Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not • Hacker News Board

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#81

Post by shadowgovt » Thu, Aug 21, 2025, 2:03 AM UTC

lazyeye wrote: post #79

shadowgovt wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the more interesting parts of that story is that in that time, the fascists actually tried a takeover of the US government, executing on a plan to sideline the President and replace him with a shadow government. Fortunately, they failed. They tried to recruit a populist veteran into their ranks who had no particular love for a government that had abused its World War I veterans... But had less love for a bunch…

"I probably shouldn't extrapolate this historical anecdote to the modern era..." yes cherry-picked history taken in isolation is utterly meaningless. Just for balance here's some cherries I've picked on the left side of the political spectrum:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin

How do these people relate to Democratic Socialists in the United States of America in the twenty-first century, since that's the political affiliation of the person we're actually talking about?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#82

Post by ModernMech » Thu, Aug 21, 2025, 12:29 PM UTC

lazyeye wrote: post #79

shadowgovt wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the more interesting parts of that story is that in that time, the fascists actually tried a takeover of the US government, executing on a plan to sideline the President and replace him with a shadow government. Fortunately, they failed. They tried to recruit a populist veteran into their ranks who had no particular love for a government that had abused its World War I veterans... But had less love for a bunch…

"I probably shouldn't extrapolate this historical anecdote to the modern era..." yes cherry-picked history taken in isolation is utterly meaningless. Just for balance here's some cherries I've picked on the left side of the political spectrum:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin

Taken to its extreme, any system of government is bad. The people you list there have one thing in common and it's not socialism: they were all malignant narcissists. A malignant narcissist in charge of any government -- left or right wing, communist or capitalist -- will create chaos, death, and destruction. Witness now, the American government falling into fascism under the leadership of yet another malignant narcissist. If things keep going this way, the US will suffer the same fate as the USSR. Not because the US fell to socialism, but because it fell to narcissistic authoritarianism.

Mamandi, for his part, is not a malignant narcissist, so New York should probably not turn out like Soviet Russia. The US as a whole on the other hand may not be so lucky.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#83

Post by lazyeye » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 8:07 PM UTC

cosmicgadget wrote: post #80

lazyeye wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I guess he is "described" as a socialist in the same way the sky is "described" as blue. Your question is easy to answer...look at all of human history and around the world right now to see what you get when the far left gets their hands on the levers of power.

Surely you understand that the word socialism means a lot of different things to different people? You argument is that this is "just generally bad"? Or somehow a socialist mayor will be the downfall of western civilization or something? It seems like if his policies are bad, he won't be reelected and you'll have a more succinct example to point to than "all of human history". The great thing about a mayor is that th…

Well this rather small level of nuanced thinking you are suggesting is never applied to conservatives is it? So we'll take the same approach with liberals.

What you are saying is effectively dog-whistling in support of Stalinism. And that means you support the killing millions of people.

Clearly you are evil and your career should be destroyed.

Look how smart and virtuous I am everybody!

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#84

Post by cbeach » Tue, Sep 02, 2025, 12:12 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #34

cbeach wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ending scarcity and funding UBI is uniquely possible in a capitalist society, where there is excess wealth generation. In the UK we use our capitalist excess wealth to fund socialised healthcare. But don't mistake socialised service provision for socialism Socialism implies state control of the means of production. The results of socialism, we witnessed in Eastern Europe and elsewhere during the 20th century: scarcit…

>Socialism implies state control of the means of production. Socialism literally implies the opposite. That's why it's called social ism. Under capitalism, capitalists own the means of production. Under fascism, the government and the state collaborate to own the means of production. Under socialism, the means of production are socially (collectively) owned. In the most extreme interpretation of socialism, communism,…

> Under capitalism, capitalists own the means of production

What are "capitalists" and by which rules of capitalism do they hold a monopoly on the means of production?

I live in a capitalist country (the UK), I'm an ordinary member of the public, and I'm free to start a business, own it, and therefore own a means of production.

Which UK citizens are unable to own the means of production?