people are coming to Lemmy for solutions to the systemized greed we call capitalism?

[–] homesweethomeMrL 2 points 17 hours ago

Sociopaths.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

They didn't "turn right" , they were always right-wing

1000045696

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 minutes ago

They just dropped the pretense.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen 12 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Vox is utter shit. The fact that this isn't obvious to them or their bone headed readership is telling. The jist of the article seems to be, "That makes sense, I understand why they would do something like this. It is totally rational!"

Manufacturing consent.

[–] gi1242 2 points 17 hours ago

I'm just happy more people are talking about it. but yes the article could certainly have been shorter

[–] TropicalDingdong 28 points 23 hours ago
[–] evenglow 15 points 23 hours ago

Why do rich people support Republican politicians, more at 11. /s

[–] njm1314 4 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

The way towards centre from left is to the right.

[–] dhork 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This article doesn't mention what I think is the key difference: Democrats' hostile regulatory environment against Crypto. I bet all of these Tech Bros bought Bitcoin and Ethereum early, and are sitting on a huge stash of it. Hell, we know Musk personally pumps Dogecoin every chance he gets. Some regulation is necessary in the space, but Biden's SEC was going way too far.

So, you have all these yoyos with extra money, and Citizens United which says it is speech. Is it any wonder they steered the money toward the guy who would let them do whatever the hell they want?

[–] hark 6 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Some regulation is necessary in the space, but Biden’s SEC was going way too far.

Could you please elaborate on this? In what ways did they go too far?

[–] dhork 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The SEC wanted to consider every bit of crypto a security. But most securities are issued for the purpose of raising money. So, a company makes a formal offering of shares, or debt, and that is all regulated. The investors are essentially participating in whatever the company is doing.

Cryptocurrencies with Blockchains aren't like that, though. It's not a cooperative enterprise where everyone is making a profit. It's released on a set schedule according to the protocol. Anyone can join in the mining/staking process simply by having the right equipment (and in the case of staking, enough of the coin to qualify). Furthermore, you can buy and sell coins without participating in the underlying mining/staking mechanics. So it's not a common undertaking at all, it really resembles a currency or commodity.

The SEC went hard after US exchanges like Coinbase for selling "unregistered securities", while not really defuning it all that well, and without actually giving exchanges a process to register even if they wanted to.

Now, I will add that there exchanges also all sell shitty tokens like $TRUMP. Those are different, because they are governed by a smart contract riding on top of a Blockchain. They are a layer removed from the Blockchain they are riding on. There is no utility there; the utility is all in Ethereum or Solana or whatever Blockchain enabled the shitty token.

The SEC could have done everyone a lot of favors by simply saying "Blockchain coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum are commodities, Shitty ERC-20 tokens (or their non-ethereum equivalent on other chains) are securities and need to be registered before being traded in the US". If they provided a web form and charged $100 per shitty token, they might even make enough to fund all the crypto enforcement when those shitty tokens inevitably get pump-and-dumped. ($TRUMP will get dumped, too, eventually.)

[–] CharlesDarwin 3 points 18 hours ago

I'm curious about that as well.