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Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

nytimes.com

431–440 of 715 posts

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#431
post #126

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…

Re: Organized crime.

Organized crime is also going to escalate as the economic squeeze continues to hit white collar workers. Pumping out a bunch of computer science graduates and rendering them unemployable isn't going to lead to all of them giving up and working at Walmart. A certain amount are going to figure out that they can make a better living by going black hat. Likewise for all the office managers, etc. who are put out of a job as belts tighten. Threatening the livelihoods of people who were led to expect a certain standard of living and who can organize and exploit systems is exactly how you end up with organized crime. Doubly so when the burden is falling on the young, who have more appetite for risky decisions.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about the top 1%. I'm talking about the top 0.01%.

The top 0.01% still pay enormous taxes. Elon one year personally paid $11B in taxes. I get that a lot of people think people's unrealized capital gains should be taxed, so maybe the argument you're making is something like: "People with very large paper-gains based on appreciation of the market-value of the assets they own pay 0% taxes on those unrealized gains" In which case, yeah, that's definitely true. But if the…

Buy assets (stocks, real estate, etc.) Hold them as they appreciate (no tax on unrealized gains) Borrow against them (loans are not taxable income) Die without ever selling

(you are wrong)

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#433

One thing I have idly wondered is how much do the ultra rich protect themselves from theft or kidnapping. Is it just not a real concern? If Taylor Swift owns a dozen homes, does she have full time security guards at each one? Or just accept some amount of burglary may occur? Do they go everywhere with a guard? Only to public events?

Once in a while we get to see concrete numbers for some of them, e.g. Meta spent $27M+ in one year on Zuck's security, which is way more than the other CEOs: https://fortune.com/2025/08/16/mark-zuckerberg-meta-security...

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#434

I don't think most people in tech are quite aware of the level of visceral AI hatred amongst non-techies. I've personally witnessed the worst Thanksgiving dinnertable fight I've ever seen (after someone revealed that their recipe was AI-generated, a couple people literally spat out the food they were enjoying and threw their plates in the trash), and a divorce (a very solid marriage between two people who were once b…

I don't think most people in tech are quite aware of the level of visceral AI hatred amongst non-techies.

I work in a non-tech industry and I see this all the time from people, but it's not just limited to AI. SV itself evokes hatred in a lot of people on both sides of the spectrum.

I can't repeat the worst things I've heard, but Altman and his ilk should be terrified of the mob violence they're instigating.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, dropping bombs and threatening to end a civilization certainly made me think the temperature had gone up. I’m not sure I think a single attempted act against some guy is worth being worried by against that backdrop.

I think much the reaction to the Brian Thompson killing also seemed ok with the violence despite it happening before the events you describe, though I guess that could be an outlier.

And the reason for _that_ is because of the callous way American society accepts the deaths of thousands of people who die due to the Healthcare Industrial complex (of which Brian Thompson was a key member of). Just because those deaths don't happen with guns doesn't make them any less important.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#436

Wonder if it has anything to do with the New Yorker article... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47659135 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may...

It seems Sam Altman has the same suspicion, based upon his response:

> There was an incendiary article about me a few days ago. Someone said to me yesterday they thought it was coming at a time of great anxiety about AI and that it made things more dangerous for me.

https://blog.samaltman.com/2279512

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724921

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be one of the most naive comments I've read on this site. Theres example after example of people in history being totally fine with violence against human beings.

No need to look at history. We have plenty of contemporary examples.

[deleted]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#440

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...

The top comment there mentions the French Revolution. You think people will put up with wildly accelerating inequality forever? It’s going to explode, the only question is when.

> You think people will put up with wildly accelerating inequality forever?

No. Nor do I think they should. But UBI, higher income tax at the top and a wealth tax for the ultra rich sound like a much better plan to me than to blow a bunch of things up.

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