Comment by throwaway63467
5 days ago
I did not expect CEOs / industry titans to fall in line with the new regime so quickly, in the few weeks since Trumps election most tech leaders have completely changed their public stance on these topics. Why are they so afraid? Or are they simply happy to drop the charade as it seems clear the wind blows the other way now?
I wasn’t feeling very positive about all the talk about making the world a better place but recently I’ve become quite cynical, it’s really just about the money it seems. I even find this whole hacker ethic quite stupid now, basically all that ethos about free software was just instrumented by corporations to extract wealth, and now that AI is seemingly around the corner they can finally drop most people building the software for them, as that was always the biggest cost center anyway.
IMO most of these CEOs are not motivated by wokeness or anti wokeness. They are motivated by money, and the freedom to take whatever action they deem appropriate both inside and outside their companies.
Biden was anti-monopoly and Trump is pro-corporate, so these CEOs are just naturally aligning according to their own motivations. And like all people, sometimes they take on the other priorities of the group, to feel that they fit in.
The fact they do this is not very surprising, what I find surprising is the velocity of the change of sentiment in large parts of the tech industry. It seems a lot of people were fed up caring about these topics and feel safe to openly say so now. That wasn’t the case during the first Trump administration, so I wonder what affected this change of heart now?
I would imagine it's the fact that during the first Trump admin, the political elites were still mostly old-school and only giving token support to MAGA talking points to score some easy points with their electorate. Given that the admin was mostly run by those same people in practice until very late into his first term, I think it wasn't seen as something serious.
But this time around, we're looking at a full term by an admin that is staffed for the most part by die-hard Trumpists who make it very loud and clear that this particular topic is of utmost concern to them. Republicans in Congress are also much more in line with that.
Perhaps even more importantly, this change of sentiment didn't start with tech - it started with prominent figures among the establishment liberals publicly calling out "excesses", and while this narrative received some pushback already, it has received way more support among the rank and file. This is a signal that the next Dem administration, should there be one, is likely to be much more hands-off in these regards. So, then, why would big tech stick to their guns on DEI if it disadvantages them immediately with no clear advantage to hope for in the future?
I agree that velocity is surprising, though. Mostly because it makes it very clear that any talk of "values" has always been bullshit, so why would this new take be an exception? MAGA folk don't seem particularly convinced that e.g. Zuck is sincere, and I can't blame them.