Incidentally, I think this post by @joshtpm on "The Brittle Grip" from 2014 best covers how I think about things like @sama's posthttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-brittle-grip-part-2 …
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"It is that mix of insecurity, a sense of the brittleness of one’s hold on wealth, power, privileges, combined with the reality of great wealth and power, that breeds a mix of aggressiveness and perceived embattlement."
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Replying to @wycats
C'mon, sama, pg, et al. have a robust hold on wealth/power/etc. The post was about heresy = unorthodoxy, vs. a "church-state orthodoxy" enforced by penal code. Sounds exaggerated, but IMHO it is worth looking at covert/sub-violent means to same end. Also at _cui bono_, as usual.
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Replying to @BrendanEich
I don't think there's a whole lot of heresy along the lines of his original post ("doing something the government had already decided was too hard") in practice in SV. If he wants to discuss actual heterodoxies that he thinks actually exist and are dangerous, let's enumerate.
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Replying to @wycats
I'm not "he" who "wants to discuss" (but ICYMI, see https://elaineou.com/2017/11/24/stuff-you-cant-say-in-silicon-valley/ …). All societies punish deviance from norms, some more than others. The Enlightenment project differed only in degree. It's dead now, no going back. The most interesting part of sama's post was re: China.
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Replying to @BrendanEich @wycats
(Elaine zings the various richies who posture and feign ignorance on the fundamenals. The brittleness here is not hold on wealth/power, not directly -- it's the fragile desire to be seen as good-thinking while piling up the fat stacks, lol.)
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Replying to @BrendanEich
I can buy that. The key analysis of "brittle grip" is experiencing sharp disagreement as "silencing" despite the silencee having significant wealth and power.
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Replying to @wycats
I don't think that's accurate on sama's terms (his lab genius is not necessarily wealthy/powerful). Also, Elaine zinged one of sama's critics, who isn't silenced at all, as just as brittle in the sense I used. The tell for "brittle" is lousy strawmanning on all sides by the rich.
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Re sama I think I mean it more narrowly. I think SV VCs are used to a "master of the universe" position where they get to talk amongst themselves and use their perspectives to control investment. That's getting harder, and he experiences it as "attacks" reducing his power.
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Replying to @wycats @BrendanEich
iow there are now cases where SV VCs have to be more careful for fear of popular backlash. That was less true in 2005, and they notice it.
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Replying to @wycats
You're surely right about VCs, but my sense is they have bigger fears. Popular backlash is low on the list, even if you define "popular" as elite non-VC opinion.
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