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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

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Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#171

Post by toraway »

terminalshort wrote: post #131
bhouston wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Ok, so what is the problem here? Why can't Gary Tan engage in standard political activity like anybody else? This is his fundamental right as a citizen of a democracy.

Who's stopping him? Are we all required to be cheering him on for it too?

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#172

Post by 8note »

nkmnz wrote: post #153
cjs_ac wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics is about deciding who gets to exercise power and what they get to do with it. Politics detached from power is just pointless squabbling.

So how about exercising less power?

i dont see how that would change the ultimate "money grants too much power"

if the government exerts less democratic power, money will still exert too much capitalist power

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#174

Post by terminalshort »

amarcheschi wrote: post #167
terminalshort wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so what is the problem here? Why can't Gary Tan engage in standard political activity like anybody else? This is his fundamental right as a citizen of a democracy.

The more money you have, the more means you have to engage in political activity not like anybody else but with a weight which far exceeds one

So what? The constitution guarantees you equal rights under the law and an equal vote in each election. It does not guarantee you equal political influence. Same as you have the right to freedom of speech and of the press, but you are not guaranteed an audience.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#175

Post by etrautmann »

yndoendo wrote: post #145
andy_ppp wrote: post #5

I 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…

Eat the rich. I do so by taking Jeff Bezos' money and giving him a penny. Also by not supporting restaurants that have a Wall-street ticker nor any alcohol producers that have a Wall-street ticker.

What does this mean? are you employed by Amazon and phoning it in, or how are you extracting money from Bezos?

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#176

Post by amarcheschi »

terminalshort wrote: post #174
amarcheschi wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more money you have, the more means you have to engage in political activity not like anybody else but with a weight which far exceeds one

So what? The constitution guarantees you equal rights under the law and an equal vote in each election. It does not guarantee you equal political influence. Same as you have the right to freedom of speech and of the press, but you are not guaranteed an audience.

So some people might feel slightly annoyed by this.

I don't know if you don't find this absurd, but a bunch of pedophile protecting people have shaped the actual presidency and are continuing to do so. Feeling slightly annoyed is the least offensive way I could put it

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#177

Post by limagnolia »

CodingJeebus wrote: post #112
limagnolia wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is politics if not a means of exercising power? If there were no power in politics, no one would be interested in politics.

How does a government without power work? How do you take power out of the process of governing?

Yes, that is my point. You can't take power out of politics, and you can't take money (which is one form of power) out of politics. Best you can do is manage it.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#178

Post by magicalist »

driverdan wrote: post #19

Every single article I looked at seems to be generated from a tweet. The latest is a blatant attempt at promoting one of YC's privacy invasive investments Flock: https://garryslist.org/posts/atlanta-solved-35-homicides-wit... That tells you all you need to know about how trustworthy the site is.

> The privacy absolutists will tell you that license plate cameras are “Orwellian.” But here’s what I know: unsolved crime means more innocent people get hurt and maimed and killed. Flock has audit trails. There’s accountability. The people who benefit from keeping murders unsolved aren’t victims—they’re criminals.

jesus christ. assuming he's not going to start syndicating this, who is this even pandering to?

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#179

Post by mothballed »

ryandrake wrote: post #151
mystraline wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pinkertons. And the US national guard. Its happened before, over labor disputes and unionization. A LOT of people died, both in anti-union and union sides. And thats why we have, well, had, the National Labor Relations Board. It was to make a peaceful way to negotiate worker rights. Maybe if it did go away completely, and the violence comes back, that people in power would be reminded WHY we had union structure and l…

Not to mention Lawyers. The civil court system is basically a way for wealthy people and corporations to use money to silence and/or coerce behavior out of less wealthy people. If Elon Musk or Larry Ellison woke up one day and decided to sue me, and defending myself would cost 100X my net worth, I'm probably just going to give up and do whatever they want me to do.

There still is something to it. You could bring your billion to Dubai and it might buy you some pardons from personal indiscretions and a cadre of quasi-slaves but the monarchs would never grant you real systemic political power.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#180

Post by terminalshort »

toraway wrote: post #171
terminalshort wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so what is the problem here? Why can't Gary Tan engage in standard political activity like anybody else? This is his fundamental right as a citizen of a democracy.

Who's stopping him? Are we all required to be cheering him on for it too?

No one is stopping him, but they would be if the people in this comment section had their way. You are absolutely not required to cheer him on, and in fact you have the right to oppose him. But that isn't happening here. Nobody in these comments is exercising their first amendment rights to argue against any of his political opinions. They are using their first amendment rights to argue that the government should use its monopoly to restrict Gary Tan's right to make his argument at all.
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