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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

#481

Post by hananova »

strongpigeon wrote: post #440
testing22321 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The average person can make one of those things happen, and not the others. Yes, the alternative is obviously better, but once violence becomes the only course of action with reasonable chance at good results, violence is what you will get. Just watch, this is going to escalate. A lot.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#483

Post by retrac »

culi wrote: post #414
dan-robertson wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think more and more Americans have what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination". We pour tons of effort into punishing visceral, direct violence like a stabbing or shooting. But if white collar crime is being committed that leads to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, it's rare that anyone sees jail time. Maybe you could argue the decisions of Brian Thompson made only account for maybe 10% o…

I'm reminded of this recent Pew Research poll [1] about whether people believe their fellow citizens are moral.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/03/05/in-25-countr...

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#484

Post by throwanem »

tptacek wrote: post #235
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #12

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 operate in at least one social circle that is heavily not-technical (local politics) and I do not see this at all.

What do you see?

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#485

Post by [deleted] »

hananova wrote: post #474
closeparen wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think that marketing products and services that do useful work is “violence.”

What you think does not matter. You need to actually convince the downtrodden, otherwise these attacks will keep happening, and they will get worse.

[deleted]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#486

Post by tokioyoyo »

bloody-crow wrote: post #450
NickC25 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Sam's got 3 billion net worth. Jensen's got 165 billion to his name. They are giddy about taking jobs away, and both are engaged in "tax reduction strategies" and suck up to Donald Trump. You wonder why people are pissed?

> They are giddy about taking jobs away This is just your interpretation. My interpretation is that they talk about computers being able to perform some intellectual tasks that are now handled by humans in a more efficient and fast manner. They're excited about technological progress and new opportunities it provides, not being "giddy" about unemployment and economic uncertainty. > suck up to Donald Trump When you're…

Where is everyone getting their information from in this thread? It’s like everyone is talking past each other.

I think AI is net-good. But every frontier lab founder has said, paraphrasing, “Things might go horribly wrong, a lot of people might lose jobs, or maybe we’ll have even better economy, and people will prosper. We can’t operate based on the former, because if our adversaries out-invent us, we’re screwed.”. Like all AI-adjacent companies talk about long-term savings, increasing productivity, needing less people to do the same jobs and etc. Obviously fully employed people, especially the ones with things to lose don’t want it?

Also, this is not a uniquely American thing. People in China are going through the same stuff.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#487

Post by disqard »

chaosharmonic wrote: post #447
dan-robertson wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's because Brian Thompson was functionally a serial killer.

From a POSIWID perspective, you are right.

From a "we live in a civilized society" perspective, I can see why some people are outraged about his killing.

Finally, looking at the balance sheet of his accomplishments, I can also see why the pitchfork crowd is cheering.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#488

Post by GeoAtreides »

tptacek wrote: post #235
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #12

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 operate in at least one social circle that is heavily not-technical (local politics) and I do not see this at all.

[flagged]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#489

Post by randyrand »

dmitrygr wrote: post #466

No surprise given that a full quarter of these on one side of the political spectrum consider political violence acceptable (~25%. Same figure is 9% for self-identified moderates, 3% for the other side). Source: https://rb.gy/wdzmsc (YouGov poll, n=2,646, date = sep 10, 2025, question = "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals? (%)", raw data linked und…

“ever”? So we’re not limited to reality or likely scenarios? Just anything I make up as if I was writing a creative fiction novel?

I’m not sure how much this question actually measures propensity towards violence, than it does creativity and imagination.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#490

Post by Arodex »

throwway120385 wrote: post #386
yfw wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We gave up violence and made the state the authority but thats contingent on the social contract being upheld.

We did this in the late 1800's and early 1900's because the upper classes understood that they needed to be afraid of the masses. Prior to that political violence seems like it was the order of the day. The US has always had a pretty strong aristocracy, but the aristocrats were variously either moral people or they at least had enough of a sense of self-preservation that they wouldn't get too greedy.

And then the upper classes stirred racial resentment and sent Pinkerton to rough up and kill strikers.
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