He's been posting extremely stilted political content lately, in addition to unchecked AI evangelism.
I really, really hate that our future has ended up in the hands of people like him, Andreessen, Thiel, Musk, etc.
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
51–60 of 362 posts
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we need to get money out of politics. We need to get the power out of politics.
What is money if not a proxy of power? If money didn't buy power, no one would be interested in attaining billions in wealth.
What is politics if not a means of exercising power? If there were no power in politics, no one would be interested in politics.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#53He is probably going after Ro Khanna, who comes across as a pretty decent rep (he and Massie got the Epstein files released): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna Based on this warning from Garry to Ro re: wealth tax https://finviz.com/news/277038/y-combinators-garry-tan-warns... So this appears to be all about the wealth tax and taken down anyone who supports it. AIPAC is also mad at Ro so it seems that Garry Tan…
A wealth tax is not an obviously great idea. It’s worth having a better public debate on that topic.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone loves deciding what their "fair share" of other people's net worth (not even income!) is. Sorry, but the state just confiscating 5% of someone's net worth (unrealized or not) is absolute madness, and rightfully opens up questions about slippery slope, how "temporary" they claim this to be, and so on. It's not surprising they are leaving the state or using their resources to try to stop it.
Your statement is ignoring the systematic growing inequality in the US between the ultra wealthy and everyone else. And the use of those funds to influence politics (because of Citizens United, etc) to create polices that benefit themselves - it is for the ultra wealthy a virtuous circle: https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/ This is not a normal state of affairs.
This tax would do effectively nothing to address growing inequality between billionaires and everyone else.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#55I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
This is an underrated point because the U.S. failure to rein in the excesses of the ultra-wealthy is not just impacting our domestic politics but actually the politics of every country on earth. Imagine if Jack Ma had eventually personally intervened in U.S. congressional elections? That's pretty much exactly what U.S. oligarchs do to other countries regularly.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#56I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…
How do you define "manipulate" here?
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#57He is probably going after Ro Khanna, who comes across as a pretty decent rep (he and Massie got the Epstein files released): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna Based on this warning from Garry to Ro re: wealth tax https://finviz.com/news/277038/y-combinators-garry-tan-warns... So this appears to be all about the wealth tax and taken down anyone who supports it. AIPAC is also mad at Ro so it seems that Garry Tan…
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Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#58The Mission Local is a good source for hyperlocal Bay Area news, but it does have a strong SF leftist/progressive political tilt in most of its articles, and Gary Tan is a favorite boogieman for these types. Here's what they have to say about his malign influence in the article: > But the operation is also a media venture: Garry’s List started with a blog pillorying public-sector unions as “special interests,” attack…
The last two points might happen - how do you know? I often see "it will backfire" as a counterpoint w/o any evidence.
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#59He is probably going after Ro Khanna, who comes across as a pretty decent rep (he and Massie got the Epstein files released): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna Based on this warning from Garry to Ro re: wealth tax https://finviz.com/news/277038/y-combinators-garry-tan-warns... So this appears to be all about the wealth tax and taken down anyone who supports it. AIPAC is also mad at Ro so it seems that Garry Tan…
A wealth tax is not an obviously great idea. It’s worth having a better public debate on that topic.
I bet Garry Tan will find that going after him for the wealth tax won’t poll well so he will find a different angle. Thus it won’t be a debate about a wealth tax, it will just be the standard make your opponent look bad in order to unseat him.
For example: https://nypost.com/2026/02/01/us-news/stunning-number-of-cal...
Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish we had direct voting on important decisions
Hell no, California has this and it’s a catastrophe. Prop 13 is one of the worst policies enacted by a democratic polity in the 20th century, and has been wrecking the state for decades.
So do you believe in democracy or not? And I do not mean this as a loaded question because the value of democracy is a legitimately arguable point. If the majority of Californians want caps on property tax, then I do not see a good argument that they should not get it that is also compatible with democracy.