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Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

nytimes.com

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Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#331

Post by pesus »

SilentM68 wrote: post #88

Hmm, that's troubling but predictable. The idea that AI will bring an age of abundance may be true, but not in the short term. Companies are letting people go, and AI will be blamed for that, whether true or not. For decades the public perception that most Tech Bros have prioritized profits over the wellbeing of the little guy is well established, in my view, in some cases well deserved with no accountability. It's l…

I'd say an important distinction is AI is currently threatening to displace a significantly larger number of jobs across multiple sectors. Whether it can/will actually happen is yet to be seen, but the potential amount of scorned people with nothing to lose is far greater this time.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#332

Post by hn_acc1 »

seanlinehan wrote: post #263
outside1234 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't condone it, but I understand the anger. The billionaire class has enabled armed masked police in our streets, endless layoffs, basically don't pay taxes at any reasonable percentage, and basically have rigged politics with Citizens United. Given that, I can see how people are resorting to 18th century French tactics.

The top 1% of income earners pay 40% of all the federal taxes collected. The top 25% pay 89% of taxes. Net of transfers, 60% of households receive more from government transfers than they pay in taxes. The idea that rich people don't pay taxes is just not correct. The entire system is basically rich people subsidizing everybody else through byzantine distributional systems.

The top 1% also owns something like 70% of all the wealth, IIRC. The should be paying MORE than 40% of all the taxes.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#333

Post by sumedh »

scoofy wrote: post #126
strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

This is exactly the point of part one of Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence , by Geoffrey Canada. Unequal or lack of access to the executive branch of government will create a culture of vigilantism and lends itself to organized crime as a replacement for the policing arm of the state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fist%2C_Stick%2C_Knife%2C_Gun People become okay with vigilante justice when they see…

> just look at the insane plot/ending of the film Singham.

What does that even mean?

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#335

Post by feshbach »

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

[dead]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#336

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #238
strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

These are message boards. The obvious sentiment, that firebombing attacks are awful (perhaps cut a little bit with "the perpetrator appears to be someone deeply in need of help) is boring. This is an availability bias issue: the only sentiments that actually spool out into threads are edgy. Once you learn to spot these effects, message boards make a lot more sense and are less jarring.

[deleted]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#338

Post by lokar »

seanlinehan wrote: post #263
outside1234 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't condone it, but I understand the anger. The billionaire class has enabled armed masked police in our streets, endless layoffs, basically don't pay taxes at any reasonable percentage, and basically have rigged politics with Citizens United. Given that, I can see how people are resorting to 18th century French tactics.

The top 1% of income earners pay 40% of all the federal taxes collected. The top 25% pay 89% of taxes. Net of transfers, 60% of households receive more from government transfers than they pay in taxes. The idea that rich people don't pay taxes is just not correct. The entire system is basically rich people subsidizing everybody else through byzantine distributional systems.

There is no ability to accumulate and hold wealth without a stable society. That means broad rights, democracy and limits to inequality.

Stop acting as if taxation if theft, it’s the fee that allows everything else to function.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#339

Post by satvikpendem »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #43
throwanem wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely there must have been underlying tensions in that marriage. (I don't feel at all confident in that statement; I am requesting reassurance.)

They are pretty good friends of mine and I never sensed any tension. It really was a marriage-ending bolt out of the blue, like discovering an affair or severe financial infidelity.

As an outsider you wouldn't know though.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#340

Post by jltsiren »

mmooss wrote: post #228
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying that violence is legal -- which is definitely not. But it is part of the "packages" and totally depends on whether the one wants to use. Historically violence has been a very...effective tool. When people feel that law and order do not protect them, some eventually will go "the extra mile" (somehow managers always like this phrase). It's not something we can prevent. It is human nature. I guess super r…

> it is part of the "packages" and totally depends on whether the one wants to use. Could you explain what packages are and what depends on (what?)? > Historically violence has been a very...effective tool. This is dramatic sci-fi for anarchists of all political stripes. The critical reality to understand is that violence is the most ineffective tool, causing catastrophic harm for others and outcomes that the perpetr…

The critical reality to understand is that people have always used violence. If they don't believe that they live in a successful society, or if they believe that the success of the society is not distributed fairly (or in a way that benefits them), violence starts looking attractive.

Enlightenment and industrialization created societies that were fairer, wealthier, and more free than anything before. They also created ideologies such as communism and nationalism that killed hundreds of millions. If your ideas are good and successful in the long term but create poverty, suffering, and feelings of unfairness in time scales people care about, there will be violence.

Compromises are the key tool in preventing violence. Unfortunately, the word itself carries negative connotations in too many languages, making effective compromises less likely.

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